HOW TO CONTROL CLASS MISBEHAVIOR

MINA C. PONCE

One of my teachers approached me one day and told me about the misbehavior of her pupils, probably the most common problem of schools nowadays. She further relayed to me that the head-cracking problem in her class is the obnoxious behavior of pupils who are showing off, putting others down, blaming, criticizing, fighting, arguing, and destroying. At the end of our conversation I told her that it is a matter of individual differences or environmental factors… I did an observation, then I realized that pupils misbehave for many reasons. Some of these are:

Unpreparedness of the teacher to teach. Her board work is not ready for presentation. She is still writing quickly. Sometimes her spelling is wrong.

No visual aids to make her lesson for that day attractive, interesting and challenging, she just talks and talks even though her pupils are not listening to her. Much time is spent in her talking and very little time on the part of the pupils to recite.

Personality of the teacher is not pleasant to the pupils. The way she faces her class or projects herself while teaching is not very acceptable. She lacks sense of humor in order to induce her pupils to learn. She neglects their interests, needs and problems.

Her Classroom environment and atmosphere are topsy-turvy. There is no beauty that will lead to meaningful learning. Arrangements of visual aids do not attract pupils to learn. They do not facilitate learning. Tare too old. Her pupils laugh at them. They are not presentable anymore.

Non-presence of the teacher in the class on time. Oftentimes the pupils remain noisy, unruly, quarrelling and running here and there if the teacher is still out but it is already time. We know pretty well that children are playful by nature. They will do everything in the classroom when their teacher is not there watching.

All things mentioned above lead to the misbehavior of pupils in the classroom if not properly strengthened by themselves.

— oOo— The author is Head Teacher III at Calibutbut Elementary School, Bacolor South District