Not so long ago, my students on the Postgraduate Certificate of Education course were

scheduled to go into school and we were

discussing classroom management. They
suggested that teaching is always about being
uncertain.
Uncertain of what? I asked.
Well, you know, the children, what they
might do.
What might they do? I queried.
Explain.
Their replies were guarded and muddled.
It was as though they were talking about other
people and a world that existed in another
time and place. In an effort to gain some
clarity and honesty about what they meant, I
pursued the topic (even though it was not on
the agenda for that day).
I asked them to tell me exactly what the
children might do. Various replies came back,
but they could all be summarized by: Well,
you can never be sure however much you
plan your lessons and however hard you try to
get it right how it will turn out. You never
know when the pot will explode.
Tell me, I said, what makes the pot
explode?
Well, if you are seen as weak, or there are
difficult children in the class, if they get bored,
or have no respect, then it all explodes, it is all
so uncertain.
I tried again. Is this all to do with the
children? I asked, Or is it to do with you
too? I urged them to explain again what they
meant by this concept of uncertainty. To
summarize their replies: Well, I suppose we
are scared, frightened that we cannot control
some children or maybe some groups.
At last. Fear of children was the issue fear
that children were powerful enough to take
control away from the teacher and that they,
as teachers, would not be able to claw it back.
Well, I replied, do you think that experienced teachers (and lecturers) do not often
feel that fear too, because I can assure you, we
do, I do. Every time I walk into a new group, I
think, can I keep it together this time, can I
deliver the quality goods?
If teachers did not think or feel in this way,
they would be so certain and arrogant that
one would question their understanding of
the concept of what it means to teach. The
reality of a classroom is always changing,
uncertain, a challenge; but it is a partnership
with the students. It is about the democratic
sharing of power in partnerships to achieve

Dealing with discipline

problems

Ros Weston

The author
Ros Weston is Lecturer in Health Promotion in the Health
Education Unit, School of Education, University of
Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Abstract
Highlights student teachers fears concerning maintenance
of control in the classroom and relates these to the
disciplinary problems experienced by some parents with
young children. Urges teachers to overcome these problems by believing in children as people in their own right,
by respecting children and their views and helping children
to become assertive. Describes an exercise using the
technique of positive self-talk to address problems with
discipline in the classroom.

Health Education
Number 1 January 1997 pp. 915
MCB University Press ISSN 0965-4283

Dealing with discipline problems

Health Education

Ros Weston

Number 1 January 1997 915

certain tasks: the developmental and intellectual growth and achievement of the child/adolescent person.
We then proceeded to look at all the issues
that can generate fear, ranging from an individuals lack of confidence, inexperience and
uncertainty (do I know my subject? Can I
teach?) to unruly children, cheeky children
and disruptive children. We looked at ways of
coping with all of these issues to ensure a level
of safety and security for both the teacher and
the child or children.

the children screamed and fought for nearly

an hour-and-a-half before they fell into
exhausted sleep at about 9 p.m. The parents
became more and more hassled; they looked
exhausted. The grandfather looked on
impassively; he obviously was not part of this
family, declaring himself neutral by his failure to act.

Out of control
I closely observed the young mother and
noticed how tired she was, with bulging eyes
and extremely thin, even after a holiday in the
sun. Her nails were bitten to the quick. Rather
than anger, I felt a number of mixed emotions: empathy, sympathy, frustration and a
great wish to suggest strategies to her which
could make her life easier, and help her and
her children to be more at peace and feel
safer.
Why safer? Because children who have
behaviour problems feel threatened, unsafe,
frightened and out of control. They need to
know that there is safety and security. They
can scare themselves with their own power.
Similarly, parents can be frightened by the
power of the child. They feel out of control
and frightened that they cannot control the
child, whether by authority or by punishment
(sometimes corporal). They fear that their
child will be delinquent. Well, even 18month-old toddlers can be out of control, in
the sense that they themselves feel that they
are out of control. The parents, too, have lost
control.
Classrooms are no different. The tension in
this story between the child and the parents
(and the other passengers and crew) is an
analogy for that between teachers and children in classrooms.

