tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/classroom-behaviour-10444/articlesClassroom behaviour – The Conversation2023-05-02T03:05:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047942023-05-02T03:05:50Z2023-05-02T03:05:50ZVaping and behaviour in schools: what does the research tell us?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523702/original/file-20230502-24-rcqyvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C22%2C4977%2C3465&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a major speech today, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler <a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-government-launches-war-on-vaping-declaring-it-the-number-one-behavioural-issue-in-high-schools-204760">said</a> vaping has become “the number one behavioural issue in high schools”.</p>
<p>The government today proposed a <a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-government-launches-war-on-vaping-declaring-it-the-number-one-behavioural-issue-in-high-schools-204760">suite of reforms</a> aimed at reducing vaping.</p>
<p>But what does the evidence show about the prevalence of vaping in schools and the kind of behavioural issues associated with it?</p>
<p>My colleagues and I have been researching teen vape use through the <a href="https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/cancer-prevention/smoking/generation-vape/">Generation Vape</a> study. We’ve been tracking teenagers’ knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours about using vapes (also known as e-cigarettes). </p>
<p>This has involved interviewing and surveying young people across Australia aged 13–17, their parents and carers and secondary school teachers, principals and administrators.</p>
<p>Here’s what we know so far.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1653166041743097856"}"></div></p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-government-launches-war-on-vaping-declaring-it-the-number-one-behavioural-issue-in-high-schools-204760">Albanese government launches war on vaping, declaring it the 'number-one behavioural issue in high schools'</a>
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<h2>How prevalent is vaping in high schools?</h2>
<p>Of the 721 young people we have <a href="https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Generation-Vape-infographic.pdf">surveyed</a> so far:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>32% had ever vaped (we call these people “ever-vapers”)</p></li>
<li><p>54% of ever-vapers had never smoked cigarettes before starting vaping</p></li>
<li><p>ever-smokers were seven times more likely to be ever-vapers than those who had never smoked (in other words, young people who have tried smoking are much more likely to have tried vaping)</p></li>
<li><p>ever-vapers were 18 times more likely to be ever-smokers than those who had never vaped (in other words, young people who had ever tried vaping were <em>significantly</em> more likely to have ever tried smoking).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Most of our respondents said the main factor driving their vaping was flavouring and taste.</p>
<p>In other words, about one in three teenagers have tried vaping. Only a few years ago it was really rare, but it’s exploded in use.</p>
<p>We also asked about frequency of vaping. We found 10% typically used vapes on six or more days a month, but the fact that most are occasional users suggests we have a window of opportunity to act now before these people become addicted.</p>
<p>Occasional users told us they are trying vaping because they are curious, are interested in experiencing the hit from nicotine, and don’t imagine themselves getting addicted. Unfortunately, they often do find soon themselves addicted, which is why a public health response is so urgently needed.</p>
<p>Our data also shows:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>more than half of those trying a vape for the first time are under age 16</p></li>
<li><p>more than half of ever-vapers reported using a vape they knew contained nicotine</p></li>
<li><p>vaping is seen as a socially acceptable behaviour separate and unique from smoking.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>One 17-year-old ever-vaper told us “no-one” buys the non-nicotine devices</p>
<blockquote>
<p>because they don’t give you head spins, so they are pointless. It’s almost like wasting money.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another 17-year-old past vaper told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Oh, you can get ones without nicotine but I don’t think they’re very popular […] it tells you when you buy a vape how much nicotine’s in it. It’s usually 5%.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523705/original/file-20230502-757-40mkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523705/original/file-20230502-757-40mkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523705/original/file-20230502-757-40mkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523705/original/file-20230502-757-40mkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523705/original/file-20230502-757-40mkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523705/original/file-20230502-757-40mkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523705/original/file-20230502-757-40mkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523705/original/file-20230502-757-40mkct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vapes are small and easy to hide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are teachers, principals and school administrators saying?</h2>
<p>In our surveys and interviews with teachers, principals and school administrators, we found:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>58% of teachers have confiscated vaping products from students two or more times a week</p></li>
<li><p>86% of teachers are concerned or very concerned about students vaping in their school</p></li>
<li><p>62% of teachers are aware of vaping products being sold on school grounds.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Teachers reported feeling they had to police students by searching bags and pencil cases, and that having to manage vaping as a disciplinary issue took time away from teaching.</p>
<p>Principals and school administrators talked about having to</p>
<ul>
<li><p>use school funds to install vape detectors in school toilets</p></li>
<li><p>liaise with parents of children caught vaping</p></li>
<li><p>think about safety issues presented by people coming to the school gate to sell vapes to students.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>If children are addicted, we don’t want to see them kicked out of school. It’s not their fault they have become addicted to these products. That’s why we need a public health response rather than a punitive response. </p>
<p>One principal told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>it’s probably the single most disruptive thing in our school at the moment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A different teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>even when you catch them they deny to your face and then you have argue […]
it becomes a massive issue and 40 minutes of your life is taken away just with this
one thing when you should be doing other things as a teacher.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another principal said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We can bring it up with the kids as much as we want, but I think we need a little bit of traction there beyond school too.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What kind of behaviour issues are linked to vaping in school?</h2>
<p>Teens who vape regularly reported:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>experiencing nicotine withdrawal while at school, which can feel like anxiety or stress (many told us they vape for their mental health, not understanding the stress is linked to the addiction)</p></li>
<li><p>sneaking out of class to vape</p></li>
<li><p>feeling distracted and finding it difficult to focus in the classroom</p></li>
<li><p>feeling stressed about needing to hide their device and their vaping while at school.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>One 17-year-old told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’d see people at school […] at nine o’clock in the morning going, “Oh do you have a vape? Do you have a vape? I need one. I haven’t had one all day”, and begging people for it […] so I think it’s mostly an addiction thing with people who are heavy users.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What is the evidence telling us is needed?</h2>
<p>The evidence tells us we really need to get these products out of the hands of young people. That’s why making them harder to buy is vital.</p>
<p>About 80% of our respondents told us it was easy to get vapes; it was common knowledge who sold them at school or that certain people would sell them by the school gate. </p>
<p>That’s why the importation ban in the government reforms is so important, and why it’s crucial states and territories work with the federal government to get vapes out of corner shops and petrol stations. It’s about reducing access so kids aren’t exposed to it as they are walking to school.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1653136827057082368"}"></div></p>
