Teachers ‘fear revealing impact of bad behaviour’

Inconsistent approaches to managing student behaviour is resulting in chaotic classrooms and stressed teachers, says Greg Ashman.

Teacher and writer Greg Ashman. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Inconsistent approaches to ­managing student behaviour are resulting in chaotic classrooms and stressed teachers, who fear revealing the full impact that poor student discipline is having on learning.

The warning comes from teacher and writer Greg Ashman, who yesterday backed Education Minister Dan Tehan’s call for better training to help teachers manage classroom discipline. But he warned that behaviour management in Australia was a field “afflicted by too many myths and emotive opinions and not enough practical strategies”.

The Ballarat Clarendon College teacher argues in a commentary article in The Australian today that many teachers are unwilling to ­reveal the full impact of behaviour management in classrooms for fear of being criticised for not having “engaging” enough lessons. “I could have planned the most magical lesson but if my ­students won’t even let me introduce it, then they will never know,” he says.

Mr Tehan told The Australian this week that he had been “staggered” by the number of principals he had met since taking over the portfolio who said they had been abused by students.

Australia’s ­record of classroom discipline is poor by international standards, with the OECD’s PISA survey ranking our classrooms 63rd out of 68 countries.

Mr Ashman is an advocate of “behaviourism”, which focuses on encouraging students to develop the kinds of social skills that are essential to the smooth running of a classroom and which children can take into their adult lives.

His method involves non-combative engagement with students who are misbehaving, such as walking towards a student who is speaking while the teacher is ­addressing the class. He said negative consequences such as short detentions or loss of privileges were sometimes necessary for a minority of children who continued to misbehave, but emphasised the importance of early intervention and clear standards that students and teachers understood.

“Opponents of behaviourism focus mainly on the use of negative consequences and tend to suggest that these consequences are punitive, as if a 20-minute ­detention can cause a 14-year-old real and lasting harm,” he said.

“Some have even claimed that the very concept of trying to manage student behaviour is outdated. When you realise that many of these critics work in the education faculties that train new teachers, you begin to understand another key part of the problem.”

Mr Tehan said poor teacher training standards meant teaching graduates were not classroom-ready and were unable to control their classrooms.

Mr Ashman, author of The Truth about Teaching: An Evidence-Informed Guide for New Teachers, called for teachers to be given consistent methods.