Eight out of ten TESOL teachers who do not return after their first year of teaching drop out because they are unable to control their problem in the classroom. According to the researches, that have done recently, discipline ranked as the number one problem in the schools.

What is discipline?

According to the Webster’s dictionary discipline is the “training that corrects, molds, or perfect the mental faculties or moral character.”

How can a teacher maintain discipline in a classroom?

There will be many ideas to maintain discipline in the classroom.

• Being more strict
• Punishing the misbehaving students
• Developing more interested lessons

For sure those suggestions will be helpful, but first of all, teacher should know the main reasons for students’ misbehavior.

The students have not learned the behaviors that are expected of them

Good discipline in classroom begins from students’ understanding of the behavior expected of them. A carefully planned system of rules makes it easier for a teacher to communicate his /her expectations to students.

And the teacher should understand that “Rules and regulations should be made for the students, not students for the regulations”

Also they should be the behaviors the teacher wants instead of the things students cannot do.

Instead of “No fighting” use “please show respect to each other through your words and actions”

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”

(Proverbs 22:6)

But still a teacher cannot assume that students will maintain discipline in the classroom just because he/she once discussed what was expected of them

The teacher has to monitor students behavior

To be an effective monitor of classroom behavior the teacher should know what to look for,

There are two main categories of behavior to monitor

• Students involvement in learning activities
• Students compliance with classroom rules and procedures

Monitoring students’ involvement in learning activities will include attention during presentations and discussions and progress in seatwork and other assignments.

During presentations teacher can sit or stand somewhere he/she can see the faces of all the students.

When the students are working on assignments, teacher can circulate around the room periodically to check on students’ progress.

Teacher can collect assignments regularly and look them over even when students do the checking in class. Teacher can keep the grade book current so that he/she will be able to detect students who are doing poor work.

Monitoring Students compliance with classroom rules and procedures will be easier if the teacher has a clear set of expectations for students’ behavior and have communicated these to the class.

The teacher can watch students as they come into class and look for possible signs of problems before class even begin.

Also the teacher can have a posted discipline plan that would follow consistently, depending on the severity of the offence, this should allow students a warning or two before punishment begins. It should be easy to follow and should cause minimum of disruption in the class.

Rewards to encourage good behavior

Rewards can help building a positive climate in the class by directing attention toward appropriate behavior and away from inappropriate behavior. When students are rewarded rather than punished, they are more likely to respond positively to the teacher.

The rewards should target the behavior you would like to encourage. Rewards too easily earned or too difficult to achieve lose their motivational effect.

Some awards also can be given to some means of giving attention to the students

Discipline in the classroom starts with Self discipline

There is a saying that goes “values are caught, not taught.” Doesn’t matter how many effective rules that a teacher has in the class or how hard he/she monitored students behavior, if the teacher doesn’t set a good example for students through her/his own behavior.

The “do as I say, not as I do” teachers send mixed messages that confuse students and invite misbehavior.

Bibliography

Edmund T. Emmer, Carolyn M. Everston, Murray E. Worsham. Classroom Management: for secondary teachers. N.P.: Pearson Education 2003

James M. Cooper, et al. Classroom teaching skills

Boston: Houghton Miffilin Company 1999

Reeves, Douglas. The Learning Leader USA: ASAD 2006

Agatha Perera