UCU Continuing Professiona Deveopment Cassroom management The background Good cassroom and behaviour management is one of the key eements of successfu teaching and earning, and wi be crucia to your success and commitment as a teacher. Cassroom management has become an increasingy important aspect of a ecturer s ife, especiay in further education, as government poicy initiatives for the 14 19-year-od age group mean that FE coeges are taking younger students than they have in the past. Athough FE coeges have aways taken schoo-age students via schoo-coege inks, the number of such students has grown dramaticay in recent years. The type of younger students coming to FE coeges has aso changed, as many of them have been rejected by schoos. Sometimes this is because their ack of achievement may damage the schoo s position in the oca eague tabes, or because their behaviour, often described as chaenging, means that they are disruptive and disturb the earning of their feow students. The majority of younger students wi benefit from the adut environment of a coege. However, a significant minority wi misbehave in this new setting It is compusory for students under 16 to attend education. Traditionay FE and HE students attended because they wanted to. If they were unhappy with their earning or the institution, they woud usuay vote with their feet and eave, rather than behave disruptivey. Even for traditiona FE students aged 16 and above the position has been changing. Many such students, aduts as we as 16 18-year-ods, are attending coeges with some reuctance and compusion. Sometimes coege attendance is part of the hep they are being offered because they are unempoyed. For exampe the various New Dea initiatives introduced by the Labour government have incuded an eement of compusory earning and training at a coege. The government s atest response to growing youth unempoyment caused by the recession incudes benefit sanctions for those not taking up job offers or further training. Apprenticeship programmes contain an eement of off-the-job training usuay undertaken in a coege. Aduts acking basic skis may aso have to attend iteracy and/or numeracy programmes or face osing benefit. Growing unempoyment means that many FE students and indeed some HE students are attending coeges because they can t find work. The issues invoved are unikey to disappear, especiay if the government s pans to extend compusory earning to the age of 18 are impemented. Disruptive behaviour in the cassroom The majority of younger students wi benefit from the adut environment of a coege. However, a significant minority wi misbehave in this new setting. Lecturers in the cassroom increasingy report disruptive behaviour in their casses. The Learning and Skis Deveopment Agency, Northern Ireand, in a usefu pubication on behaviour management uses the term disruptive behaviour to encompass a range of behaviours from the midy irritating to those which can be dangerous. JOIN YOUR UNION ONLINE: join.ucu.org.uk
UCU Continuing Professiona Deveopment The Further Education and Deveopment Agency pubication Ain t Misbehavin defines disruptive behaviour as patterns of repeated behaviour which significanty interrupt the earning of others or threaten their persona security or we being. (FEDA 1998) Exampes of disruptive behaviour incude: not finishing work or avoiding the task set teasing or buying other peope caing out and interrupting coming in noisiy/ate constant taking refusa to compy with reasonabe instruction mobie phone use and texting poor attendance or persistent ateness putting on make-up, combing hair rude, cheeky or inappropriate comments eating and drinking in essons not respecting other peope s property substance abuse. It is aways worth anaysing what is taking pace when confronted with disruptive behaviour These behaviours are probematic because of their frequency, severity, or duration. They undermine teaching and earning and are a significant cause of stress for a concerned. WHY DO STUDENTS MISBEHAVE? Reasons why students are disruptive in the cassroom can incude the foowing: They ack appropriate socia skis. They ack basic skis to be successfu. Their chaenging behaviour has become habitua and is reinforced by the attention they receive from ecturers and peers. They don t want to be in coege. Some ecturers may trigger misbehaviour by treating students with disrespect (put downs, sarcasm). It is aways worth anaysing what is taking pace when confronted with disruptive behaviour. When this happens in your cassroom, ask the foowing questions: Where does the disruption take pace? What form does the disruptive behaviour take? Who is invoved? When does the disruption occur? Why does the organisation experience disruptive behaviour? It is important to try to identify the probem as sometimes behaviour can be improved by such basic responses as changes to timetabe and room aocation. Cassroom management and/or behaviour management Cassroom management is appicabe to a teaching and earning situations, whether within forma settings such as the cassroom, workshop or aboratory, and within more informa settings such as ibraries, resource centres and private study areas. Behaviour management is part and parce of cassroom management, but is often focused around unacceptabe and disruptive behaviour. We offer some pointers to more genera and positive cassroom management, which is foowed by information about what to do if students behave in an unacceptabe or disruptive way. 2 Cassroom management
