Progress-focused

Some time ago, I heard about a situation in which a student behaved disruptively in class. I will repeat here, from memory, what happened. The teacher asked the student if he would calmly join the lesson and pay attention. The student did not directly reply and went on with his disruptive behavior. Then some other students started making comments like: "Just send him to the hall, miss." The teacher replied: "No, I will not send him to the hall", to which the students said: "Why not? He is behaving very badly." The teacher replied: "If I send students to the hall, they will not learn how to behave appropriately in the classroom. That is why I won't do that." Then she repeated here question to the student to calmly pay attention to the lesson which he then started to do without complaining. This approach seems counter-intuitive. Shouldn't you just be tough to students behaving badly? Maybe not. A new paper provides some insight into what ...

The need for autonomy is a universal basic need of people. When it is satisfied we feel better and we function better in all kinds of ways ( view this ). Therefore it is wise to support other people's need for autonomy in all kinds of contexts. This can be done in several ways: by providing choice, by encouraging self-initiative and experimentation, by asking for and using their input in decisions, etc. A new study points at yet another way of supporting autonomy by respecting individuals as equals.