Classroom Behaviour - A Comparison Of Policies

This Article focuses predominantly on my behaviour management experiences within the classroom. I will be focusing on how the strategies that I am implementing and continue to develop have been shaped by research within the domain. Using two official documents: `The Report of the Practitioners Group on School Behaviour and Discipline` chaired by Sir Alan Steer (2005) updated (2009) and The City of Leicester College`s latest Ofsted report (2008) I will attempt to explain how their findings are facilitating my progress as a classroom teacher. I will also be reflecting on how research has enabled me to develop strategies for one of the main challenges faced during my short time in school; low level disruption within the classroom.

The Steer Report (2005) begins by stating the following core belief: "Poor behaviour in schools cannot be tolerated. To do so is to harm the interests of pupils, staff and the perpetrators of the bad behaviour." (DfES, 2005, pp3). What seems like a straight forward and simple statement to understand and adhere to was only completely understood by me after two full weeks of teaching. I knew that bad behaviour would be severely detrimental to the learning process of other pupils and so needed to be stopped. However, the way in which it could the pupils who themselves were behaving poorly only became clear at a later date. Explaining the consequences of the poor behaviour to these pupils is a strategy that I now implement regularly. I agree strongly with research suggesting that such pupils need to know the `behaviour lesson` that we are teaching them when we as teachers are applying the consequences, rather than simply expecting them to stop their bad behaviour because a teacher has instructed them to do so (Powell & Tod, 2004). By doing this I feel that I am working with the perpetrators of the bad behaviour; encouraging them to think and contemplate the longer term consequences of their actions.

The Steer Report (2005) also makes the valid point about the facets of teaching, learning and behaviour all being interconnected. I have certainly been able to relate this to my own practice this term and have found that lessons where the quality of teaching and learning has been at its best has also seen behaviour stay at an optimum level too. This has made me even more focused on establishing clear objectives and outcomes and the steps by which I will meet them within my lessons. Indeed, I have now started to display the `maintaining of good behaviour` on the whiteboard as a learning objective to reaffirm how important it is to the teaching and learning process. This is important as we should never assume that pupils automatically know what is expected of them within the classroom without reiterating it and constantly offering reminders (Hook & Vass, 2000). Having explained my expectations and collaborating with the pupils to find out their views on behaviour at the beginning of the academic year, I have since found this strategy particularly useful with my Year 8 classes where constant reaffirmation of what is acceptable was beginning to pay dividends by the end of the first half term.

The City of Leicester College`s (TCLC) latest Ofsted report (2008) has behaviour rated at satisfactory overall. With statistics from the Steer Report (2009) suggesting that 80% of schools had behaviour judged as being either good or outstanding, TCLC has been working at attempting to raise its behaviour rating as the report suggested those in the `satisfactory behaviour` bracket should. Indeed, a survey conducted within the Steer Report (2009) highlighted the fact that parents placed good discipline standards as their most desired feature within their children`s schools. This demonstrates that parents clearly feel that their children should be taught the nuances of good and bad behaviour in our schools. Behaviour standards are therefore something which should be taken extremely seriously. Although most of the behaviour around TCLC was judged to be at a positive level, the overall rating suffered because of the high number of exclusions recorded by the college in the preceding years and because of the low level disruption that was witnessed in lessons across a range of subjects by the inspectors. Steer (2009) recognised that early intervention with behavioural issues was vital in preventing them escalating into issues that required the exclusion of pupils and believed that structures should be put in place as soon as possible within classrooms.

Low level disruption has been the biggest issue in many of my lessons at the start of the academic year and I realised early on that I would need to put in place strategies in an attempt to deal with this problem. With this is in mind I implemented three main strategies for dealing with low level disruption this term. The first was to put in place set routines in my lessons. Researching the work done by Maslow (1943) this important psychological paper is still referred to by many teaching practitioners today as a way of mapping pupil`s motivation. The second box on his `Hierarchy of Needs` is `Security` which when relating to the classroom setting suggests that pupils need to feel a sense of safety and regulation when they are being taught. By lining pupils up outside the classroom before lessons, greeting them as they enter and being consistent with my approach to teaching and learning, I believe that I am providing them, first and foremost, with a secure environment in which to behave correctly.

