Several months after I started teaching, and based upon some of the things I was observing and (primarily ‘behavioural’) challenges I was experiencing in the classroom, I started to dig deeper into EFL teaching methodologies. That is, I started to explore what I was actually doing in the classroom, and the psychology behind a lot of the methods I’d been taught.
My experience was that many of the things I was doing, didn’t really work all that well, or just didn’t seem right. For example, in order to get the students to not speak their native language in the classroom, some of the teachers at my school used what I would call ‘extreme’ methods. These included splashing students with water, marking their forehead with an (erasable) whiteboard marker, jumping jacks, punishments like withdrawing break time, assigning kids to the clean up crew, and, probably the most harmful, using Classroom Dojo. (I would point out that one possible reason for some of the teachers’ approaches, was that there was immense pressure from management put on the teachers to enforce this rule in the classroom.)
I’d been taking what I was taught in the EFL world at face value as being good practice, without really questioning it, or going deeper. As it turns out, there actually is a psychology behind many of the methods we take for granted. Those fields include shame, power, fear, punishments and rewards, and behaviourism, amongst others.
I dug deep for answers, and, amongst other people who had generously shared their insight and experiences, I found Robin Grille. Grille, is a psychologist from Australia. He confirmed a lot of what I was experiencing in the classroom.
The themes that Robin Grille discusses in this video formed the basis of many changes in my teaching approach and philosophy. There is a lot we can learn from this presentation.
Robin Grille also wrote an informative article on classroom management called Rewards and Praise: The Poisoned Carrot.
