Behaviour and Classroom Management

(EDU 3104)
1.0 Acknowledgement
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful
Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah for the strengths and His blessing in
completing this course. Special appreciation goes to my lecturer, Mr. Chanthirasekar A/L
Karpan, for his supervision and constant support. His invaluable help of constructive
comments and suggestions has helped me throughout the learning progression.
Sincere thanks to all my friends for their kindness and moral support during my
study. Thanks for the friendship and memories.
Last but not least, my deepest gratitude goes to my beloved father; my husband
and also to my sister for their endless love, prayers and encouragement. To those who
indirectly contributed in this research, your kindness means a lot to me.
Thank you very much.

Behaviour and Classroom Management

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2.0 Introduction
Classroom management is the methods of preventing misbehavior and dealing with it if it
arises. In other words, it is the techniques teachers use to maintain control in the classroom
(Kelly, 2014). Behaviour is one of the greatest challenges a special education teacher faces in
classroom. Creating a classroom environment that reinforces positive behaviour stimulates
attention and imagination and makes teacher expectations clear to the students. Managing
classroom involves two major tasks. The first task is to facilitate learning among pupils and the
second task is to establish order within the classroom so that learning can take place. These
both task promoting learning and orderliness within classroom happens simultaneously.
Orderliness is the environment that allows pupils to carry on learning without disruption.
In order to manage the classroom, a teacher should have his/her own strategies in
managing. The strategies may include the setting of classroom rules, routines and procedure, or
initiating a system of rewards and punishment. The strategies should aim at the inculcation of
self discipline among the pupils. Classroom management is more than just maintaining
discipline in the classroom. Discipline helps to inculcate a sense of responsibility and
trustworthiness within the individual and in the school context. Discipline is every teacher
business.
In order to manage class well, conducive environment is vital to be established first.
Conducive classroom climate exhibit pupils interest and joy in learning. At the same time, the
teacher also will experience a sense of professional fulfillment and satisfaction. Thus, a
conducive classroom environment is a place where both the pupils and their teacher interact
closely in the learning process where learning is enjoyable and meaningful. It also a place
where pupils are motivated to learn intrinsically and where the teacher experiences professional
satisfaction.

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3.0 Task 1
This essay will talk about the analysis of the phenomenon face by Cikgu Vasathi and Cikgu
Osman. This essay also will promote an appropriate model of classroom discipline and
describing the intervention in handling disciplinary problems.

3.1 Situation 1 - Analysis

Cikgu Vasanthi is teaching Science in Year 5 Orchid. At the same time, she was also
assigned as a form teacher. There are a number of students in the class who likes to
make noise and do not interested to learn. As a novice teacher, the situation had been
challenged her credibility.

In situation 1, Cikgu Vasanthi is a novice teacher. Some of the novice teachers have
great difficulties in dealing with classroom management. The students still not respect her as
their teacher and form teacher. There are few students who are making noise as they are not
interested in learning when she is teaching and this situation not only disturbing the teaching
and learning process in the class but also disturbing the other students who want to learn. The
students behaviour can be described as problematic and can be categorized as disruptive
behaviour.
Disruptive behavior can be defined as behavior that substantially or repeatedly interferes
with the instructors ability to conduct class or other students ability to learn. When a child is
disruptive in the classroom, this can cause other children to perform poorly, as well as, igniting
other children to become agitated, emotionally distraught, and insecure in the safety of their
classroom. Unfortunately, disruptive behaviors act as a bong vibrating throughout the learning
environment. A childs disruptive behaviors can detract from a childs ability to thrive in the
classroom.
It is important to differentiate between disruptive classroom behavior that which directly
interferes with the ability of the instructor to teach or the ability of other students to benefit from
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the classroom experience from behavior that is merely rude or uncivil. In this situation, the
students are merely uninterested in learning which has led them to make noise in the
classroom. Usually, when someone is boring and do not know what to do, they often doing other
things such as making noise or disturbing others to strip boredom. Disruptive student behavior
is detrimental to the academic community because it interferes with the learning process for
other students, inhibits the ability of instructors to teach most effectively, diverts university
energy and resources away from the educational mission, and may indicate a significant level of
personal problems or distress on the part of the disrupter. Disruptive behaviour is one of the
discipline problems that faces by teacher in the classroom.

