Category: Classroom management

The best way to deal with discipline problems is to prevent them from happening in the first place. The anticipation of these problems may not erupt to grave misbehavior. Discipline problems challenge most new teachers and even some seasoned teachers. Take a look at these 3 strategies to prevent discipline problem.

1. Establish the purpose of learning
Sometimes the students get bored at school and lose interest in studying because they think that they are learning things that they aren’t going to use in real life. When a lesson is clearly planned and organized there is likely to engage students in learning. Every lesson plan should have a clearly defined learning goal.

Key points to consider:

• Objectives and goals provide sense and purpose to the lesson.
• Students are motivated when they feel secure and safe in an environment that is organized, predictable and structure.
• Students feel more competent and motivated because they know what to do and what to learn.
• Students are motivated when they use their prior knowledge and the content relates to them and the world around them.
• Cross-curricular connections provide students with a sense of content while increasing interest in all classes involved.

2. Use clear instructions
Have you ever found yourself repeating instructions to your students over and over and over again? Problems sometimes arise due to student uncertainty about what they are supposed to be doing.

Some causes of behavior disruptions during giving instructions:

• Unclear and wordy instructions.
• No visual aids.
• Unclear demonstration of instructions.
• The assignments are not consistent with students’ abilities.
• Lack of challenging assignments.
• The expectations are too high.

Tips on how to give instructions:

• Get your students’ attention.
• Use words that are familiar to your students.
• Speak simply but clearly. Use concise words.
• Model instructions.
• Use gestures, facial expressions, voice and visuals to aid meaning.
• Break down instructions when there are several steps.

As students begin the activity, circulate around the classroom to see if they are carrying it out correctly and give help as needed.  A simple way to check for understanding involves asking questions.
 
3. Keep in touch
Be constantly aware of what is going on in the classroom, keeping your eyes and ears open. The teacher presence is extremely powerful. So, the teacher should always be aware of students who are losing interest or getting distracted in order to do something about it before it has become problematic.

Key points to consider:

• ​Do not stay stagnant in one place or at the front of the class.
• Let students know that you are aware of what are they doing.
• Try to ignore or minimize minor problems instead of disrupting the class.
• Speak in private with students with bad behavior.
• Treat all students respectfully and politely.

Teaching: Classroom management

The teacher’s job becomes frustrating if the discipline is not what we wish for. Teachers face a number of challenges related to disruptive and antisocial students. A student who has negative attitudes and feels unmotivated will tend to “work” in an undisciplined manner and poor effectiveness. Even worse, he or she influences others to behave in the same way.
The teachers need to keep their students engaged and working in a positive climate for learning. Sadly, this is often easier said than done.
​
Here a list of the most common discipline problems in schools:

• Bullying.
• Cursing.
• Rule violation.
• Skipping class (Class cutting).
• Refusal.
• Defiance.
• Fighting.
• Horseplay.
• Vandalism.

Causes of indiscipline outside of school
Dysfunctional and broken families
Sometimes the reason why students show negative attitudes and indiscipline in class is because they are experiencing physical, verbal or emotional abuse from parents, who are addicted drugs, have poor communication patterns between the family members or have financial incapability. It turns into a serious meltdown for teenagers and they bring these problems to school with them. Most of these teenagers suffer high levels of depression, show anti-social behavior and act aggressively.

Lack of discipline at home
Some parents tend to have difficulty setting limits and struggle to hold them. If parents don’t discipline their children, they will grow up with no respect for authority or what is right and wrong. So it’s very important for parents to set clear rules and the consequences for breaking those rules.

Bad habits
Some bad habits can create a bad impact on students’ academic performance and affect their ability to learn effectively. Here is a list of the most common bad habits that teenagers have:

1. Staying up late every night.
2. Skipping meals and eating junk food.
3. Too much television and social networking websites
4. Procrastination (the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished).
5. Not exercising.

Causes of indiscipline inside of school
Poor teaching
Poor teaching involves far more than an inappropriate match between the school's curriculum and the students' needs. An ineffective teacher tends to make the same mistakes repeatedly and it causes indiscipline inside the classroom.
Here is a list of the main characteristics of a bad teacher:

1. Poor attendance.
2. Lack of teacher’s authority.
3. Lack of classroom management.
4. Bad teaching styles.
5. Poor motivation skills.
6. Poor social skills.

The rules are not enforced
When a student is not punished for bad behavior, he or she will do it again. Establishing, monitoring, and consistently reinforcing classroom rules are one of the most effective ways to prevent and reduce bad behavior problems.
 
Bad company
Bad company doesn’t encourage a student to take his / her studies seriously. Bad company can influence on the personality of a good student. His or her peers may influence him or her to blow off class, skipping classes, to lose moral values and stop caring about getting acceptable grades.

​
​References

• Bear, G. (2010). Discipline: Effective school practices. National Association of School Psychologists.