Hello! I’ve applied for a teaching job in Japan and have an interview in a couple of weeks. One of the questions in the interview will ask “How do you handle a disruptive student?”
I teach in America currently and I wonder if the way we handle disruptive students in the USA is different than in Japan? Please let me know. Thanks!
Edit: I apologize for failing to add more info. It is a before school/ after school program where I would be in a teaching position. I would either be working with kindergarteners, elementary schoolers, or possibly junior high schoolers. It sounds like I would lead a classroom alone.
17 comments
It depends if you’re the assistant or teaching on your own. If you’re teaching under someone, the answer is usually that you should wait for their direction or let them handle the disruption because classroom management is their responsibility.
It depends on the age of the student: with elementary school kids, the most drastic thing I’ve done is pick up the child and deposit the child outside the room.
In a high school, I’ve found utter silence and a steady, menacing stare to work.
In university, I’ve included in syllabi that disruptive students would be asked to leave. In one case, I had a group of disruptive student refuse to leave, so I just had all of the other students follow me to an empty classroom down the hall and continued the lesson there.
What is your “teaching job”?
If you’re an Assistant Language Teacher, you leave it to the actual teacher. You can tell the teacher how the student is disrupting the class if they didn’t notice on their own, but nothing further.
Tell us more about the position you’ve been hired for, and the type of school.
Always get admin/homeroom involved. You are not on equal footing in Japan.
I was an ALT in elementary school in a medium-large city and rarely had disruptive students–my schools were all wonderful, and since most of them were very small schools, they were all tight-knit and the teachers had good classroom discipline. (there were a ton of schools spread all across the city and these schools were in the more suburban/rural parts of the city)
But I remember very clearly one student I had at my biggest school (this school was 100 kids per grade so about 600 kids total) when I was doing an English lesson with a JTE and the kid was just reading manga the entire time. I had no idea what was going on with this kid so I tried involving him in the lesson, and he started getting angry with me and the JTE, so the JTE said to just leave him alone and ignore him. Later I found out that he was emotionally disturbed but his parents didn’t want him labeled or medicated so the school just tended to mostly ignore him. I also heard about an incident when, a few days prior to that lesson, I had been at a different school for the day and this ED kid had thrown a chair at a teacher.
If you’re an ALT, leave discipline/decisions like that to the JTE/HRT. Very rarely will you get a teaching job as a foreigner and be expected to handle discipline because you don’t have a relationship with the parents, so you don’t know what’s going on with a kid or what methods work best for disciplining them.
They ignore them or the vp gets involved.
If you’re an ALT, then as the assistant you have no real power to impose consequences for disruptive behavior. That job is with the teacher you work under. They don’t send kids to the office or give them detention like in the US. In my experience they’ll either chew the kid out in front of the class or yell at them after class in the hallway or in the teacher’s office. Calls home happen, but not often I don’t think. Been in a few classrooms where the teacher just does nothing, or left me to do all the classroom management. Gets tricky because if the kids call your bluff you’re out of options.
I usually try to get the kids respect, especially the respect of the ring leader (where most of the problems come from). When your students respect you, unless they’re having a rough day, they won’t do anything to disrupt your class. Most disruptive students are boys and I’m an in shape male with a big beard and a long undercut so I look straight out of Vikings. They think I’m super cool so I have it fairly easy. As long as I’m not an asshole and I’m reasonable when kids are having a rough day I can have class without issues 8/10 times.
This question takes me back in time. While I wouldn’t call it “disruptive”, I remember when I was fresh off the boat and doing my first year as an ALT in a fairly typical inaka JHS. Having heard about how the Japanese were a super-disciplined people, I was more than a bit taken aback when I saw a student sleeping at his desk.
I mentioned this in the most neutral tone of voice I could conjure up to the JTE (i.e. the Japanese English teacher, the real teacher) and he made a noncommittal noise and did exactly nothing.
Anyway. Yeah. Like others have said. If there is the likelihood of you being alone in the classroom with the kids (and to be honest, that sounds risky, only in terms of what would go down if something happened), I would first ask whoever is responsible for you to lay out, as clearly as possible, to what degree you are allowed to impose discipline. I’d even insist on it being written down.