<h2>Is it really the number one behavioural issue in high school?</h2>
<p>It’s impossible to say. But certainly the data is telling us it is a very big issue.</p>
<p>Of the teachers we surveyed, 86% said they were “highly concerned” about vaping at school. In interviews, teachers often described vaping as the key issue they are dealing with outside the classroom. </p>
<p>Schools have to deal with so many issues, so if we can reduce this one or even take it off their plate altogether then we should.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-asked-over-700-teens-where-they-bought-their-vapes-heres-what-they-said-190669">We asked over 700 teens where they bought their vapes. Here's what they said</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Freeman is an Expert Advisor to the Cancer Council Tobacco Issues Committee and a member of the Cancer Institute Vaping Communications Advisory Panel. These are unpaid roles. She has received relevant competitive grants that include a focus on e-cigarettes/vaping from the NHMRC, MRFF, NSW Health, the Ian Potter Foundation, VicHealth, and Healthway WA; relevant research contracts from the Cancer Institute NSW and the Cancer Council NSW; relevant personal/consulting fees from the World Health Organization, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Department of Health, BMJ Tobacco Control, the Heart Foundation NSW, the US FDA, the NHMRC e-cigarette working committee, NSW Health, and Cancer Council NSW; and relevant travel expenses from the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference and the Australia Public Health Association preventive health conference.</span></em></p>Most of our respondents said the main factor driving their vaping was flavouring and taste.Becky Freeman, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1668272021-09-14T20:52:06Z2021-09-14T20:52:06ZSuspensions and expulsions could set our most vulnerable kids on a path to school drop-out, drug use and crime<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420716/original/file-20210913-22-9g46h3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/front-view-single-sad-teen-lamenting-631014524">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Increasing numbers of students are being excluded from Australian schools. This is done both temporarily, through informal and formal suspensions, and permanently, through expelling them and cancelling their enrolments. </p>
<p>We know from publicly available data in <a href="https://data.cese.nsw.gov.au/data/dataset/suspensions-and-expulsions-in-nsw-government-schools/resource/7eab017c-58ca-470b-b7aa-de723d20442a">New South Wales</a>, <a href="https://data.sa.gov.au/data/dataset/suspensions-exclusions-by-year-level/resource/86addaee-71ee-4bab-bb13-185938590966">South Australia</a> and <a href="https://qed.qld.gov.au/publications/reports/statistics/schooling/students">Queensland</a> that these exclusions begin in the first year of school when children can be as young as four years old.</p>
<p>Informal exclusions are more common at this stage and usually occur in the form of a phone call requesting parents “take home” their child. </p>
<p>But because exclusionary discipline does not address the issues underlying childrens’ behaviour — and can reinforce it — short informal exclusions quickly progress to longer, formal suspensions. And because suspension still doesn’t solve the problem, one suspension can become many. </p>
<p>This progression was clearly laid out in analyses conducted during last year’s <a href="https://www.education.sa.gov.au/sites/default/files/report-of-an-independent-inquiry-into-suspensions-exclusions-and-expulsions-in-south-australian-government-schools.pdf">Inquiry into Suspension, Exclusion and Expulsion processes in South Australian Government Schools</a>. </p>
<h2>4 in 5 suspended students have disability</h2>
<p>One analysis retrospectively tracked the average number of take-homes, suspensions and exclusions for 24 students who were in year 9 in 2019. It illustrates the graduation from shorter and less severe, to longer and more severe, exclusions over time. </p>
<p>A small number of take-homes progressed to more take-homes, then to suspensions, more suspensions and eventually to exclusions, which are longer-term suspensions. In South Australia, these are four to ten weeks in length (exclusions in other states are the same as expulsions).</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>How small exclusions become bigger over time</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418296/original/file-20210827-4994-1pux10l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418296/original/file-20210827-4994-1pux10l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418296/original/file-20210827-4994-1pux10l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418296/original/file-20210827-4994-1pux10l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418296/original/file-20210827-4994-1pux10l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418296/original/file-20210827-4994-1pux10l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418296/original/file-20210827-4994-1pux10l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average number of take homes, suspensions and exclusions received by 24 students, who received more than one exclusion in 2019 from reception to Year 9.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SA education department data, unpublished, September 2020.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Another analysis conducted as part of the inquiry showed while the majority of students suspended (56.8%) accounted for just over one quarter of suspensions (28.7%), the majority of suspensions (71.3%) went to students suspended two or more times. </p>
<p>The red box in the graph below shows the percentage of students receiving one suspension in 2019. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Most suspensions in 2019 went to students suspended two or more times</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418297/original/file-20210828-17822-c58r5o.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418297/original/file-20210828-17822-c58r5o.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418297/original/file-20210828-17822-c58r5o.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418297/original/file-20210828-17822-c58r5o.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418297/original/file-20210828-17822-c58r5o.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418297/original/file-20210828-17822-c58r5o.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418297/original/file-20210828-17822-c58r5o.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of students per number of times suspended compared to the percentage of incidents each group represents, in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SA Department for Education data collections, unpublished, September 2020.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>What this means is that 42.8% of students suspended in 2019 received more than one suspension in that year, with 42 students receiving ten or more. Four in five of these 42 students had a disability.</p>
<p>The blue box in the above graph highlights the percentage of suspended students (7.8%) who received five or more suspensions in 2019. Together, these 804 students accounted for almost as many suspensions (24.7%) as students in the much larger (red) group who were only suspended once. </p>
<p>As with the students suspended ten or more times, four in five students suspended more than five times had a disability. </p>
<h2>Indigenous students overrepresented</h2>
<p>Along with students with a disability, Indigenous students and those living in out-of-home care are also massively overrepresented in suspension and exclusion statistics. These are not distinct groups. It is possible to be Indigenous, have a disability and be living in care. </p>
<p>Analysis of South Australian data separated by group shows close to one in five suspensions in 2019 (17%) went to students in two or more of these groups. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Most suspensions in 2019 went to very vulnerable students</strong> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418298/original/file-20210828-19142-d4xgu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418298/original/file-20210828-19142-d4xgu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418298/original/file-20210828-19142-d4xgu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418298/original/file-20210828-19142-d4xgu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418298/original/file-20210828-19142-d4xgu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418298/original/file-20210828-19142-d4xgu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418298/original/file-20210828-19142-d4xgu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Distribution of suspensions across risk groups and the school index of educational disadvantage (1=most disadvantaged, 7=least disadvantaged).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SA Department for Education data collections, unpublished, September 2020.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Further analysis showed two out of three of these suspensions went to Indigenous students with a disability, followed by children with a disability living in care. Just over one in ten of these suspensions were given to Indigenous children with a disability living in care. </p>
