Is a disruptive student a person to be understood, or a problem to be solved? Child psychiatrist Dr Andrew Wake provides advice on managing challenging behaviours.
Australia is high on the list of chaotic classrooms according to a recent OECD report on classroom behaviour management. Disruptive behaviour is one of the top stressors that teachers are confronted with. As a one-off event, disruptive behaviour is a relatively minor annoyance that mostly can be easily moved on from. But where disruptive behaviour is a pattern, it becomes a source of stress, frustration, and demoralisation for everyone in the classroom.
Three factors should be considered when managing behaviour in a classroom: what the group needs in terms of justice (the problem to be solved fairly), what the individual needs in terms of compassion (the person to be understood and helped with care), and what to do when justice and compassion are in conflict.
The moral imperative of justice and what works for the group comes first. The teacher is responsible for class functioning, and their needs must be met if they are to effectively provide leadership. Anything that undermines a teacher’s authority is ruinous, as responsibility without authority is a sure recipe for stress.
Teachers clarify the values of their classroom, provide rules for when values are not being met, and predictably enforce the costs of broken rules. When behaviour disrupts the class, the teacher is expected to bring the disruption to an end. The experience of boundaries predictably implemented is important for the moral development of all the students, helping them move away from the self-focused motivation “what’s in it for me” towards “what is good for us”.
Unfortunately, some teachers can be unprepared or uncomfortable when authority is required of them. This increasing discomfort about leadership is understandable. Our culture and media are cynical about authority figures. Rather than being respected, leaders are doubted and suspected. Some hold to an equation that ‘authority equals hierarchy equals exploitation equals evil’ and are thus uncomfortable when their role requires exercising control.
Students (and their parents) can experience the implementation of justice as a personal attack and may accuse the teacher of a lack of compassion, and teachers who have experienced harm from excessive authority can be uncomfortable when they feel like a persecutor. But whatever the cause, this hesitancy and lack of confidence around authoritative leadership is seriously problematic.
Just as excessive authority is wrong, insufficient authority is also wrong.
Without adequate authority there will be a lack of safety, security, trust, and order in the classroom. Without authority’s calm and confident restraint, chaos ensues as immature self-directed children use immature self-directed behaviours to solve their problems. When costs are not imposed on those who break rules hope for justice is lost, others question why they should follow the rules, and respect for the teacher diminishes as ruptures are not repaired and are instead blown over.
It is imperative that each teacher is provided with a strong foundation in how to calmly manage group dynamics and has confidence in the moral basis of their authority and their duty to uphold justice. It is only once the class is running well that a teacher will have the time and energy to think about the second important moral duty: the compassion of helping the disruptive individual.
Most people who choose teaching are caring and strongly motivated to help students learn and develop. However, this can be eroded by the energy that disruptive behaviours consume. In working with individual teachers and whole school groups over the past 20 years, I have seen the benefit of a shared understanding and structure when managing strong emotions and tricky behaviours.
Simple ideas and approaches based in attachment theory, grief and disappointment, basic neuroscience, and moral development increase understanding of the student’s behaviour and gives the confidence to manage both the student (the person) and the disruption (the problem) helpfully. That confidence also provides a wellbeing effect for the teacher as they are more likely to see the disruption as their business to be dealt with, rather than as a personal problem they are stuck with and to be endured.
This brings us to the third factor: the balancing act required when an individual student’s needs conflict with the needs of the group. A student showing disruptive behaviours benefits from compassionately being understood and flexibly assisted … but this cannot be at the expense of justice and the group’s fair functioning.
Teachers need back-up to prioritise the general needs of the class as there will always be pressure to prioritise a child’s specific needs from both the suffering individual and their concerned parents. Rock-solid support from leadership is required to help the teacher feel calm and safe when implementing behaviour management in the face of complaint. However, for a principal to do this confidently the teacher must be open and accountable to their leadership and be able to justify their behaviour management decisions in their classroom. Unity and fidelity to an agreed approach helps communication and trust within a school and also with the parents.
Class-wide expectations of learning and behaviour that are based on clear values and staged strategies are essential to improving group behaviour management for all students, whether neurotypical or neurodiverse. Group expectations consistently implemented helps all students learn how to fit in with the needs and expectations of others, vital skills for social cohesion. Then (when the time is right) from the position of calm predictable authority an individual student’s needs can be met.
Even the most expertly devised individual approaches will be ineffective in a chaotic classroom led by a demoralised teacher. Value and prioritise the groups’ need for justice, fairness and authority when thinking about how to compassionately address an individual’s disruptive behaviour in the classroom.
About the author
Dr Andrew Wake is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and the author of the teacher resource When You’re The Adult In The Room, and the parenting book, The Good Enough Parent. For 10 years he has presented to teacher groups in school settings, and for five years ran seminars through Monash University on understanding and managing challenging behaviours in the classroom.