Unless you’re teaching at Trash Yanki JHS, you’re unlikely to get real physical disruption. The kind of thing you’ll more likely be looking at is kids talking, sleeping, and generally not wanting to be there. (Another vignette: I remember being sort of amused / baffled when the teacher asked a question and called on a student to answer it. The kid stood up, stated (in a pretty clear voice) “わかりません” (“dunno sir”) and sat right back down again!)
In this case, knowledge is power. Find out what you can and can’t do and make sure you know the chain of command (hint: you’re almost certainly at the bottom of it).
Unless you’re licensed, I don’t think you’ll be left alone with the students. There ought to be some kind of staff member in the room usually in the back if you’re leading it. Someone can let me know if that’s not the case.
What do you do? Acknowledge their existence (they’re doing it for a reason) “okay, I see” or “oh, that’s unique” then move on. They still might continue running their mouth but it’s not really fun for them to keep going when you’re not reacting. I usually think there’s something going on with the student (broken home or they have special needs). If you’re really concerned then ask their teacher/staff about it after class and they’ll tell you. They usually talk with students after class and might mention it to their parent (they might not act anyway).
At the end of the day, it’s not about you so don’t take it personal or escalate it when the entire class is trying to get through the entire school day with them.
How do you handle disruptive students in America?
I work at an eikaiwa. I tell manager if the student is disruptive, then she calls mom and lets her know. Then usually mom gives me permission to yell at them.
Then I scare the shit out of them
ALT: Do NOTHING. Allow the actual teacher to handle it. (That is the interview answer. Once you get to your school, many will ask you to handle it.)
What Japanese Teachers do: Yell, make kids cry.
My opinion: If a student is misbehaving, their needs aren’t being met. Perhaps the class is boring, which is my fault. I should reflect on this.
Japanese teachers lost the ability to discipline a long time ago, and depending on the school some parents even have financial investments/status that allows the child to be a shit. I’ve seen some teachers (as an ALT) do nothing, I seen some give stern talking to their kids, and some actually defer to a badass teach (gym teacher) to do the discipline for the whole school.
Heard one story of a rich family’s kid that actually was running the school bullying the teachers and students. They ended up calling the police to the principals office and the kid thought his influence extended to the law. They slapped the shit out of him.
If you’re there as an ALT, then it’s not your job.
Even if you are going to be an ALT, please dont say “I’ll leave it for the other teacher..” most of the advice in this thread is horrid.
Focus on prevention methods. Strong relationships with students, fun and engaging lessons, meeting kids SEL needs….
You can also talk about using time out, redirecting with language, positive reinforcement vs negative.
All the usual things..
I work at Nova. I was told to do a deep scary voice, use their name. Sometimes it works. Most times they don’t care. I don’t get paid enough to care. I just keep teaching and focus on the students who care. What I’ve found though is that the smartest students are the most disruptive. They’re just bored.
What type of school? If you’re coming from the US are you interviewing in an International School? I can’t speak to Japanese schools but in International schools, you will find problems non-existent in comparison to US schools. For that interview question, best to just answer in terms that reflect best practice – most discipline problems are handled with well organized lessons, etc. Classroom management 101. Ask Chatgpt if you’re in doubt.. Suggested answer “personally, well organized lessons solve most problems with disruption as if students are engaged they are less likely to act out. On the rare occasion when students are disruptive I speak to them after class and it usually resolves itself. If that doesn’t work, I try to discuss the situation with their parents to gain more insight”. Your answer should reflect confidence & command of the learning environment.
Hello, head English teacher here who teaches English to about 16 students in a class.
How I deal with disruptive students is to calmly and firmly tell them that they are being disruptive to other members. I tell them that there is conversation time before the lesson and during the break (usually 1-2 minutes while I prepare for next lesson).
My advice is to be firm and stick to your guns. Don’t be wishy-washy and trying to be reasonable with disruptive students. Politely and sternly tell them that the lesson has started and that they need to listen so that they can learn. If they refuse, set up a consequence for their actions. Students want to be guided and need clear boundaries and consequences.