When I was a child, I used to find it almost impossible to watch the sort of films in which James Bond is busy defusing an explosive device that is ticking down towards zero on a time clock. Many were the times when I thought, trembling and hiding behind a cushion, that I would never be able to do such a thing, a fear that made me resolutely steer clear of all the many inducements to become a secret agent.
However, now that I'm a teacher, I find myself doing more or less this very thing every day. Sometimes students seem to enter class ready to explode, and only the most skilled handling of the situation can defuse the conflict. They may seem simply on a short fuse, or you may worry that they are intent on undermining you (get it?). You see, we use the imagery of explosives every day when we talk about behaviour management, so perhaps it's time to look at it the other way around – what can bomb disposal teach us about classroom management?
What do you want to achieve? Do you want a controlled explosion (i.e. you know that there is going to be trouble and simply want to contain it) or would you prefer none at all? You need to decide on your desired outcome before you start the conversation. It is important to be fixed on what you think will be the best result, and focus on the result rather than on the process. You may have to take a few hits to your pride, or even be flexible about school policy to keep your eyes on your goal, but it will be worth it in the end.
Real experts make sure that there are no onlookers to be harmed by anything that goes wrong when they defuse a bomb. In the same way, make sure that your audience vanishes before you start trying to deal with a student in a state of tension. If possible, take the student outside the room; at a minimum, give other students in the class something to do that will occupy them fully, and divert attention from your problem with the student in question. This is a genuine health and safety issue – you don't want others to get in the way of a student in a state of high emotional tension or they may suffer some of the fallout – the offending student may respond to other students negatively later on if they have witnessed a confrontation where they came off worst.
If possible, take the student aside. Lower your voice, so that others will find it harder to overhear your conversation. It can be very tempting, as a teacher, to 'put down' students who are acting up by using witty comments that the rest of the class can hear, but these humiliations will rankle, and even though they may be effective in the short term, they do not work as a long-term behaviour management strategy. Yes, you are cleverer than them, and you can now defeat those annoying students who used to drive you mad when you were at school yourself. Get over it; don't feel you have to prove yourself, and don't use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It is fine if the student retains some pride in front of their peers and can pretend they came to an agreement with you rather than report honestly the conversation. Remember, look to the end result.
If you were really defusing a bomb, you would be exceptionally careful what you touched. In the same way, be very careful about what may trigger your student's anger. It is probably not you, in fact. It may be that they have had a row with their parents, or with a boy or girl friend. They may not be feeling too well. They may have had a late night or be worried about their work (it does happen). As with a real bomb, it could be pressure-sensitive or the trigger could be delayed in action – something that happened last night can have real knock-on effects on someone's mood the next day; you mentioning a pressure point could be the thing that sets them off. And, of course, there may be a short fuse involved.
In movies, something always seems to happen to distract the hero at the moment of crisis. It could be a beautiful woman (well, it usually is) or the villain coming back, but whatever it is, it spells trouble for the ticking device to be defused. In the same way, make sure you focus on the behaviour that you want to change – don't get drawn into secondary behaviour and don't get distracted from what you want to achieve. Keep calm; repeat what you are asking for. Model the reasonable behaviour that you would like to see from the student.
Experts don't rush, even with a clock ticking – they know a mistake isn't worth the time saved. In the same way, don't rush when you are dealing with a difficult situation. Give take-up time – for yourself as well as for the student. Issuing commands and then getting cross when they are not obeyed instantly is a sure way to escalate conflict. Wait for a few moments, or move away to reduce the sense that you are humiliating the student by forcing compliance. Don't ever issue another request for compliance straight after your first one – take time to praise and time to think.
Heroes who deal with explosives always seem to be calm under pressure. The audience may be biting their fingernails, but the hands of the central character are always steady. Your voice and your body language are both powerful tools for communication with students, so use them – if you lower your voice and make an effort to speak slowly, it will help to calm you down and make more impression on the student. It also gives you thinking time to consider your next move.
Not all explosives are the same and some need very different treatment if they are not to detonate. Bear this in mind when you are dealing with difficult situations; recognise that each student is an individual and the triggers for their behaviour will be different also. For instance, some students may find it very hard to follow instructions. Whatever are the rooted reasons for this, a conflict situation is not the time to try to remedy them. Bend the rules if you can. Don't try to force a student into compliance with an artificial standard of perfection. If you ask them to apologise, for instance, and they do so, don't then also ask them to use a more sincere voice – simply accept the small success that you have achieved and move on. Remember that confrontational behaviour can mask insecurity or anxiety. Many students with literacy problems, for instance, seek confrontation to avoid tasks they fear will expose their inability to decode print.
If you were dealing with a real bomb, you would not guess which wire to cut and think it didn't matter which you chose. You would take advice and think twice before you did anything. In the same way, take time when dealing with conflict. You may not be able to do it all in one exchange – with a particular student it could be a series of conversations that you will need to have. In the same way, don't be disheartened if a strategy doesn't work at first, but keep going, little by little. Don't be afraid to stop and rethink what you should do to achieve your goal.
When defusing explosives, you call in the experts. In this situation, you are the expert. Remember that you are in control, that you are in charge in the classroom. You are being paid to be there and the student is not. You are valued and you are the adult. Don't say that to the student – but know it in your heart. Also, be aware that you have successes as well as problems with students. If students are on task, then praise them as a way of modelling what the challenging student could achieve. If you spot the tiniest opportunity for praise, then use it. Never feel that praise is weakness, that shouting is authority – remember, the coolest secret agents are wonderfully confident in their own expertise and they always manage to solve the problem before time runs out.
This article is from Planet's educator-penned blogging series: the Planet Teachers' Lounge.
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