Job Discussion Forums

[Guest]

I taught in China for about three months, most of my students were middle school to Freshman in high school age.

Generally, there are only a few cheap shots you have if discipline is really a problem.

1) Chinese students hate being isolated. Have one student stand away from his desk at the back of the class, unable to sit or really to participate in the lesson. If you're dealing with a gang, though, the other kids may tease their ousted member until you're forced to have them stand away, too. It then becomes a game.

A variation of this (already mentioned) is sending a student out into the hallway. I'm wary of doing this because I feel responsible for the kid and if he goes outside and gets hit by a truck I'd have a hard time explaining my action. Sending them into the hallway, though, is extremely effective.

2) Chinese students in English classes taught by a foreigner are frequently paying extra for it. Ask the school to send a note home with the child to the parent, or, in extreme cases, ask for a confrence with the parent. Tell the school that you are absolutely unwilling to teach that student until the note is signed and returned or until the confrence has happened. They may make you teach him in the interim anyway, but you now have the leverage of bringing this up in class, in front of the other kids.

3) Get an ally among the troublemakers. This may be hard to do with 60 students, but if you learn one of their names and call on him frequently in class he may afford you some indirect respect from his peers.

Finally, many Chinese teachers hit their students. This is generally not exactly allowed, but many Chinese parents feel that if the teacher hits their kids it means that the teacher means business -- and so they don't mind. I wouldn't reccomend this for obvious reasons, despite the fact that as a foreinger you're almost above the law as far as employment transgressions go. As a variation of this, however, Chinese kids HATE being touched on the head. It is quite the cultural taboo -- but if there's one little boy who's inteintionlly causing you trouble, put your hand on top of his head and talk to him for about ten seconds while leaving your hand there. Don't count on him ever being attentive in your class again -- but he may at least be quiet.

Many Chinese teachers also use guilt trip tactics. They'll be much more likely to say "Your misbehavior makes me feel as though I'm a bad teacher" than "Your misbehavior is causing you to harm yourself." I tried the guilt trip tactic once and found it much more effective than what my own ethical/moral ground would view it to be (I would be quite likely to tell a teacher that they are indeed pretty bad at their job, in an indirect way), but because it was disgenuine I didn't do it a second time.

There have to be consequences for misaction, and you can't allow a cult of misbehavers to form...

[Guest]

[stevey]

[Roger]

Some of the advice offered here really is surprising, guys!

To begin with, PUNISHMENTS are always problematic, and punishment meted out by a foreign teacher is criticallty problematic! What's your authority? It is zero! Overstepping your line can have serious consequences! A reprimand is the least you must expect!
As for separating unruly kids from the rest of the class - bravo! My idea, really! I felt I had to do this with that class of primary class students, and I did it. First one guy, then two, 4. They loitered around, one would disappear downstairs from the fourth floor!
But, to my horror, they were herded back to my class by some Chinese teacher! Whatever my problem with the kids, I was NOT allowed to take any action!
What was there to do?
Reporting it? Hahaha! I had reported it to my waiban, who duly reported it to the principal. Three complaints in three weeks - nothing improved.
Worse - I felt my complaints caused them inconvenience. They too had discipline problems. My waiban was n English teacher herself - and daily I would see her shout warnings at kids in her office at the top of her voice! She would confiscate their mobile phones - and those most troublesome little macho guys would start crying! She would ask them to dial their mother and to report their misdeeds - more crying!
Could I do such a thing? Perhaps - I never asked though!

But in other classes, I was told to direct my observations to the class monitor, NEVER TO CRITICISE an individual student! Not a reasonable approach, but the approach I as an expat was supposed to take!

[stevey]

after a few consistent complaints to the head teacher, i found out and also sensed that the head teachers were getting pi-s-sed off with me cos i think they felt they were losing face...in the end, i just told them, "ok fair enough, leave me alone and just let me finish my contract" i think i made one teacher cry like this - she felt sorry for me, and was stuck between my feelings and the pis-sed off head teachers.

[beck's]

I view all of your posts on classroom management with great interest. I have been teaching high school and junior high school in a Canadian city for about thirty years. I have always taught "regular" classes. Regular is a Canadian euphemism for slow and disruptive.