UCU Continuing Professiona Deveopment This guidance comes from various pubications and current work within the FE sector. It therefore has a bias towards FE practice and teaching. However it is ikey that the exampes given are reevant and transferabe to higher education situations. CREATING A POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT The core of cassroom management is to try to estabish a success-orientated environment for teaching and earning. The evidence from schoos is that this works best when deveoped and appied consistenty across the whoe institution. However there are strategies that you can adopt within your own cassroom which wi hep. A USEFUL STARTING POINT To estabish a positive earning environment in your cassroom, you need to create and use a working statement of principes, for exampe: Teachers have the right to teach. Students have the right to earn. We a have the right to fee safe. We need to make cear that rights are to be inked to responsibiities. The core of cassroom management is to try to estabish a success-orientated environment for teaching and earning Cassroom rues ensure that these principes and responsibiities are estabished. Rues shoud be: negotiated, consuted with and discussed with your students enforceabe reasonabe not just to the teacher but aso to the students framed positivey cear, taught, and dispayed consistenty appied across a your teaching few in number so you and your students know what they are. Specific subject areas may require you to estabish specific rues, and procedures appropriate to that subject such as procedures for the use of toos and equipment. Learners need to experience the consequences of their behaviour whether appropriate or inappropriate. PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOUR There are a number of strategies you can adopt to promote and encourage responsibe behaviour in your students. These can incude: ensuring your esson is we panned and prepared expaining things ceary famiiarising yoursef with students names, their strengths and weaknesses treating a students fairy and equay being friendy and humorous ensuring that support is offered to students acking basic skis or those for whom Engish is not their first anguage quicky estabishing a cimate of praise ensuring that responsibe behaviour is noted (through tutorias, reports and references) negotiating consequences and aowing earners to experience them vauing opinions and showing respect to your students not using put downs or sarcasm or aowing others to encouraging effective istening from the outset one of the ground rues might be: we turn and face the person taking 3 Cassroom management
UCU Continuing Professiona Deveopment deveoping positive noticing to reinforce the idea that responsibe behaviour is the norm keeping order by being firm but not intimidating. THE POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR Research reviews show that the singe most important strategy in cassroom and behaviour management is reinforcement. This is praising, rewarding and otherwise, certifying, confirming and recognising earning. For exampe, giving students feedback on whether they have earned effectivey is reinforcement. You do not have a more powerfu too at your disposa. But it s not easy to get it right. Reinforcement substantiay improves the foowing: earning and attainment motivation behaviour and concentration in cass sef-beief or sef-efficacy that is the student s beief in their abiity to improve, deveop, and to overcome their difficuties sef-esteem attitudes to earning and to your subject attitudes to the teacher. Research reviews show that the singe most important strategy in cassroom and behaviour management is reinforcement HOW TO PRAISE AND REWARD FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT Reinforcement requires a high eve of agreement. It takes time, thought, and practice to become a good practitioner in this respect. The most effective reinforcement shoud be frequent. Try and give every student at east some reinforcement every esson. Put students who are difficut or whose progress is sow into intensive care. This means recognising their effort and achievement as often as possibe by smiing, taking with them in a friendy manner etc. Do this for a month, however difficut you find this, and see the resuts. Ensure praise is task-centred not person-centred Praise shoud be earned by, and focused on the student s work, not on the student. It shoud be earned for effort, competion of a task, achievement, the ski shown, or an appropriate strategy used. It shoud not be for just turning up, or for istening, uness these are achievements in themseves for that student. Praise shoud not be ego-centred eg: You are very good at this or You are a very abe student, I m proud of you. This kind of praise assumes that success is due to persona attributes and teaches students to interpret difficuties in terms of a ack of these abiities. There is, of course, nothing wrong with showing that you beieve a student has the capabiity to achieve where that student acks confidence in their abiity. Ensure praise is student-referenced Praise shoud be given for what is a reasonabe achievement for that student, not for that cass or age group. It shoud not be based on a comparison with other students such as what is a good standard for the group. This is because such a praising strategy woud mean that weak students woud never get praise. This woud deny your most potent motivator to the very students who need it most. If the competion of an ordinary earning task earns praise, every student can get it. Ensure praise is specific You shoud specify what the praise is for and the vaue of the accompishment. This is easier to do if it is focused on the task. Saying what the praise is for has the added benefit of ensuring that the praise is not seen as patronising. A good 4 Cassroom management