<p>New research to be presented at QUT <a href="https://research.qut.edu.au/c4ie/">Centre for Inclusive Education</a>’s forum on <a href="https://research.qut.edu.au/c4ie/events/2021-inclusive-education-forum/">reducing school exclusion</a> this week shows in 2019 in Queensland, there were 350.8 suspension incidents per 1,000 Indigenous students compared to 110.9 for non-Indigenous students. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nsw-wants-to-change-rules-on-suspending-and-expelling-students-how-does-it-compare-to-other-states-144676">NSW wants to change rules on suspending and expelling students. How does it compare to other states?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Put another way, an Indigenous student in Queensland may have a one-in-three chance of being suspended, although it is likely a substantial proportion are receiving multiple (repeat) suspensions.</p>
<p>Worryingly, longitudinal trends show a significant increase in suspension incidents over the seven years between 2013 and 2019. And the rate of increase for Indigenous students is significantly faster than non-Indigenous students.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Suspension rates for Indigenous students growing much faster than for non-Indigenous students</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418413/original/file-20210830-25-rv4dzy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418413/original/file-20210830-25-rv4dzy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418413/original/file-20210830-25-rv4dzy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418413/original/file-20210830-25-rv4dzy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418413/original/file-20210830-25-rv4dzy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418413/original/file-20210830-25-rv4dzy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418413/original/file-20210830-25-rv4dzy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Comparing suspension incident rate for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students attending Queensland state schools, 2013-2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">School Disciplinary Absences, Queensland Department of Education Open Data Portal</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>These are our most vulnerable children. They need wrap-around support and a timely, educative response, not suspension or exclusion from school.</p>
<h2>The ‘school-to-prison pipeline’</h2>
<p>Research from the United States has identified <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267716989_Race_Is_Not_Neutral_A_National_Investigation_of_African_American_and_Latino_Disproportionality_in_School_Discipline">a similar racial bias</a> in the use of exclusionary school discipline to Australia. African American students are up to four times as likely as their White peers to be referred to a school’s office for “problem behaviour”. The research also states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] students from African American and Latino families are more likely than their White peers to receive expulsion or out of school suspension as consequences for the same or similar problem behavior.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Multiple suspensions means spending a lot of time <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/698454?casa_token=jMkuaGyirXYAAAAA:SjASoAlQYNsJoVfWKcy6XABw1J-dvZg1debST8vuQRsmEyFMJ_M2_IimkGyNcbrFtA79rjHiOEFppQ">out of school</a>. This is time that may be unsupervised, which can lead to injury and even death, gang affiliation, drug use, crime, increased police contact and entry to the <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/pdf/10.3316/informit.876642475515729?casa_token=YnGh9HeWUg8AAAAA%3ASaFB-57SMHsQHdptDUof8PARc6Shu8D7oioUqAOSHGyPi_OsReZtE9x8JN_Ei_KDFUqq9tgEf63TQvlv">criminal justice system</a>.</p>
<p>Exclusionary school discipline is described as contributing to a phenomenon known as the “<a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26257/w26257.pdf">school-to-prison pipeline</a>”. The majority of research on this topic has been conducted in the US.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-suspending-or-expelling-students-often-does-more-harm-than-good-93279">Why suspending or expelling students often does more harm than good</a>
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<p>To date, limited availability of data has prevented Australian researchers from investigating the local contours of this problem. Not only does this lack of data prevent public scrutiny and problem identification but it also leads to gaps in public policy.</p>
<p>For instance, the most recent analysis of progress against 17 agreed <a href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/national-agreement">Closing the Gap</a> targets found there has been no improvement in the school attendance rate of Indigenous students in the last ten years. Interestingly, the report does not mention the use of exclusionary school discipline. Nor does the 2020 Agreement on Closing the Gap include targets to reduce its use.</p>
<p>This appears a missed opportunity, given that two of 17 Closing the Gap <a href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/national-agreement/targets">targets</a> are to reduce Indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>Our research makes the case that we must, as a matter of urgency:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>identify overrepresentation in school suspension and exclusion, and any patterns related to it</p></li>
<li><p>challenge implicit bias, racism, and discrimination wherever they may exist</p></li>
<li><p>develop culturally appropriate evidence-based prevention and intervention frameworks, as well as implement them on a system-wide basis.</p></li>
</ol><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda J. Graham receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC). In 2020, she was Chair of the Inquiry into Suspension, Exclusion and Expulsion processes in South Australian government schools, and gave evidence at the Royal Commission on Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability on the use of exclusionary school discipline.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>In 2020, Callula Killingly was involved in the Inquiry into Suspension, Exclusion and Expulsion processes in South Australian government schools, as a member of the research team.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristin R. Laurens receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, and the Medical Research Future Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Sweller receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Analysis shows most suspensions in SA in 2019 were given to Indigenous students with a disability, followed by children with a disability living in care. These children need support, not dismissal.Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of TechnologyCallula Killingly, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Queensland University of TechnologyKristin R. Laurens, Associate Professor, Queensland University of TechnologyNaomi Sweller, Associate Professor in Psychology, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1098882019-01-16T05:11:28Z2019-01-16T05:11:28ZAre Australian classrooms really the most disruptive in the world? Not if you look at the whole picture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254024/original/file-20190116-152965-1q2qgvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keeping classes under control is a continuous challenge for teachers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1023&context=ozpisa">reports</a> suggest Australian classrooms, from the students’ perspective, are some of the <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/bullying-of-teachers-out-of-control/news-story/0b6255ff637c46d85dc2419a8adb7c63">most disruptive in the world</a>. But do we have a behavioural crisis in our schools? Perhaps not. </p>
<p>At the end of this month, thousands of teachers and children begin or return to school. Throughout the day, each child will be expected to follow the instructions of multiple teachers, leaders, and mentors. In school, children are expected change activities with little prior notice. Some tasks require significant physical effort, while others exact a heavy intellectual toll. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-teachers-are-taught-to-discipline-a-classroom-might-not-be-the-best-way-34860">How teachers are taught to discipline a classroom might not be the best way</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>The child’s performance in each activity is assessed in comparison with other children and with those who have gone before. The activities planned for them might occur in groups or alone, with or without technology, and with or without help. </p>