3.2 Situation 2 - Analysis

Cikgu Osman is teaching Year 5 Lily. He noticed a student named Siew Lan relatively
weak in English. She did not ready to follow the lessons as often do not bring textbooks,
rarely doing her home work and passively during teaching and learning activities. Siew
Lan likes to hang out with friends until late at night. Her mother just passed away and
her father worked as part time security officer, from 7.00 pm to 7.00 am.

In this situation, Cikgu Osman is facing a problem which is come from a student named
Siew Lan. Siew Lan is weak in English. She also has personal problems in her life. After her
mother death, maybe, she started to hang out with her friends until late night. Her father has
become a single parent. Single parent leads stress to the child in the family. The responsibilities
of a single parent may not always allow for a mother or father to consistently monitor a childs
progress. Also, the stress a child may feel as a result of missing a parent or dealing with the
existing living circumstances could lead to psychological and emotional problems in school
which is happening to Siew Lan.
Her father who is working as security officer is in capable to monitor her movement since
he is working twelve hours a day which is from 7.00 p.m. and 7.00 a.m. Due to his working hour,
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he only can see her daughter for a few hours only because his daughter is going to school in the
morning and he must be sleeping during the daylight. Being a single dad is harder than single
mother. "Single dads generally don't have as much confidence as single moms that theyre
doing a good job, and they're likely to be less stable and more discouraged because they have
a hard time managing their frustrations, anger and loneliness," said Kim Seung-kwon, a
researcher at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. This situation has led into Siew
Lan misbehaviour. The most common factor which influences the academic performance of
students is family. If the parents are interested in how their child is doing at school, the student
will be more interested in his lessons too. Educated parents generally show more interest in the
academic performance of their children; however, this should be a practice common to all
families not only to the educated ones. When the parents are not interested in the success or
failure of their children, the child will not care about school or lessons, and will perform poorly.
Living in a family with single parent is lonely and Siew Lan is facing this. Lonely young
people need family encouragement for development of positive interests that will ultimately lead
them to positive peer groups and social confidence (Rimm, 2011) but sadly her father is not able
to provide her with the encouragement. Even during the teen years, kids need to continue to be
involved in family activities. Omission of those needs lead her to find friends to hang out so that
she would not be alone. However, she has taken this situation negatively as she is hanging out
with her friends until late at night. Besides that, she is lack in motivation and not interested in
learning. This is what causing her not ready to follow the lesson and often not bringing her book.
Her hanging out with her friends has influenced her involvement in school. Peers do not only
influence adolescents involvement with their families and their involvement in school (Clasen &
Brown, 1986 in Wong &Taylor, 1996). It has changes her motivation. Kinderman (1993) in Wong
and Taylor (1996) found that the motivation of the childrens peer group influenced individuals
change in motivation across the school year.

3.3 Model of Classroom Discipline

Discipline is always adequate with punishment long time ago and there is no change
until now. Discipline involves teaching others right from wrong. To be specific, discipline includes
method to prevent or respond to behaviour problems so they do not occur in the future.

