ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the interactions between teachers and pupils in the classroom, for it is in the classroom where the major portion of teacher–pupil interaction takes place, and it is where we find the very heart of the process of education in its interpersonal aspects. The basic unit of an interaction between a teacher and pupil, or between any two persons, consists of one bit of behaviour emitted by one person followed by a bit of behaviour emitted by the second person which is contingent on the first person's behaviour. In schools most teachers are concerned to establish or maintain themselves as masters of the situation. It is very important to realize that conformity to the disciplinary role plays as important a part in the teacher's evaluation of the pupil as does conformity to the instructional role. The task of the teacher as disciplinarian is the establishment and maintenance of discipline and order in the classroom.
