The Impact of Silence in the Classroom

When working with a particularly energetic and exciting scheme of work, classroom management can often be daunting. I didn't want to become known as 'The Teacher who Shouts all the time", or begin losing my voice!

At the beginning of my school placement this year, I found myself struggling with classroom management with a particular group of students - a challenge I had never faced before! I felt that I had tried all manners of classroom management - assigning jobs, using VSWare points, implementing seating plans, behavioural sanctions, but nothing seemed to be working. I was worried I would either lose control of the class completely, or end up taking all of the learning out of the class by spending more than half of my time controlling behaviour - I thought this scheme of work was doomed.

That was until I came across this article by Amy Hanna, as a part of the British Educational Research Journal. She examined the purpose of silence in a classroom, examining how its importance can echo student voice, and allow learners to express themselves in an alternative way - by not doing so at all.

This got me thinking - was there a way I could use this theory to aid my classroom management?

I then discovered an article by Terry Haydn - "How to get the class quiet - what do teachers say?". It emphasises the importance of waiting for silence - something I had never tried before. I was aware of the need for silence in order to teach, but I never considered physically waiting for it. Cowley (2002: 22, as referenced by Hayden (2023) refers to the waiting for silence as follows:

‘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.’

That was the moment I decided - I was going to try this. And that was the moment my classroom management changed forever - such a small change had such a huge impact - the students were actively noticing me waiting for silence, and a few of them got some nudges from their peers if they continued to talk. I physically felt myself floating when I left that class - I had cracked it, for now at least.

The importance of silence in a classroom is something that I feel is often overlooked (even by myself at the beginning of my placement) - not only does silence command respect, and allow learners to devote their full attention, it also calms a class, and creates a lovely studio environment for students to work in, facilitating a deeper connection to the subject and it's many paths through experiential learning - how can we expect our young artists to look toward a career in art, when we cannot adequately give them that studio experience when they work within schools? While there is always plenty of time and place for talk, chats and a few jokes here and there, I find that an air of quiet productivity benefits both the learners and the teacher, and something I hope to bring to each class of mine - a space to break away from the busy Science labs, or the stressful Irish or Maths classes, and allow students to set goals themselves and work independently as they begin to flourish as young creatives.