REEHOLD, N.J., Dec. 4 — Forty- three more striking teacher-union members from Middletown, N.J., were sentenced to a week in jail today for defying a court back-to- work order, joining four colleagues already jailed. 

The contempt hearing is to resume here on Wednesday, and the jailings of union members — about 1,000 of whom went out on strike — seem likely to continue throughout the week unless the four-day walkout ends. Bargaining resumed tonight at a motel in Red Bank, with two state mediators assisting negotiators.

About 10:30 p.m., a member of the school board negotiating team, Britt Raynor, said: "We're very concerned about the tachers being in jail. Hopefully, we can get this settled and those teachers will get out of jail post haste."

The collective sobbing of teachers stunned by the start of the jailings late Monday afternoon gave way today to a mix of moods in the hallways and courtyard of the Monmouth County Hall of Records here, as Judge Clarkson S. Fisher Jr. continued imposing the sentences.

Allyson Bajor, 12, stood crying in a hallway outside Judge Fisher's courtroom as her mother, Diane, 46, an art teacher, was led away in handcuffs. Mrs. Bajor paused and tried to cradle her daughter's cheeks in her hands. "You have to be good," Mrs. Bajor said. "You have to be strong."

But other emotions predominated today. Instead, the hundreds of striking teachers and secretaries gathered outside the Hall of Records and in Judge Fisher's courtroom were defiant and exuberant, solemn as well as buoyant.

During the morning, Judge Fisher sought to avoid the jailings at least three times by offering to order around-the-clock contract bargaining under his supervision if the teachers obeyed the order he issued on the first day of the strike last Thursday and returned to Middletown's 17 schools immediately. 

But the union's lawyer, Sanford Oxfeld, refused the offer. Almost to a person, 67 striking union members asked today by the judge and a lawyer for the Middletown Board of Education, Douglas J. Kovats, said they would not return to class until the Board of Education signed a fair contract settlement.

Several teachers denounced the board during the questioning. Each time Judge Fisher found groups of three or four or five people in contempt and deputies led them out of the courtroom for processing, the 150 teachers in the courtroom stood and applauded their colleagues. Judge Fisher did nothing to silence these demonstrations.

The atmosphere outside the Hall of Records was festive. Three members of the marching band of the Middletown North High School came with saxophone, trumpet and clarinet, and played pep tunes. About 10 members of the football team from Middletown South High School, which won a state championship game Saturday, came in support of the head coach and an assistant coach, both now in jail.

Other teachers formed a phalanx outside a rear door and cheered handcuffed colleagues each time deputies led them to vans for the trips to the county jail. 

After the court sessions had ended, 400 teachers gathered in front of the Hall of Records and listened as a union leader took a bullhorn and read the names of the 47 now in jail.

A union theme throughout the day was criticism of the Middletown School Board. In effect, the striking teachers turned Judge Fisher's process of asking them for the reasons they violated his order into a forum for attacking the board.

The teachers called the board a dictatorial body that showed the union little respect. One teacher told the judge the board had likened teachers to members of the Taliban.

"The board does not know the definition of good faith bargaining," one teacher, Victor Bayers, told the judge. Another, Lori Best, who was jailed today along with her husband, Charles, said she had taught in Middletown for 21 years. "In that whole 21 years, we've never settled a contract peacefully," Ms. Best said. 

Besides jailing 43 teachers and secretaries today, Judge Fisher declined to send 22 to jail because of a variety of family and medical problems. They were still found in contempt, however. Two other teachers told the judge they would obey his order and return to work.

Another board lawyer, Michael Gross, said board officials had told him today that about 100 teachers returned to work, up from 50 on Monday. The union president, Diane Swaim, said she doubted that 100 had split with the union. But she acknowledged she did not know how many had gone back to work today.

Today, Judge Fisher called in a second judge to question teachers.