<p>Each child’s teacher will be focused on delivering the best possible learning experiences that are interesting, effective, and sometimes fun. Alongside this focus on learning is the task of classroom and behaviour management, an enduring challenge for teachers. </p>
<h2>How is classroom disruption measured?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.acer.org/au/ozpisa">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA) is an international comparative study of student achievement directed by the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/australia/">Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development</a> (OECD). The <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1023&context=ozpisav">PISA 2015</a> report provides an international comparison on how Australian 15-year old’s fare in scientific, mathematical, and reading literacy. </p>
<p>One part of this major report focuses on students’ accounts (with a focus on science classes) of the climate of classroom discipline. The report analysed student responses to questions about how often (every lesson to never) they experienced certain disruptions in science, such as “there is noise and disorder” and “students cannot work well”. </p>
<p>These results suggest Australian classrooms have a problem with in-class disruptions. Previous PISA study have explored this theme with relation to other literacy domains such as reading achievement in 2009. One <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2015.1025796">study</a> found the classroom climate didn’t always affect a nations performance. Australia’s students did not rank as poorly, which may offer some insights for the teaching of science. </p>
<h2>Stages of personal development matter</h2>
<p>It’s important to note this assessment is focused on 15-year-olds who are at a particularly challenging phase of personal development that includes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0044118X13504419">increasing disconnection</a> from their schools. It doesn’t necessarily represent the experiences of other ages, particularly not in the primary school years. </p>
<p>Secondary school sees the emergence of independence, boundary pushing and a period of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2011.00763.x">social adjustment</a>. Secondary schools are often large, busy systems where pupils mix beyond age groupings and are not anchored to a particular class group. At 15 years old, these students are ten years in with three to go.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254026/original/file-20190116-152971-bkds9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254026/original/file-20190116-152971-bkds9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254026/original/file-20190116-152971-bkds9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254026/original/file-20190116-152971-bkds9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254026/original/file-20190116-152971-bkds9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254026/original/file-20190116-152971-bkds9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254026/original/file-20190116-152971-bkds9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interest in a lesson alone is to enough to stop all disruption in a classroom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The students surveyed reported experiences of not paying attention, not listening to what the teacher says and excessive noise and disorder. These results align with similar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2012.668139">research</a> that asked children about the causes of problematic behaviour. </p>
<p>While such knowledge is not new, the understanding that children themselves are aware of the complexities and dynamics of the school experience does need to be acknowledged. Neither teacher or students enjoy a disrupted class. </p>
<h2>Why is Australia so low?</h2>
<p>Our schools are busy, vibrant, and filled with lessons that promote <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards">interaction</a> between students and teachers. The fact poor discipline is defined as not listening and being off-task is perhaps a little melodramatic compared with some of the more extreme but infrequent outbursts (<a href="https://www.ccyp.wa.gov.au/media/1422/report-education-children-at-risk-of-disengaging-from-school-literature-review.pdf">less than 3%</a>) that can occur. But multiply that by 15 or 20 and there’s a bigger problem. </p>
<p>Education systems that remain in some countries are no longer representative of Australian culture and are not reflective of the accepted <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards">standards</a> of educational practice. In many respects, Australia is one of the hardest places to teach because of the importance placed on engagement as well as performance. For example, China and Singapore have high levels of direct instruction, where Australian education focuses on getting the student involved and ensuring the teacher knows the students as individuals. </p>
<p>The classroom management debate has raged for decades and often doesn’t move at the same pace as other society norms. This teacher education video from the 1940s is a good example of how different styles can impact students. It also shows how simple prevention techniques can influence class mood.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zDof1TceN2w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>In many ways, the best behaviour management relies on what happens when no misbehaviour is present. At these times, effective teachers are building positive relationships, acknowledging, and supporting students, gathering their feedback, and supporting those who need assistance. Most teachers do this well, most of the time, but disruptions still happen.</p>
<p>Problematic behaviour and school success are impacted by a multitude of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12220">factors</a> such as bullying, poor motivation, difficulty in understanding, tiredness, competing curriculum priorities and the ever-present cycles of assessment.</p>
<p>There is enormous pressure on teachers to achieve results and the issue of a crowded curriculum is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2017.1384802">well documented</a>. This pressure is also being felt by students and families, especially in the senior school years. Such pressures can affect a teacher’s ability to manage a class and can also affect a student’s ability to manage themselves. </p>
<h2>Classroom management has been sidelined by academic performance</h2>
<p>In recent years, teacher education programs have had to respond to government priorities that focus on academic performance. Programs relating to inclusive education and classroom management have drifted to the side. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the skills of classroom management are far more complex than just “good teaching”. A false assumption made by as many early career teachers as experienced ones is that if their teaching is interesting, there should be no reason for misbehaviour. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-shouldnt-have-to-manage-behaviour-issues-by-themselves-schools-need-to-support-them-76569">Teachers shouldn't have to manage behaviour issues by themselves – schools need to support them</a>
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<p>But interest alone is not enough. Classroom energy fluctuates, ability levels vary and not everyone is motivated by the same content. Teachers have to read the room and respond to many different demands of students to keep things flowing. </p>
<p>Yes, teachers would benefit from more direct instruction in how to deal with behavioural challenges. But they should also be skilled at prevention and should be supported in building those skills. </p>
<p>This report alerts us to the importance of effective teaching, and the fact that students do care about their learning environment. Everyone is on the same page here: students are trying to learn and teachers are trying to teach. Things will still go wrong, but far less frequently when trust and respect flows both ways.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathon Sargeant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reports that Australian classrooms are some of the most disruptive in the world are based on the experiences of 15-year-old students alone, and focus on science classes.Jonathon Sargeant, Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education and Classroom Management, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/461162015-08-28T05:38:12Z2015-08-28T05:38:12ZDoes developing bad behaviour in primary school affect a child’s grades?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92936/original/image-20150825-15912-vnio5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bad education. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Badly behaved boys via Monkey Business images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A few mischievous children acting out in a classroom and disrupting an entire lesson is a common scenario that teachers deal with. However, trouble-making children who hit out and misbehave are not only disruptive to teachers and classrooms, they are also likely to get lower grades. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00787-015-0758-5">recent research</a>, my colleagues and I examined the links between the development of problem behaviour in 5,400 children between the ages of eight and 11 from 138 primary schools in England. The children were in Years 4, 5 and 6 – the last three years of primary school and what’s called Key Stage 2. We found that those who developed disruptive behaviour in these three “middle childhood” years did worse in the tests, also known as SATs, at the end of Year 6. </p>
