Classroom behaviour management: What needs to be done

Inappropriate behaviour in all academic institutions, from primary to tertiary, is an everyday news and an ordinary matter of discourse between parents, teachers and professionals. The behaviour problem refers to deviation from certain preset rules and regulations of the institutions. 

Inappropriate classroom behaviours are those behaviours that disrupt, hinder, or inhibit teaching and learning. They are the results of negative experiences in the surrounding environment.

Classroom behaviour problems affect the teaching and learning process as it influences teachers' ability and competence in handling the classroom environment. 

The various behaviour problems seen in classrooms can be enlisted as follows: bullying, fighting, teasing, stealing, truancy, disobedience and insubordination, lying, cheating, lateness, rudeness, destructiveness, drug or alcohol addiction. There are various factors that cause behaviour problems in the classroom such as: mass media, school, or family. 

Education is an ongoing process and plays a significant role in an individual's life. The concept of education is dynamic. As society changes, the function of education also changes and thus education is a continuous process. The educational structure in Bangladesh after the liberation war was put through a huge transition, and  was reformed in structure but also in content. 

And teachers were key parts for implementing this drastic change. As the educational structure has not changed since, teachers still remain as a vital part of the entire system. Thus, it is important that they are effectively trained so that they can facilitate students in the best possible manner. 

Usual strategies to encourage appropriate social behaviour may fail, so teachers with developed managerial skills also use effective techniques to minimise inappropriate behaviour, by creating a learning environment and a more positive classroom climate. 

The ability of teachers to organise and manage classroom behaviours of their students is critical to achieving the learning objectives. Although behavioural management does not guarantee effective teaching, it makes improvisation possible. 

According to new teachers, inadequate professional preparation is one of the key factors that contributes to dealing with inappropriate student behaviour in the classroom.

For these reasons, especially for young teachers, but also for those with experience, continuous training on classroom management is necessary. 

It would be nice if universities can teach their future graduates about various techniques which will come in handy. Even though they will probably be very useful to future teachers, they will not be enough. In real classroom situations, teachers come across numerous behaviour problems. To highlight this issue, classroom management can be focused on four major components:

Content management: helps both teachers and students to manage materials, equipment, the movement of people, and lessons that are part of a curriculum. 

Conduct management: identifies procedural skills that teachers employ in their attempt to address and resolve discipline problems in the classroom

Covenant management: emphasises the classroom group as a social system that has its own features, which teachers have to take into account when managing interpersonal relationships in the classroom. 

Educational technology management: serves to monitor students online and make online resources available to them. 

Besides, the four classroom management styles, namely, the authoritative, the authoritarian, the permissive and the indulgent, are characterised by behavioural principles and numerous behavioural regulations. There is clarity about why certain behaviours are acceptable and others not. 

There should be cordial and warm relationships between students-teachers. Moreover, the self-discipline, instructional, and desist approaches in classroom management are built on the premise that students can be trusted to evaluate and change their actions so that their behaviours are beneficial and appropriate to everyone. 

These democratic approaches view classroom management as a function of the teacher's ability to establish working teacher-student relationships on the ground of students' dignity, realness, trust, acceptance, and empathy. 

Prevention and correction of inappropriate behaviour in the classroom should be started in first grade, possibly even earlier, in preschool education. If not, a student can act defiantly in those cases when the teacher adopts a very authoritative attitude toward learners in later life.  

All academic institutions must adopt some practises such as: identification of positive behaviour in the classroom and school level, teaching and setting expectations on students at the beginning of the school year; using effective activities that encourage and reinforce good social behaviour; monitoring students' behaviour online etc. 

Teachers can achieve all this within a classroom by establishing an atmosphere of kindness and order, and above all where dignity and mutual respect prevail not only between students but also in the teacher-student relationships.

Therefore, the recommendations as follows would work effectively, in terms of developing teacher-student relationships:

• Develop a training programme for school staff and teachers 
• Group students into smaller sections 
• Appoint a school psychologist and implement their recommendations
• Develop motivating mechanisms as a part of the class
• Provide students with fun but challenging problems which will increase their problem solving skills
• Adopt school-family-community support mechanism

Shafin Muhammad John. Illustration: TBS

Shafin Muhammad John is a Ph.D Fellow and an assistant professor at Southern University Bangladesh. 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.