Purpose of School Discipline | Criteria for Student Classification

 

Discuss the purpose of school discipline and criteria for learners' classification

 

Course: Educational Leadership and Management

Course Code  8605

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

ANSWER 

 Purpose of School Discipline

The modern conception of discipline is a  very broad and inclusive one. It does not recognize the difference between mental and moral behavior for the purpose of control, no, in fact, for any other purpose. “The much and commonly lamented separation in schools between, intellectual and moral training, between the acquiring of information and growth of character, says Dewey, “is simply an expression of the failure to conceive and construct the school as a social institution, having social life and value within itself.” Every experience–intellectual, moral, civic, and physical has a value from the point of view of a pupil’s development as a member of society; and, conversely, the pupil’s social experiences have an effect on his personal development. In fact, the individual mind is conceived of “as a function of social life–as not capable of operating by itself but as requiring continual stimulus from social agencies and finding its nutrition in social purpose.”

The whole of the pupil’s life in the school  –  all his intellectual, social moral, and physical activities, so far as they are carried out in cooperation with others and are directed towards the realization of certain purposes – is disciplinary. The essential purpose of school discipline is the development in the pupils of attitudes, habits, and ideals of conduct through the medium of the social life of the school, organized on a cooperative basis and inspired by the higher ethical teachings of religion.

The purpose of discipline is to help an individual to acquire knowledge, habits, interests, and ideals which conduce to the well-being of himself, his fellow, and society as a whole. If this purpose is to be realized the school should be reconstructed on the lines of a democratic society in which membership implies the right of full and free individual development and conscious pursuit of common ends in a cooperative spirit, each member contributing to the common good by his special gifts. Life in a school thus organized becomes similar to, and continuous with, life in a democratic society, and discipline becomes co-extensive with the whole of school life.

  

Criteria for Student Classification

i)  History (Some Plans of Students Classification)

Since the purpose of school is to serve the needs of pupils, a major responsibility of the administrator is to organize the school and classify pupils to facilitate the achievement of this purpose. Even before schools were divided into grades, this adjustment problem was present. Dividing schools into grades helped solve some problems related to textbooks, facilities, materials, and methods, but at the same time, another problem was created. This new problem is the “lock step” system.

The “lockstep” system, including what is known as “grade standard”, has made it very difficult to meet the needs of individual pupils. Too often administrators have been content to make the individual try to adjust to the school – that is, to the teachers, methods of instruction, courses, grades, and standards of a particular grade or subject of adjusting the school to the pupil. Individual differences of pupils within any age group, subject class, or grade, make it necessary for the administration to provide some means for respecting those differences. Many innovations in curriculum, teaching methods, and organization have been tried. A few of these will be discussed here.

Winnetka Plan:

Around 1920, a plan of individual instruction for elementary school children within a grade was inaugurated at Winnetka, Illinois. The curriculum for each grade was divided into two parts – the common essentials and the group activities. The common essentials  –  the knowledge and the skills considered necessary for all pupils  –  were divided into units or “goals”.

Unit Plan:  

Another means of individualizing classroom work is the unit plan of teaching. The units of work are organized around a comprehensive and significant aspect of our environment of science, art, or conduct. The unit plan is a teaching procedure and requires no changes in school organization. There have been many adaptations of the unit method, such as the project, activity, and problem assignments. These methods are distinct departures from the traditional subject-matter recitation type of teaching. The unit method of teaching has had a great influence in elementary and secondary schools by focusing attention on the organization of the subject matter to meet the needs of individual pupils. The unit method has also had an influence on the curriculum being offered in many schools. Efforts have been made continually to change the curriculum in the schools to meet the needs of all youth.

Techniques of Instruction: 

Adjustments of the instructional program to meet the needs of the individual are possible not only through a changed curriculum but also through techniques of instruction. The following suggestions relate to instruction for meeting individual needs:

1.  Develop units on life problems rather than on abstract subject matter problems.

2.  Teach to focus on the satisfaction of needs recognized by the learners.

3.  Provide adequate counseling and guidance services.

4.  Utilize more fully teaching resources such as films, radio, television, teaching machines, and the local community environment.

5.  Use a wide variety of printed materials.

Summer School:  

Many school districts operate summer schools as a means of adjusting the schools to the pupils. These schools, however, are operated primarily for students who have failed or for those who wish to make additional credits to complete high school in three years. Some elementary and high school pupils attend summer school because they have not measured up to the

standard of the particular grade or subject. How well children succeed in summer school after having done poorly in the regular term is a question.  Some educators doubt the advisability of sending pupils to summer school because of failure in the regular term. Most summer schools emphasize such subjects are music, art, sports, and games, but in the last few years, there has been a pronounced trend toward the inclusion of more academic subjects, such as mathematics, science, and foreign languages.

Grouping:  

Grouping students by some means other than chronological age has been of interest to many educational leaders for the past three decades. It is rather unusual to find a professional book that does not have a treatise on homogeneous grouping. In most cases, homogeneous grouping has meant grouping pupils according to mental ability or achievement in subject matter.

Arguments for homogeneous grouping usually include the following:

1.  Homogeneous groups are usually taught by the same methods as heterogeneous groups.

2.  Grouping saves the teachers’ time and energy.

3.  More subject matter is covered in the same period.

4.  Poor students are not discouraged.

5.  Specially trained teachers can be employed for poorer pupils.

6.  A homogeneous group can be taught as an individual.

7.  The Brighter pupils are encouraged.

8.  Loafing on the part of superior pupils is reduced or eliminated.

There certainly are arguments against homogeneous grouping. Among such arguments are the following:

1.  No basis for grouping has been developed which is sufficiently objective.

2.  Unwholesome competition may be engendered.

3.  People are not strictly groped in their life occupations according to ability.

4.  Status distinctions, characteristic of a class society, may be fostered.

5.  Groups cannot be formed that are homogeneous in each curriculum area because the abilities of a single student vary from subject to subject.

