Teach Secondary - Issue 13.2

The power of FRAMING How we talk about and present certain tasks will shape how students perceive them – and in turn, how well they’ll take to them, observes Colin Foster ... W hen I was training to teach, registers still existed in paper form and had to be physically carried to the school reception after form time. I can recall watching one teacher take their register at the start of the day. After she’d finished, she looked around the classroom and asked, “ Who’s sitting nice and straight? ” Everyone immediately assumed an even straighter posture than they’d had already. “ Arun, you’re sitting nicely. You can take the register back. ” Arun fist-pumped – “ Yes! ” – and with a spring in his step, gladly took the register from the teacher and hurried off to reception. The following day, I observed the class next door at the same time of day. After taking the register, this teacher similarly looked around the classroom. “ Ryan, you’re talking. Take the register to reception. ” Ryan protested – “ Oh, miss! ” – but the teacher insisted. The other children laughed as he got up, took the register from the teacher with his fingertips as if barely wanting to touch the thing, and reluctantly slunk off down the corridor. I gather that some days, the register was found to have been dropped on the way, or else not left where it should have been. Further punishments would then have to be deployed to address these little protests against the system. Socially constructed How could the same, simple job of returning the register be a reward in one class and a punishment in the class next door? We could say that the job was ‘socially constructed’ in different ways between those two adjacent classrooms. After all, what is a register, really? Just a folder of papers. But it becomes a big deal – for better, or for worse – because of how it’s viewed by the community. The job of taking back the register becomes either desirable or undesirable, depending on howwe talk about it. On how it is framed . I believe that the same priciple applies to many things that happen in school. Is it a privilege to hand out the textbooks or a chore? When the teacher asks a student to help rearrange the classroom furniture, is this perceived as showing how responsible the teacher believes the student to be, and therefore a way of contributing to everyone’s learning? Or just something annoying that keeps them from enjoying their break time, to which they feel entitled? I’ve often noticed that the same tasks a teacher might employ in a detention, such as cleaning and tidying up the classroom, are tasks that other students might have well volunteered to do for fun. I remember one child who loved being given gloves and tools to scrape chewing gum off desks. But if certain tasks become labelled as ‘detention activities’, it naturally follows that no one’s going to want to do them any more. Positives into negatives If we’re not careful, we can poison the well by turning things childrenmay like to do – or at least, not mind doing all that much – into tasks they most certainly don’t want to do. This is a particular danger whenever reading or writing is used as a punishment. I once saw a deputy head knock on the maths department’s office and ask for some ‘really boring maths questions’ for a naughty student to complete in isolation. The head of maths quickly sent him packing, empty-handed, telling him that there’s no such thing as ‘boring maths’, before muttering that ‘ Maths isn’t a punishment ’. Similar issues can arise when physical exercises are used as punishments. All that these practices do is teach students that they shouldn’t want to write, or do mathematics, or run, or be helpful. These things are obviously bad , because “The tasks a teachermight employ inadetention canbe tasks other studentsmight volunteer todo for fun” 52 teachwire.net/secondary