Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
This study investigated teacher learning about verbal discipline in professional conversations. The purpose was to analyse learning conversations about verbal discipline in order to contribute to the understanding of how and what teachers learn in professional conversations. This study was a qualitative study that adopted ethnomethodology research design. Six teachers in one primary school in the East London Education District were selected using purposive sampling method. Video recording was used to capture the 100 minutes, 04 seconds learning conversations among the teachers. Three conversation sessions were video recorded for three days after which the teachers wrote their learning thoughts as additional data. The second conversation session which lasted for 31minutes, 56 seconds and the written learning thoughts of the teachers were selected, transcribed and analysed to answer the research questions in this study. Both conversation and content analyses were used for the data analysis. Four episodes from the second conversation session were transcribed using Jefferson notations and analysed using Clayman and Gill conversation analysis levels to ascertain how teachers learn in professional conversations while content analysis was used to analyse the written learning thoughts of the teachers to determine what teachers learn about VD after the conversations. Findings from both analyses show that teachers through conversational actions; participatory approach; individual and group responses; repairing/assisting; non-vocal action and practice of sharing ideas learnt that: VD is a reliable disciplining strategy; VD is effective in changing learners’ behaviour and instilling order in the classroom, but depends on application; Emotions should be avoided when disciplining learners, as effective VD should be practised with love, reasoning and respect; VD is a corrective way of changing learners’ behaviour against punitive measure; the background of a learner should be understood before application of any form of discipline and that VD is a form of discipline strategy in school. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made to improve classroom discipline and teacher learning: Teachers should embrace professional conversation in schools to discuss, reflect and share classroom experiences with colleagues for learning; conversational actions, approaches, strategies and practice discovered in this study should be taken up by teachers to encourage own/professional learning; teachers should avoid emotions when disciplining learners as the finding indicated that their approaches most times affect learners; teachers should have background knowledge of their learners before the application of any form of discipline, as the finding showed that most behavioural problems originate from home and practices at home also differ from school methods; Department of Education should involve research experts in teacher/professional learning in school workshops to present their findings and recommendations to further enrich teacher learning. Department of Education should reproduce the policy document (Alternatives to Corporal Punishment) into handbook and distribute to teachers as the finding indicated that most teachers lack content knowledge of the policy.