How do you get them quiet? Some teacher testimony

This was one of the most commonly mentioned problems for student teachers in particular, and the most common piece of advice from mentors was not to talk over the class, and to wait for the class to be silent and attentive before starting to talk, as with a conductor about to start a piece of music with an orchestra.

Cowley (2002: 22) eloquently makes a case for the power of this approach:

‘My first discussion with a new class is always about my requirement for silence whenever I address them. I make it clear that I will achieve this no matter what… If you work with challenging children, or in a school where behaviour is a big issue, this is not easy. The temptation is to give up at the first hurdle, to talk over them in your desperation to get some work done. But consider the signals you are giving if you talk while they are not listening. The unspoken message is that… you don't expect to be listened to.'

Cowley goes on to suggest a range of strategies for following up this aim, including waiting for them to be quiet: ‘If you have the nerve, call your students' bluff by waiting for them to fall silent. If you are willing to hold out, eventually many classes will become quiet without any further input from you.'

This is perhaps a good example of a principle of procedure, to be tested to see if it works or not. One of the standard questions I asked in the interviews with teachers was how they tried to get their classes to be quiet in order to start the lesson. Many of them mentioned the strategy of not starting the lesson until they were quiet. In two cases, teachers reported that it didn't work (after waiting 23 and 40 minutes). In several other cases, teachers questioned whether the time and effort spent waiting could be justified in terms of the teaching time lost:

‘With my most difficult groups in afternoon periods I still sometimes end up teaching over some talking, I still haven't got the power to get them all quiet for any length of time and the lesson would be too stop-start.. I'd waste too much time.'

(NQT)

One mentor suggested that trainee teachers, for understandable reasons, sometimes lacked the confidence to persevere with this strategy long enough for it to work:

‘I see some trainees give up just too soon… they start when the class is still not really quiet and paying attention… they are nearly there… if they just said “We still don't quite have silence… Gary ? Alan…?” Another minute and they could have had them just so but they just didn't quite have the confidence.'

(Third year of teaching)

Several teachers reported that sticking doggedly to not talking until pupils were quiet did work for them, although in several cases this took a considerable amount of time to achieve:

‘More than anything, it was just stubbornness and perseverance. Until Christmas, I was continually pointing out that they mustn't talk while I am talking. We have a 5 steps system… 5 times when your name is on the board for transgressions and they have to go out. I had to constantly use that system, marking it on the board when kids talked out of turn. It didn't seem to be working and then after Christmas, it started to take effect… it started to work.'

(NQT in a challenging school)

‘I had one year 8 class, I just couldn't get them quiet. On occasions, the deputy head had to come in to get them to be quiet. After a term of flogging the same rule, lesson after lesson, it has started to work. Even kids coming back into the class from the behaviour unit fall in with it… they do what the other kids have got used to doing. I'm not saying that they are quiet all the time, or that things are easy, but compared to the first term, it's a transformation.'

(NQT)

‘With a new class I make a conscious effort in the first lesson, the first week, to spend a lot of time and effort very reasonably but firmly and clearly getting across a few key ground rules…. Only two or three, and the biggest one is not talking while I talk. I make it clear that if they talk over me, I will pick that up, that is not OK and there will be a smallish, reasonable sanction applied. The second anyone breaks it, I pick it up. If you can just get this accepted and applied so everyone knows the score from week one… that it's the norm that you don't talk while I'm talking.. it makes it so much easier and at our place this is achievable with most of the classes if you work really hard at it. It won't work if you have a rules overload… if there are ten of them (rules) to remember and apply… you're chewing.. your coat's not off, no turning round, no tapping, if you are going on at them about everything, being mercilessly and gratingly negative… it won't work. First things first. If you can get them to be quiet while you are talking, that is a really important move.'

(Fourth year of teaching)

‘It's a series of small steps… I'll wait for quiet. If some are still talking I'll raise my eyebrow and make eye contact, just to give them a signal. Some of them will cotton on and stop talking at that point. I'll thank the ones who are quiet, “Thank you 7R for being so helpful. I'll ask one who is still talking, by name, to please stop talking. If they don't stop, I'll point out to them that if they don't stop talking, they'll have to stay behind at the end to see me about it. They know that I will do something at the end of the lesson to inconvenience them in some way. I try and give them every chance to comply. It takes a few moments and a bit of patience but at my school, with most classes and most kids, it works, partly because they're used to this ritual, this way of doing things. I'm aware that it might not work everywhere, or if you didn't know the kids. It takes time to get your routines and rituals established.'

(NQT)

‘There are a few lucky people with such natural presence and charisma that it only takes them one glare and the students are reduced to silence. Not being one of them, the only thing I've found that works is sheer persistence – stopping every time you're interrupted and making an example of a couple of people early in the year – phone calls to parents and detentions etc.'

(Second year of teaching)

‘With the year 9s it's harder, they haven't internalised it yet so I can't just glance or warn… I have to stop, praise and thank the one's who are quiet, restate the rules… send out a yellow caution card message – if it doesn't stop I will have to take some specified action to discourage them.'

(Second year of teaching)

‘You make progress gradually and at different rates with different groups. You need to adjust how you handle things according to how good or bad things are. With some groups, I'm confident enough to stop the lesson if there is someone talking. Pick out a few kids and ask them to be quiet please, politely but confidently, firmly… ask them by name.

(NQT)

Another teacher talked of the importance of not forcing pupils to be quiet when it wasn't necessary:

‘Silence is precious – don't waste it'. A cheesy motto perhaps, but remembering this has really improved my classroom management. Some teachers ask students to line up outside the classroom in silence; I think this is misguided -- it penalises the good kids who arrive early. It's also a waste of good silence; why should children be silent if there's nothing interesting to keep quiet for? I make a big fuss about the parts of the lesson where silence is needed – I say something like ‘Now this is the part of the lesson where you are going to have to be quiet for 5 minutes while I explain what we are going to be doing'. This is particularly important with lower ability groups and groups with lots of ADHD kids; they have half a chance of containing their talking if they know how long they have to hold out for. With really tricky groups, I even get one of them to time me – and to add on an extra two minutes when somebody talks.'

(Third year of teaching)

One last piece of feedback in this area; a teaching assistant, giving his opinion of how often the strategy of waiting for quiet appeared to work:

‘What surprised me was how often it worked…. Over 90% of the time.. sometimes more quickly than others… but not every time.'

What conclusions might be drawn from such testimony? That just waiting for pupils to be quiet doesn't always work? That sometimes it doesn't justify the time it wastes? That sometimes teachers don't persevere with it for long enough? That it has to be used in conjunction with other methods to make it work – for example, picking up on pupils who are reluctant to be quiet and punishing them? That the chances of success depend on the school you are working in?

Several teacher educators suggested that one of the differences between trainees who develop towards excellence in this facet of teaching and those who make less progress is partly a question of ‘open-mindedness'. Has reading the extracts above made any difference to your views of waiting for silence; will your practice be in any way different as a result of reading the extracts, or will you carry on pretty much as before?

Cowley, S. (2002) Getting the buggers to behave, London, Continuum.

From Haydn, T. (2007) Managing pupil behaviour: key issues in teaching and learning , London , Routledge: 80-83.

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