<p>The problem behaviours we looked at in our study were when children got angry, hit out, broke things, hurt people or lost their temper. These behaviours were measured through a questionnaire in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/184060/DFE-RR177.pdf">Me and My School</a> study, a study of mental health in English schools, funded by the Department for Education. </p>
<p>Children whose problem behaviours improved between Years 4 and 6 still did relatively badly in the maths, literacy and science tests at the end of primary school compared to their peers who had never demonstrated any problem behaviours. The gains these better-behaving children made between tests at Key Stage 1 (age seven) and Key Stage 2 tests (age 11) were slightly less than those children who had been well-behaved throughout. As the graph below shows, 67% of these children met the governments Key Stage 2 targets. In comparison, 77% of children who had no problem behaviours at all throughout these later years of primary school, attained the expected standard. </p>
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<p>This suggests that the learning lag caused by problem behaviours at a younger age might lead to reduced academic performance, even when the problem behaviours have subsided. The negative effects of bad behaviour on learning can be hard to make up fully. However, the ones who improve their behaviour do still do significantly better than their misbehaving peers. </p>
<p>Children whose behaviour worsened during the later years of primary school showed the least progress between the Key Stages. Just over 50% of the children with increasing behavioural problems over these three years of primary school met the government’s Key Stage 2 targets.</p>
<p>There is plenty of evidence showing that both behaviour and attainment in childhood have life-long consequences: for <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18423100">economic</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18423100">social</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09645290110110227#.VdNmziZVhB">health</a> outcomes as well as <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecoj.12170/abstract">life satisfaction</a>.</p>
<p>About half the children in the age group we studied demonstrated no conduct problems at any age. Another third demonstrated moderate levels of disruptive behaviour by the final year in primary school. In those children we studied, 3% went from being well-behaved to demonstrating high levels of problem behaviour. Another 10% already demonstrated problem behaviours by Year 4 which continued up to Year 6, while 5% had reduced their problem behaviours in these years. </p>
<p>So in an average classroom of 25 to 30 children, we estimate that four of them would display high levels of problematic conduct or disruptive behaviour. This affects the teaching environment of classrooms and makes it tougher for teachers to teach and other students to learn.</p>
<h2>Can early intervention help?</h2>
<p>Our results suggest there may be a relationship between disruptive behaviour and the capacity of a child to benefit from school, and therefore on their grades. But it’s also possible that a whole host of other factors negatively affect a child’s learning and behaviour. Children developing problem behaviours in the age group we studied were more likely to be boys, have special educational needs, be eligible for free school meals and have had lower scores earlier on in primary school.</p>
<p>It is possible that both explanations are at play, with a certain amount of negative consequences begetting more negative consequences in a vicious cycle. </p>
<p>Whatever the cause, early intervention to improve behaviour could be key. Research <a href="http://www.nasponline.org/publications/spr/abstract.aspx?ID=4151">in England</a> indicated that when schools were provided funding to support their students’ mental health, primary schools mainly used the money for interventions targeted towards student’s disruptive behaviours. The additional funding and support was associated with a decrease in problem behaviour. </p>
<p>The recent appointment of former teacher and blogger Tom Bennett as a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/16/school-behaviour-tsar-classroom-disruption">school “behaviour Tsar”</a> shows that the government is taking behaviour seriously. But schools would still benefit from greater resources to be able to support their students to minimise the impact of adversity and problem behaviour on learning and healthy development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Department of Education funded the wider study that is the source of the data used and the Policy Research Unit in the Health of Children, Young People and Families, which is funded by the Department
of Health Policy Research Programme supported this work.
The views expressed are not necessarily those of either Department.</span></em></p>New research shows that children who develop bad behaviour towards the end of primary school, fall behind the most.Praveetha Patalay, Research Associate , UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/322542014-10-02T13:42:43Z2014-10-02T13:42:43ZTeachers on naughty step over pupils’ bad behaviour, but Ofsted report is unfair<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60434/original/4nzvhps5-1412089597.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low-flying behaviour. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-200191559/stock-photo-naughty-high-school-student-throwing-a-paper-plane-during-class.html?src=mA_IlYT6n-64ysZcjOZy9g-1-0">Naughty boy via AntonioDiaz/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ofsted’s <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/below-radar-low-level-disruption-country%E2%80%99s-classrooms">recent report</a> raising concerns about “low-level disruptive behaviour” in schools may prompt nostalgia for an age when order was maintained by students’ innate deference to their elders, backed up by corporal punishment, detention and writing lines. Stand by for <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Becoming_an_Outstanding_Primary_School_T.html?id=4uhhYgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">historians’ anecdotes of unruly students</a> from ancient Greek to Edwardian times, followed by calls for a focus on nurturing <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Emotional_Intelligence.html?id=AcJ7dwsnWiIC">“emotional literacy”</a> – the ability to manage feelings and subsequent behaviour.</p>
<p>In the face of polarised debates on how to manage children’s behaviour in the classroom, it is important to consider the evidence. There is a widespread acceptance that the <a href="http://www.uk.sagepub.com/textbooks/Book236916">most effective teachers</a> are those that appear to spend the least amount of time actively managing behaviour. These teachers focus on creating an environment in which students feel positive about learning rather than battling disruptive behaviour. </p>
<p>As well as teaching stimulating lessons matched to the learning needs of their students, they <a href="http://www.uk.sagepub.com/textbooks/Book236916">focus on the wider classroom environment</a>. By developing positive relationships and establishing clear expectations for behaviour, they spend less time micro-managing disruptive incidents.</p>
<h2>How good teachers cope with disruption</h2>
<p>Managing behaviour through skillful teaching is hardly a new idea – the textbook market is awash with advice. Some of these evaluate theoretical models such as “<a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6OQ9fn9il6gC&oi=fnd&pg=PR19&dq=choice+theory+glasser+classroom+management&ots=_B2eXJZZR_&sig=qXV_4onrn1LSUZWJ6xlFjg3VVkQ#v=onepage&q=choice%20theory%20glasser%20classroom%20management&f=false">choice theory</a>”, which advocates allowing students to consider and plan for the conditions they want to study in. </p>
<p>Another theory is “<a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Behaviour_Management_in_the_Classroom.html?id=_4cOriMlim8C">transactional analysis</a>”, which employs psychotherapeutic principles to help teachers manage their interactions with students more effectively. Others are more practical (and better-selling) <a href="http://www.pearson.ch/HigherEducation/Education/1449/9781408225547/The-Essential-Guide-to-Taking.aspx">“how-to”</a> manuals. The latter are almost universally derided by the royalty-starved authors of the former as peddling simplistic “tips for teachers”. </p>
<p>When stripped down to their essentials, these textbooks are remarkably consistent about what constitutes effective classroom management, namely:</p>
<ul>
<li>Engage students early on in the lesson </li>
