PaulStevensDate:24Sep13

Reflection
Describe
The first thing the teacher said to me moments after my arrival at the school, as she walked me to Monday morning staff
meeting,was,Themostimportantthingisbehaviourmanagement.Yougetthat,therestisgravy.
I observed her class last period of that day. In what even she recognised was a decent class who were wellbehaved,
focussed and doing their work, and she did commend them more than once, she managed to hand out five detentions and
moveseveralothersbeforetheendofthelesson.
Her methods of control were ordered and constant. She would countdown threateningly when she wanted them quiet, and
this was often, Silence and listening three, silence and listening two, dont make me put you in seating plan, silence and
listening one. Those few who continued talking after saying this she pointed to and said, Whos that talking? First warning
youtwo.
Her system become quickly apparent: First the students gets a verbal warning, second they are moved, third they get a
detention.
She insisted on all jackets being off in the classroom, as was the school rule, but then insisted that everyone take their
jumpersoffalso,asshefelttheneedtoherself.
It was 11 minutes into the lesson before she even introduced me and got the students onto their work for the period. She
gavethem2minutestosetupandthelasttobeworkinghadtobeonrubbishduty.
A student politely asked if he could go and get a drink quickly from just outside the room. She replied, Are you setup?
Yes,hesaid.Whenyouhavebeenworkingquietlyfor15minutesthenyoucan.shesaid.
Later that week, the last of the term, I asked the teachers in the department when we were talking about how much work
they were expecting from their students that week, as typically output is affected by students anticipating the coming
holidays. The HOD pointed out, Not a great deal will be done in most classes, but Ms ____ [the teacher in question] will.
She always does. This was confirmed in seeing where other Year 10 classes were up to in the same unit. Her class was
aheadandthequalityofworkwashighalso.
Explore
Her attitude to teaching appears to be the attitude of the school in many respects: Keep them in line first, at all costs. Socks
up, shirts tucked in, jackets off, no nail polish, lining up, silence and listening, silence and listening, etc., etc. I have never
seen up close a school so much like a prison as in her classroom. Her constant calls for silence and perfect behaviour was
anincessantnagging,farmoredistracting,Iwouldjudge,thanthestudents.
They were a reasonably rowdy Year 10 class, dont get me wrong, and while its certainly possible that they were previously
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PaulStevensDate:24Sep13
out of control and this really is the only way of getting them to work, I had the feeling that they were no more rowdy than
mostmixedYear10classesandIcannotbelievethatthisistheonly,orthebest,wayofgettingthemtowork.
Reflect
Is it worth keeping the class tightly controlled in the extreme to get the work done? Does this constitute real learning? Her
methods were underpinned I think by an attitude that if she didnt maintain their behaviour with an iron fist then they wouldnt
focus.Butweretheyreallylearning?Itlookedtomemorelikestrictbabysittingthanteaching.
If you believe that the only way to maintain control of a class is through fear, manipulation and punishment then this will
become true. I have to ask, as I have asked myself before, Does the teacher have to be liked for real learning to happen?
My experience and instinct say that ideally it does (but there are always exceptions I suppose). Another question: Are
strict/meanteachersmorelikelytolast?
But why do our methods of behavioural management in teaching need to stunt innovation, creativity and individuality, not to
mentionpreventreallearning?(Andtheresaparticularironyinseeingthistotalitarianapproachinanartclassroom.)
When Paulo Freire describes the banking approach to teaching he is not just talking about the delivery of the set
curriculum. He also refers to the teachers methods of behaviour management. In his list of contrary attitudes and practices
he includes: The teacher talks and the students listen meekly the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined the
teacher chooses and enforces [their] choice, and the students comply... the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge
with his or her own professional authority, which she and he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students. (Freire, 1970,
pg.54)
I want my teaching to be conducted as a practice of freedom. In other words, if my teaching isnt liberating then Im doing it
wrong. This is not to say that behaviour management goes out the window. By no means. It just means that strict
techniquesareusedonlywhennecessaryandalwayswithrespecttothestudents.
At the end of the class I observed, the teacher told me of a parentteacher interview she had recently with the parents of a
bright, wellbehaved girl in this class. Her parents had asked, Sam used to like art but now with you as the teacher she
doesnt like it so much. Why is that? She told me of this I think as a way of saying that there's no accounting for even
ontoitstudents.Myonlythoughtinresponsewas,Whyisthatindeed!
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