School discipline improves everyone’s education
Nigel Williams, 26 June 2014
Few would argue against the value of a decent education for all. Few would argue against the idea that disruption in class detracts from education. There lies the paradox. Keeping disruptive children in the classroom offers them the possibility of learning but takes it away from their peers. Newly released data from the OECD cast light on this idea in macrocosm, while a microcosmic study by Tom Ogg demonstrates that it is still possible to maintain the ideal without giving up on the harder cases.
Boxing Clever is the account of Tom Ogg’s experiences at the London Boxing Academy Community Project. He considers teachers (p37) who like himself, ‘enjoy teaching basic material to students who are behind’ and certainly doesn’t count himself unique in wishing to improve the prospects of people at the bottom of the heap. Even so, the LBACP was remarkable. It was a school, but sparring and training were formally part of the curriculum. Its intake was almost entirely young men and women (mostly men) expelled or at risk of expulsion from mainstream schools. Professional boxing coach Chris Hall gave the project its distinctive quality, while the academic input came from staff like Tom Ogg. There are two sides to the story. On the one hand is the success of seeing 67 out of 101 students complete the project’s two-year program and sitting GCSEs. The book contains remarkable stories of field trips, nights ringside and at the ballet and copious examples of the students’ repaying the staff’s patience in keeping faith with them.
The other side is the effect on other classes. I have seldom if ever met a teacher that wanted to throw difficult children or students on the scrapheap. More often, helping the less able is a central part of their vocation. Nevertheless, there is so much evidence of the damage done by disrupting classes that it risks being accepted as just an inevitable aspect of schooling. The form of deprivation most clearly linked to the 2011 riots was school absenteeism. A project that offers a positive alternative to students at risk of expulsion is valuable to more than just the difficult ones.
Within Robert Peal’s Progressively Worse are illustrations like 40% of survey respondents to Guardian Teacher Network reporting that they had been bullied by pupils (p218); or the improvement in GCSE results that followed when knife-ridden Stanley Technical High School was taken over by the Harris Academy Chain, known for their emphasis on discipline (p219).
The OECD’s TALIS report (Teaching and Learning International Survey) for 2013 shows that these concerns are worldwide. Even at a far milder level than knife-wielding and bullying, the ‘classroom climate’ makes a difference to the time devoted to actual teaching and learning. In England, the survey questioned around 2,500 teachers in 150 secondary schools. They asked about disruptive noise, having to wait for quiet at the start, students interrupting and, more positively, whether the students took care to create a pleasant atmosphere. The results are not a picture of universal mayhem. 74% of English teachers could say their class made the atmosphere pleasant. Only 22% suffered much from disruptive noise. Both results are better than the international averages. But where the disruption exists, the effects are clear and harmful. Every country reports a positive association between classroom climate and teaching time.
The IoE’s report on the English part of the survey (Figure 8.7) compares climates reported for school types, Ofsted ratings, free school meals and Key Stage 2 results. Independent schools, with the greatest sanctions against disruptive pupils, enjoy massively higher scores. The relation with free school meals is not linear, suggesting that disruption is not simply a result of deprivation. For Ofsted, the Outstanding scores are generally those with good behaviour, and classroom climate improves with Key Stage 2 results. That reflects the intake rather the results for these classes, but no-one is surprised if the same students go on to get good GCSEs. The need to get the climate right is obvious. Improving the climate for all takes some special effort.