Classroom Behaviour and Management
Different contexts, different learners
TAFE NSW VET Pedagogy Project 2006 managed by Lynne Stallard, ICVET
This is one of five articles bringing together themes and trends from the 2006 literature review of the TAFE NSW VET Pedagogy Project 2006. Presenting the findings in this format both highlights pedagogical challenges as distinct and lively areas for discussion by teachers while also making the information easily accessible online.
The authors, Roslin Brennan Kemmis, AM Acting Head, School of Education and Erica Smith, Associate Professor Vocational Education and Training from Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga conducted this research through the auspice of RIVET (Research in Vocational Education and Training) for and with TAFE NSW ICVET.
Take home Messages
Behaviour Management is an increasingly important topic for TAFE teachers given that there are growing numbers of younger learners participating in TAFE study.
The increasing encroachment of external pressures such as racial friction contribute to the volatility of many classrooms and workshops. The strategies that are used to overcome these problems need to be predicated on the value of the individual and their history and how these features sit beside the welfare and well being of other class members. These topics need to be explicitly discussed and resolved with students.
One of the consequences of an increasingly stratified and sometimes dysfunctional society is that we encounter as teachers behaviours that are unruly at best and threatening at worst. For some students the learning environment within TAFE is the first chance they have had to succeed and one of the most overt consequences of competency based training (CBT) is that previously failing students have found the constant reinforcement of progressive competence to be a new experience that has not characterised other experiences with formal education.
Behaviour Management is a relatively new topic of conversation in TAFE as the assumption has generally been that students will be self-regulating and self-motivating. Issues of discipline and classroom control have been the province of the school sector. However many TAFE teachers would identify with the following issues mentioned in an informal survey of Northern Queensland teachers. This group listed the following as concerns and blockages to more effective teaching and learning particularly, although not totally, characteristic of younger learners:
- lateness
- losing class materials
- coming to class with a hangover
- not engaging in lessons
- temper tantrums
- various disabilities
- inter personal conflicts between class members
- particular students dominating class discussions
- disrupting the class by interrupting with questions not related to the topic
- students not carrying their weight in group discussions (p6)
Other teachers have reported significant OH&S problems created by inappropriate or dangerous use of materials, tools and equipment.
The recent consultations on the Future Directions for Public education
and training (2006) also identified students with behaviour problems
as an increasing problem for TAFE (p250). Students and staff consulted
suggested the following strategies as ways for dealing with these problems:
- cooperation with parents and other agencies
- support from counsellors
- consistent guidelines on discipline
- specialist classes and classrooms
- providing programs like WOW (Work opportunities for Women) for men (p250)
Another response to difficult behaviours in a TAFE setting has been developed by Mark Davidson (2004) from Tropical North Queensland TAFE. The process known as classroom profiling (a bit like the TV program) is based on the observation of classroom or workshop interactions between teachers and students with the aim of providing the teacher or supervisor with suggestions on how the climate of the learning situation can be improved (p2). The observations are carried out in a non judgemental and non prejudicial way by another person who has been trained to assist the teacher or trainer. The teacher is then provided with strategies to try in their classroom or workshop and further reflection on the effects of changed teacher behaviour are monitored and discussed. Clearly the focus in this project is on teacher observation, teacher reflection in a collaborative arrangement and further suggestions for change and improvement.
Ten Micro-Skills
The foundation of the program is the ten micro-skills for managing behaviour, which are teacher strategies adapted from Glasser (1990), Richmond (1995), Rogers (1995), Mark Davidson's own experiences as an educator, and further developed and refined through discussion with trained profilers at annual ‘refresher’ courses (p3).
- Establish clear expectations and make these explicit in the classroom, workplace or workshop
- Give clear and economical instructions and allow time for the instructions to be understood
- Don’t overload the students with too many rules but stick to the ones you have established with them
- Acknowledge positive behaviours and learning
- Be a mobile teacher with body language that creates confidence and respect
- Give minimal attention wherever possible to disruptive behaviours
- Confront poor behaviour with choices and consequences
- Follow through on instructions
- Plan for ways in which ongoing disruptive behaviour can be handled and ask for assistance
- Provide opportunities for debriefing the effects of bad behaviour both with the students and your colleagues. (p3-4)
The home, society and the teaching context
An Australian perspective on classroom discipline and management by Edwards & Watts (2004) is an absorbing trek through the multiplicity of problems that can beset the teacher or trainer. This publication is practical and descriptive, providing many case stories that we can all identify with. The authors carefully divide the sources of unhelpful behaviour into three possible locations; the home, the society and the teaching context. An understanding of all of these forces operating on our learners helps to develop effective and sympathetic pedagogical practices.
The question becomes how does the teacher respond in a fair way to (the) forces that have shaped a student’s life and provide them and all the others in the group with fair and equitable teaching and attention?
