Behaviour Management
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.
Amy thanks for this open blog post. You have clearly reflected carefully on this issue. I hope the following comments will help in your deepening understanding of the issue and also your approach to writing.
Content: You make some useful observations about various strategies and also the challenges within your own classroom highlight the complexities of behaviour management. There is no silver bullet. As I have indicated you have described a range of useful strategies. Try and think now of how to go into this more deeply and critically. You have made some useful reference to the Bill Rogers reading but think how you could make more links between this and your observations. What other themes emerged from the reading. For example Rogers (2015) talks about the importance of also educating children about why rules and routines are needed ie the issue of rights and responsibilities. It is clear from the examples you give that this is more challenging with some children than others, but nevertheless it is possible to work at this by differentiating how this addressed with different children, as your examples show. So try and make more links between your observations and the theory or wider reading. Similarly, the link to Dweck’s work is relevant but you could explain this ore clearly. What is Dweck’s theory and how is the relevant to the practice you have observed?
Your writing is fluent and generally accurate. Your referencing in text is accurate apart from when you make a direct quotation, use lower case for page reference e.g. (2015, p.57). References at end of text the date goes in brackets and no comma after so – Rogers, B. (2015) and the place of publication comes before publisher.