Behaviour and Classroom Management

(EDU 3104)
Discipline is not punishment although punishment is one possible way of disciplining students.
However, Skinner stressed that punishment should not be used in behaviour shaping because it
effect is unpredictable. There are few models which can be used in developing and maintain
appropriate student behaviour.
Assertive discipline model is developed by Canter and his colleagues. They have
modified it over the years to meet with the necessity of the classroom. Canter has modified the
model to make it more focus on the positive methods than on use of force and coercion. This
model can be applied in both situation 1 and situation 2 above.
Canter has described five steps of assertive discipline. This five steps can be used in
both situation stated above. First, the teacher must acknowledge that they can and do affect
student behaviour. Second, teacher must learn to display an assertive respond style. Assertive
respond style is where the teacher clearly states expectation or limits and is prepared to back
this up with actions. It is more likely as rules statement. In situation 1, Cikgu Vashanti can tell
her pupils exactly what behaviour is acceptable and unacceptable, what will happen when
pupils choose to behave and also when they choose not to. This step can be support with the
application of positive and negative reinforcement in Skinner. Positive reinforcement is more of
rewarding system. When the pupils have done something good, they deserve to be given a
reward such as compliments, praises, and even a token of appreciation (sweets and little gift).
However, if they misbehave negative reinforcement such as reducing recess time and mark
deduction can be used to avoid punishment. In Skinner, it is called as behaviour modification
although he never use that term. Third, teacher must take a discipline plan that contains good
rules and clear, effective consequences. Fourth, teacher must provide student instruction on the
discipline plan. Cikgu Vashanti can make a discipline plan for her pupils. It is necessary to be
done since she is also the form teacher. Discipline plan must contain list of dos and donts,
positive and negative consequences and penalties. The list should be present to the school the
Headmaster and Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru (PIBG). If they are in agreement, the plan can
be presented to the pupils so that they know and alert about it. Finally, teacher should
implement the model with the students.
However, in situation 2, Siew Lan case could not be solve with only promoting discipline
plan in the classroom. It needs more than that. Canter has made three approaches to use when
a teacher is facing the pupil like Siew Lan. First, a one-on-one problem solving conference
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should be scheduled at which the pupil and the teacher try to gain insight into the students
behaviour. Cikgu Osman can personally hold up with Siew Lan in order to know why she
behave like that when in the classroom. He also can provide guidance for Siew Lan to solve her
problem of hanging out with friends and how to be a good student. The phrase do not should
not be used in this approach as human minds is neglected the word do not and make them
rebel. Instead, Cikgu Osman can guide her to what she can do to solve her behaviour problem.
Second, a relationship is built from the use of positive support. Cikgu Osman should show how
much he cares about Siew Lan and her studies. He also should make an attempt to get know
her on a more personal basis. Siew Lan must be feel that Cikgu Osman truly cares about her
since she does not get that much attention and care from her own father. This approach can be
enhanced by adding an element of love and logic model by Fay. Love and logic model focuses
on teacher being a consultant to their students. In love and logic model, students are to be
provide with messages of self-worth and strength. Cikgu Osman can use this model to tell Siew
Lan her self-worth and even share her personal feelings about something maybe about her
mothers death and etc. Cikgu Osman also is to provide and help Siew Lan with alternatives to
make her own decisions. Back to Canter, the third approach is developing and individuals
behaviour plan which is more specialized to the pupils individual needs compared with the
needs of the other pupils. Cikgu Osman should make an individuals behaviour plan for Siew Lan
so that she always alert about what to do and what she cannot do. The plan also will fulfill her
needs.

4.0 Task 2
This essay will discuss a plan of strategies and approaches in building positive teacher-student
relationship and the impact of the strategies being used to the students learning development.
The student-pupil relationship is very important for children. Children spend
approximately 5 to 7 hours a day with teacher for almost ten months a year. Children have
different strategies for learning and achieving their goals. A few pupils in a classroom will grasp
and learn quickly, but at the same time there will be those who have to be repeatedly taught
using different techniques for the pupils to be able to understand the lesson. On the other hand,
there are also those students who fool around and use school as entertainment like situation

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being faced by Cikgu Vashanti. According to Jones (1981), academic achievement and student
behaviour are influenced by the quality of the teacher student relationship.
The communication is vital not only in the classroom but also outside of the classroom.
The communication serves as a connection between teacher and pupils. Through
communication the teacher will acquire enough information about her pupils. The more the
teacher connects or communicates with his or her pupils, the more likely they will be able to
help pupils learn at a high level and accomplish it quickly. A close but limited relationship
between the pupils and the teacher can be helpful for those who are shy.
Next, a teacher should understand the value of pupils sense of belonging. If the teacher
demonstrates an understanding of the pupils sense of belonging, it will provide a better
understanding between the teacher and the pupils. Thomas (2000) stated that children who are
yelled at feel rejected and frightened because a teacher shouts at them. Some teacher find
yelling is the quick solution to make the pupils listen to them. However, yelling makes the
relationship between the teacher and pupils worse as the pupils are afraid of the teacher. Thus,
it is essential to foster close rapport with the pupils. Developing rapport with the pupils is
important because the close the rapport the better the relationship between the teacher and
pupils. Rapport is a two-way reciprocal affair based on trust, respect and understanding. Those
teacher who demonstrate respect towards their pupils, automatically win favor by having active
learners in their classroom. The arrogant or offensive teacher will lack of these qualities due to
his or her lack of control over the children. Rapport tends to come naturally with time after you
take initiative to know the class and demonstrate care and concern for each and every pupil.
According to Jones (1981), teachers are encouraged to blend their warmth and firmness
towards the students in their classroom, but with realistic limits.
Address pupils by their names is very important. It is a workable strategy to know their
names at the very beginning. Many pupils feel proud and special when the teacher calls them
by their names. It simply means that they exist in their teachers eyes and it will develop a liking
for the teacher. Initial liking can lead to a good rapport development. In order to make this
happen, the teacher should learn pupils names and make an extra effort by pronounce them
correctly. Mispronunciation may lead to teasing and bullying and the pupil will find themselves
victimized by their peers. It may lower the pupils self-esteem. Children who have become
victims of this nature find learning difficult. They will stress out trying to achieve academically.
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5.0 Task 3 - Reflection