6.  No practical way has been found to group based on special ability.

7.  Grouping according to ability often causes jealousy and resentment on the part of the pupils and parents.

Non-graded Elementary School:  

the non-graded elementary school is a movement that is slowly gaining supporters. This plan of classifying students is attributed to the results of the child study movement, which revealed that children differ in many ways, and to studies revealing the negative effects of non-promotion upon pupil achievement and adjustment. A non-graded elementary school classifies pupils according to levels rather than according to grade numbers. The levels are usually based on reading ability and usually consist of ten to twelve levels in the first three grades. The pupil progresses through the levels at his own rate without the usual stigma of lack of promotion or failure.

A pupil may complete the three years of work in two years or may take as long as four years. This plan has been used much more extensively in the primary grades than in the intermediate grades.

The non-graded elementary school offers three major organizational advantages in classifying students:

(1) A unit span of years that is adaptable to the lags and sports normally accompanying the  development of the child;

(2) progress level that permits a child to pick up after an absence from school at the point where he previously left off

 (3) a time range that permits children of approximately the same chronological age to remain together while progressing at different academic rates suited to individual capacities.

 

ii)  General Criteria for Student Classification

The grouping has been a feature of schools in all countries. In earlier times, a typical small community had about enough people of school age to  fill one classroom. The teacher handled all ages and all subjects as well as janitorial duties. When the student population grew too large for one teacher a second was hired and the students were divided between them.  Age was the common selection factor.  All students six through twelve years of age were assigned to one teacher, and all those from twelve up were assigned to the other. As the population grew, so did the number of classroom groups. Grouping based on age usually made no sign to the first grade, seven-year-olds to the second, and so on. If there were too many six-year-olds for one teacher, two first-grades were established.

The major purpose of grouping is individualization. Students are grouped so that the range of individual differences, and academic and social characteristics, the teacher has to contend with is narrowed. Age was used originally as the only selection factor because it does correlate with social characteristics and was all that was available to indicate academic characteristics until the introduction of standardized achievement testing in the early twentieth century. Age continues to be the major selection factor.

iii)  Common Patterns

Ungraded Grouping: 

Grade levels are abandoned. The early one-teacher schools were ungraded because they contained students of all grade levels in one classroom. Contemporary ungraded-grouping patterns usually distinguish between lower elementary and upper elementary, ungraded primary and ungraded intermediate. Students are assigned to an ungraded primary for at least their first three years of schooling. They are promoted to the intermediate group based on age, social maturity, academic ability, or some combination of three factors.  A school might have three or more ungraded primary classrooms. The teacher in a primary classroom might stay with the same group of students for the entire three years, thus assuring that the teacher becomes well acquainted with students.

Inter-Classroom  Subject Grouping:  Students are grouped according to the subject they are studying. This is the most common grouping pattern in junior and senior high schools. It is used in elementary schools when teachers trade for different subjects, such as when the two fourth-grade teachers agree that one will reach reading to both classes while the other teaches all the mathematics. During two hours, teacher A has reading Class A for the first hour and reading with Class B for the second hour. Teacher B follows the opposite schedule for mathematics. The pattern is also followed when special teachers are hired to teach all the music, art, and physical education.

Inter-Classroom Ability Grouping:  

Students are assigned to classrooms according to their performance on intelligence and achievement tests. For example, students might be assigned to one of the two sixth-grade classrooms based on their scores on a general achievement test. All those scoring grade level or higher are assigned to one classroom while all those scoring from grade level or below are assigned to another. A high school might use placement tests to assign students to different English and Mathematics courses, or even to totally different tracks. The assignment to ability groups may be for the entire day or only for special subjects, as when disabled readers or gifted students are pulled from their classes for instruction by special teachers. The term homogeneous grouping is sometimes used to refer to this grouping pattern.

Split-Day Grouping:  

Students are assigned to a split-day schedule as a means of reducing class size for critical subjects. It is commonly used for reading in the primary grades. For example, half of the class comes to school at 8:30 p.m. and receives reading instruction until 9:30 a.m. when the second half of the class arrives. At 1:30 p.m. the first half of the class leaves school, and reading instruction is provided the second half from 1:30 p.m. Until 2:30 p.m. then they go home. By having only half of the class present during reading instruction, the teacher can provide more individual help.

Intra-Classroom Ability Grouping:  

Within the classroom, students are grouped based on ability. The pattern is most common in reading where student are given a reading achievement test and then assigned to one of three groups according to their performance-a “high group,” a “middle group,” and a “low group”. This grouping pattern has been used at all grade levels from kindergarten through high school.

Special Ability  Grouping:  

Students are assigned for short periods and, based on their ability, to a special teacher. For half an hour each day a remedial reading teacher might work with students below a certain reading level and an enrichment teacher might work with students above a certain level. Remedial programs for disadvantaged students may use several intellectual, academic, and social factors in selection as might enrichment programs for gifted students.

Intra-Classroom Individualized Grouping:  

Instruction in the classroom is provided for one student at a time. Regarding programs called “individualized reading” (Veatch 1966) follow this pattern. The pattern has become more popular in the last ten years because of the availability of published, self-instructional materials. The best use of a continuous-progress selection of students into individual groups varies widely and sometimes none is used; students just work alone.