<li>Help them see the relevance of the learning by making connections to the real world</li>
<li>Make the purpose of the lesson clear, including sharing learning objectives</li>
<li>Cater for a range of learning styles</li>
<li>Encourage active participation </li>
<li>Ask students questions and get them to evaluate their own learning</li>
<li>Maintain pace and momentum throughout the lesson</li>
<li>Recap on the purpose of the lesson and give positive feedback</li>
</ul>
<h2>Sanctions and rewards</h2>
<p>This is not to say there is no place in the classroom for behaviourist conditioning, such as rewarding positive behaviour and discouraging negative behaviour through sanctions. Effective teachers establish expectations and procedures from the outset and apply them consistently. They reinforce these by praising positive behaviour or offering more tangible rewards. </p>
<p>Parents of primary-aged children will be familiar with the task of removing “great work!” stickers from uniforms at the end of the day. Many secondary schools now use online games platforms, such as <a href="https://www.vivoclass.com/">Vivo Class</a>, to incentivise good behaviour. But these rewards are generally viewed as being of secondary importance – what matters is getting the teaching right.</p>
<p>This is not to say that these expert teachers will maintain perfect behaviour from all their students at all times – this would be unrealistic. What they do is ensure that the environment does not deteriorate and so prevent potential disruptive incidents impacting on the “flow” of the lesson. </p>
<h2>What is Ofsted playing at?</h2>
<p>Given that a generation of teachers <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3BOit7FGgzoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=mujis+reynolds&ots=-t5Rf0wL4c&sig=zT1bYZyd_UBUZxLDFufLqIdVDkI#v=onepage&q=mujis%20reynolds&f=false">have been trained in learner-centred</a>, interactive approaches, and school leaders and Ofsted have combined to promote these in schools, its findings might seem surprising. </p>
<p>The report’s headline that a “failure of leadership in tackling poor behaviour” is “costing pupils up to an hour of learning a day” will, of course, worry parents. But, even a cursory reading of the survey data invites scepticism. </p>
<p>Teachers clearly do recognise that low-level disruptive behaviour impacts on learning. But it is hard to see how the figure of “an hour of learning a day” figure is arrived at when 64% report losing less than five minutes per hour and only 7% reporting losing more than ten minutes. On top of this, 93% of the teachers felt “confident or very confident” in handling disruptive behaviour and rated their schools’ learning culture extremely positively.</p>
<h2>Selective stats</h2>
<p>The report also draws upon 95 Ofsted school inspections and it is this data that leads to the headlines of “poor leadership”. Senior leaders, apparently, are indecisive and inconsistent in dealing with behaviour in “over a third” of schools. </p>
<p>But these reports are drawn exclusively from inspections where overall effectiveness of a school was judged to be either grade three (requires improvement) or grade four (inadequate). Given that currently only around <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/latest-official-statistics-maintained-school-inspections-and-outcomes">20% of inspections</a> result in grades three or four, the critical findings are hardly surprising, and certainly unrepresentative. </p>
<p>Given the skewed nature of the evidence presented in this report, perhaps its real significance lies in its sideswipe at school leaders. It will no doubt exacerbate the longstanding tensions between Ofsted and the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/national-college-for-teaching-and-leadership">National College for Teaching and Leadership</a>, the agency responsible for both teacher quality and school leadership. Wilshaw will be satisfied with the points scored, but yet again the cost will be measured in parental anxiety and teacher morale.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Wilkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ofsted’s recent report raising concerns about “low-level disruptive behaviour” in schools may prompt nostalgia for an age when order was maintained by students’ innate deference to their elders, backed…Christopher Wilkins, Director of Teacher Education, School of Education, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/288762014-07-08T05:09:02Z2014-07-08T05:09:02ZThe seven excuses teachers give for not being able to teach<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53195/original/w4ys9htp-1404742613.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53195/original/w4ys9htp-1404742613.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53195/original/w4ys9htp-1404742613.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53195/original/w4ys9htp-1404742613.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53195/original/w4ys9htp-1404742613.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53195/original/w4ys9htp-1404742613.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53195/original/w4ys9htp-1404742613.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s Govephobia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-203078785/stock-photo-teacher-sits-in-classroom-setting-head-on-hands.html?src=kGlCnuJ2ojoVt-J0ZwnOMw-1-4">Teacher with head in hands - Jelena Aloskina/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As another <a href="http://www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/protect-teachers">teachers’ strike</a> looms on July 10 it is worth setting out the reasons that teachers are unhappy with their profession. It’s not just because of conditions of service, pay, and pensions. Teaching has become a demoralised profession because teachers, teacher trainers, unions, policy wonks and politicians have forgotten what teaching is about. It is about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-subject-of-subjects-27035">teaching of clearly defined subjects</a> such as maths, English and chemistry, and the professional autonomy and the proper pay and conditions that follow from this. </p>
<p>If teachers are going to regain this autonomy they have to return to the teaching of their subjects, and not get distracted by passing fads and policy preoccupations. Often, these are used as ammunition by those who want to explain why teachers just can’t get on with their jobs. I’ve set out seven excuses below that are often used by teachers and those in the education sector for the reasons why teachers can’t do their jobs properly. Teachers need to reject them. </p>
<p><strong>1. We can’t teach because of <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/news/news/40-of-children-miss-out-on-the-parenting-needed-to-succeed-in/">parents</a></strong></p>
<p>This is the idea that it’s no use trying to teach because parents aren’t capable of supporting teachers. The new low in contempt for parents is most clearly expressed by the head of Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw who suggested that “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/17/schools-fine-parents-ofsted-michael-wilshaw">bad parents</a>” who don’t support their children by reading to them or not coming to open days should be fined. Good teachers can teach irrespective of the parental, social or cultural background of their pupils. </p>
<p><strong>2. There is no evidence base about what works</strong></p>
<p>The teaching of subjects requires professional judgement and not academic research into what works or <a href="http://www.ebtn.org.uk/">networks of teachers</a> looking for “evidence”. If you know your subject you have all you need to know about the logical process of teaching. All the talk about making teaching an “evidence-based profession” undermines teachers, sending them the message: “You don’t know what you are doing.”</p>
<p><strong>3. Neuroscience determines what children learn</strong></p>
<p>Millions are being spent on research into the supposed classroom implications of <a href="http://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2014/01/07/millions-for-neuroscience-research-in-uk-classrooms.aspx">neuroscience</a> and a major teaching union has asked for more <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2014/may/16/atl-motion-neuroscience-teaching-education-brain-gym">information</a> about the applications of neuroscience to teaching. But it would be wiser to save money and time: we are not reducible to our brains and teaching is a social and cultural activity. </p>
<p>Neuroscience, or rather ignorance about neuroscience, provides three excuses not to teach. One is that because of our brains we cannot expect some children to achieve. A second is that we must wait for evidence from the research to show us what and how to teach. A third is that neuroscience might give us a shortcut to educational success by plugging the pupils into some device. Forget these excuses. Excellent teaching has gone on for thousands of years without neuroscience and teachers should continue in their professional tradition. </p>
<p><strong>4. Because of the bad behaviour of pupils</strong></p>
