Classroom Management. Mini Course

Transcription

1 Classroom Management Mini Course How to PREVENT and DEAL with Behaviour Problems in the Classroom

2 Part 6 The Needs-focused Approach Satisfying the need for Empowerment Clear Instructions Today I'm going to give you some tips on empowering students by giving them directions which are easy to follow. This is how to get your students to actually listen to, and follow, your instructions. We are going to look at four key methods: 1. Checking for understanding 2. Being congruent 3. Making sure instructions are clear & unambiguous 4. Giving them a reason 1. Checking for understanding The first thing we can do to maximise the chances of having a student follow instructions is to make sure they actually know exactly what we mean when we speak to them. Have you ever asked a student to get on with their work only to turn round 5 minutes later and see that they ve totally ignored you? And when you ask them why they aren t doing as you asked they say I didn t hear you or I didn t know what you meant. It s frustrating isn t it? The problem here is that the teacher has unwittingly left themselves open to argument by not ensuring that their message was clearly understood in the first place and this gives the student a nice excuse for not doing as they have been asked. If we are going to prevent problems from occurring we need to remove as many opportunities for confrontation and excuses to behave inappropriately as possible. One of the simplest way of doing this is to simply get them to confirm that they heard you in the first place. After every instruction or direction simply get the student to explain what you just said Darren, what did I just ask you to do? Kyle, tell me what I just said please. John, repeat the instructions please. Once they ve told you they can t ever come back at you with I didn t understand or I didn t hear you and you have successfully eliminated one source of potential problems.

3 2. Being congruent The second aspect of cutting out arguments associated with the instructions we give our students concerns the way in which we actually communicate them. On our live courses we use various activities to illustrate the importance of congruence making sure that the messages we give through our facial expressions, body language and voice tone/pitch/volume clearly match the words we use and help convey our message without being misinterpreted. It is difficult to be aware and maintain control of body language, facial expressions etc. when dealing with confrontation but the way we speak to an angry or frustrated student is at least as important as the actual words we use and has a tremendous impact on the outcome. A student will read everything about our approach, our stance and the way we look at them before we actually start to speak and if we get any of these crucial aspects wrong they will have decided to either listen, switch off or retaliate before we even open our mouths. It is the silent messages we unconsciously give that are often at the root of students either ignoring or arguing with us. Does our weary expression and exasperated tone give them the message that we re tired and worn out? If we do there s a good chance they ll either ignore us or push a little harder to tip us over the edge when we ask them to do something they d rather not. Do our folded arms, tone of voice and frown give them the message that we don t like them? If we do they might well turn against us completely. Tough students might retaliate there and then while quieter members might hold a grudge and seek retribution at a later date. In either case, they are unlikely to behave as we would like. The way we give instructions has a massive impact on how students respond to them. We can give the impression that we are a pushover, a threat or a leader depending on the silent messages we give out so if you find your students aren t responding to your instructions in the way you d like this might be a good area to reflect on. 3. Making instructions clear and unambiguous. The clearer the directions, the more chance there is that they will do what we want and the less chance there is for arguments due to misinterpretation. "John, you need to stop tapping your pen, sit properly on your chair and look this way."...will have more chance of getting the desired outcome than... "John, stop it!"

4 A request like this immediately leaves us open to questions... "Stop what?"...and then before we know it, an argument has developed... Etc. etc. I wasn t doing anything! You re always picking on me! Once they ve drawn you into a battle-of-wills your lesson is lost. Here s another simple example... Get on with your work quietly The word quietly means different things to different people so straight away we have opened the door to confrontation. For one student it means whispering while for another it means talking in their normal speaking voice. Another student might take this as meaning there is no real rule on noise levels at all. In each case, the students who is challenged for making too much noise will almost certainly protest that they are working quietly. It s not surprising that vague instructions like this don t always result in the behaviour we want to see and are often a source of arguments. To make sure the students keep within the noise levels we want all we need to do is clarify exactly what we mean by quietly. Younger children might need a tangible representation of the word they could be shown a ruler and told to use their 30cm voices or their partner voices instead of their yard voices. For older students we might simply clarify our instruction by demonstrating the volume we are referring to. 4. Give them a reason In 1978 a group of research psychologists tried to see if they could get people to let them jump the queue to use a photocopier. They tried three different approaches to get people to let them go first: 1. Request only: Excuse me, do you mind if I go before you to use the photocopier?

5 2. Made up or irrelevant reason: Excuse me, do you mind if I go before you to use the photocopier because I have to make some copies? 3. Real reason: Excuse me, do you mind if I go before you to use the photocopier because I m in a rush? So a third of the time they just asked to skip the line, a third of the time they gave an irrelevant reason (of course they had to make copies. What else do you use a photocopier for?), and a third of the time they actually gave a good reason. The results were interesting... When the researchers gave a reason for wanting to queue jump they were allowed to do so far more than when simply making the request without a reason. The most surprising part of the study was that it didn t seem to matter what the reason was... a totally irrelevant reason ( Can I go first? England always play rubbish in world cups ) worked just as well as a legitimate one. The point we can take from this study in relation to teaching is that when making a request for a student to do something, remember to back up it up with a reason: ( Can you do X because Y ). It doesn t necessarily have to be a good reason... Get on with your work because otherwise you won t get it finished should work just as well as Get on with your work otherwise you ll have to finish it at break ; and will undoubtedly stimulate fewer arguments and protests. Try: rather than and rather than Help me by quietening down please because I have a hangover headache Be quiet! Line up please because we re running out of time. Line up please. Giving them a reason for doing something shows you can attach importance to the instructions without making them officious and bureaucratic:

6 When you come to see me at lunch time make sure you get here for 12:30 so we can sort this out without it interfering with your lunch too much. rather than See me at lunch time, without fail. Play around with it and see what happens... but don t get carried away or you might get in trouble ( give me your dinner money because I m badly paid will almost certainly make you unpopular on yard duty - though it just might work). Summary: Explain very clearly what you want a student to do preferably by giving them a reason to do so, ask them to do it in the right manner and then check for understanding. Taking those four simple steps means there is more chance they will actually do it without arguing.