Classroom Management Skills

Classroom management skills is a key element for being a good teacher. Wright (2005) explains the relationship between the teacher’s characteristics and classroom management skills as follows:

1) The aggressive teacher
The teacher uses punishment and very rarely teaches pupils how to behave. A
considerable amount of bellowing of orders, and anger and contempt are used.
The teacher believes he/she has the right to get what he/she wants but has little
understanding of the rights of the children. Belittling children is a common
characteristic of the teacher.

2) The passive teacher
The teacher understands the importance of being adult and a leader in the
classroom but confuses the various qualities that a good teacher needs to have. The teacher has a lack of self-belief that he/she can lead and manage the
pupils.

3) The proactive teacher
The teacher is assertive and able to get what he/she wants in the classroom.
He/she is confident of his/her ability to manage the children and committed to
creating an environment that will help them feel safe, secure and liked. The
teacher has effective classroom management skills.

This shows that the proactive teacher’s role is expected from a good teacher. Wright’s(2005) views are supported by Robertson’s (2006) study, which was a panel discussion about good teachers in the US. Pupils from grades 3 to 5 mentioned that ‘the teacher knows how to control students without screaming at them’. In the B.B.C – cbbc opinion



survey (2005), Jobhan defines ‘A good teacher has to be able to control the class and needs to make lessons fun’. Jamie says that ‘Basically, someone who can control the class and truly inspire young people to fulfil their true potential. It sounds really cheesy and everything but it's true’. Leelah, says that ‘A good teacher can control a class’.

These views are further supported by Kutnick’ and Jules’s (1993) study about pupils’ perceptions of good teacher in Trinidad and Tobago. They found that ‘mid-aged pupils (age from 12 to 13) valued the range of classroom control used by the teachers, actions involved in the teaching process and growing awareness of the individual needs of pupils’ as important for a good teacher. In addition, Robertson (2006) showed that ‘the good teacher knows how to control students without screaming at them’.

Jules and Kutnick (1997) study found that ‘boys showed greater concerns regarding teacher control and use of punishment’. Beishuizen et al.’s study (2001) indicated items with high loadings on the ability side of the dimension as ‘the teacher takes care of the classroom’.

Desai et al. (2001) found that ‘the teacher informs students and stresses attendance policy’ as important. However, pupils appreciated less that the teacher ‘be in the class before students and be last to leave’ and ‘teaches a full class period on the first day’.

TEACHING AS A PROFESSION

It is essential for any country to recruit the most capable individuals into the teaching profession, provide them with quality pre-service initial teacher education, use effective mechanisms for their deployment and ensure opportunities for them to upgrade their knowledge and skills continuously over the full length of their professional career. To attract the most able to the teaching profession and retain them in-service, the government has to take steps to improve the status and motivation of teachers through better salaries and working conditions, improved autonomy and responsibility and promising career pathways that contribute to the enhancement of their professionalism as well.

One of the significant steps that have been taken towards achieving this aim is that ‘establishment of Colleges of Education for pre--service teacher education in Sri Lanka by parliament Act No.30 of 1986. This enabled capable young people who have passed G.C.E. A/L examination to be attracted to the teaching profession. The three year National Diploma in Teaching offered by the Colleges has two year institutional period and one year internship period’. (The Development of Education-National Report: 2004) Pre-service teacher education thus became an essential requirement in recruiting non graduate teachers to the system, and made redundant the 16 Teachers Colleges and the large scale Distance Education Programme of the National Institute of Education that provided initial teacher education to practicing teachers. ‘Recognizing the importance of Continuing Teacher Education, the same reforms also paved the way for the establishment of 100 Teacher Centres so that each educational zone of the country had at least one Teacher Centre. The purpose of this new initiative was to provide short term, non- residential continuing teacher education to upgrade teacher skills at least once in every seven years. Identifying the need for residential continuing teacher education of a longer duration, a decision was also made to retain some of the Teachers’ Colleges as Teacher Education Institutes’.(The Development of Education- National Report:2004)

The Institutional provision of teacher education in the past was expected to meet educational needs of the country by contributing to the academic, professional and personal growth of teachers and enhancing their professional status. ‘A National Authority on Teachers Education (N.A.T.E.) was established in 1997 to address this issue of uncoordinated development of teacher education’. (The Development of Education-National Report: 2004). The teacher education network of Sri Lanka today, consists of the National Institute of Education and four University Faculties/Departments of Education,(Faculties of Education at the University of Colombo and the Open University, Departments of Education at the University of Peradeniya and University of Jaffna),17 Colleges of Education, 4 Teacher Education Institutes,100 Teacher Centres and 30 Regional English Support Centres that had been there for sometimes to provide in-service continuing teacher education for English teachers of the system.
Table 1.2 shows that teacher training colleges and National Colleges of Education (N.C.O.E.) and are the key institutions for teacher training in Sri Lanka. The teacher training colleges were the oldest teacher training mode and whereas N.C.O.E. now become more prominent in teacher training.

