Classrooms fail discipline test

Australian classrooms are among the most undisciplined in the world, the latest PISA study shows.

37% of Australian students report not listening to their teacher. Picture: iStock.

Australian classrooms are among the most undisciplined in the world, with the latest PISA study exposing widespread noise, disorder and student disobedience.

Released alongside Tuesday’s global education snapshot, the OECD’s What School Life Means for Students’ Lives report has ranked Australia 69th out of 76 countries on an index of school disciplinary climates.

Surveying students on their classroom experiences, it found that 43 per cent of Australian respondents reported noise and disorder in most or every English lesson, while 21 per cent claimed they could not work well in most or all lessons.

A further 37 per cent of students claimed their class did not listen to the teacher, with 26 per cent reporting that students did not start working for a long time after the lesson began.

In Korea, which was found to have the most disciplined climate, less than 10 per cent of students reported classroom noise and disorder, and only 5 per cent claimed they were unable to work well as a result.

China, which topped the PISA rankings for reading, maths and science, was fourth for discipline.

The findings could go some way to explain Australia’s long-term declining performance in PISA, which assesses the ability of 15-year-olds to apply knowledge in reading, maths and science.

The nation’s discipline issues were flagged in the 2015 testing cycle, where it ranked 63 out of 68 countries.

According to the OECD report, students who reported better disciplinary climate in their ­language-of-instruction lessons, English in the case of Australia, performed better in reading.

UNSW Sydney assessment expert Jihyun Lee said the results highlighted the issue of classroom discipline in Australian schools.

“The PISA 2018 report shows that Australia will need to seriously address the issue of classroom discipline,” Associate Professor Lee said.

“While on average there is a positive trend of lessening disciplinary issues in the world, Australian schools have faced an increased disciplinary problem in the period between 2009 and 2018.

“Simply put, if students don’t listen to what the teacher says, if there is noise and disorder in a learning space, and if a teacher has to wait for a long time for students to quiet down, how can we expect students to learn effectively in school?”