1-STEM Education.
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Humor:
Teacher: I hope I didn't see you looking at Maria's answers.
Students' misbehavior
Mr. / Girgis
It is a skill:
Classroom
management and management of
student conduct are skills that teachers
acquire
over time. Personal experience and research
indicate that many
beginning teachers have
difficulty effectively managing their
classrooms.
While there is no one best solution for every
problem or
classroom setting, the following
principles, drawn from a number of
sources,
might help.
Abstract
This study aimed to
examine the conceptions of
junior secondary school student misbehavior
in
classroom, and to identify the most common,
disruptive, and
unacceptable student problem
behaviors from teachers' perspective.
Twelve individual interviews with teachers were
conducted. A list of 17
student problem behaviors
was generated. Results showed that the most
common and disruptive problem behavior was
talking out of turn, followed
by non-attentiveness,
daydreaming, and idleness.
The most unacceptable
problem behavior was
disrespecting teachers in terms of disobedience
and
rudeness, followed by talking out of turn and
verbal aggression.
The
findings revealed that teachers perceived
student problem behaviors as
those behaviors
involving rule-breaking, violating the implicit norms
or
expectations, being inappropriate in the
classroom settings and
upsetting teaching and
learning, which mainly required intervention from
teachers.
How to respond:
There are many ways to respond to inappropriate
behaviors, of course,and they vary in how much they
focus on the immediate behavior compared to longer-
term features or patterns of a student’s behavior.
There are
so many ways to respond, in fact, that we
can describe only a sample of
the possibilities here.
None are effective all of the time, though all do work
at least some of the time. We start with a response
that may not
seem on the surface like a remedy at
all—simply ignoring misbehavior.
Ignoring misbehavior
If a student who is usually quiet during class happens
to whisper to a neighbor once in awhile, it
is probably
less disruptive and just as effective to ignore the
infraction than to respond to it. Some misbehavior
may not be worth a
response even if they are
frequent, as long as they do not seem to
bother
others.
Suppose, for example, that a certain student has a
habit
of choosing quiet seat-work times to sharpen
her pencil. She is
continually out of her seat to go to
the sharpener.
Yet this behavior is
not really noticed by others. Is it
then really a problem, however unnecessary or ill-
timed it may be?
In both examples ignoring the
behavior may be
wise because there is little danger of the behavior
disrupting other students or of becoming more
frequent. Interrupting your activities—or the students’
—might cause more disruption than simply
ignoring
the problem.
Gesturing non-verbally
Sometimes it works to communicate using gestures,
eye contact, or “body language” that involve little or
no speaking. Nonverbal cues are often appropriate
if a misbehavior is just a bit too serious or frequent to
ignore, but not serious or frequent enough to merit
taking the time deliberately to speak to or talk with
the student.
If two students are
chatting off-task for a relatively
extended time, for example, sometimes a glance in
their direction, a frown, or even just moving closer
to the students is enough of a reminder to get them
back on task.
Natural and logical consequences
Consequences are the outcomes or results of an
action. When managing a
classroom, two kinds of
consequences are especially effective for
influencing students’ behavior: natural
consequences and logical consequences.
As the term implies, natural consequences
happen “naturally,” without deliberate intention by
anyone. If a
student is late for class,for example,
a natural consequence is that he
misses
information or material that needed to do an
assignment. Logical consequences are ones that
happen because of the responses of or decisions
by others, but that also have an obvious or
“logical” relationship to the original action.
Natural and logical consequence
are often woven together and thus
hard to distinguish:
if one student picks a fight with
another student, a
natural consequence might be injury not only to
the
victim, but also to the aggressor (an inherent
byproduct of fighting),
but a logical consequence
might be to lose friends (the response of
others to
fighting). In practice both may occur.
Conflict resolution and problem solving
Step 1: clarifying and focusing: problem
ownership
Classrooms can be emotional places even though
their primary purpose
is to promote thinking rather
than expression of feelings. The emotions
can be
quite desirable: they can give teachers and students
“passion”
for learning and a sense of care among
members of the class.
But
feelings can also cause trouble if students
misbehave: at those moments negative feelings
—annoyance, anger, discomfort—can interfere with
understanding exactly what is wrong and how to set
things right again.
Gaining a bit of distance from the negative feelings is
exactly what
those moments need, especially on the
part of the teacher, the person
with (presumably) the
greatest maturity.
Step 2: active, empathetic listening
Diagnosing accurately who really has a problem
with a behavior—who “owns” it—is helped by a
number of strategies. One is active listening
—attending carefully to all aspects of what a student
says and attempting to
understand or empathize as
fully as possible
Active listening
involves asking questions in order
continually to check your
understanding. It also
involves encouraging the student to elaborate on
his or her remarks, and paraphrasing and
summarizing what the student says in order to
check your perceptions of what is said.
It is important
not to move too fast toward solving
the problem with advice,
instructions, or scolding,
even if these are responses that you might,
as a
teacher, feel responsible for making.
Step 3: assertive discipline and
messages
Once you have listened well to the student’s point
of view, it helps
to frame your responses and
comments in terms of how the student’s
behavior
affects you in particular, especially in your role as
the
teacher. The comments should have several
features:
They should be assertive—neither passive and
apologetic, nor unnecessarily hostile and aggressive
(Cantor, 1996). State the problem as matter-of-
factly as possible: “Joe, you are talking while I’m
explaining something,” instead of either “Joe, do
you think you could
be quiet now?” or “Joe, be
quiet!”
The comments should emphasize I-messages
(Gordon,
1981), which are comments that focus on
how the problem behavior is
affecting the teacher’s
ability to teach, as well as how the behavior
makes
the teacher feel.
They are distinct from you-messages,
which focus
on evaluating the mistake or problem which
the student has
created. An I-message might be,
“Your talking is making it hard for me
to remember
what I’m trying to say.” A you-message might be,
“Your
talking is rude.”
The comments should encourage the student to
think about the effects
of his or her actions on
others—a strategy that in effect encourages
the
student to consider the ethical implications of the
actions .
Step 4: negotiation
The first three steps describe ways of interacting that
are
desirable, but also fairly specific in scope and
limited in duration.
But in themselves, they may not
be enough when conflict persists over
time and
develops a number of complications or confusing
features.
A
student may persist in being late for class, for
example, in spite of
efforts by the teacher to modify
this behavior. Or two students may
repeatedly speak
rudely to each other, even though the teacher has
mediated this conflict in the past.
Or a student may fail to complete
homework, time
after time. Because these problems develop over
time, and
because they may involve repeated
disagreements, they can eventually become stressful
for the teacher, the student, and any classmates
who
may be affected. Their persistence can tempt a
teacher simply to dictate
a resolution—a decision
that can leave everyone feeling defeated,
including
the teacher.
My suggestions
Decide as accurately as possible what the problem is.
Usually this step involves a lot of the active listening
described above.
Brainstorm possible solutions, and then consider their
effectiveness. Remember to include students in this step;
otherwise you end up simply imposing a solution on others,
which is not what negotiation is supposed to achieve.
If possible, choose a solution by consensus. Complete
agreement on the choice may not be possible, but strive
for it as best
you can. Remember that taking a vote may
be a democratic, acceptable way
to settle differences in
some situations, but if feelings are running
high, voting
does not work as well.
In that case voting may simply allow the majority to impose
its will on the minority, leaving the underlying
conflict
unresolved.
Pay attention to how well the solution works after it is
underway.
For many reasons, things may not work out the way you or
students hope
or expect. You may need to renegotiate the
solution at a later time.