Teacher Training Colleges

No: of Colleges -10
No: of Teacher Trainees -1,922
No: of Teacher Educators -156
No: passed out during the inter censual period
(1st June 2004 to 31st May 2005) -702

Table 1 : Teacher Training Colleges and National Colleges of Education in 2006 (Source: Preliminary Report- School Census: 2006)

Seventeen National Colleges of Education have since been established to give pre-service training and Advanced Level qualified student teachers are admitted to N.C.O.E. based on their Z score. The three-year teacher training programme, consists of two years residential training and a one year internship period in schools. ‘The course itself comprises two years of coursework and one year of practical in-service training for teachers specializing in subjects. Teachers who qualify from these courses are designated 'trained teachers' and are awarded the Trained Teachers' Certificate’. (Analysis report on teacher training system in Sri Lanka: 2007)

Furthermore, in 2008, the cabinet has approved a memorandum submitted by the Education Minister to formulate a national policy on teacher recruitment making first degree mandatory for recruitment to teachers’ service from 2009 on wards. According to this proposal ‘graduates below 30 will be recruited to 18 National Colleges of Education and given training for one and a half years. During this period they will be paid an allowance. On successful completion of the training programme, they will be awarded the Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (P.G.D.E.) by the National Institute of Education’. (National policy on teacher recruitment of teachers from 2009 onwards: 2008)

In addition, the Open University and the National Institute of Education (N.I.E.) have their own regional centres to offer undergraduate and postgraduate programmes on an island wide basis. These programmes help to meet current and emerging needs of the system by providing opportunities for both aspiring and practicing teachers of their country to acquire qualifications in education. ‘N.I.E. was established in 1986 and it is the prime institute in the country responsible for providing leadership for the development of general education with quality, quantity and relevance in a pluralistic society’. N.I.E general information (2005).

Use of Punishment

The teacher’s use of punishment is a controversial area in relation to being a good teacher.
Kyriacou (1998) states that there are three main purposes of punishment as follows:
1) Retribution: justice requires that wrong-doing is followed by a morally deserved punishment
2) Deterrence: the pupil or other pupils wish to avoid such behaviour in the future for fear of the consequence
3) Rehabilitation: pupils will be helped to understand the moral wrong-doing of the misbehaviour and the need to behave well in the future.
However, many pupils have not good perceptions about the teacher’s use of punishment. For example, according to the UNESCO study (1996), pupils valued the teacher who does not give punishment. Marie from Ghana, says that ‘a good teacher must reason with children instead of beating them’. Jana from Czech Republic, states that ‘teachers shouldn’t be very strict and angry because it makes children afraid of them and unwilling to go to school’. In addition, the B.B.C (2006) collected pupils’ poems on ‘What it takes to be a good teacher’. Ruby, who is a primary school pupil from the UK, wrote a poem of the good teacher as follows:

‘Don't shout and ball,
for no reason at all,
or you will never survive as a teacher.
Don't hurt people’s feelings or turn them away
Listen to every one, whatever they say’.

These views are reflected in the research literature as follows: Beishuizen et al. (2001) found that pupils valued ‘the teacher who does not punish too heavily’. In addition, Jules and Kutnick (1993) found that boys showed greater concerns regarding teacher control and use of punishment than girls. Beishuizen et al. (2001) showed that the typical detachment item as ‘the teacher does not punish too heavily’. Some teachers use verbal reprimand to control pupils. Kyriacou (1998) defines verbal reprimand as follows. ‘A reprimand is an explicit verbal or comment by the teacher to a pupil which indicates the teacher’s disapproval of the misbehaviour which has occurred’. Kyriacou (1998) states some qualities to use verbal reprimand effectively. ‘Reprimand should be firm and consistent. In addition, the teacher needs to avoid anger and confrontation with pupils. Teachers should criticise the behaviour, not the pupil, as well as using reprimand privately rather than publicly. The teacher should avoid reprimanding the whole class and avoid unfair comparisons’.