Every year, school takes new intake of students and therefore teacher deals with new
faces and attitudes every year. Some children are go to school to learn, some find themselves
lacking an interest in learning while others are just fooling and playing around at school.
Schooling years are the happiest moments of childrens life. Many models of discipline
management are being established to handle and manage the discipline of pupils.
In task 1, I have been instructed to analyze holistically the situations given and
promoting an appropriate model of classroom discipline. Lee and Marlene Canter have
established assertive discipline models in order to help teacher to deal with the discipline
problems face in classroom. In my opinion, Canters has developed a common sense, easy to
learn approach to help teacher become the leader of the classroom and positively influence
pupils behaviour. I have learnt that this model allowing teacher to devise their own rules in
which they decide to implement in the classroom. Besides that, it also is fostering good
relationship between the teacher and the pupils. Teacher can get to know his or her pupils and
know what he or she dealing with. I found that Canters assertive discipline models can be used
in a group of pupils and individually. It is good to know a model that has wide coverage of
usage. The use of this model can be enhanced since it is easy to use. This model also can
easily integrated by combining it with other models.
In tasks 2, I found out that teacher-student relationship is vital in order to become an
effective teacher. I get to know how hard is in building a positive relationship with the pupils. A
good teacher-student relationship can exhibit interest in pupils to learn. As a teacher, knowing
students names is necessary. It is really important in establishing close rapport with pupils. I get
to learn that sincerity in teaching can build a rapport with the pupils. When you are sincere in
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teaching, other values such as respect and love will come along and eventually building up
close rapport with the pupils.
Our educational field is changing from time to time. It develops real fast and as a future
teacher I realize that the time that I used to learn in is not the same like it is now. Our education
system is keeping changing and it is getting hard. Other than teaching, teachers work is bundle
up with other works. It is sometimes reducing the quality of teaching. The disciplinary problem
makes the teaching quality getting lower. Therefore, the tasks given are actually make me
realizes the real deal that I will face in future. Other than that, it also helps me to learn the on
how to solve problem which I will be facing few years from now. It also makes me think on what
is good and can be added to the education system.
As a conclusion, these tasks have make me understand more on the reality of teaching.
Besides that, it also equips me with a lot of knowledge to be applied when I am at school.

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References
Bugentan, D., Lyon, J. et al., Child Development, January/February1999, Vol 70, Number 1.
214-230.
Carol A. Wong & Erika D. Taylor. (1996). The Effect of Peer Influences and Negative Peer
Orientation on African American and European American Stdents' Values and
Achievement.
Jones, Vernon F., and Louise Jones. Responsible Classroom Discipline. Boston: Allyn and
Bacon, Inc., 1981. 95-215.

Kelly, M. (n.d.). Definition of Classroom Management. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from

https://www.tcc.fl.edu/Current/Student-Conduct-CommunityStandards/Documents/GUIDELINES%20FOR%20DEALING%20WITH%20DISRUPTIV
E%20BEHAVIOR%20IN%20THE%20CLASSROOM.pdf
Rimm, S. B., Peer Influence. Family Achievement Clinic Educational Assessment Service,
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from

http://www.sylviarimm.com/article_peerinf.html.
Thomas, David. Lives on the Boundary. The Presence of Others. Ed. Marilyn Moller.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 122.

Webster, J. (n.d.). Special Education. Retrieved April 1, 2014 , from about.com.

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