The aim of the research was to gain insight into the views of the teachers of the natural science at SESGŠ Kranj on the various forms of punishment they use and which are available to them. In the empirical part, a semi-structured interview was conducted with four teachers of the natural science at SESGŠ Kranj. After the interviews, we started to process the data using the method of qualitative content analysis. We investigated what behaviors teachers identify as disturbing, how they experience them, how they react to them, what is their purpose of punishment, how they evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen forms of punishment, what other measures they use and what kind of relationship teachers establish with students in terms of authority and setting boundaries.
We found that teachers define disturbing behavior differently. For most teachers, confronting this type of behavior evokes feelings of discomfort, nervousness or impatience. Different teachers react differently to acting out, and the response depends on a variety of current internal and external factors. What they all have in common is that they set clear rules at the beginning of the school year. They believe that the first impression is the most important for building a teacher's authority. Teachers find it difficult to draw the line between formal and informal relationships, yet they prefer to position themselves more distantly, even though they want and believe it is right for the teacher as an authority figure to be kind, fair and understanding towards the students. They are more likely to adopt a stricter stance because they are worried that students will take advantage of attitude that is kinder and more personal. They resort to both informal and formal measures when disturbing behavior appears. They see the purpose of the intervention in changing the student's behavior or stopping the acting-out behavior. They are often critical of formal measures. They consider that punishment is too impersonal and bureaucratic a measure, which works in the moment but not in the long term. Some consider that formal measures are effective as a means of intimidating the rest of the class, although not all teachers consider this type of teaching practice desirable. Alternative measures are used less frequently, although they are considered to be more effective in the long run. We also found that there is a misunderstanding among teachers about alternative interventions, and thus inadequate implementation of these interventions.
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