Moreover, in the UNESCO study (1996), Maía from Russian Federation, believes that ‘a teacher shouldn’t get angry about trivial matters (things that don’t really matter), should be strict but just’. In the B.B.C - cbbc study (2005), Natasha from the UK says that the ‘good teacher is one that doesn't SHOUT all the time’. Natasha’s views actually are supported by Desai et al.’s ( 2001) research on the belief of pupils about good teaching in higher educational setting in the US. Pupils mentioned that the teacher ‘avoids quarrels over minor points with students in classes. Younger and Warrington’s study (1999) found that the teacher should not be ‘too strict’ and a number of groups (12 boys and five girls) mentioned it. Pupils stressed that ‘control was not achieved through shouting, but through gaining the respect of the students’. Beishuizen et al. (2001) found that a ‘Good teacher maintains order and warns pupils in advance. He/ she should not verbally aggressive’. Robertson’s study (2006) of pupils from grades 3 to 5 mentioned that the teacher ‘knows how to control students without screaming at them’. Punishment has a large number of drawbacks and it may affect pupils’ physical, psychological and social development. Therefore, the teacher needs skills to understand the reasons for pupils’ misbehaving and use punishment very carefully.

Teacher Education in Sri Lanka

It is essential for any country to recruit the most capable individuals into the teaching profession, provide them with quality pre-service initial teacher education, use effective mechanisms for their deployment and ensure opportunities for them to upgrade their knowledge and skills continuously over the full length of their professional career. To attract the most able to the teaching profession and retain them in-service, the government has to take steps to improve the status and motivation of teachers through better salaries and working conditions, improved autonomy and responsibility and promising career pathways that contribute to the enhancement of their professionalism as well.

One of the significant steps that have been taken towards achieving this aim is that ‘establishment of Colleges of Education for pre--service teacher education in Sri Lanka by parliament act No.30 of 1986. This enabled capable young people who have passed G.C.E. A/L examination to be attracted to the teaching profession. The three year National Diploma in Teaching offered by the Colleges has two year institutional period and one year internship period’. (The Development of Education-National Report: 2004) Pre-service teacher education thus became an essential requirement in recruiting non graduate teachers to the system, and made redundant the 16 Teachers Colleges and the large scale Distance Education Programme of the National Institute of Education that provided initial teacher education to practicing teachers. ‘Recognizing the importance of Continuing Teacher Education, the same reforms also paved the way for the establishment of 100 Teacher Centres so that each educational zone of the country had at least one Teacher Centre. The purpose of this new initiative was to provide short term, non- residential continuing teacher education to upgrade teacher skills at least once in every seven years. Identifying the need for residential continuing teacher education of a longer duration, a decision was also made to retain some of the Teachers’ Colleges as Teacher Education Institutes’.(The Development of Education- National Report:2004)

The Institutional provision of teacher education in the past was expected to meet educational needs of the country by contributing to the academic, professional and personal growth of teachers and enhancing their professional status. ‘A National Authority on Teachers Education (N.A.T.E.) was established in 1997 to address this issue of uncoordinated development of teacher education’. (The Development of Education-National Report: 2004). The teacher education network of Sri Lanka today, consists of the National Institute of Education and four University Faculties/Departments of Education,(Faculties of Education at the University of Colombo and the Open University, Departments of Education at the University of Peradeniya and University of Jaffna),17 Colleges of Education, 4 Teacher Education Institutes,100 Teacher Centres and 30 Regional English Support Centres that had been there for sometimes to provide in-service continuing teacher education for English teachers of the system.

Education is the transmission of civilization.-Sri Lankan perspective

Sri Lankan Education System

In 2006, Sri Lanka had a population of around 19.3 million. The population is highly educated with a ‘literacy rate of 91% for adults (above15 years old) and 98% of youths (15-24 years)’. (Education in Sri Lanka-UNESCO Institute for Statistics: 2006). This is higher than that expected for a third world country which now has one of the highest literacy rates in South Asia. This can mainly be attributed to the free education system which was introduced by Education Minister, Dr. C.W.W.Kannangara, in 1945. ‘Free education was provided from primary level to university and it created equal opportunities for all children in the country, irrespective of social class, economic condition, religion and ethnic origin’ (Historical overview of Education in Sri Lanka: 2004).