Next year, on sabattical, I plan to teach in China. That's why I'm so interested in the management thing. Here, I give a verbal warning. Next disruption, the student sees me at the front and is given something to copy from a "How to Succeed in College guidebook." If this busy-work is not completed, I keep the student after class. This method, coupled with a lot of humour, has worked for me here in some pretty rough classes. How do you think it will work in China?

[Roger]

You will get bogged down reading/correcting your undisciplined students' copy work; next job: require them to rewrite it without any spelling mistakes - correct and read more of the same. Besides, you will spend time watching over them after class - if you have time. Do they have time? Probably not. Can you ask them to do it as homework? You can always ask, but you canNOT expect them to oblige! Next time you see them: "Where is the assignment I gave you?" - "Assignment? What assignment?"
Good luck!

[Minhang Oz]

This article from SCMP is reproduced to provide some additional information for FTs in China. It is NOT intended as a commentary on anything anyone has said on this thread.


Violent teachers leave psychological scars, says health specialist

JANE CAI in Beijing
Children in mainland schools are being psychologically damaged by teachers who use violence and humiliation to maintain order, a mental health specialist has warned.

The caution follows a series of classroom incidents that have been widely publicised. A number of children have been badly injured, and in one case killed. There have also been many reports of children committing suicide after being humiliated by their teacher.

Liang Yuezhu, mental health department director of the Beijing Health Bureau, said that violence in the classroom must stop immediately. "Even if the physical or mental punishment is not extreme, it can negatively affect the children for their entire lives," she said.

In northwestern Gansu province last week, a nine-year-old girl had two-thirds of her ear ripped off by her teacher when she failed to hand in her homework on time. The teacher apologised and no further action has been taken.

The teacher of seven-year-old Zhao Zhongping was not so lucky. Li Jun, a teacher in Judan county in Yunnan, lost his temper when the boy made a mistake during a maths class. He shoved Zhongping, causing him to accidentally stab himself with a pencil in the right eye as he lurched forward.

The boy died the next day and the teacher was sentenced to two years in jail last week.

There have been many reports recently of troubled teenagers killing themselves after being humiliated in class. A 15-year-old girl in Chongqing jumped off the roof of a building a few weeks ago on the same day her teacher had told her: "You are hopeless. You are so short and ugly. You could not even become a prostitute."

According to the law, teachers are prohibited from imposing any physical or psychological punishment on students. The survey, conducted by the Beijing Education Science Research Institute, said that more than 80 per cent of primary and secondary school students thought their teachers had bad tempers, while 60 per cent said their teachers had either hit them or punished them psychologically.

Dr Liang said that while most cases of classroom violence were relatively mild, they should still be stopped because of the psychological impact it had on people.

"Such punishment makes children depressed and gloomy," she said. "It may also cause them to run away from their families, take retaliation or even commit suicide."

She said that she once had a patient whose face muscles trembled constantly. It turned out that several years earlier the boy had been ordered to slap himself across the face 100 times by his teacher after he misbehaved.

A debate has been raging in the media recently about the roots of classroom violence and what should be done about the issue.

Many believe that people are reluctant to challenge teachers as they believe they have good intentions, while others are afraid to draw attention to a teacher's brutality for fear of retribution.

But most educators say the situation has been allowed to get out of hand because of the nature of a contemporary society in which everything is judged on exam results.

[Roger]

I read this article in the Education supplement of the SCMP too, but I find it to a large extent tendentious and misleading.
I agree that in some rural areas, a minority of old-fashioned Chinese teachers may resort to humiliating their students and using violence. This has time and again been reported in the offical media.
But that exactly is the catcfh: it was reported by CP-controlled publications. How much trust do you place in them?

In fact, many teachers, particularly those in affluent urban China, have every reason to be more afraid of their students. The clout Chinese middle-school and college students have is enormous.
Even Chinese teachers have to submit to being assessed by their students, and this applies even more to expats. Teachers have to please or quit. Just why do we have to do trial lessons?
Just why do CHinese media seemingly take sides with the students? For purely political reasons! Let's not forget the painful hiatus of 1989. The powers-that-be badly need the support they may get from the nation's teenage population.
Besides, there was the infamous mayhem called the "cultural rev", which effectively put this country's societal pyramid upside down.
The fact that the nation's 'leaders' have never had to own up to the grotesque mistakes committed a generation ago even now says enough!

[naturegirl321]

Thanks, I found it and will try some of the techniques