Confronting the real problem in nation's schools

TEACHERS are struggling to control students, with 30pc saying bad behaviour is a problem, yet teaching degrees don't provide the skills to cope.

generic classroom

TEACHERS are increasingly struggling to maintain control over students, with 30 per cent saying bad behaviour is a problem, yet teaching degrees fail to provide the skills necessary to manage a classroom.

The latest Staff in Australia's Schools survey by the federal education department found about 30 per cent of primary school teachers and 35.4 per cent of secondary teachers were dissatisfied with their students' behaviour, and about 10 per cent of those who had left the profession cited student behaviour as the main factor behind their decision.

In the first of a series of reports on the problems in our nation's classrooms, The Weekend Australian has established that, despite troublesome students taking a growing toll on teachers, the attention given to behaviour management issues at university is as little as a few hours across a four-year education degree.

A study by researchers at Macquarie University published in the Australian Journal of Teacher Education examined the content covered on classroom management in 35 primary teaching courses across Australia and found about 6.6 per cent of all subjects within the four-year degrees included strategies for dealing with students' behaviour.

Fewer than half the courses offered stand-alone subjects in classroom management while more than two-thirds of the instruction on behaviour management strategies was embedded in other subjects, primarily teaching methods and inclusion of students with special needs.

"When embedded within other units, classroom behaviour management content may be limited to just a few hours of instruction," the study says.

"This limited exposure would allow little more than important basic strategies or tricks ... or perhaps a management model or two - hardly adequate preparation for the management challenges found in many classrooms.

"There is not much time spent on an issue that may be addressed by teachers, in some way, every single day of their teaching lives."

The behaviour that causes teachers the most trouble manifests itself as acts of defiance such as talking in class, talking back to the teacher, making noise or poking and touching other students.

Research conducted in Australia and overseas over the past 20 years shows that between two and nine students in a class of 30 will have a behaviour problem. When examining the incidence of general mucking up, teachers say 15 to 20 per cent of students in a class cause problems.

While the violent incidents that occur at schools - such as when a NSW student last year held a replica gun to a staff member's head - grab public attention they are relatively rare.

In some cases teachers feel their principal is more inclined to side with the student rather than support their disciplinary decision, often for fear of being challenged or sued by parents.

While teachers and schools are reluctant to say children's behaviour is worse than it was 10 or 20 years ago, it is evident that classrooms have become more challenging environments to manage.

Changes to the school leaving age mean teenagers who would have left to get a job or an apprenticeship even 10 years ago must now stay at school until they are 17, leaving teachers to deal with a larger group of students who are not interested.

Classrooms are also more disparate than in the past, as students with disabilities, learning difficulties and mental health issues are integrated in mainstream schools rather than being educated in separate institutions.

In addition, there has been an extraordinary rise in the incidence of autism and other behavioural disorders, and these students can be the most difficult to manage.

Other challenging behaviours arise from family dysfunction and social issues the students bring to school with them.

Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos says there is no doubt schools today are more complex than in the past.

"New teachers consistently say they feel underprepared to deal with classroom management and behaviour issues, let alone the increasing demands from students with disabilities or special needs," he said.

"Contributing to those pressures is that we are living in a much more litigious society and that brings additional pressures on schools that come from the unfair expectations of some parents.

"In the past few years this has been raised consistently, that schools feel they're under a legal spotlight. Some parents believe their child can do no wrong."

About 78 per cent of new teachers say managing the classroom is one of their top two concerns, prompting calls for a medical-style internship in schools.

The executive director of Catholic schools in western Sydney, Greg Whitby, who oversees schools in some of the nation's most challenging areas, said that teachers did not graduate properly prepared to manage classrooms.

"Universities have to change - it's as simple as that," Mr Whitby said. "We can't sustain the model because we have a gap between theory and practice.

"Teaching is theory and practice, it's an art and science at the same time.

"If you want to be a heart surgeon, you don't go to university and then walk straight into surgery. They work with the best all the time, stand at the table 12 hours a day with their hands deep and dirty in the world. It's exactly the same."

The Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership recently released accreditation standards for teaching courses mandating the teaching of classroom management, and is in the process of developing explicit requirements that university courses will have to cover.