A family affair
But, first, I want to share with you an observation I made at an airport and during a
long hot aeroplane journey from Cyprus.
Shortly after arriving at the airport, which
was very hot and sticky, I settled down to
read. I was interrupted by a young, attractive and certainly not impoverished mother
shouting at and smacking a child who was
no more than 18 months old. She lashed out
at this child very viciously, shouting: You
are a horrible child, a naughty boy, nobody
likes you!. When the father returned with
an older daughter, aged about four or five,
the mother physically hurled the child at
him, saying, Here, you have him, I cant
cope with him.
The flight was called and I lost sight of this
family, which also included a grandfather who
watched passively and made no attempt to
intervene. We boarded the plane, settled in
our seats and you guessed correctly the
same family occupied five seats next to us
across the aisle. Oh no, I thought, this is going
to be an unpleasant journey. I may have been
judgemental, but I was right. I will not bore
you with the details but I will recount one
specific incident.
It was a very bumpy flight and 15 minutes
after take-off we were asked to put on our
seat-belts. The adults in our case study put
theirs on but not those of the children. The
children, having already caused havoc to the
people sitting in front of them, continued to
crawl about their seats. The hostess asked the
parents to put the seat-belts on the children.
Eventually, the boy crawled out from under
the seat in front and the steward fell over him.
The parents watched all this going on with
not a word of admonition. The steward was
furious polite but curt and ordered them
to put the children in seat-belts. And, yes,

Power struggles
We live in a culture in which we are socialized
from an early age to conform. This is done
either overtly or covertly, or both, through the
family, school, school curriculum, religion
and social norms. It even takes place through
the media of fairy tales and stories, stories of
heroism and adventure.
Good always triumphs and bad loses out.
These powerful messages are internalized and
acted on by the child, who by and large wants
approval, love and affection. A child who
displays selfish and grasping tendencies is
10

Dealing with discipline problems

Health Education

Ros Weston

Number 1 January 1997 915

socialized by his or her own ego and thus

enabled to become a sociable, affable,
unselfish and socializing individual. This
deterministic model demands that there is an
unequal power distribution between those
who socialize the child and the child who is
socialized. One is more submissive than the
other.
Our classroom societies reproduce the
Oedipal model[1], with the teacher as the
authoritative parent or critical parent certainly the powerful one. Any child who does
not know the code stands to get the game
wrong. Once they get it wrong, they tend to
go on getting it wrong. The reason they tend
to go on getting it wrong is because a force
field develops[2] which then prevents them
ever getting it right[3].
In essence, the force field consists of judgements, labels and stigma[4,5]. Once the child
begins to be on the outside of the socialized
group, he or she often ends up staying there,
largely because of the normative attitudes and
perceptions to behaviour problems[6]. The
next stage is to attribute blame: it is the parents fault, the world we live in, a lack of
discipline, the absence of harsher punishments. In this way, the codes we expect
remain intact and the game continues without
too much bother or reflection on why the
situation has developed when we should be
reflecting on our own classroom practice and
attitudes[7,8].

better! Teacher training taught us that, if we

were not very careful, indeed we could not do
it better. We learned that there were rules that
we should adhere to if we were to fit in, particularly to staffrooms and the promotional
ladder. Fortunately, many schools have
teachers who could and did do it better, and
still do.
How do they do this? By believing in children as people in their own right, by respecting children and their views, allowing children
to articulate their world and being able to
work with and in the fabric of that world[11].
They do it by creating a safe classroom
which encourages both personal and cognitive
development, the becoming of the
child[12-14]. They do it by teaching and
helping children to be assertive. The Dutch
begin assertiveness sessions in the nursery
school and have flat organizational structures
and relationships rather than hierarchical
ones, as well as equal relationships between
males and females.
Assertiveness has many gains, as does lifeskills teaching. It helps children to protect
themselves by saying no to peers and others,
by refusing cigarettes and drugs, for example.
In this way, education can act as a mediating
force which enhances the inner locus of control of the child; it empowers them.