<p>This is the whine of every fearful new teacher; many never lose their fears and turn them into a two-stage theory of teaching. Pupils are so badly behaved that we have to “control” or “motivate” them before they can learn. The result is that other activities take a chronological priority over teaching subjects. </p>
<p>The result is never a swift movement forward but a well-intentioned but mistaken stranding of pupils at the “motivational” level. “Motivated” pupils want more and more “motivation” or edutainment. If teachers want to motivate pupils they should simply teach them. The obsession with “motivation” puts the educational cart before the horse. </p>
<p><strong>5. We can’t teach because of the children’s <a href="http://www.healthybrainforlife.com/articles/school-health-and-nutrition/feeding-the-brain-for-academic-success-how">diet</a></strong></p>
<p>Whether it’s hyperactive kids who have drunk too many sugary cans of cola or obese children who are too sluggish and sleepy to learn, poor diet is a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/feb/25/do-children-really-get-sugar-rush-hyperactivity">lame excuse</a> for not teaching. Becoming over-involved in saving children from chips and pop wastes time and gives teachers an opportunity to blame the greedy pupils, the parents who feed junk food to kids, the retailers and the capitalist manufacturers who are making teaching impossible. When did it become the teachers’ job to police lunch boxes? </p>
<p><strong>6. Because new technology is making our role redundant</strong></p>
<p>The fear is that children can now get all the knowledge they need by using their iPhone. All we can do is assist them. This belief, promoted by the self-styled gurus of the new technologies who celebrate everything from simple apps to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), is a result of intellectual laziness that confuses information with knowledge and understanding. Only teachers can give their pupils or their students the knowledge and understanding of subjects and there are no technological replacements or shortcuts to teaching.</p>
<p><strong>7. We can’t teach because of … Michael Gove</strong></p>
<p>If you can’t teach because of the above or any other reason – blame the secretary of state for education. Govephobia seems to have infected the teaching profession. There are reasons to dislike many of his policies, but not all. Gove is right about one thing at least: education should be subject-based. This belief is not based on his own “elite” education experience. It is based on his understanding of what education means. Govephobia can be explained because of it. Gove’s very presence as education secretary is a constant reminder to teachers of their duty to teach.</p>
<p>It is not surprising that among the <a href="http://www.teachers.org.uk/files/strike-a5-6pp--9548-.pdf">reasons</a> the unions have set out for why they are striking on July 10, two of the calls to action are about Gove: “Labour, the Liberal Democrats and former advisers are all turning against Gove” and “Michael Gove is increasingly unpopular with parents and teachers”, say the National Union of Teachers.</p>
<p>These seven reasons not to teach are presented in a variety of forms – sometimes in a positive way. They can be used to encourage parents to be partners in learning, base teaching on “evidence”, learn from neuroscience, create “motivational teachers”, save children from future illness and enhance learning through new technologies. Govephobia is the one and most telling exception.</p>
<p>But even if these positive presentations makes them palatable, used as excuses for not teaching, they ultimately leave teachers without a role. That is the danger. Because the role of the teacher today is what it always was: to teach.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
As another teachers’ strike looms on July 10 it is worth setting out the reasons that teachers are unhappy with their profession. It’s not just because of conditions of service, pay, and pensions. Teaching…Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of DerbyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/277732014-06-24T04:39:44Z2014-06-24T04:39:44ZDo disruptive classes really get better if they include more girls?<p>Classrooms are highly complex environments. Maintaining a positive classroom environment, especially in classrooms that include potentially disruptive children with emotional or social problems, is very difficult, and the processes that teachers can use to achieve this are poorly understood.</p>
<p>But a new <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/.U4x-hyjb6xU#.U5XeQCjb6xU">study</a> has concluded that in mixed gender classrooms, the presence of more girls can apparently minimise the potentially negative effects of a difficult to manage pupil on classroom culture and attainment. </p>
<p>Conducted by Michael Gottfried and Aletha Harven at the University of California, this study touches on two significant and sometimes emotive topics in education: differences between boys and girls and the inclusion in schools of children with social, emotional and behaviour difficulties.</p>
<h2>Keeping the classroom happy</h2>
<p>Despite evidence that <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/pdfs/2009-steer-report-lessons-learned.pdf">most behaviour in schools is good</a>, debates around the inclusion of pupils with social and emotional needs still too often centre on <a href="http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=xRK8efFm_jk%3D&tabid=749&mid=1738">the affects their inclusion has on peers and staff</a>.</p>
<p>In their paper, Gottfried and Harven speculate that pupils who show aggression, immaturity, hyperactivity or more internalised behaviours such as anxiety or withdrawal absorb the teacher’s attention, leaving less time for teachers to focus on other pupils’ social, emotional and academic development. </p>
<p>Their research is based on the premise that pupils’ poor behaviour can disrupt teaching and academic achievement. But the effect can also run the other way: poor teaching can lead to <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/RR817.pdf">poor pupil behaviour and attainment</a>. Gottfried and Harven actually did find that teacher characteristics also had an influence; there were better outcomes in those classrooms with a greater proportion of girls and with more experienced teachers who had attended more special education training.</p>
<p>The common sense logic of the argument in either direction conceals a more intricate situation, where the amount of teacher time focused on any particular pupil is just one aspect of a complex social environment. </p>
<p>The research refers to girls’ protective effect on classroom climate, and sees them providing their fellow pupils with models for positive behaviour, helping to form supportive classroom relationships. </p>
<p>However, the expectations and attitudes of teachers are also important, as are the children’s views of their peers, of the teacher, and the <a href="http://aer.sagepub.com/content/48/1/120.abstract">quality of child-teacher relationships</a>. Teachers’ perceptions of children’s behaviour, and teachers’ behaviour toward those children are therefore also likely to provide protective influence.</p>
<p>The delicate balance of these multiple components shapes the ethos of the classroom, and in turn has a major effect on academic achievement. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/per.782/abstract">Interactionist thinking</a> like this now underpins the approach to pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, which sees inclusion as <a href="http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/3760/">effective</a> and <a href="http://www.eenet.org.uk/resources/docs/New_Index_for_Inclusion.pdf">to the benefit all members of the school community</a>.</p>
<h2>Reading children’s behaviour</h2>
<p>But gender is not as easy an explanation as it might seem for the effects Gottfried and Harven observed. The similarities between girls and boys <a href="http://www.careerpioneernetwork.org/wwwroot/userfiles/files/the_gender_similarities_hypothesis.pdf">outweigh the differences</a> – but how we perceive and respond to them and their experiences and their own and others’ expectations for them, are <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/language-and-gender">more different than is usually assumed</a>.</p>
<p>Research conducted <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1128775">as long ago as the 1970s</a> demonstrated that adults interpret and respond differently to boys’ and girls’ behaviour. In <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1130189">one experiment</a>, for instance, researchers dressed toddlers in unisex snow suits and observed adults responding differently to the same behaviour depending on whether the children were given male or female names.</p>
<p>Other research has shown how children and teachers <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09540250120051178#.U6f-UY2zBT4">tend to associate prosocial behaviour more with girls than boys</a>, while studies <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16435959">which observe young children’s actual behaviour</a> paint a much more mixed picture.</p>
