A préoccupation of beginning teachers working in overcrowded claases

1. Managing discipline in the
classroom
Mamadou Mountagha DIOP
Thies ATES ELD
June 2013

2. Classroom management and discipline management
Classroom management
Classroom management is very large and
relates to teacher’s overall organizational
management of all the parameters that
concur to the process of teaching and
learning; it encompasses time and space,
relationships, activities, materials and
equipment, attendance, etc.

3. Classroom management and discipline management
Discipline management
• Discipline management focusses on one
aspect of classroom management: student
behavior, viz. expected behavior in class and
consequences of misbehavior

4. Challenges to discipline
• Various levels of severity including :
– Extreme cases: weapons in class, class or school rebellion
against a teacher or school authority, rejection of teacher by
class, fist fight between student and teacher or student and
student, foul language, insults and other forms of language
abuse, offensive gestures, theft (Some of those cases may even
end up in a court of justice).
– Mild cases: unauthorized movements in and out of class,
tardiness, chattering, homework undone …
• New forms of challenges
– ICTS: ringing phones, text messaging, playing games,
accessing social networks
– Dressing: check-downs
– Sexual ‘aggressions’ (sts) and blackmailing (teachers)
•  Failure to learn something or apply a rule (of
grammar, for ex.) is not an ac of indiscipline!

5. Nature of issue
• Students in high schools at critical stages in
developmental process: childhood → puberty → early
adulthood (questions, uncertainties, challenges …)
• Discipline norms and challenges are generation-
(smoking at school, check-downs, dreadlocks, language
...) and culture- related. (Non-conformism in our days,
for ex.)
• A matter of context:
– Almost all classroom discipline management resources available in the
Internet are heavily culture- and context-based (Culture referring to both
the culture(s) of the society or the educational culture, with specific
behavioral patterns and norms).
– >> Techniques, strategies and rules need re-contextualizing.

6. A cross-curricular issue
• Is discipline management an issue specific to
TEFL?
– If so, what is specific in TEFL that 'generates' a
different classroom behavior and subsequent specific
classroom management strategy?
» More opportunities for personal expression
» Group work as source of noise and disruption
• Discipline is a school thing, involving school
community: students, teachers, principal, parents
and local and national educational authorities. Cf.
Ndiass, Nioro, etc, where parents even sided with students against teachers

7. Classroom & school rules
Classroom rules regulate student behavior within
the classroom.
School rules regulate student behavior within the
school premises and outside of the premises in case
of external school events (outings).
Congruence of classroom rules with school
rules: a must for consistency of message on
acceptable and expected student behavior

8. Mutations in our society
• Education not occurring in a vacuum but in a real Senegalese society
– Schools (students, teachers, administrative staff, parents) can only reflect
their society
– Shifting values in a de-structured / destructuring society (which doesn't
impôts sty is getting worse)
Values of old Today’s anti-values
• Respect for authority
• (elders, parents, teachers)
• High sense of honor
• Endurance
• Courage
• Generosity
• Determination
• Truthfulness
• Etc.
• Challenge of
authority
• Hypocrisy
• Materialism
• Over-ambition
• Cheating
• Lying
• Selfishness
• Etc.

9. Mutations in schools
• Schools / education on discipline management today as opposed to 20 or
30 years ago: shift from education to mere instruction
• School and student supervision context:
– Students left to themselves with little or no supervision and un-
preparedness for self-supervision: large classes with up to 120 students,
very few supervisors, no more yard supervisors
• Students’ social backgrounds (suburbs, rural...), Insufficient motivation
and high rate of failure, changing view of the role of school
• Lack of initial training for most teachers with experiences ranging from 1
to 5 years,
• School leadership: most school heads untrained and some even
compromised
• Insufficient involvement of parents in school life
• Students usually spend more time at school and in the streets than with
their families

10. Students as a source of disruption
• Their numbers and hiding behind numbers and anonymity
• Natural tendency for fun and play
• Their backgrounds
• Their temporary exhaustion and relapse (lack of focus, How
long can they stay focused at any given age?
• They often underestimate discipline breach and cannot
predict the consequences. (‘GARAAWUL’)
N:B: Neither angels nor demons, students should be taken as they
are: young, immature, vulnerable people learning to become
respectable and respectful men and women serving themselves
and their society

11. The teacher as a source of disruption
• Teachers are sometimes the problem.
• Excessive authority will not make up for your own
incompetence:
– Lack of command of subject
– Inappropriate teaching strategies
– Poor design of learning teaching activity organization
– Complacency
– Unfairness, etc.
• Lack of self-confidence is a source of chaos in the
classroom.
• Students receive different messages on discipline from
teachers.

