Positive discipline: Tips to improve discipine in your classroom

Discipline is a concept that is definitely not one-sizefits-all. The type of school, environment, area, parent involvement and management are only a few factors that contribute to the difficulty to maintain a calm atmosphere in your class. Discipline is also usually something that all teachers can work on as children tend to change as rapidly as we implement new ways of controlling them.

As teachers we often feel that our hands are tied behind our backs. Corporal punishment is long gone, we can’t shout, lose our temper, send children out and some schools prohibit punishments like writing out or detention. Struggling to get the children to cooperate can often rob us of the passion we have for teaching. No teacher wants to shout, scream and beg all day long to get their learners to listen. What else is left for us to do?

Positive discipline might be the answer.

Positive discipline doesn’t focus on “bad” behaviour. This means that you don’t punish a child for doing something wrong, but rather target a positive change in behaviour. Sometimes it happens that children are labelled as bad children. When implementing positive discipline, you acknowledge that there are no bad children, only bad behaviour. In addition to this great

perspective, positive discipline also focuses on teaching a child an appropriate response, instead of dwelling on the negative behaviour. A good example is: The class is noisy, children are talking and not paying attention. Instead of shouting and sending children out, you firmly say “Fold your arms in 3, 2, 1”. This sounds extremely easy and it almost feels impossible to be a solution, but you will be shocked to see how well this works, even in assemblies with the whole school. It is however quite important to use strategies that are age appropriate - asking grade 12 students to fold their arms might not be very effective.

We would like the kids in our classes to have a positive outlook on life and that starts with the example that we are setting when we deal with them. It is good to

focus on the things they do right rather than waiting for them to set a foot wrong. So how do we do this?

Here are a few ways how to this:

Setting rules or boundaries It is extremely important for the children in your class to understand your rules. This means setting clear rules and being consistent about them. If you don’t want students to eat in your class, you need to stick to that rule. If you know you will sometimes allow them to eat, rather state in the rule that eating is only allowed with the teacher’s permission.

Also try not to have too many rules. A very effective way of setting rules, is including the learners in the process. They then think of appropriate behaviour and

why it is necessary and this will motivate them to stick to the rules. Children usually also work better if they are seen as part of the team and not just submissive learners with a boss telling them what they have to do.

Children need to know the boundaries to be able to keep to them. If you want to use positive discipline, it is important to have a reason behind your rule. You can’t say “no walking around” if you don’t have a reason to explain it. When a child is stepping out of line, treat the child with respect, but be firm and consistent. In your rule making process you also need to include what the consequences will be when they don’t respect the rules.

Be understanding Just as you make mistakes every

day, you need to realise that the learners in front of you will do the same. Rather than punishing them for everything they do wrong, use the opportunity to teach them something from the situation. Often we have children that will do the same thing wrong every day (for example not doing homework) and of course there should be consequences when a learner oversteps the boundaries, but it is important that your students know that you will only “punish” if it is in their best interest and not to hurt them in any way. The idea is to teach them how to find a solution to a problem and not to punish them because they did something wrong.

To be understanding means that you need to find out why a child acted in a specific way. Children will be children, but no child will deliberately hurt another child or act out for no reason. Sometimes you will even find that a child truly didn’t know it was inappropriate to act a certain way. We need to teach kids how to treat each other. With smaller children it often happens that they say something or act in a certain way because they have seen an adult doing it, but they have no idea what it means or how it can make someone feel. Being understanding teaches them to also understand other people’s feelings.

Explain to them that you understand and acknowledge why they acted that way, but that you know that they know it is wrong. You can then discuss how they should rather act in future situations. Adding to the collaboration between teacher and student, you can include them in the decision making process about what the desired behaviour should be in the future.

Reward good behaviour Try to reward the good things in your class. If they come in quietly, or leave your class looking neat, thank them for it. Compliment the kids every day individually but also as a group. A good idea if you teach more than one class, is to have a competition between the classes using a point system (you can also do this with different groups if you only have one class). Give points for big things like getting full marks for a test, but also for the little things like 10 points for every person that completes homework or 10 points for every person who finishes a specific exercise during class time. Reward them with a chocolate or cupcakes at the end of the term. Motivation is one of the best things you can do to promote positive behaviour in class.

Assessing your class and adapting to their needs If your class gets noisy, it is always good to take a step back and ask yourself why they are acting this way. Sometimes the lessons get very long. A 10 year old can concentrate for 20-50 minutes. This means that if you have them in your class for longer than 20 minutes, some will get restless and need a break. Try to distract them by taking a break, doing some stretches with them, let them sing a song, play simonsays etc.

Learners may also be struggling because it is the last lesson of the day or maybe something emotional happened in a previous class or they wrote a big test etc.. The important thing is to talk to your learners to understand and to then adapt accordingly.

Setting goals When you need the children to finish a task, it is a good idea to set a timer, put it on the screen if possible and encourage them to finish in this set time. If it is a fun activity, you can also make it a competition and time them. If you give them unlimited time to do an assignment, they are not going to finish in time and this will contribute to your frustration and stresslevels.

Positive discipline encourages an environment where everyone works together to create a positive learning space for every student. It shows the students that their feelings matter, that they have an active role in class management, that it encourages them to take responsibility for their actions, improves their problem solving skills and logic and to have an overall positive outlook on life.

This is a process that may need a lot of practice, but with hard work and dedication it is extremely rewarding. As teachers we know that children need love and compassion and by using positive discipline, we canl equip them with skills that can carry them through the many ups and downs of life.

For inspiration you can watch these videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3fr4tm_ mkE and https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=CgJ2J62Ig6U

Sources: https://afineparent.com/be-positive/positivediscipline.html

Wilmari Pretorius