Teacher training was in the news last week as it appears that nearly half of newly qualified teachers do not feel properly equipped to deal with violence in the classroom. Well the biggest weapon in the armoury against indiscipline is a lesson plan. If you keep the class interested in what you are saying then good discipline follows. I know that life is not as simple as that and a lot of children don't know how to behave properly but I have seen a lot of good work in schools.
A couple of years ago I heard a story from someone who was aged around 30. He mentioned that a teacher brought out one pupil who was misbehaving to the front of the class and one smack from a slipper meant that nobody in that class put a foot out of line for the rest of the year. I have a story from the 1970s in which a teacher felt the homework was not good enough and hit every member of the class. I got 10/10 and asked if I had to be hit. The answer was yes. The usual comment after such stories is "and it didn't do me any harm" but I much prefer praise to criticism (or corporal punishment).
There is specific guidance for maintaining discipline in the classroom but this will vary from school to school. In this recent survey 49% of students and newly qualified teachers felt that they had not received enough training to deal with challenging behaviour.Maybe we do have a lack of training, but in my experience I am pleased to say that discipline is often very good indeed and nobody gets hit!
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Discipline in school needs to be backed up by the parents as well. These days...so many parents do not back the teachers up.
ReplyDeleteToday too many parents are only willing to hear "good" about their undisciplined offspring, this causes problems for the teachers. That and the fact that corporal punishment is no longer an option. So what if the kids have to stay in deten tion for 30 mins...their parents are probably out until much later and don't care...or they are glad that their children are delayed in returning home.
Yes! that sounds cynical, but is oh so true at the school I work at.