MANAGING FOR SUCCESS

Introduction
Classroom teachers do everything they can to make sure their
lessons are a success.

However, sometimes things don't work as well as they had

planned: students fail to cooperate.

When individuals get significantly out of control, lessons have

to stop while the teacher re-establishes order.
 Introduction
Our aim, as classroom managers, is to promote student
success, rather than to become involved in damage-limitation.

Paul Wadden and Sean McGovern (1991) list disruptive talking,

difficult or impossible to hear responses, sleeping in class,
tardiness and poor attendance, failure to do homework,
cheating in tests and unwillingness to speak in the target
language (Wadden and McGovern 1991).
 Introduction
In other contexts we might add behaviours such as insolence
to the teacher, insulting or bullying other students, damaging
school property and refusing to accept sanctions or
punishment.
 Managing large classes

Video:
Managing large classes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqvBjvbsUxs&t=4s
 Discipline
Ur (1996) offers the following definition of discipline:

Classroom discipline is a state in which both the teacher and

learners accept, and consistently observe a set of rules about
behaviour in the classroom; whose function is to facilitate
smooth and efficient teaching and learning in a lesson.
 Discipline
The same writer goes on to state that "the relationship
between discipline and learning in a lesson is a vital one".

As Ur herself points out, unless the tasks are themselves

meaningful and useful to the students, learning may not be
taking place, despite there being an orderly or 'disciplined'
atmosphere in the classroom.
 Maintaining discipline

Video:
How to Handle Misbehaving Students- -Maintaining
Classroom Discipline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9TWBV_gKf8
 Discipline
The need to maintain classroom control, according to Appel
(1995), comes from the fact that classroom situations are
UNCERTAIN AND UNPREDICTABLE, particularly with younger
learners.

Appel claims that teachers need to pay attention to this, the

arena of the emotions, more than to any other area when
trying to establish some form of classroom control:
 Discipline
....beginning teachers, when encountering difficulties in the
classroom, tend to respond to them with strategies they are
familiar with from university or college. Such strategies are in
essence cognitive ones, e.g. more and better preparation.

In following these strategies they pay too much attention to

the 'task side' of their job, and therefore fail to address what
might have caused their difficulties in the first place: the
emotional relations in the classroom. (Appel, 1995)
Teaching Methods for Inspiring the Students
of the Future

Video:
Teaching Methods for Inspiring the Students of the Future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCFg9bcW7Bk&t=952s
 Coping with discipline in the classroom

External reinforcers such as praise, rewards or merit marks are

often considered to be good ways of motivating
underachieving or reluctant learners.

On the other hand, negative reinforcers such as punishments

(e.g. extra homework, detention, even physical punishment)
have traditionally been assumed to encourage 'good'
behaviour among students, or at the very least to discourage
'bad' behaviour.
 Coping with discipline in the classroom
There can be no doubt that in some circumstances, for some
individuals, external rewards do work, at least in the short
term and with regard to the specific situation in which they
are applied. However, the evidence for any generalisation
effect is considerably more limited.

Moreover, the evidence on punishments or sanctions tends to

reveal that not only are they ineffective in bringing about
positive change, but they can often have the opposite effect.
 Discipline

Web pages:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/classroom-
management-0
http://busyteacher.org/8995-top-10-tips-deal-with-
indiscipline-in-classroom.html
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/dealing-
discipline
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/discipline-
problems
 Discipline

Document:
Classroom Management Jim Wingate (.pdf)
 Teaching without words

Video:
Teaching without words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VLje8QRrwg&t=16s
 Why problems occur?

Rose Senior (2006) points out that when students come to

class they bring with them their own personalities and their
learning expectations.

Their behaviour will also be influenced by their current

circumstances and by what happens in the lessons.

There is always, as well, the possibility of interpersonal

tensions between students and between students and their
teacher.
 The family

Students' experiences in their families.

Sometimes indiscipline can be traced back to a difficult home

situation.
 Learning expectations

Previous learning experiences of all kinds affect students'

behaviour. Even at the level of the last teacher let me ...,
students are influenced by what went before.
 Approval

A student's self-esteem may result partly from the way the

teacher behaves.
 What the teacher does

Depends on how we, as teachers, behave in class.

Students are far more likely to be engaged with what is going

on if they have something interesting to do.

If they do not– or if they see the teacher as unprepared and

uncertain about what to do in their lessons – they are far more
likely to lose interest.

THAT IS WHEN PROBLEM BEHAVIOUR OFTEN MANIFESTS

ITSELF.
 What the teacher does

As Gorge Petty points out,

‘Most of the discipline difficulties experienced by teachers in

the classroom were created before the lesson started' (2004).
The 5 principles of highly effective teachers

Video:
The 5 principles of highly effective teachers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jdTtnWMLVM&t=7s
 Success and failure

Part of a teacher's job is to make sure that students recognise

their achievements.

If students do not see any evidence of their own success but

are presented constantly with failure (in tests, in classroom
language use or in their teacher's attitude), then their
motivation to behave within the limits is greatly reduced.

Failure is a powerful engine for problem behaviour.

 External factors

If they are tired, students will not be able to concentrate.

If the classroom is too hot or too cold, this may result in

learners being too relaxed or too nervy.

Noise from outside the classroom can impact badly upon

students' concentration.
 Truly amazing teacher

Video:
Truly amazing teacher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9RDfv5OAZQ&t=1s