The teacher’s job encompasses both the teaching of the formal curriculum – knowledge and understanding connected to different subjects and topics – and the teaching of a hidden curriculum involving morality, how to behave and succeed in the wider world, and other similar areas.
This reflects the fact that schools are both institutions designed to educate children in the shared knowledge and understanding a culture has developed, as well as a place of transition between the world of the family and the world of society.
They are an agent of socialisation serving a twin purpose.
As such, when we develop, communicate and apply rules, we are in fact teaching our learners.
This includes teaching them about the fundamental role rules play in culture and society, as well as what it means when rules are upheld, broken or ignored.
If we manage behaviour well, we teach learners a great deal more than the content of the curriculum.
We also teach them about the importance of self-control, self-discipline, teamwork, and taking account of the expectations others have of us.
On the flipside, if we manage behaviour poorly, it is much harder for us to help learners develop this side of themselves – their character.
Thinking about the development, communication and application of rules as a means of teaching can help to temper our responses to learners who challenge or break the rules.
Sometimes, emotion can get the better of us, causing us to respond harshly to behaviour we see as unacceptable.
Granted, on occasions, it is important to demonstrate the severity of response certain behaviour can engender, though this is more powerful as a learning experience if it is rare.
A better approach is to think about how we can teach learners through our example.
This sees us remaining calm and assertive, carefully explaining to learners why what they have done is wrong and what needs to happen to rectify the situation.
Dealing with rule-challenging and rule-breaking behaviour in this way means we are teaching learners a wider truth about how culture and society believe conflict should be dealt with.
Through words, reason and discussion, rather than through anger or aggression.
Seeing rules as a prism through which teaching can happen will also help you to develop rapport with your learners.
This is because they will see your response to rule-challenging and rule-breaking behaviour as disciplinary and developmental, rather than simply the former.
This reflects some of the deepest, oldest senses of what a teacher is: a guide who admonishes where necessary and supports wherever they can, always with the intention of doing their best for the learners with whom they work.
But what does it mean to define and police the boundaries your rules set up?
After all, if we have rules, we have boundaries.
These are the limits of acceptable behaviour.
Not all rules have distinct boundaries.
Some have fuzzy edges, with a zone of uncertainty after which the real boundary sits.
Lying is a good example of this.
We all agree that lying is wrong, but many people would also agree that white lies are often OK, particularly if they spare another person’s feelings and do no harm.
Thus, the boundary of acceptable behaviour in relation to lying does not begin immediately at the point at which people start to lie.
Instead, there is a zone of indeterminacy.
Beyond this, there is a clear boundary most of us we would recognise covering things such as lying to cheat, lying to gain an unfair advantage, and lying to cause harm to others.
To effectively police your boundaries, you need to define them.
This means that you need to identify whether a zone of indeterminacy exists and, if it does, where it stops.
For example, one of your rules might be that all learners should refrain from social conversation during the lesson.
This might stem from your belief that, in the classroom, learning must always take precedence.
However, on reflection, you might decide that absolute enforcement of this boundary may be counterproductive.
Therefore, you choose to have a boundary that means a little bit of social chat is acceptable, as long as it does not interfere with learners’ work.
With your boundary clarified and defined, it is easier to police.
And it is easier to communicate with your learners, giving them clarity over what is and what isn’t acceptable.
Some rules have very clear boundaries – no chewing gum in class, for example – while others are harder to define.
It is this second class to which you should pay most attention, so that you know for certain where your boundaries lie (and can share this information with your learners).
There are two more things to say about boundaries before we finish.
First, learners want and need boundaries.
These are the extents of the rules – written and unwritten – that matter in your classroom.
Crossing a boundary means engaging in behaviour that is not desirable.
Boundaries make this clear and unambiguous.
If learners don’t know where the boundaries lie, they will find it harder to behave as you want them to and will struggle to predict behaviour – yours and that of their peers.
Second, children and young adults test boundaries.
That’s life!
In so doing, they are seeking to learn.
To understand what they are allowed to do.
(Or what they can get away with!)
Defining your boundaries in advance means you are in a strong position when these tests come along.
You can tell learners when they are getting close to the line and when they have crossed it.
This is the information they seek.
They want clarity about where the boundaries are and what happens if they cross them.
If you know your boundaries already, it is much easier to maintain them when they are tested.
(Compare this to a teacher who is uncertain over their boundaries and who, as a result, struggles to define them in the moment, while learners are testing them. In this scenario, poor behaviour is more likely to develop and will be harder to resolve.)
