<Thank you to San Diego member, John Michno, for sharing this article.>
Getting rid of bad-seed students is supposed to benefit their "good" classmates, but that turns out not to be the case. When students witness their classmates being shown the door for trivial offenses, they worry that they may be next. Studies show they grow anxious and do worse on high-stakes math and reading tests.
In short, this kind of discipline is a lose-lose proposition. What's to be done? Enter empathy.
The aim isn't to turn teachers into softies who let students get away with murder, but to demonstrate that they can combine discipline with rapport, to good effect.
The results of this experiment wildly exceeded the researchers' expectations - the teachers' online experience halved suspension rates. Surveys of the students also found that they came to respect their teachers more. The most disaffected - those who had already been suspended - reported feeling more regard for teachers who had taken the tutorial.
To read more of Aidan Koch's article, please click here.
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