When empowerment is a threat

As adults, of course, many of us think that
perhaps we do not want children empowered
too much, lest they become a threat. But
empowerment can only be a threat to those
who do not see themselves as empowered.
This resembles Harriss concepts of Im OK,
Youre OK[15] (see Figure 1).
Teachers feel that they are not OK (like my
students) on days when their confidence is
low, or when they are tired or stressed.
Indeed, they may always feel this way, for
whatever reason. When you the teacher are
not OK, and the child is, then the child
becomes a threat. What many teachers then
do, is to try, by becoming authoritarian, to
make themselves OK, when they do not feel
it, and make the child feel not OK. Children
are capable of reading this non-verbal message very quickly. Such teachers put the child
down, or attempt to control him or her by
negative reinforcement or punitive measures.
They deny the child the respect that he/she
deserves and deny the existence of the childs

Creative solutions
If we as teachers are reflective in our practice
and not just on it, we could see many creative
solutions to such behaviour issues. By this
distinction, I mean that we need not only to
look at what we do in order that we can do it
better (the task of teaching and learning) but
also at why we do the things that we do and
for what purposes[7,8]. Rather than work
from the premiss of It didnt do me any
harm, so it wont do you any harm either
which, as Alice Millar[9] has suggested, has
been the reason that violence and abuse has
been culturally reproduced in our society we
need to think sometimes that it did indeed do
us harm. The question is, can we be honest
enough to articulate it[9,10]?
Many of us were harmed in the classroom
cognitively, psychologically and socially
(particularly by sarcasm). Many of us came
into teaching because we felt we could do it
11

Dealing with discipline problems

Health Education

Ros Weston

Number 1 January 1997 915

Figure 1 The concept of Im OK, Youre OK, as described by Harris

Im OK

Youre OK

Youre not OK

Im not OK

Youre not OK

Im not OK

Figure 2 The process of behaviour change as described by

Prochaska et al.[16]. People may contemplate change but
may not always act on their thoughts; they may need help
and support to get started

Im OK

Youre OK

Youre no

Im not OK

Youre not OK

Im not O

Note: The arrows show the most frequent behaviour patterns in

relationships: that is, non-assertive (Youre not OK, Im OK; and Im not
OK, youre OK); and assertive (Im OK, youre OK). Relationships where
Im not OK, youre not OK frequently break down through mental illness
Note: The arrows show the most frequent behaviour patt
relationships: that is, non-assertive (Youre not OK, Im OK
OK, youre OK); and assertive (Im OK, youre OK). Relatio
Im not OK, youre not OK frequently break down through

world. Such teachers do not take control,

assertively, of the situation.
Teachers who feel OK most of the time,
and can acknowledge and accept that they do
not always feel this way, do not follow this
pattern. Instead, they work with the child,
where the child is OK but where his or her
behaviour is not. The behaviour becomes the
focus of the problems, rather than the child
and so neither party loses face.
Once this state is reached, many behaviour
problems can be solved by partnership solutions. Changing a persons behaviour is never
straightforward. It can take many attempts to
get started and constant support may be
needed to maintain the new behaviours until
they become part of the individuals normal
way of behaving.

that they are respected are less aggressive, less

likely to bully, less likely to be disruptive; even
when they have previously been all of these
things. To bring this about requires a change
of behaviour for both teachers and children.
Teachers need to change the way in which
they perceive children as problems or the way
in which they interpret what they think the
problem is. They need to change their framework for assessment to one that genuinely
explores the problem and does not label it,
reducing it to a pathological status. (This is
not to deny that some children need special
psychological help.) Teachers, too, have to
feel OK or go on becoming. This is the
process of professional development[13].
One way to engender successful teachers
and harmonious classrooms is to seek and
maintain a balance between socialization for
all and the acceptance of difference. Teachers,
too, can become as the partnership between
child and teacher develops. It is a journey for
both child and teacher.
Many of our fears are rooted in our own
experience of being made to feel we do not
exist, annihilation[19]. Once we have recognized this, it is possible to reassert ourselves as
individuals who are unique, but part of a social
group, whether it be as children or teachers,
parents or adults. Anger, hurt, pain or the fear
of being annihilated are at the root of many
childrens behaviour problems. They fear that
they do not exist, that they will be wiped out
not physically but emotionally, in terms of

Changing behaviour
The work of Prochaska and others[16,17] has
reinforced our knowledge on the best ways to
help individuals to change their behaviour
(see Figure 2). First, individuals contemplate
change, but do not always act on their
thoughts. They may need help and support to
get started.
Those who wish to take action may get
started more easily, but sometimes relapse.
They require help, support and motivation
during this phase. Those who relapse need
further support to re-start. Success can breed
success. This process of change can take many
years and more than one attempt to be successful[16].
A recent publication on the benefit of lifeskills teaching and programmes[18] as part of
the curriculum has also shown that children
who can be assertive and quietly confident
12

