Is Punishment Still Reasonable in Class?

Teaching as a general concept is a word derived from "to teach" which means to instruct, it means a process in which one individual makes something known to another individual, it is a system of actions intended to produce learning. As Morrison said, "teaching is intimate contact between a more mature personality and less mature one which is designed to further education of the later".

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ghaith F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

Teaching in relation to behavior

As we see teaching is a kind of influence aimed at changing the behavior potential of the student. In this situation, the teacher needs to overcome gaps and obstructions while he is in class. One of the situations is to control and to deal with the disrespectful students.

Also Read: The 4 Challenges of Teaching EFL Kindergarten Kids

Reasons for bad behavior

In my opinion student disrespect comes in a lot of different forms and peoples mean different things by it. By regardless of what you mean disrespect, the way I lookout it is when kids are doing things that the teacher don’t want them to do, that feels attacking or disrespectful to him.from my point of view, I like to think that it is like a behavioral test that student is giving to the teacher to try to find out how they will be together in the classroom.

Student who tests there teacher that way or acts disrespectful in the classroom are badling something their life where they don’t trust adults for whatever reason, and they have some experience where adults either will ultimately abundant or abuse, not necessary physically but emotionally, and because that’s been there experience they have to test every adult they are coming to contact with see if that person is safe enough I that person loves them enough care and often those behavior test that student give us feel like disrespect but if we think it just a test to pass, for them to figure out how will be together.

Also Read: How much can I earn teaching English in Saudi Arabia?

Teachers’ typical reaction

Many teachers say..."If they don’t fear you then you don’t respect you"…But I am totally against this attitude....why? Because when the student is under a high level of stress or fear, their ability if learning will be affected.

The traditional strategies to discipline students like yelling, screaming or even ignoring is not effective to use anymore in classrooms, it makes the teacher lose his credibility and show that he is out of control.

Also Read: Comparative Teaching Methodologies

Other Ideas

My strategy to manage student's behavior is to build a positive relationship with them from the first day you meet in the classroom...a relationship that can turn the classroom environment into a pleasant place to them.

One of the most powerful tools (the same time a simple one) is to say "HI" every time you meet your student, it is very important to them to know that you see them, to know that they matter, that they are present in the classroom. greeting students must be a daily practice.

Second, attending after school activities, sharing personal stories, showing interest in their interest: asking them about what they like to do ." google" what we don’t know to bring something new to the conversation the next day.

Third, encourage their effort and their progress: so much about learning is "what you think about yourself, what you think you are capable of doing", we have student who thinks that they are not capable of learning, those stigmas we must erase as educators.every single student is capable of learning, getting better, its the mindset that we have to begin installing in our kids. Any little bit of encouragement you can give …give it .while you walking around the classroom and read a great answer on a paper, when we are at home and grading,..write lilt notes to them like I see improvement, great job.

A piece of advice

I think in extreme situations when I can not control a student especially if he is a young learner, things may be very difficult if we are not prepared for such a situation avoiding punishment strategy I thought and I tried a strategy that I used in my volunteering work in Thailand. first I made a kind of isolated place in the classroom near my desk, so when the kids keep misbehaving I take him there and I talk to him eye to eye with a very quite tense, I ask him to sit and I put a timer, usually its 5 minutes.

sitting alone in a separate place and put on the timer is not a punishment, it is a way to give your student time to ponder about his faults. and most of the cases, the student gains his calm after 5 minutes.

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Finally, I think that whatever the age, nationality or personality of the student we must listen to them being a teacher is being a good listener at first.

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