Some Behaviour Management Mistakes Made By Teachers

Behavior management is a significant aspect of teacher training programs. Every teacher should be able to manage the behavior of his/her students effectively. Otherwise, even an immaculately developed lesson plan will go in vain. According to various studies, many experienced teachers go wrong when it comes to managing their students’ behavior. It is necessary for teachers to know some common mistakes that they tend to make at the time of dealing with students.

• Falling prey to emotional outbursts: It is the professional responsibility of every teacher to maintain a positive state of mind in the classroom. In all likelihood, most of teachers lose their patience while managing their students’ challenging behaviour. They tend to fall prey to various emotional outbursts–such as facial emotions, aggressive body language, shouting, scolding, yelling and so on. Impatience; however, makes it difficult for them to manage the behavior of the entire class, thereby decreasing the quality of the teaching-learning process. Under any circumstances, teachers should always respond to their students with a calm, consistent, and fair approach. They should not consider students’ misbehaviour a personal attack on them, their profession and their position.
• Rigid attitudes: Teachers’ rigid attitude often acts as a major roadblock to successful behavior management in the classroom. Technical advancements brought a sea change to the teaching-learning process. Similarly, students’ social behavior has undergone a profound transformation in today’s globalized world. Against this backdrop, many teachers’ old-school style of teaching approach yields no results when it comes to managing the classroom behaviour.

• Wrong assumptions: Wrong assumptions, many a time, render teachers incapable of managing their students’ behaviour. At times, teachers label students according to their assumptions. It causes more harm to students, and ultimately to the whole class, than any good. While dealing with miscreant students, teachers should stay positive in their approach and take logical and effective actions, which should not be influenced by any assumptions.

• Favouritism: Favouritism most of the time saps teachers’ capability of ensuring successful behavior management in the classroom. It is quite likely that teachers are more attentive to those students who perform well in the class as well as exams and meet their expectations than others. Such unequal treatment is a major deterrent to effective behavior management in the classroom.

• Considering the classroom a place to teach only: Surprisingly, only a handful of teachers consider the classroom a place providing scope for professional learning. Without doubt, a teacher can steep his/her learning curve in the classroom by seeking formal and informal feedback, adapting to the changing classroom environment and adhering to as well as following new teaching practices. Failing to do so may hinder the process of successful behaviour management in the classroom.

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