Wednesday 22nd February 2017

Today has been an interesting day, for me it has been one that has thrown up a lot of questions about how to keep order in such a large class, and about the differences between punishments in the UK and China when a student does not behave.

There is so many differences between classes here and in the UK. In the UK the class sizes do not go over 30 children per class whereas here there are 20 more students! With this increase in size it also welcomes an increase in behavioural difficulties and of course noise. I think one of the things that I have also noticed is no classroom assistants! In the UK in every Primary School (Elementary School) there is always a classroom assistant in the classes, these are more necessary in the lower classes. These classroom assistants help the teacher in keeping the class settled and not rowdy and they also help the students who are struggling with the work by explaining it to them one on one. Also within the UK if a child is diagnosed behavioural disorders such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) then the government, through the work of the local council will provide a special case worker for that child who will work one to one with the child easing the pressure off of the teacher and causing fewer disruptions within the classroom.

When it comes to maintaining order in a classroom in the UK, there are a few ways. The most common way is to send the student out of the classroom. The idea is that if the student is unwilling to learn they are not only disrupting their own time of learning but also disrupting and hindering the learning process of the other students within the class. So by removing them from the room it can mean that the students who do wish to learn have the space to do that and at the same time can calm down the student outside. Sometimes only 5 minutes is necessary and it is enough! Other techniques if a student is rowdy is to not allow them out to play at break time but have them sort through things. When I was a child we used to have small individual whiteboards that would be used in maths or spelling tests, we would write down our answers and then hold them up to show the teacher, so a punishment would be for the child to have to clean all of them down. Or another common one would be to have the student write lines in the break time, this could come in the form of the student writing out the same word over and over again, or a sentence, the older that the students are the more complex, and this could just be for five minutes, but if having to do it means that they miss some of their own play time - it shows that there is repurcussions for bad behaviour and then they learn not to do it again. I think that is the main thing about ut really, when a child makes a mistake, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, they learn not to do it again. So actually a punishment for now can actually mean better success in the future. When I was in Primary School I was sent out of the classroom for laughing while a teacher was talking, but it did not happen again. I was made to write out spellings in my morning break, but it did not happen again. While I was in Secondary School (High School) I had detention. This is where you have to stay after school and write lines, but I tell you what, it did not happen again. For in actual fact all of these present opportunities for growth and it is up to you as a person how you respond to that opportunity. Will you learn from it or do the same thing again?