Class room management - handling class-created rebels

Two decades ago a college class room would have a handful of students who would rebel against teachers. These students had a framework of operation. They would be as soft as breeze in a knowledgeable teacher's class and as violent as a storm in a un-knowledgeable teacher's class. Outside the class room they were polite to the knowledgeable teacher and bullied the un-knowledgeable teacher.


Today there has been a paradigm shift in the frame work of the students because of the knowledge exposure. Students are no more worried about gaining knowledge from the teacher. The brilliant student has read much better books/internet sites and is bored in the class room. The average/below average student needs no 'explanations', rather he wants 'notes' to pass.

The current rebel categories:

1. A teacher has to be  interestingly knowledgeable; have excellent communication skills; have  a proper quantity of rhetoric skills. Otherwise  the brilliant student becomes a rebel.

2. A teacher has to be  capable of explaining the most difficult concepts in a simple manner; give simple illustrations; give simple, memorisable notes. Otherwise, the average/below average student becomes a rebel.

All said and done, a teacher plays a very significant role in creating/removing rebels. A rebel once created tries to practice the style in every class.

How do we tackle these class-created rebels?

The brilliant rebels

1. Illustrations carrying a variety of emotions: Every teacher has to train himself in collecting illustration to explain concepts. Each concept can be explained each time with a different illustration. Each time the subject is revised the teacher can change the illustration. These illustrations can be drawn from the popular culture/serious philosophy. That is, the illustrations must alternate in emotions. they should be humorous at times, sarcastic at times, ethical at times etc. The emotions should vary. The lecture should be so interesting  that the brilliant student must feel that the internet notes are boring.

2. High quality notes:  The brilliant student needs challenges. therefor the notes prepared must be complex, complete in knowledge.

3. Extra reading assignments: The teacher has to make these students realise their intellectual potential. They have to be reminded again and again that this god-given potential has to be cultivated by reading. Also they have to be taught the ethics of contributing to society. There is a need to be humble and hardworking. Intelligence will not be of any use if it is not backed up with hard work. Biographies of great leaders/scientists will be handy and the teacher can quickly talk about anecdotes in a minute. Names of books have to be given in every class to this group. Relentlessly the teacher has to monitor their reading, keep asking them to come to the front of the class to talk about what they have read.

4. Building rapport:  The teacher has to remember that intelligent minds are easily bored. So he should never lose his eye contact with these students.  Books can be discussed other than the prescribed ones everyday. It is smart to keep these students mentally closer to the teacher.


The average rebels

1. Simple notes: The teacher can prepare remedial notes. Give these notes in the beginning of the semester itself. So that they can keep studying everyday. For a student who is not comfortable with English, this practice will be a great service. Because memorizing the points takes time.

2. Checking illustrations:  The teacher has to make sure the illustrations do not hurt the weak students. They have to be treated just as the brilliant ones are treated.

3. Simple assignments:  The teacher can give assignments that are picture oriented rather than concept oriented. The best thing to do is to give  broad options for the entire class: PPTs, E-Mails, hand written, Charts, Printed, minimum one page to maximum 10 pages etc. Each category assignments have to be applauded only if they have the expected quality. It is better to be strict in evaluation. The students will gradually 'rise' to the teacher's expectation. It might take even a full semester to reach this point. Out of 50 students who are average, of 5 students do well, it is great success for the teacher.

4. Rapport:  Most of the times the teacher divides the class into two groups: studying and not-studying. This paves way for building rebels. The studying group becomes 'over-confident' and the not-studying group become 'demotivated.' A rapport can be built with the average students by giving them responsibilities. Initially they will not perform as they might not trust this new 'attitude' in a teacher.  The teacher has to keep on trying and one by one these students will come around. This is made possible by making the class understand that different kind of 'intelligences' exist: academic, sports, fine-arts, organisational, leadership, financial etc. It must be made very clear that all students are  equal no matter what their background, marks, personality and class performance. This will eliminate rebel behaviour in the average students. It will build their self-esteem and confidence. Most of the times rebels are students who need sincere attention.


To remove rebellious behaviour from the class room the teacher needs the following:

1. Knowledge with the latest updates

2. Thorough preparation

3. Respect for the teaching profession

4. Respect for students

5. Well defined goals for the class. Ex: All should pass, Every one should speak English, Should get the sports cup, should get the fine arts cup, at least one University rank etc.

6. An awareness of the limitations of  knowledge,  the drawbacks of intelligence as a tool, the imperfectness of human knowledge systems etc.

7. Ability to apply concepts to real life situations

8. Faith in life

Class room management - 1. The Class Room as a social space

What is the structure of a class room?