Dealing with discipline problems

Health Education

Ros Weston

Number 1 January 1997 915

their self-esteem. By practising assertiveness,

as shown in Figure 3, children and teachers
can prevent such feelings of annihilation.

crisis which could become serious if not

confronted? Susan Jeffers, in her book Feel the
Fear and Do It Anyway[20], applies the principle of what is less or more fear. If you are
frightened about confronting the situation,
you cannot hope to take control of it, and by
doing this feel a personal sense of being in
control. It is all about the mode of communication. Confronting a situation assertively and
not aggressively, angrily or passively, reduces
fear and enhances control of the situation and
personal control.
Becoming more assertive as a teacher, and
helping the children to become more
assertive, requires an understanding of communication theory and practice. It is about
the way we communicate: not only through
language but also through non-verbal communication, through the position of the body,
which often provides clues to our feelings at
that moment. Learning to recognize and
interpret our feelings is essential. We need to
be able to help children to do the same, and to
learn how to express those feelings.

Being in control
The life-skills programmes which have been
successful in the USA have been detailed by
Goleman[18]. The curriculum and some
early results of the benefits of such a curriculum, for teachers, schools and, most importantly, pupils, are detailed in Table I. This
approach lends itself to enjoyable and enriching learning experiences: learning which gives
the child a thirst for knowledge, a curiosity
about the world and his or her place in it.
Recent research has shown that adults
value learning or an educational experience in
the long term above winning the lottery or
sexual experience. Why, then, do so many
adults shy away from such pleasure? I leave
you to speculate on the answers. Education
should be highly valued by any civilized society. It is a basic human right of every child and
every adult.
And so, back to the case study, our family
on the aeroplane. What would you do to
support the parents through a developing

Think positive
The teaching focus in the Appendix suggests
the use of positive self-talk the dialogue
we use in our heads to help explain our behaviour to address problems with discipline in
the classroom. This method makes it possible
to take control and stay in control without
losing the feelings of positive self-esteem. As
Betteheim[21] once suggested, we can only be
good enough teachers and, if we continue
to try to be good enough, that in itself is an
achievement.
Situations which seem complicated and
difficult to deal with may turn out to be quite
easy to solve. Sometimes it just needs an
independent observer to see what is going on
in a hectic classroom, where the teacher
cannot see the wood for the trees. For example, when I worked with the behavioural unit
of a local education authority in the USA, I
and a colleague used to be invited by teachers
who were having problems to observe their
classes. After observing and recording the
activities, and having analysed the patterns,
we worked in partnership with the child, the
teacher and often the parents, too, to begin
changing the situation. We worked with the
parents because often classroom behaviour
required reinforcement in other settings, such
as the home, leisure activities and so on.

Figure 3 Characteristics of assertive and non-assertive behaviour

Relaxed and
comfortable

Self-respect
and respect of others

Direct and
honest
with self
and others

Assertiveness
Self-confident
and feels
secure in
him/herself

Tense and
uncomfortable
in his/her body

Responsible towards
others

Lack of respect for

self and others

Responsible for
his/her own
choices and
decisions

Indirect and
dishonest with
self and others

Non-assertiveness
Lack of selfconfidence and
feels insecure in
him/herself

Fear of asserting
him/herself towards
others

Lack of
responsibility for
him/herself,
his/her choices
and decisions

13

Dealing with discipline problems

Health Education

Ros Weston

Number 1 January 1997 915

Table I The components of a curriculum which encourages emotional intelligence

Curriculum component

Aim/benefit

Emotional self-awareness

To improve recognition of and naming of your emotions

To be able to understand better the causes of feelings
Recognizing the difference between feelings and actions
Better tolerance and management of frustration
Fewer verbal put-downs, fights and classroom disruptions
Better able to express anger appropriately, without fighting
Fewer suspensions and expulsions
Less aggressive and destructive behaviour
More positive feelings about self, school, and the family
Better handling of stress
Less loneliness and anxiety
More responsible
Better able to focus on the task in hand and pay attention
Less impulsive, more self-control
Improved scores on achievement tests
Better able to take another persons perspective
Improved empathy and sensitivity to others feelings
Better at listening to others
Increased ability to analyse and understand relationships
Better at resolving conflict and negotiating disagreements
Better at solving relationship problems
More assertive and skilled at communicating
More popular and outgoing
Friendly and involved with peers, more concerned and considerate
More pro-social and harmonious in groups
More sharing, co-operation and helpfulness
More democratic in dealing with others

