How many times have you heard an adult claim “oh it’s because they’re kids” or “they’re just kids”? When observing children it is evident that children behave differently to adults but, Goswami argues children do reason like adults but they lack metacognition skills. From my observations I have seen teachers ask children to reflect on their thinking whether this is traffic lighting their work, asking them to explain their thinking to the class or asking why they think that. For example, in a computing lesson, using the motivating computing programme Scratch involving child-led creation, the teacher asked the children to explain what their sprites (characters) would do before showing the rest of the class. Therefore, the children had to understand what they had created, how it was going to work and their thought processes behind their creation. The National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs and the National Scientific council on the Developing Child in one of their papers claim children considering how they think enables cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility allows us to apply different rules in various settings, ‘think outside the box’ and consider things from a multiple of perspectives. Having these abilities results in children being more likely to succeed in school. Therefore, in my teaching practice, I need to ensure children use self-reflective practices from traffic lighting their work, asking “why they think a certain way” and other techniques. This in turn, should begin to allow children to gain metacognition skills and be more effective in their work. However, this may be a struggle due to time pressures in the curriculum hence it has to be carefully considered in my planning (Larkin, 2009).

In addition, to children lacking metacognition skills Goswami states an important argument in education is whether a child’s brain has the same structures of an adult brain and hence need enrichment and multi-sensory environments. Before, studies (Felder and Silverman, 1988) have focused on a uni–sensory approach defining people into visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners (VAK). However, how can a child learn to ride a bicycle just through audible learning? Goswami argues against this model, stating teachers need to actively encourage multi-sensory environments because learning depends on different regions of the brain being stimulated from visual, memory, perceptual and many more. This is supported by various academics from Sham and Seitz’s research, Blomer & Froyen’s research and others. I have observed this change in paradigm in the classroom. For example, in a Math’s lesson number symbols are used alongside resources, real-life examples, videos and games to ensure children’s understanding from a multi-sensory approach. In a National College for Teaching and Leadership report of one school exploring a multi-sensory approach in maths in Year 4 with a 12-week Numicon project. They found children’s confidence improved significantly in maths.

However, this is a very small-scale study in one school and therefore is not generalizable. In spite of this, I have observed children’s understanding of a concept become clearer if they use resources such as numicon or comparing the maths to a real life example or practicing their timetables in a partner game. Furthermore, with the other research stated above multi-sensory learning environments should be aimed for in the classroom.

In conclusion, I aim to include time for children to self-reflect to improve their metacognition skills and to have a multi-sensory classroom environment to ensure effective learning is achieved.

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References:

Felder, R.M. and Silverman, L.K., (1988) Learning and teaching styles in engineering education. Engineering education, 78(7), pp.674-681.

In 2014, Ofsted stated low –level disruption in the classroom was deeply worrying and having a detrimental impact on pupils learning.  Pupils’ negative behaviours are often spoken about in the press and effective behaviour management is crucial in every school. Therefore, as a trainee teacher, it would be impossible not to know that effective behaviour management is a fundamental skill but, acquiring it is still daunting. This blog will discuss three behaviour strategies I have observed and want to implement in my own classroom.

The recent lecture by Pivotal Education was inspiring and reassuring. I have seen many of the techniques discussed being implemented by my class teacher. One main example is differentiating behaviour management. There are two boys in my class with very complex needs and they need different approaches in handling their behaviour than the rest of the class. Child X often sings and talks creating background noise whilst the teacher is talking. The teacher deals with this behaviour mainly by ignoring it otherwise, it escalates. Furthermore, by engaging with the behaviour humorously or by involving the child directly into the activity Child X will often calm down.  In comparison, if a child without these complex needs were carrying out similar levels of disruption they would be sanctioned. This is not to say, Child X is never sanctioned but the behaviour displayed to warrant a sanction would be considerably different in comparison to maybe a quieter child. Therefore, I need to know the needs of the children in my class and exactly how to respond to reduce the risk of poor behaviour escalating (Southhall, 2015, p.143).

However, if the focus was always on negative behaviour than positive behaviour would rarely be acknowledged. I have observed my teacher effectively awarding children for good behaviour and instilling them with a sense of pride. This may be awarding them a house point, verbal praise or giving them a flamingo cushion. In my school, they have a “have a go Flamingo” and “a give up pup” to encourage children to have a growth mindset. This is essential as if a student believes their abilities are fixed and unchanging when faced with a challenging situation they can exhibit helpless behaviours (Schober, 2001). Furthermore, the children are required to complete exceptional work to earn the flamingo cushion. This incentive, although related to a pupil’s work, is implicitly linked to behaviour.  This is because the Children who are not focused on the task or unwilling to try because they believe their ability is unchangeable are in turn more likely to exhibit negative behaviours and are unlikely to produce quality work. Therefore, this incentive encourages pupils to adopt positive behaviours in the classroom and ensures these behaviours are not taken for granted (Southhall, 2015, p.145).

My class teacher has a very calm, kind but assertive manner hence the children respect her. This was emphasised in the lecture by saying we should not be too aggressive or passive as teachers. Rogers (2015, p.57) stated that confidence is crucial when a teacher communicates to a group of pupils especially whilst integrating rules and routines in the classroom. I believe gaining this manner will be very challenging as a trainee teacher because I may be unsure about the curriculum, inexperienced in dealing with unexpected questions and scared about my delivery of a lesson. However, if feeling panicky, stressed or angry then it is unlikely that I would be able to diffuse the situation hence the negative behaviour would escalate (Southhall, 2015, p.148) Therefore, it will take a conscious effort to display calm body language and confidence when I probably will be feeling the complete opposite.

Overall, I have been unable to discuss the full complexities of behaviour management. However, I have picked three key issues I believe are essential for effective behaviour management. I hope as a teacher I can differentiate between behaviour, acknowledge positive behaviour and remain calm in challenging situations.

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References

Rogers, B. (2015) Classroom behaviour: a practical guide to effective teaching, behaviour management and colleague support.(Fourth ed.). London: Sage.

Southall, E. (2015) “Behaviour Strategies in Challenging Classrooms”, In Denby, N. (Ed). Training to Teach: A Guide for Students. London: Sage.