In addition, education is compulsory from age 5 to 14 years and it is free at all levels. Moreover, free text books and school uniforms are provided to all school aged pupils. ‘In 2006, the expenditure on education was Rs.million 78,332 (£366037383, 1£=214 LKR) and it was 2.8% on Gross National Product in 2006.’(Central Bank of Sri Lanka- Annual Report: 2006).Thus, it is clear that the government has taken many actions to up grade the education in Sri Lanka.

1.0.1 School types
There are two main types of schools in Sri Lanka: government and non-government schools and both provide primary and secondary education.

1) Government Schools

Government schools play a vital role in the Sri Lankan education system and the vast majority of pupils and teachers attend such schools. ‘In 2006, there were total number of 215,768 teachers and 204,908 (95%) were working in government schools. In 2006, 96% of the teachers in government schools were either graduates or trained teachers.’ (Preliminary Report-School Census :2006). Further, ‘total number of pupils (3,999,323), 3,836,550 (96%) were studying at the government schools in 2006’. (Central Bank of Sri Lanka- Annual Report: 2006). In 2006, there were 9714 government schools. All government schools follow national curriculum which is designed and developed by the National Institute of Education. Government schools are categorized into three types. These are National Schools, Provincial Schools and Navodaya Schools.

a) National schools

National schools which mainly comprise type 1AB schools are under the administrative authority of the Ministry of Education. ‘The recurring, capital and human resource budget allocations are through the Ministry. The deployment of personnel is the responsibility of ministry through the Teacher Service Commission’. (Education Sector Development Programme: 2007) Pupils who achieve high marks in grade 5 scholarship examinations are entitled to be admitted to national schools and this is the only opportunity for rural, talented pupils to enter these schools. National schools have better physical and human resources than other government schools and therefore, there is competition to enter national schools. ‘In 2006, there were 324 (3%) national schools and this comprised 676,127 (18%) of pupils and 30,684 (15%) of teachers. Although the national schools represent a mere 3% of all schools, almost one fifth of Sri Lankan children are attending those school’(Preliminary Report-School Census: 2006).

b) Provincial schools

The majority of government schools are provincial schools and were controlled by the authority of the respective provincial Ministries of Education. ‘The administrative authority is exercised by the Provincial Department of Education through offices in the education zones and divisions’. (Education sector development programme: 2007) ‘In 2006, there were, 8933 (92%) provincial schools and it comprised 2,687,688 (70%) of pupils and 152, 020 (74%) of teachers’. (Preliminary Report: School Census: 2006)

c) Navodya schools

Navodaya schools were started with the intention of reducing the existing high demand for admission to the national schools. In addition, ‘another aim is to upgrade facilities so as to provide a better quality teaching and learning environment. This type of school emerged through the Development of Schools by Division (DSD) project in 2001’. (Education sector development programme: 2007). Under this programme 340 schools have been identified for development by providing infrastructure and facilities and improvement of quality of education and these are controlled by Provincial Councils. ‘In 2006, there were, 457(5%) Navodya schools and this comprised 472, 735 (12%) pupils and 22, 204 (11%) teachers’. (Preliminary Report-School Census: 2006)

Government schools are classified into four types as follows:

a) ‘Type 1AB schools (grades 1 to 13) including O/L and A/L Science, Commerce and Arts streams. In 2006, 659 (7%) schools had Advanced Level science stream classes.
b) Type 1 C schools (grades 1 to 13) including O/L and A/L Commerce and Arts but no science stream. In 2006, 1,854 (19%) schools had Advanced Level Arts and/or Commerce stream classes.
c) Type 2 schools (grades 1 to 11)
d) Type 3 schools (grades 1 to 5)’ (Preliminary Report-School Census: 2006)

2. Non-government Schools

Non-government schools are categorized into two types as private schools and international schools. Private schools are not controlled by the government yet they follow the local curriculum set up by the Ministry of Education in the local language mediums of Sinhala, Tamil or English. ‘There were 93 private schools in 2006’ (Central Bank of Sri Lanka- Annual Report: 2006).

International schools are schools which have English as the primary language of instruction and usually follow a foreign curriculum, with a very few opting to have both local and foreign curriculum. International and non-international English and bilingual medium schools are listed under the Board of Investment (BOI) and not under the Ministry of Education.