Unfortunately, the term burnout is no longer a foreign concept among teachers: "Teachers [...] find the frequent disruptions that take up a lot of teaching time and wear them down in the long term particularly stressful" (Lohmann, 2018, p. 9). At the same time, a study by Maddeh, Bennour and Souissi (2015) on 28 schools in the USA, for example, shows that an average of 1.2 classroom disruptions per minute (!) occur in PE lessons.

Not least since Kounin (1970), classroom disruptions have been addressed as a component of classroom management, especially in English-speaking countries. With the advent of digitalization in all areas of life, and thus also in education, new possibilities for lesson design can be realized. In the strategy paper of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs on education in the digital world, this is mentioned as an opportunity and taken as an opportunity to launch new approaches (KMK, 2016). However, while the scientific discourse on the digitalization of education is growing, the area of disruption in the digital learning setting has so far received little attention. The future, low-disruption, digital lesson design benefits from scientific support right from the start. This results in the need for fundamental research in the field of teaching disruptions in digital learning.

Methodology

Previous reviews in this area (Cho, Mansfield & Claughton, 2020) are limited to literature searches in a database and do little to differentiate the concept of digitization. The new research field of digital learning in particular requires a structured approach. For this reason, a systematic review of international journal articles, which extends the search to several databases and creates a more differentiated concept of digitization in education, is to serve as a fundamental work for the scientific examination of this topic. The databases used for this purpose are the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Academic Search Ultimate (via EBSCOhost) and the Web of Science. To ensure topicality and quality, only articles that have undergone the peer review process and are not older than 10 years are included.

Results

The most striking difference to previous research on teaching disruption in digital learning is the differentiation between online and face-to-face teaching. While all actors are physically present at the same location in face-to-face teaching and digitalization is characterized by the use of digital media and smart technology, a digital infrastructure serves as the basis for online teaching and enables all actors to be physically separated. The sometimes inconsistent or synonymously used terms from the field of digitalization are categorized into a uniform system. Based on this structure, a further subdivision can be made with regard to causes, preventive or intervening behavior in relation to classroom disruptions. It can be assumed that after this multiple categorization, the individual representatives of the categories will be manageable in number and further research needs will be uncovered. Particularly for physical education with its unique feature of movement, special features and specific disruptions in digital learning are likely to emerge.

Discussion and outlook

The review creates the basis for further research and publication projects. At the same time, the systematization of the concept of digitalization serves as a stimulus for further discussion. Topics that have been researched for some time, such as classroom management, can thus be more easily expanded to include interfaces with digitalization. In addition to academia, prospective and practising teachers in particular will benefit from these results. Particularly with regard to the high stress factors of the teaching profession and the associated health risks, further research can provide groundbreaking insights.

Bibliography:

Cho, V., Mansfield, K. C. & Claughton, J. (2020). The past and future technology in classroom management and school discipline: A systematic review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 90. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2020.103037

Kounin, J. S. (1970). Discipline and group management in classrooms. New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston.

Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) (2016). Education in the digital world. Strategy of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. Accessed at www.kmk.org/fileadmin/Dateien/pdf/PresseUndAktuelles/2018/Digitalstrategie_2017_mit_Weiterbildung.pdf (as of 10.07.2020).

Lohmann, G. (2018). Getting along with pupils. Professioneller Umgang mit Unterrichtsstörungen und Disziplinkonflikten (Scriptor-Praxis Sekundarstufe I+II, 13th edition). Berlin: Cornelsen.

Maddeh, T., Bennour, N. & Souissi, N. (2015). Study of Students' Disruptive Behavior in High School Education in Physical Education Classes. Advances in Physical Education, 5, 143-151. doi:10.4236/ape.2015.53018