What is its significance in the life of a student?

How does it shape the individual in a student?

What is the role played by the teacher in using this space to 'create' and 'shape' the qualities of a student?


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The arrangement of furniture offers a faithful image of the familial and social structures of a period

- Jean Baudrillard in 'The System of Objects'

The Fixed Furniture

The class room is arranged in rows of chairs /desks where the students are seated in two/three/four  columns or divisions. Some schools have allotted names to these segments. Colleges generally do not go by these small groups in the class room. The students are seated in their places from nine in the morning till three or four in the evening in schools. In colleges it may be from eight/nine in the morning to one/two in the afternoon. The teacher stands in front of the class room and teaches/lectures/explains/demonstrates. Some teachers keep walking and enter the Columns and go to the last rows. Most of the teachers in colleges do not do this as they have to stand and explain in detail. Some school teachers also never move out of their center position. 

Teacher as an Administrator

In general this is the class room arrangement that reflects a hierarchic model of class room administration. The teacher becomes the boss/manager/administrator/leader/guide/supervisor/patriarch/mentor/counsellor. Within this authoritarian structure the student's personality is shaped for 14 years in schools and minimum 3 years in college. This physical and mini-social structure in the class room has defined the type of teaching done and the type of learning done in the class rooms in the last 50 years. 

The Noisy class room of nature - painting - oil on canvas - Mr. S. Chellaiah

Route learning where the student sits and learns his learning materials thoroughly is the end this has resulted in. It has helped students learn vast amount of texts by heart as the sitting position has created the atmosphere for the student to memorise facts. 

Universities sanction 70 students per class in an Arts college as they are catering to the needs of the existing class room method. 

Complex Syllabi

Educators have been preparing their lessons addressing this facility provided and every year the syllabi for the schools have increased their complexity, as the students have shown enormous ability to learn any text given to them by heart and reproduce it in papers in the similarly arranged class room where they take their examinations. 

Engineering colleges also follow the same style in  preparation of the curricula and put students through maximum theories. Arts  colleges have diluted considerably that they give asylum to the students who cannot tackle complex curricula.

Student unrest

Engineering/Arts/school students come under the same frame work of learning materials sitting in a class room, listening to a teacher or just learning them by heart. It is a teacher centred education system, and if teachers do not do their lecturing in class rooms it creates student unrest. Colleges where teachers have not been ritualistic in class room teaching have seen great student unrest and these students also create civic problems. Excepting probably 5% of students who are self-learners, the rest of Indian student community is dependent on the teacher at the school/college levels. 

The Teacher as a Speaker

The teacher continues to rule standing as a public speaker, away from his audience. This is the hierarchical system and education has to be understood keeping this important fact in mind. The arrangement of the class room furniture is an unchanging factor that  describes the Indian mental structure. It is shaped by traditions and authority. Inter-personal relationships between the teacher and the student are formed within this structure. Every physical space is created by even thousands of years' practices, thought patterns and culture. 

The Teacher is next to God

The class room of today is only an extension of the ancient Indian system where the teacher was kept in the highest social order. Today in a capitalistic society the student knows that he is paying for his education and tends to show disrespect to the teacher, but only if the teacher does not deliver his profound knowledge resources well. The student in private education sphere has two expectations: the teacher should know the subject thoroughly; he should deliver it well. Even privatization of education has not changed the ancient Indian order of society that put great teachers at the top of the social order. The best teachers are celebrated everywhere in spite of globalised views and the exposure to the knowledge of the internet resources.  

This happens because the class room still gives space to the teacher who knows his subject thoroughly to stand and deliver to his student audience every day. This recognition given to the Indian teacher has to be utilized by the teaching community. The Indian class room does not have the space or ambience to convert the teacher into the facilitator. The teacher continues to be an authoritarian model, highly ethical, impartial, objective and updating himself every day. 

Innovation in the Class Room

To combine western methodologies with Indian methods every school/college has to allot one or two  larger class rooms with movable furniture/closed windows and doors/ internet enabled computers with a projector etc.  to enable the teacher mover around freely and facilitate the students into learning in an active mode. Teachers may not know how to use this larger room. They still might continue to stand, as they would feel sensitive of their 'loss' of position in the front of the class room. They need to be exposed to training as to 'use' of the larger space in the class room. 

The class room has emerged as a modern concept using chairs, tables, a platform etc. and customizing these to a traditional learning atmosphere. It has not replaced old values, belief systems or attitudes. To exploit the intellectual space it gives to the authority figure of the teacher, he/she has to understand its values and emerge as an individual fulfilling its expectations.