Training to deal with discipline is more important than assessing behavior

It is very frivolous to bind the desire to tighten the discipline in a school with some kind of authoritarianism. If one thinks that the situation with discipline at school is not serious enough to require urgent measures, then there is either no teacher among their familiar, or there are no students, or their children do not share what is happening in school.

And the situation is difficult in a word. And the problem with bad discipline is not only in the teachers’ washed nerves, but in the additional reduction in the quality of education.

A very separate question is what are the ways to overcome the problem and whether the implementation of an assessment would be effective. But rejection with a slight hand of effort in this regard is also irresponsible.

30-40 years ago, there were ratings of behavior whose lowest grades were « satisfactory » and « unsatisfactory ». The sticking of these labels caused quiet horror in most adolescents and their parents, and their owners were almost written off by society. But the truth is that, in general, few students reached them and had a preventative function.

Will they impress someone now? It’s not very certain. And along with the assessments of the discipline, many other things must be solved. Like what they will lead to, what will depend on them, and in general, what will be the motivation to have a positive assessment of behavior?

Thomas Gordon (1918-2022) is a world-renowned clinical psychologist offered for the Nobel Prize because of his contribution to school and family education. He has trained parents, teachers and leaders for 50 years. Its method Gordon is based on the construction of effective relationships. Gordon is firmly convinced that the use of forced force leads to the deterioration of these relationships. Here is what he says about the discipline at a school, which is a problem for every teacher and without which educators cannot actually fulfill their duties.

According to him, this is the most difficult question the teachers face: The power -based methods usually cause resistance, rebellion, revenge. Even if they manage to cause a change in the student’s behavior, his old behavior often returns to the moment the teacher exits the room or turn to the board. (« Training of successful teachers », « Hummingbird », 2013). The worst, however, is when teachers come to the conclusion that they are guilty of being « not being for teachers. »

This is no doubt. 28-year-old Annie has just graduated in Philology and a year and a half of additional pedagogical qualification for a French language teacher. They are appointed to the high school stage of the primary school of Sofia. The « fight » with the discipline begins almost immediately. Annie has something like a mentor among the older teachers, but it seems that his mentor has enough poisons and does not pay enough attention to her. And after one direct streaming The young teacher’s phone from a student in class allows herself more sharp behavior and temporary withdrawal of the phone. The result? They release her because of her parents’ dissatisfaction. So much about the discipline.

Irina, on the other hand, is before a pension, but works as a teacher recently due to a personal circumstances. He teaches Bulgarian language and literature at grade 7 and struggles in every way, but completely to no avail to help his students in the upcoming national external assessment of the subject. Finally, he sincerely asks his students: « Are you not worried about the upcoming exam?! ». « Oh-oh, ma’am, we go to lessons. We don’t care at all here, » says the insolent answer.

Still, there is hope. The same Irina is the real favorite of the youngest from 1st to 4th grade. They don’t want to go home after a classroom with her. The children listen to her so much and love that her colleagues are amazed at her unprecedented success incl. And with discipline. Asked how she succeeds: « Only with good! » But it seems and this is not a panacea, or at least not always for all ages.

And the training should be conducted by psychologists and psychotherapists with experience on the subject. This will probably not be cheap, but at least this year Bulgarian education enjoys an unprecedented high percentage of the state budget – 4.8% – something that has probably not happened in decades. Because as much as they increase the salaries of teachers, the young will quickly escape from the beast, with which they cannot go out.

A good example of dealing with discipline can be taken from China. According to a report by the OECD, which has monitored for ten years the way of organizing education in the country, China has been investing a lot of time in the preparation and qualification of its teachers. And this has led to traditionally high results in international studies of areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Jandziang – a total of about 190 million people.

A specially created state program works to attract highly motivated students to the teaching profession. Those who fall into it after a successful exam are exempt from fees and use a 4-year state subsidy, after which they have a guaranteed workplace. In return, they are committed to mandatory teaching for 6 years. During the first 3 of these 6 years, young teachers have additional professional support and continuing training. An average annual one Chinese teacher goes through 6 additional activities for continuing professional development and works at 45.3 hours a week, which is more than the average for the OECD (38.8 h)

In addition to working for many hours, the Chinese teacher has been subjected to another major challenge. Children in 1 class reach and exceed 40 in number! In this case, it is no wonder that the discipline was placed on a pedestal in Chinese education. It is believed to be crucial and because when guaranteed, the teacher has more effective teaching time. For this purpose, special trainings are held to help the most vulnerable among teachers – namely women and young teachers. They obviously succeed because school harassment in China is considered rare.

In conclusion, only the introduction of a discipline assessment in Bulgarian schools is unlikely to be sufficient if it is not accompanied by other supporting measures, and especially by appropriate and qualitative training of teachers, material production, manuals and mandatory mentoring for young teachers.