Can you imagine what it is like to be seating quietly in a class for hours on end? Oops I forgot. My sincere apologies, most of us went through that when we were in school. I did too,

All too often today, this classroom “management” approach of expecting students to be quiet is still being practised. Students are expected to seat still, facing their teacher who invariably would be at the front almost hugging the white board, be quiet and listen attentively.

Is this a classroom full of live human students or dog training school (I often wonder if dog training school is actually better)? Is a a quiet classroom good for the learners in the class? By learners I mean both the the students and the teachers.

In my view, a quiet classroom is a reflection of the teacher’s lack of ability to manage the class in a more dynamic way. Management of the class is by enforced stillness.  Have such teachers stopped to ask themselves if making students keep still in the classroom a natural thing for young children or even teenagers to do? Have they ever stopped to ask if they, the teachers themselves, have enjoyed it when they were students themselves? Even in passenger aircraft today, they want passengers to move around to ensure blood circulation. Ever wonder what happens to brains starved of oxygen due to lack of blood circulation that is due to keeping still in the classrooms?

Such classrooms only benefit the teachers whose main goal is the teaching of unquestioned obedience. Marshall McLuhan has pointed out that in such a classroom, where information flows in one direction only, what is learnt is not the information that is being “transmitted” by the teacher but what the students are allowed to do. Since they are allowed to only sit and listen they will then only learn unquestioned authority.

In a quiet classroom, students are likely to be passive learners if they learn at all. All that energy and curiosity that exist in the young bodies and minds is strangely channeled to learn to be still. The mind slows down to the barest level of activity as the teacher drones on. The stillness is only interrupted when the teacher has a question and the mind is expected suddenly to be at its best to answer the question. When are the students encouraged to reflect and think? When are the students encouraged to construct meaning for themselves about what they are supposed to be learning?

But unfortunately, for many, never mind all these because, to quote Mr. Gradgrind from Charles Dickens’ Hard Times:

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them.

For many, the quiet classroom is usually not a place for noble educational goals. The classroom is quiet usually because the teachers want to cover the syllabus for the examinations. Any interruption is frowned upon because it slows down the teachers and the teacher will not be able to cover the syllabus in time. There is a lot to teach.

So in a  quiet classroom, learning is also not a social event. Students do not learn to work together. Students do not get the chance to sound off each other and learn from one another. Everyone is expected to be deep in his private thought. In the real world does learning take place in this manner? Yet, students expected to become team players at the workplace when they leave school. In the quiet classroom, it is everyone for himself.

I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.  It is my personal approach that creates the climate.  It is my daily mood that makes the weather.  As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.  I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.  In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or deescalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.
- Haim Ginot, Professor of Psychology

If we were to recall a teacher who we felt had a positive influence on us during our student days, we are most likely to think of a teacher who had made us feel comfortable and through the teacher’s ability to make us feel comfortable, we are able to learn what we have been given to learn. Modern cognitive research also shows that the brain cells would shrink in the face of a hostile environment as for example when we feel fear or unsafe. On the other hand, the same brain cell would grow and develop if the environment is safe and comfortable. A teacher, therefore, ought to be aware that the classroom climate is the most important condition for learning to take place. The teacher must cultivate positive attitudes and perceptions about learning among the students.

The creation of safe, non-threatening and conducive environment to learning is a pre-requisite to good teaching. A teacher must make the effort to create such an environment. The teacher would have to ask several questions to achieve this goal. For example, the teacher must ask what makes the students feel accepted in the class. Acceptance here, refers to acceptance not only by all the teachers teaching that class but also the student’s peers.

The teacher must also ask what makes the student comfortable. Is there order in the class? Do students know where to look for things? Do they know the classroom procedures? Do they know what is expected of them when they come into the classroom and when tasks are given? A well-run classroom will give the student that feeling of stability and focus.

There are also many things that the teacher can do to make the classroom a less threatening and intimidating place. A classroom should be a safe place for learning. The student must be free from not only physical hurt but also, and perhaps, more importantly, hurt from the words of their peers and teachers. I believe all of us know that words can harm the confidence and motivational level of students more than perhaps physical threats. Unfortunately, threats and intimidation are quite often the norm in classrooms all over the world.

The teacher also must seriously attempt to make the learning as suitable as possible for the learner. Students like to see relevance. Teachers must make the extra effort to connect for the students what they are learning to their own lives. If the students’ perceptions of the learning is that it has little relevant to them, they are less likely to be interested or motivated to learn. Furthermore, as I have mentioned in a previous posting, making the connection for students is actually teaching for transfer.

The teacher must also ensure that the learning is not too difficult for the student. The teacher should stretch the student but the stretching must not be done at the expense of learning being done in progressive and logical steps. The teacher must make sure that bridges are made during lessons so that the student can understand easier the new content. Scaffolding becomes important in the teaching and learning. The student should feel that the learning is manageable and that it does not require a quantum leap in the mental processes.

Teachers who are mindful of their students’ perceptions and attitudes towards learning will find that their students will be more enthusiastic and motivated to do well in class. Teachers can make or break students. That is how pwerful a teacher can be. As insinuated by the quotation that I began this post with, that power demands greater responsibility on our part in how we treat our students.