Managing emotions

Harnessing emotions productively

Empathy and reading emotions

Handling relationships

Source: [20]
Many times, what had looked like a complicated problem to solve simply needed another
pair of ears and eyes to observe what was
going on.
This shows that it is possible to solve some
behavioural problems provided there is time
for reflection, discussion and analysis. I am
not nave enough to think that this is true of
all such problems. Some children require
special help and psychological help. All teachers and children can benefit from re-examination of a situation and analysis of their own
behaviour. I hope that the theories in this
article, together with the teaching focus, will
provide some new ideas for coping with difficult situations, as well as helping to build up
the self-esteem of both children and teachers.
(For ideas on classroom work relating to selfesteem, see Wetton and Cansell[11].)
Lastly, I remember something that has
stood me in good stead throughout my teaching career. A head teacher I admired very
much indeed once said to me, If children are

involved in the task, the task is appropriate for

them. If they are enjoying doing it and your
classroom operates on the principle of developmental groupwork or partnerships, you
should have few problems. Alas, there will
always be some, but they can be managed.

References
1 Freud, A., The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence,
1937.
2 Lewin, K., Field Theory In Social Science, Harper, New
York, NY, 1951.
3 Bernstein, B., Class Codes and Control, Vol. 3:
Towards a Theory of Educational Transactions, 2nd
ed., Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1975.
4 Hargreaves, D.H., Interpersonal Relations in the
Classroom, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1972.
5 Hopson, M. and Scally, D., Lifeskills Education, Harper
& Row, San Francisco, CA, 1984.
6 Jones, L.J., Social Context of Health. Macmillan,
London, 1994.
7 Murdoch, I., Sovereignty of Good, Routledge & Kegan
Paul, London, 1970.

14

Dealing with discipline problems

Health Education

Ros Weston

Number 1 January 1997 915

Appendix: teaching focus dealing with

discipline problems

8 Schone, D.A., The Reflective Practitioner, Jossey-Bass,

San Francisco, CA, 1991.
9 Miller, A., The Drama of Being a Child, Virago, London,
1987.

(1) Taking as your examples the family

on the aircraft and the same child at
six or seven who displays similar behaviour in your classroom, use a problemsolving approach to help the child and
parents end the cycle of in and out of
control which results in chaos and
insecurity.
(2) Looking at your own classroom, write
down three problems of discipline that
you often find difficulty coping with. Use
positive self-talk to help you feel more
assertive about the situation, and plan
how you will put the strategies that you
identified in the first part of this exercise
into action in your classroom. For more
details, see Townsend[22].
(3) Take a situation that you did not handle
very well, either in your classroom or
with a colleague. Draw yourself and
around the picture put down the words
which express how you felt. Then, reexamine the picture and change the
words to positive words. How do you
feel now?

10 Bordieu, P. and Passeron, J.C., Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, Sage, London, 1977.
11 Wetton, N. and Cansell, P., Feeling Good: Raising Selfesteem in the Primary School Classroom, Forbes,
London, 1993.
12 Rogers, C., On becoming a Person, Houghton Mifflin,
Boston, MA, 1961.
13 Friere, P., The pedagogy of liberation, in Rich, M.
(Ed.), Innovations in Education, Reformers and Their
Critics, Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA, 1975.
14 Egan, G., The Skilled Helper, Brooks Cole, Monterey,
Belmont and Pacific Grove, CA, 1985.
15 Harris, T.A., Im OK, Youre OK, Pan, London, 1970.
16 Prochaska, J. et al., The transtheoretical model of
change and HIV prevention: a review, Health Education Quarterly, Vol. 21 No. 4, 1991, pp. 471-86.
17 Richens, I., Behaviour change cycle, unpublished
MA thesis, University of Southampton, 1991.
18 Goleman, D., Emotional Intelligence, Bloomsbury,
London, 1995.
19 Rowe, D., Beyond Fear, Fontana, London, 1987.
20 Jeffers, S., Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Arrow,
London, 1987.
21 Betteheim, B., The Informed Heart, Thames & Hudson,
London, 1961.
22 Townsend, A., Assertion Training: A Handbook for
Those in Training, FPA, London, 1972.

15