Dysfunctional families are more prevalent than they should be and often teachers and trainers provide the one safe context for learners in these situations. Deprivation of love, excessive control, family restructuring, abuses of various kinds, damage to self-concept and violence are features of dysfunctional family situations that are often ‘acted out’ in a classroom or workplace setting (p5). The problems that originate in society that can impact on classroom management include the impact of a technologically saturated life (particularly amongst younger learners), peer pressure, racial and class conflicts, unemployment and poverty, substance abuse and gang activity (p7-8). The problems that occur within the classroom, workshop or workplace that may account for unsociable or difficult to manage behaviours include instruction without context, failure to teach problem solving skills, non acceptance of the students’ situations, competitive grading, excessive coercion and systems of punishment and reward (p11-14).
Teacher’s standpoint
These decisions cannot be made for the individual
teacher and trainer. They must reflect a complex decision making process
that has as its elements teacher knowledge…
the decisions about discipline,
a code of behaviour that you expect your students to follow and the ways
in which you deal with unacceptable behaviours is very much a personal
decision.
A teacher can be confronted with a student whose history fits with some or a lot of these descriptions. The question becomes how does the teacher respond in a fair way to these forces that have shaped a student’s life and provide them and all the others in the group with fair and equitable teaching and attention? The authors suggest that understanding the nature of the problems confronted by the learners is the first activity followed by the development of a personal discipline model (p22). Is the teacher going to adopt a view of the learner that assumes that they can be conditioned to better behaviour and therefore learning? Or is the teacher going to base his or her practices on a view that learners are self regulating and that self regulation needs to be taught? Or something in between? The questions posed for the teacher then become which standpoint about learning and consequent behaviour management will:
- Encourage my learners to become independent and self reliant
- Be consistent with what I know about my learners
- Be the easiest to implement and manage
- Be readily learnt
- Demonstrate consistency to my learners
- Be most effective
- Help to promote a strong self concept in my learners
- Prevent further discipline problems (p28-29)
These decisions cannot be made for the individual teacher and trainer. They must reflect a complex decision making process that has as its elements teacher knowledge of student backgrounds and experiences, a knowledge of the content and the learning conditions of the students, and the institutional and legislative demands of the organisation within which the teacher/trainer works. There are no easy answers to these questions and while there are many strategies that can be adopted, and these are explained in great detail by the authors and summarised in terms of their advantages and limitations (p264-279), the decisions about discipline, a code of behaviour that you expect your students to follow and the ways in which you deal with unacceptable behaviours is very much a personal decision.
Some helpful guidelines
However it is not all murkiness and isolation. Edwards & Watts (2004) provide some general guidelines for classroom management that assist with all students.
Firstly, good preparation leads to an effective and productive set of time management practices (p302). Establishing routines which give confidence and predictability to the learning environment helps to achieve a greater degree of classroom/ workshop/ workplace tranquillity (p303). Clear assessment requirements are also critical. Elements of lesson preparation such as the distribution of materials, pacing and maximising on task behaviour all contribute to a more settled classroom environment (p304-305). Motivation and clear learner guidance are also identified as significant factors in reducing classroom disruption (p306). The physical layout of the classroom or workshop area can encourage student participation and thereby reduce inappropriate behaviours (p309). Effective and clear communication and time spent on learning about your students (p310-312) improves relationships.
These may all seem to be relatively low key responses to low key problems. The issue of managing violence, assaults and fights in a classroom, workshop or workplace are far more problematic for the teacher. Perhaps the most effective message is to stay calm, assume the role of sanity in an otherwise dysfunctional situation and minimise the damage that students can deliver to each other, the equipment or to you. How you deal with the aftermath of such events is a matter for discussion with those who work with you. But the problems need to be addressed and you will need reserves of resilience, good sense and humanity that are the qualities of good teachers in difficult circumstances.
This issue takes on different dimensions when we turn our attention to learners in the workplace who operate either fully or partially outside the more traditional teaching and training contexts.
Discussion Points
- Using the information above on ‘classroom profiling’ draw up a plan that would allow you to observe each other’s lessons, record the classroom interactions and debrief about the effectiveness of the strategies you used to deal with disruptive or difficult behaviours
- Discuss what strategies you currently use to confront difficult or disruptive behaviours. What can you learn from each other?
- What adjustments would you make to your teaching to accommodate the needs of refugee or Indigenous students who were disruptive in your class?
- Discuss the possibility for a code of conduct for your classroom or workshop. What sort of principles would you include?
- How would you translate into action the Mark Davidson ten points mentioned above?
See also
References - LITERATURE REVIEWS | TAFE NSW VET Pedagogy Project 2006
Younger Learners – Different Contexts, different learners LITERATURE REVIEW | eZine May 2006
2006 TAFE NSW VET Pedagogy Project
HENRY,
Avril 2006 The changing face of the workforce
and intergenerational impacts (93 KB)
