ABSTRACT
In order that children learn at least at an age-appropriate level a class teacher needs to recognise that certain ‘behaviours’ are essential in establishing the conditions which promote engagement with the curriculum task set. So it isn’t really surprising that emphasis for ‘order’ and ‘discipline’ has been a feature of many commentaries on the state of schools during the last 20 years or so (Young, 1997). At times there has been sensationalist coverage in the media on the failure of a school, or an individual teacher, to ‘manage’ pupils who challenge the system on account of their behaviour (Clark, 1998). Moreover, behaviour in schools carries with it a high dividend for politicians, so emotive is the level of feeling about the learning of others being disrupted. Ask any parent to explain what in their view makes a ‘good’ school and they will invariably include ‘good discipline’ as one of their top distinguishing characteristics.
