Why Discipline in the Classroom is Important

The one question that hinders many individuals in the educational profession, is what makes a terrific classroom? Is it the motivated students, the motivational teachers, or the resources? While all these elements are extremely crucial when looking at the dynamics of a classroom, they all lead to one thing, which is the importance of discipline in a classroom setting.

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

What is Discipline?

Discipline can be simply defined as the practice of training people to obey rules. Furthermore, a teacher uses discipline in a classroom to make sure classroom order is maintained, which means rules are enforced and students are in a diligent environment to learn to their fullest potential. In addition to this, to maintain discipline in a classroom, it all comes down to basic classroom management.

Firstly, for discipline to be maintained in a classroom teacher must build a good rapport with their students, this is done by having impeccable eye contact, gestures and a great tone of voice.

Secondly, maintaining discipline comes from grouping students properly.

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Thirdly, classroom arrangement is crucial to maintaining discipline as the teacher can place the students together based on personality, weakness, and strengths to avoid a hostile environment.

Last, giving instructions that are simple and easy to understand, help maintain order in a classroom as well.

In summary, classroom management is most important to maintain discipline in a classroom. On the other hand, maintaining discipline can be looked at more extensively. For example, if the classroom management is not working, discipline can be looked at on an individual basis and the teacher can respond to the problem behavior.

How keep your classroom disciplined?

Firstly, for discipline to be maintained in a classroom teacher must bald a good rapport with their students, this is done by having impeccable eye contact, gestures and a great tone of voice. In addition to this, eye contact of the teacher is extremely important in attaining discipline as eye contact shows students that they are involved in the current lesson being taught. Eye contact is also used to encourage the participation of the student. Great eye contact with students maintains great discipline as it shows them that the teacher is focused on them and what they are doing if the teacher did not build up eye contact, students would be continuously talking and thinking the teacher did not care about maintaining discipline.

Secondly, great gestures are extremely important in maintaining discipline when the class has a hard time understanding a verbal explanation. In addition to this, gestures keep them interested and keep their tension span.

Thirdly, most importantly, the tone of the teacher's voice, the clarity, the range and variety of projection will help maintain discipline because of the greater the variation in the tone of the teacher's voice, the greater the effectiveness in maintaining order. In comparison to a dull voice, where students lose interest and become bored and uninterested in the lesson.

Lastly, a teacher should know their student's names as this enforces discipline, as they can get the attention of the student.

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Grouping

Maintaining discipline in a classroom comes from grouping students properly. For example, whole-class groupings are important, as they are suitable for a classroom setting in which the teacher needs to get the attention of the whole class and maintain it. As well as, pair work as it is great for students' interactions to study as they can communicate with each other and the teacher can easily watch everyone in pairs. Meaning the teacher can go around the class, approach the pairs separately and maintain order while having the class under control.

Classroom arrangement is crucial to maintaining discipline as the teacher can place the students together based on personality, weakness, and strengths to avoid a hostile environment. There are many different types of classroom arrangements that can contribute to classroom order.

The first one being, orderly rows, where there are orderly rows in the classroom, which is easy for the teacher to walk around and maintain eye contact with students, which reduces discipline problems.

Secondly, circles, this seating arrangement is a circle of students which makes conducting a class more intimate, but eye contact easy to maintain discipline throughout the entire lecture. Lastly, the teacher’s position is most important, as standing would be the best position to maintain discipline.

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Instructions and rules

Giving instructions that are simple and easy to understand, help maintain order in a classroom as well. The clearer and more precise the instructions are the better the order maintained in the classroom. A teacher can do this by using simple language, that way there are fewer misunderstandings. Also, a teacher must be consistent with his or her instructions as this will help avoid confusion. In summation, the last thing the teacher should do is check the instructions to see if the students understand them, this will avoid chaos in the classroom.

In summary, classroom management is most important to maintain discipline in a classroom. On the other hand, maintaining discipline can be looked at more extensively. For example, if the classroom management is working, discipline can be looked at on an individual basis of the student who is misbehaving and responding to the problem behavior will be done. Discipline will always depend on the age of the students, reasons for their motivation, class size and the respect they have for their teacher. In addition to this, classroom management can be controlled by the teacher but some things cannot be controlled by the teacher. For example, the student could possess self-esteem problems, at-home issues, and peer pressure. The teacher can do their best to maintain discipline by acting immediately, keeping calm and addressing these issues.

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To conclude, a teacher maintaining order in a classroom is the best way to maintain constant discipline. Although some things are out of reach.

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