Birsen Tütüniş - Positive Psychology, Positive Discipline - KOTESOL 2019

Classroom management systems are the processes adopted by teachers and school managers to maintain appropriate behavior. However, the variety of classroom management systems sometimes causes confusion between positive discipline and classroom management. Positive discipline encourages students to focus on self-discipline, responsibility, cooperation, and problem solving skills.

Blending positive psychology into ELT classes will create positive behavior towards language learning and will end up with the creation of positive student identities. However, despite the fact that effective classroom management results in positive outcomes, teachers report a lack of support in implementing classroom management strategies.

This paper presents teachers’ (N = 105) beliefs and attitudes towards positive discipline for better classroom management. Subject teachers are chosen randomly from kindergarten to upper secondary schools with the maximum diversity sampling method. A questionnaire designed by the presenter and validated by field experts was used to collect the data. It is an ongoing project, and the results will be given during the presentation.

Biographical Sketch

Birsen Tütünis is a professor currently teaching at Istanbul Kultur University in Turkey. She has received her PhD from the University of Sussex, UK. She has worked at several universities in Turkey holding positions as English instructor, senior lecturer, and administrator. She has conducted research on a variety of topics, including computer-assisted language learning, language learning styles and strategies, and teacher education. Her recent interest lies on blended teaching and learning. She has written articles and books on different issues related to TEFL. She has been awarded the Istanbul Kultur University Scientific Award (2018). The latest book she contributed to, Learning Strategy Instruction in the Language Classroom, was published in May 2019. She has been invited as a keynote speaker to international conferences like NTELT, ICRE, LIF, BETA-IATEFL,and ALLT-Konin.

Prof. Tutunis has been the coordinator of the IATEFL Teacher Training and Education SIG (TTEd SIG) for several years and is currently the SIG’s events coordinator. She is also on the editorial board of the ELT Research Journal.

(Featured session at the 2019 Korea TESOL International Conference.)

Recorded and edited by Wayne Finley for the International Conference Publicity Team.