The second strategy that I have implemented and become more adept at using is the college`s own Stage Behaviour System (SBS) situated in their Behaviour Code (2010). The Steer report (2005) encouraged schools to "develop the role of strategic lead for behaviour." and I believe that having a system in place that acknowledges the differing levels of unsatisfactory behaviour with the consequences that follow is a sensible, if not always flexible way, of putting a `strategic lead` in place. Teachers are expected to go through the stages from 1 to 5 as either behaviour continues or the seriousness of the behaviour increases. A pupil who reaches stage 5 will spend a period of time in isolation, this being the most serious consequence before part time suspension from the college. The stages are recorded on the registration system and I became more confident at giving out the appropriate stages and entering them in quickly as the term progressed. Using the system consistently was something that I have focused on achieving this term as I often found it challenging to relate the seriousness of different types of behaviour to the relevant stages. It is something that I now feel confident doing and I have learnt to use my professional judgment as specific issues arise.

The third strategy that I have implemented is a behaviour/reward book that I use to record the names of those pupils whom I have spoken to about various low level disruptions. I chose to do this upon reflection of the way more serious behavioural breaches were being put on the school system and logged for the senior management team to view, yet pupils who were only warned for minor breaches would repeat them consistently in lessons, knowing in one sense how to `play` the SBS in place at the college. By recording the occurrences of poor behaviour (as well as of good attainment and effort shown), I am providing the pupil with clear evidence that their behaviour is not at the required standard expected of them. I can make this evidence even more authentic by quoting exact facts and figures regarding their poor behaviour, rather than simply stating a generic `behaviour warning` statement. Writing down the times when pupils in any given class have performed well works in conjunction with this as it allows me to work on repairing and restoring relationships; something that is crucial within the classroom. Without opportunities for restoration, punishment really can damage relationships (Hook & Vass, 2002). It has therefore been important for me to stress to my pupils this term that there will be multiple opportunities for this restoration process to occur by showing me that they can indeed behave correctly. The `Yellow card` idea mentioned in the Steer Report certainly seems like an effective way of doing this and is something that I am going to experiment with in my lessons.

I have also investigated the more personal reasons that may impact on displays of poor behaviour from pupils. The relationships formed between parents, pupils and teachers is clearly an important one for schools. Indeed, the Steer Report (2005) makes specific reference to school`s having a huge part to play in this three way relationship and it is something that I thought about in more detail when I noticed that certain individuals would regularly misbehave in my lessons. I have not called many parents to address behavioural issues and I think it is something that I could do more often if the situation requires it in the future. This is because I feel it is the School`s role and therefore my role as teacher to investigate any problems that may be present within the parent-pupil relationship.

One case in point is that of a girl in a Year 8 class that I teach who is currently having behaviour issues in many of her lessons, including mine. However, after a meeting with her personal mentor, it became clear that her horrific home circumstances were clearly impacting on her behaviour. We developed strategies such as giving this pupil more responsible roles within lessons to try and provide her with a sense of responsibility that she is clearly not receiving at home. On reflection, I have learnt to take the emotions of my pupils into account at all times and believe that good teaching does require the use of interpersonal transactions. I agree with the work of Hook & Vass (2000) that pupils need to be in the correct emotional state to be able to behave and learn successfully. Ensuring that pupils are in this state is something that I have been working on and will continue to develop during this year.

It is important to recognise that another of the core beliefs contained in the Steer Report (2009) is that "Overall standards of behaviour achieved by schools is good and has improved in recent years" (DfES, 2009, pp2). The 2009 report makes this point even more conspicuously than the 2005 report, suggesting that the media can often distort the image of bad behaviour in schools, making it seem a great deal worse than it actually is. In my short time as a trainee teacher, I am inclined to agree with this view. It also highlights the fact that just as in general society, difficulties will always arise in schools and problems will always occur. This assignment has enabled me to see how the methods I am using can directly help to sensibly overcome these almost inevitable behavioural problems. With low level disruption being the issue that I have found most challenging so far as a teaching practitioner, I feel that I have begun to put strategies in place that research suggests will improve behaviour overall if consistently reinforced.

References

DfES (2005) updated (2009). Learning behaviour: The Report of The Practitioners` Group on School Behaviour and Discipline, Chaired by Sir Alan Steer, DfES.

Hook, P.,Vass, A. (2000). Creating Winning Classrooms, London. David Fulton

Hook, P and Vass, A (2002). Teaching with Influence; London: David Fulton

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review, 50, pp. 370.

Ofsted (2008). Inspection Report for The City of Leicester College, Evington. Published online at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_providers/full/(urn)/120297 Date accessed: 17 October.

Powell, S and Tod, J (2004). A systematic review of how theories explain learning behaviour in school contexts, London: EPPI-Centre, Institute of Education.

The City Of Leicester Behaviour Code (2010). The City of Leicester College, Evington. Unpublished Document. Date accessed at College: 15 October 2010.