Ray K.

To seek support is an essential step to handle any disruptive behaviors, as no one is ever perfect, that is why we have a whole support system in any education institution. As a teacher, it would be unwise to deal with cases of disruptive behaviors alone, oftentimes students who have such behaviors would happen to have recurring episodes or similar behaviors in different situations. Hence, advice from other staff could provide important information to piece together a holistic picture to students' status, and greatly improve how you can approach and provide assistance. You can also take the opportunity to discuss with other parties handling the situation, and align your strategy with your team, ensuring a smooth and consistent handling.

A great way to make your lectures engaging is to speak your students' language. This might be controversial, but teachers are usually not in the same generation as their students. We rarely speak the same language nor see the world in the same way. So the only way to grab students' attention is to get close to how they speak, how they think about the world. It could be anything, news, celebrity, memes, slangs, literally anything. If you can use any of these, maybe as examples to explain things, maybe as materials for small talks and jokes to get their attention, you will at least gain some traction. The point is, you tried to make an effort to understand how they perceive the world, and students will know, and they will try to listen.

Another important element to consider when dealing with classroom behavior is psychological condition of students. Nowadays as the education system is increasingly stressful, students may have a hard time trying to cope with stress or even other challenges in life. However, for most of the time the school doesn't teach students how to cope with stress, at least this not a trend in Hong Kong. Thus, teachers should take into account that students who are not behaving as expected may need some extra help with their mental health. Understanding students and setting expectations is critical, but if things still go the wrong way, then you might want to take a closer look into their hearts and mind.

One often overlooked aspect of setting expectations is to control the expectations towards us, the teachers, and how we will be delivering the lessons. We usually focus a lot on rules and regulations, or how students should do their work. Yet, we tend to not discuss or explain to our students how we, the teachers, will do our work. A common practice in my lectures was that in the beginning of the semester I will clearly explain how I will deliver the my course, how fast I will speak, and in what language, will I be using a microphone or not, what I will emphasize on (apart from the syllabus setting), and if there's any questions how they can approach me. By setting a clear expectation for both parties, we can focus on the learning.

To understand why students break the rules, it is crucial to understand that students basically hold a different view towards rules compared to their teachers. The point of view is often limited to the roles which everyone in the classroom plays, for teachers, rules could be means to control and regulate behaviors; but for students, it could be red tapes and chains hindering their rights to do or not to to something. Hence, teachers should at least try to think like a student, as if "I am in their position". Understanding this fundamental perspective difference, is the foundation to listen to students' voice.