12. Solitary or shared exercise of political
power in the classroom?
• High but realistic expectations
– How much control do you want to have over your class?
– How much control is reasonable?
– Who are the stakeholders in discipline management?
– What political role or how much political power for
stakeholders?
– Appreciation of specific aspects of behavior depending on
teacher view: some teachers are more or less strict, more or
less lenient, which students know!
–  A participatory and inclusive approach (gender, ethnic
group, handicap) to discipline management
• 'je suis sage, à ma place...'

13. Caveats
• Acts of indiscipline are symptoms of deeper problems.
• Losing control of yourself is the first stage in losing control of the
class. For some children this is scary. For many others, it is
entertainment. If they can provoke a teacher into losing their rag
then they will do it again and again until the teacher has a
nervous breakdown. http://changingminds.org/disciplines/teaching/classroom_management/losing_it.htm
• Giving students grades for discipline: on what basis, what is the
yardstick, what is measured, can it be measured? does it have to
be measured at all ?
• Bribing students to obtain peace will not give you the return on
investment you expect.
• Sending a student out is illegal and pregnant with danger for the
student and the teacher
• Regular recourse to school administration on discipline matters
will label you as incompetent and weak.

14. Tips
• Know your subject (story of the French teacher of math in Kl who moved to Zig.)
• Do your homework before coming to class: No fumbling!
• Maintain students interest and focus: organize learning in
activities that engage all and each student with an
appropriate timing and level of challenge
• Motivate your learners
• Some humor will contribute to a learning-friendly
atmosphere
• Be fair
• Do not try to humiliate a student!

15. Tips – Proactivity
• Be proactive
– Know your students
– Give your students the respect you expect from them in
return (You with the big head !!)
– Involve students in defining classroom rules (and sanctions)
aimed at creating and maintaining an atmosphere conducive
to learning
– Share responsibility for rule enforcement with students
– Make students decide what to do in case of breach of rules
– Post list of rules on wall
– Be the first to respect the rules
– Share on the rules with parents if possible

16. Tips – Crisis management
• Face the crisis as a teacher
– Laugh it out if it’s not too serious
– Do not blow trivial incidents out of proportions.
– Temporary removal of student from class following school
procedures
– Address the behavior not the student (the person)
– Do not discipline the student while you are angry
– Avoid confrontations with students, esp. in front of other
students, esp. of the other sex
– Avoid any physical contact with students
– It’s wise to sometimes retreat (no shame).

17. Conclusions
• Enforcing rules requires both firmness and flexibility.
• School and classroom rules regulate students’
behavior, not teachers’ behavior.
• Teachers have their own professional code of
conduct they abide by.
• Though understanding and caring, the teacher is NOT
the punching ball to vent frustrations on.

23. Some quotes
• "In a completely rational society, the best of us would
aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to
settle for something less, because passing civilization
along from one generation to the next ought to be the
highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone
could have." Lee Iacocca
• “I am indebted to my father for living, but to my
teacher for living well”
― Alexander the Great
• "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher
explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great
teacher inspires." ~William Arthur Ward
• http://712educators.about.com/od/teachereducation/a/teachingquotes.htm

24. More quotes
• If your plan is for a year, plant rice. If your plan is for a decade,
plant trees. If your plan is for a lifetime, educate children. - Confucius
• Don't try to fix the students, fix ourselves first. The good teacher
makes the poor student good and the good student superior.
When our students fail, we, as teachers, too, have failed.
Marva Collins quotes
• If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the
way they learn. -Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Estrada