<p>This means that in the complex social interactions in the classrooms Gottfried and Harven studied, the girls’ behaviour was probably more likely to be interpreted as prosocial. The explanations we use for others’ behaviour (known as “<a href="http://www.learning-theories.com/weiners-attribution-theory.html">attributions</a>”) influence our feelings about and behaviour towards that person, so more positive attributions for others’ behaviour produce more positive feelings and generate positive behavioural responses – and so a positive cycle of prosocial behaviour emerges.</p>
<p>So the number of girls in the classroom is not likely to be the key factor in Gottfried and Harven’s study in itself.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>One suggestion Gottfried and Harven have for teachers is to vary the proportion of girls and boys in classrooms to create a protective environment for children with social and emotional difficulties, as well as for their peers. </p>
<p>But given the practical and ethical difficulties of putting that into practice, it’s probably much more expedient to focus on teachers as the key variable in classrooms. We need to enable them to create positive relationships with all their pupils, and to facilitate classrooms with compassionate and accepting classmates, irrespective of gender balance. </p>
<p>Above all, research like this is an important contribution to our still limited understanding of how teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil interactions actually work. These findings do not prove that classrooms whose pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties are simply in need of more female pupils; instead, they challenge us to avoid focusing excessively on the differences between boys and girls, and to pay closer attention to the nuances of the highly intricate arena of classroom dynamics. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27773/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Classrooms are highly complex environments. Maintaining a positive classroom environment, especially in classrooms that include potentially disruptive children with emotional or social problems, is very…Catherine Kelly, Academic and Professional Tutor, Doctorate in Educational Psychology, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/267812014-05-16T12:19:02Z2014-05-16T12:19:02ZEven if they’re banished from the classroom – Miss and Sir are already in decline<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48642/original/7w5kckz9-1400173433.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Miss! Miss! Is your first name Alice?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-142487863/stock-photo-clever-young-students-in-class-holding-their-hands-in-the-air-in-response-to-a-question-as-they-vie.html?src=3brHVbh6ZPSHY1b2Tuskug-1-4">Students via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Does it matter what we call our teachers? Some academics seem to think so, and have called for the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27403902">titles “Sir” and “Miss” to be banished</a> from the classroom because they are sexist. Yet their use in the English language, along with “Mr” and “Ms”, is already in decline. </p>
<p>I went to a fairly strict school in the 1980s – uniform, school tie, the cane, having to stand up when a teacher entered the room – where Sir and Miss were de rigueur. </p>
<p>I still remember how odd it was when I was transplanted to university aged 18 and was casually invited to refer to lecturers by their first names. It felt cool and grown up, although it obscured rather than removed the power hierarchy – ultimately these people were still marking our essays and giving us disapproving looks if we didn’t contribute in seminars.</p>
<p>I think, like many children, that while I was at school I wasn’t consciously aware of the sexist disparity between Sir (arise, Sir Galahad) and Miss (don’t arise, unmarried woman). We called all female teachers Miss, even the ones who we knew were married. But neither term is necessarily a mark of respect, especially if the vowel sound is dragged out. </p>
<p>I recall an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOM-_PYgQPY">old French and Saunders sketch</a> where Dawn and Jennifer play two obnoxious teenagers, asking teacher increasingly personal questions: “Miss, are you a lesbian?” I’m not sure that words themselves mean anything much – it’s the intention behind them that counts more, and some children can be especially adept at making any word into an insult.</p>
<h2>Dropped titles</h2>
<p>What does appear to be the case is that British society has been gradually dumping its titles over the last century or so. My research has showed that Sir, Mr, Miss and Mrs have <a href="http://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/GL/article/view/6484">all plummeted in usage</a> in written English, with “Mr” showing the most dramatic falls, as the graph below shows. If the trends continue, in a few decades these terms will be practically obsolete. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48723/original/4j7mbw5z-1400241844.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48723/original/4j7mbw5z-1400241844.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48723/original/4j7mbw5z-1400241844.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48723/original/4j7mbw5z-1400241844.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48723/original/4j7mbw5z-1400241844.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48723/original/4j7mbw5z-1400241844.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48723/original/4j7mbw5z-1400241844.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/48723/original/4j7mbw5z-1400241844.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frequencies of Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms used in four large collections of English texts (each comprising a million words) published in 1931, 1961, 1992 and 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Baker </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We place less emphasis on what’s called negative politeness (marking respect and social distance) and more on positive politeness (showing we’re all mates). Language has <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Redesigning_English.html?id=G4NZMxz-eGsC&redir_esc=y">become increasingly informal</a> as a result. </p>
<p>One term of address which has shown an increase is Ms but it was starting from nowhere, is still a rarity, and encounters resistance. I’m doubtful it will fully catch on any time soon. If the unequal term of address system is going to be resolved, it will be when we give up terms of address altogether and just use people’s names.</p>
<p>So would that be a good idea in the classroom, where teachers sometimes need to impose control if they are to do their jobs effectively? I’m not so sure all children are able to grasp the subtleties of hidden power hierarchies if we seek to obscure them. They may feel more at liberty to take liberties if they get to refer to their teachers as Sue or Mick. </p>
<p>I don’t like Sir or Miss though – on top of the sexist disparity, they enforce a kind of anonymity onto the profession – with the same nom de plume being used for everyone. It’s almost as bad as “Hey, teacher!” </p>
<p>So if I was in charge of a school, I’d expect pupils, at least up until aged 16 or so, to use Mr Smith and Miss/Mrs/Ms Jones by default. But ultimately, each teacher knows their own class and what works best and they should be empowered to decide what their charges call them.</p>
<h2>Cause for confusion</h2>
<p>At my university, the power hierarchy is almost invisible (although it does bubble below the surface). Sometimes this results in weird tensions. </p>
<p>One of my students, who had come from an overseas institution, referred to me as Dr Baker from the outset of our meetings. It felt odd and wrong, and I hoped she would simply drop it of her own accord when she acclimatised to the university culture. In fact, the culture I work in is so laid back that I felt I would be overly imposing authority on her to instruct her: “Oh, just call my Paul”. </p>
<p>So Dr Baker continued for the whole term, sounding increasingly incongruous as we got to know each other. When I finally said: “You can call me Paul,” it was like letting the air out of a balloon. She had assumed I liked the title and had kept using it, feeling more and more uncomfortable.</p>
<p>I think the point of that anecdote is that problems arise when people don’t communicate but try to second guess each other instead. One aspect of living in a more informal society should be that we are able to talk to each other more about a wider range of topics. Which can only be good. </p>
<p>So if we do require pupils to use certain terms of address, it could be used as an opportunity for discussion and reflection in the classroom – the concept of respect is more complex than it used to be and it deserves due consideration, rather than being taken for granted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Baker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Does it matter what we call our teachers? Some academics seem to think so, and have called for the titles “Sir” and “Miss” to be banished from the classroom because they are sexist. Yet their use in the…Paul Baker, Professor of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.