Reflections on the readings: teens, discipline and motivation

This brief essay aims to comment on the topics above, first developing each other separately, then merging them so as to see the implications they have on our teaching practice.

Teens

The article "Tá na cabeça", from the January issue of Revista Galileu dissolves some of the popularly known beliefs about this stage of life. Instead of blaming all the mess on hormones, science (specially the advances of neuroscience) has later discovered that it is rather the brain the guilty one for the continuing changes that occurs between the ages of 10 to 20. Some things that we as adults can count on, such as abstract knowledge and anticipation of consequences are still developing on the young brain, making it harder for teens to deal with some situations. On the other hand, they have a bigger advantage when it comes to expand their knowledge using logic and abstract reasoning - which explains why they are so good at using new gadgets - , having a wider contact with different cultures and artistic productions, which leads them to develop the ability of putting themselves on someone else's shoes: in this age they value friends and social acquaintances.

Discipline
Magdalena Sulich, in an essay at the English Teaching Forum (July 2004), takes into account the several meanings that the word “discipline” had have through ages. Not very long ago, discipline used to be seen as an important aspect of the classroom: the students should be working quietly and shouldn’t disrespect their classmates or teacher. It didn’t matter the means that the teacher would employ to achieve this. Nowadays, though respect is still important (and more difficult to get), discipline has a very close relation to motivation: if the students feel that the class is working and they are making a profit on it, they will contribute to keep the order. However, there are some games and strategies that students use when trying to disturb the classroom, such as asking silly questions, mocking classmates and teachers, and so on. Teachers have to be aware of them and try to anticipate them, so that they can prevent it from happening, or put an end to it before it ruins the lesson. Teachers can (and should) act immediately, making eye contact, calling the student to answer a question and so on. The most important strategy is to have a clear set of rules, which should be created together with the students, so that they know how they should behave and what happens if they don’t.

Motivation
Debora Oss (2006) brings us several concepts of “motivation”, especially when it comes to teaching a foreign language to teens at regular school. There are several reasons underlying motivation, but it can be said that the effort made by a student to learn a foreign language is related to the their feelings regarded the target language, i.e. if they value the language and the culture, and the reward they will get from learning it, such as achieving a higher job position. Debora found out that teens are motivated, specially because they want to be a part of the English speaking community, not necessarily located in English speaking countries, but worldwide through internet.

Putting it together:
To keep teens motivated and disciplined in the classroom, we have to present challenging situations, when all their thoughts will be busy with the problem to be solved. Of course that it is very demanding, but it is out job, as teachers, to get to know our students and bring them new stuff… They can be very challenging and try to disturb us, but they are just trying out limits and we should not give in.