Proactive behaviour management approaches

Front

PREVENTION:

Routines

Back

An efficient, focused classroom will thrive on solid routines. Take time to teach your students (in precise detail) exactly how you want things done. e.g. how they should enter/exit the room, what will they need to bring to their sessions, how they are meant to organise their notes. Know that you will need to reteach these routines and remind your students about these over time.

Front

PREVENTION:

Positive Framing

Back

It can be quite easy to just focus on any negativity in the classroom (the dot!) when the rest of the class (represented by the square) are behaving appropriately. It’s sometimes easy for negativity to spiral out of control; prioritise focusing on the positives that come your way!

Front

PREVENTION:

Use of positive praise

Back

Actively reinforce any positive behaviours observed and especially those behaviours you are looking to further shape in this more positive direction. Using inclusive language look to clearly describe these behaviours observed.  e.g.- ‘It’s great to see everyone here on time – it’s just what ‘we’ expect’; thanks to those who have met ‘our’ assignment deadline, this will now mean that you...’

Front

PREVENTION:

Sell shared values

Back

Do find time to make the purpose of your actions/decisions explicit for everyone to hear. Ensure that they know you care about them all and want them all to succeed, but, for this to happen, communicate that we must all maintain a level of respect for each other and this requires clear boundaries. Look to communicate the essence of this in ‘student friendly’ language.

Front

PREVENTION:

Sweat the small stuff

Back

Don’t keep letting little things ‘slide’ as this may come back to bite you! Keep expectations high with regards to how your students enter the room, interact with each other and ‘be seen looking’ so they know that you are serious about any expectations set!

Front

PREVENTION:

Frontload expectations

Back

It’s very valuable to precisely remind your students about what behaviours you are expecting to see from them during sessions, then jump all over any early compliance with your use of ‘positive praise’.

Front

LOW LEVEL DISRUPTION:

Pause

Back

A mid-sentence pause with focused eye contact directed towards the disruptor speaks volumes. It can be quick and non-intrusive on the overall lesson pace and lets your students know that learning is important and valued. If you don’t feel your student or students have responded to your pause the way you might have expected, statements like this can also be very helpful--> “I still need a  few of you to settle down a little before we continue, thankyou…” (Then pause again, and simply insist by your unwillingness to move on!)

Front

LOW LEVEL DISRUPTION:

Tactically ignore

Back

Sometimes tactically ignoring inappropriate student misbehaviour can prove useful especially when you look to do this while you are publicly acknowledging/praising those who are in fact doing the right thing. Tactically ignoring those students who simply call out or ask you a question while you are engaged in conversation with another student is a good example of this. Tactically ignoring any student ‘eye rolling’ or ‘sighing’ (which may surface from time to time) can also be very useful as your focus should be on addressing the primary issue rather than going off course by attempting to address these secondary behaviours. (They can always be followed up later!)

Front

LOW LEVEL DISRUPTION:

Assume confusion

Back

Teachers can get this really wrong! This isn’t about those overly sarcastic rhetorical questions that often embarrass students in front of the class. It’s incredible how well a little genuine ‘Are you okay over there? Do you need a hand?’ works!  Clocking students just as they are about misbehave with this strategy can serve to stop things in their tracks!

Front

LOW LEVEL DISRUPTION:

Non-verbal proximity

Back

Just by shifting your presence towards an area of low level disruption, you can sometimes eliminate an undesirable behaviour. A little hand signal or facial expression can also work wonders with regard to not breaking the lesson pace and focus.