The Strict Student

With two adults in the room, lessons should be half the work, right? If only mentoring trainee teachers was so easy, says Paul Dix...

The smile on your face after the deputy head offers you the opportunity to mentor a student teacher lasts a full week. Life with Year 3 is fantastic, but utterly exhausting. With another adult in the room you imagine an immediate improvement in your working conditions, your stress levels, and your mental health. You have visions of shared laughter and skipping through lessons as the perfect teaching team.

The arrival of the student teacher does nothing to dispel your dream of the easy life – she is confident, well presented and brings biscuits. The first week of observations goes to plan, she makes all the right noises and seems to get on well with the children. Sitting back to observe her first lesson in charge, you feel a warm glow of confidence. As she stands up in front of the class, her assertive presence sets the tone of an experienced practitioner; it is only when she begins to speak that you realise the lesson will not just be a car crash, but a destruction derby.

From nowhere, she produces a list of new rules and expectations and presents these to the children. They are unnecessary, aggressive and badly written – they are also completely contrary to the consistently calm approach you have spent the last four weeks embedding. She takes the children through each ‘don’t’ in turn, demanding they model each behaviour perfectly. Her tone is harsh and you see a side of her that was previously hidden. There are furtive glances towards you from the children at the back of the classroom; they are confused and bemused. As she begins placing new routines on the walls, you have a decision to make.

How do you respond?

A. Stop her dead in her tracks

Take immediate control of the classroom and ask her to go and wait in the staffroom to reflect.

B. Intervene discreetly

Find a moment to speak to her during the lesson to adjust her approach.

C. Wait until the end of the lesson

Treat it like any other observation and give her feedback in private at the end.

A. Whoa there!

There is stunned silence as you stand to interrupt the class and the children immediately recognise that you are agitated. The student teacher gives you a look that can only be interpreted as hostile.

“Miss Davies, I am so sorry, I totally forgot that you have a meeting. I am going to take over this lesson and you can continue it tomorrow. Sorry, but I need you to wait for me in the staffroom.”

She doesn’t take the bait and protests there is no meeting and that she needs to finish the lesson. An awkward moment extends into an awful few minutes with the argument going backwards and forwards between you. You decide to break the stalemate by asking the children to go and have five minutes in the playground so that you can ‘sort the room out’. Even then she stands motionless, but for the tears rolling down her face. As she protests that she has been studying different approaches and wants to make her mark on the class, you have cause to regret your impulsive reaction. There are colleagues gathered at your door wondering why your class has been given extra playtime and what you have done to upset Miss Hobnob.

Talking behaviour

1. Is it ever right to intervene in a lesson you are observing?

2. Does a student teacher have to share your pedagogical approach?

3. What will be the conversation you have with her when things have calmed down?

B. Discreet advice

Whilst you don’t agree with her approach, you don’t want to turn a difficult lesson into a crisis. You decide to wait until the ‘behaviour speech’ is over and the children are engaged in an activity before speaking to the student teacher. You draw her to the side of the room and ask her to continue with the lesson, but this time using the behaviour plan you have already established. She is not happy and immediately challenges you. You decide not to get into an argument, but to calmly reiterate your request that she stick to the existing plan.

The student teacher’s mood changes. She doesn’t seem able to shake off the conversation, her anger is palpable and the lesson begins to go downhill rapidly. Three children are accelerated through your steps and sent to the reading corner. She is using your structure, but undermining it with her own irritation. She starts deferring to you in a grossly unprofessional manner, “Well, you will have to speak to Mrs Owen about that. I wouldn’t accept that sort of behaviour, etc”. There are more worried looks towards the back of the room as the lesson descends into chaos. There is a headteacher-sized face at the door.

Talking behaviour

1. What problems are associated with receiving advice in the middle of the lesson?

2. Should you have intervened a second time?

3. Who is to blame for the difficulties in the lesson?

C. Sit it out

You resist the urge to intervene. You have worked hard to get the class to where they are and one lesson is not going to reverse the trend. Through gritted teeth you smile, talk to children about their work and try not to let anything get in the way of making notes for considered feedback. At lunchtime, the student teacher is already waiting in the meeting room, eager for her appraisal. The answer to your first question, ‘How did you think it went?’, is worrying. She considers the lesson to be ‘outstanding’ and claims she has never judged herself to be anything less. It seems that she firmly believes classroom management comes in a neat package. She has been on a course. She has read a book. She has studied the videos. Whilst you are tempted to challenge this approach to discipline directly, you feel it is more important to emphasise that, while she is training, the children need consistency. It is certainly right and proper for her to investigate a full range of different approaches, but she has a professional duty to follow the school’s behaviour policy. You refer to the teaching standards on behaviour and the need to maintain a consistent approach.

It’s a difficult conversation. She is clearly disappointed and feels that she wants to impose her own personality on the teaching, but you show her how she can do that through teaching and learning in a way that’s less confusing for the children.

Talking behaviour

1. Why should you resist the urge to directly challenge the approach to behaviour the student teacher has adopted?

2. What support can you give to help her understand your approach to classroom management?

3. Why is consistency more important than the personal preference of individual teachers?

Your style

A. Cease and desist

If you accept the responsibility of training and mentoring teachers, then you must accept there will be troubles along the way. Your model is poor: you don’t want her to impose harsh and unfair discipline on the children, yet this is how you have dealt with her.

B. Soft but firm

Even experienced teachers find it difficult to change direction in the middle of a lesson. As this is her first lesson, it may be that you need to look at whether you have done enough to prepare her for the occasion.

C. Deep breaths and wise words

None of us start teaching great lessons until we have been involved in multiple pile ups. The student teacher has taken a risk, and that is exactly what she must be allowed to do if she is to mature into a truly exceptional practitioner.

About the author

Paul Dix is lead trainer at Pivotal Education. For free behaviour tips, resources and training, see the website (pivotaleducation.com). Listen to Paul’s weekly podcast at pivotalpodcast.com