UCU Continuing Professiona Deveopment exampe woud be: We done, that s a good way of soving the probem or That s a good way of soving that probem. You are reay concentrating we now. Ensure praise is sincere You shoud sound spontaneous, and as if you reay mean it. Praise shoud not sound ike a habitua phrase just trotted out for no particuar reason. It shoud not sound to the student as if you are using praise as a means to contro them. REINFORCEMENT STRATEGIES FOR TOUGH TEACHERS Some teachers find it hard to say nice things to their students. They shoud work on this of course. However, knowedge of resuts is reinforcement. That is, simpy teing students the facts about what they have done we, or giving them the resuts of a test, as ong as the student perceives this feedback as reasonaby positive. So you coud use a quiz or short test to show students what they know and can do. Do this reguary for maximum effect and give warning of it. A three-minute test at the end of every esson is an exceent review technique. You wi sometimes see students punching the air in deight if they do reasonaby we. Of course, if they do bady this may not motivate them. So consider using tests and quizzes formativey. That is, give students a second chance to get right those questions they got wrong, perhaps the next day. Te them about this of course, so they can bone up on their weaknesses. Give them the test again, but te them just to do the questions they got wrong. Then neary everyone does we. Praise shoud be given for what is a reasonabe achievement for that student, not for that cass, or that age group Discourage students from comparing marks, it s getting a good-enough mark and fixing mistakes in earning that counts. Consider asking easy questions on key materia, setting a pass mark of say, 8/10, and then recording students just as passed or not passed yet. This is mastery earning, and it is one of the most powerfu teaching methods. COMPETENCES AND SELF-ASSESSMENT AS REINFORCEMENT Any acknowedgement of earning success is reinforcement. You coud set students a set of informa competences and ask them to tick themseves off as they achieve these, or ask them to sef-assess against cear criteria. Amost any earning can be packaged in the competency or criteria format. It is even possibe to have criteria for behaviour, and ask students to sef assess or caim competence from you for this. CERTIFICATION FOR REINFORCEMENT Some programme managers give students Open Coege Network (OCN) certificates in, for exampe, first aid or customer care very eary on in their programme. If students have had officia success by the end of their first term or soon after, this can be a great motivator. OTHER STRATEGIES Assessment proformas: These give a meda for what students have done satisfactoriy or better. One-to-ones with the teacher: Individua teacher attention is a powerfu method of confirming success. Tracking documents or wa charts: These aow students to record the competion of topics, assignments, tests, attendance, punctuaity, or other course requirements. 5 Cassroom management
UCU Continuing Professiona Deveopment Mastery earning: This is a system of very easy, short tests that students mark themseves. If the student gets ess than the pass mark (about 8/10) they undertake remedia work and then re-take those questions they got wrong in a new test. Aternativey remedia work is checked by peers or by the teacher. Dispays of students work: A visua reminder to students of their achievement Reward schemes: These reward students for appropriate behaviour, punctuaity etc. PRIORITISING PROBLEMS Some probems are serious and need an immediate response. Some are ongerterm or compex and need a more considered strategy. Some organisations find it usefu to conduct a behaviour management audit where there is a fu review of behaviour management practice across the institution, often incuding a survey of teaching staff to find out how they manage the cassroom or what additiona support they might require. The next step from the behaviour management audit is to prioritise and decide what needs to be addressed first. These probems shoud be addressed to your immediate managers and to the UCU branch to be taken up with institutiona management. LISTENING TO STUDENTS Remember, students are not the enemy. Younger students in particuar may have their own vaues but they too want a secure environment with cear guideines. Students are more ikey to respond if they have had some input into the process. Any acknowedgement of earning success is reinforcement You coud set students a set of informa competences and ask them to tick themseves off as they achieve these SANCTIONS FOR DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOUR It is important for students to understand that inappropriate behaviours have consequences and require a response. Negative consequences or sanctions protect the rights of the teacher (to teach) the students (to earn) and give them a chance to make a more responsibe choice in future. Sanctions that can be appied when inappropriate behaviour occurs shoud be created by the institution and may we vary between institutions. You wi need to check with your managers to know what sanctions can be brought into force foowing inappropriate behaviour. It is important that any sanctions or other consequences that resut from breaking the rues or from inappropriate behaviour: are appied at once are consistent and fairy appied are discussed outside the cassroom, in foow-up support are sequentia, ie ow eve, medium eve, severe are based on reconciiation rather than revenge. Whoe institutiona approaches to cassroom and behaviour management Individua teacher strategies are most effective when refected across the whoe institution. Whoe coege poicies and practices are aimed at: heping you to work in a positive workpace buiding consistency in how staff across an institution dea with situations in the cassroom heping students to deveop a sense of responsibiity for their own behaviour and their own earning. Behaviour management is a whoe organisation s responsibiity. In instances where student behaviour improves within an organisation, evidence indicates that the 6 Cassroom management
UCU Continuing Professiona Deveopment whoe organisation is invoved. Behaviour management is not ony about earner behaviour. It is aso about the behaviour of tutors and managers. Behaviour management strategies work best when the aims are made expicit and shared with the key payers earners, tutors and managers. Tutors and managers need training and support to deveop the knowedge and skis necessary to fee confident in managing student behaviour and deaing with disruptive or non-participating students. In some institutions behaviour management has traditionay been a fire-fighting activity. That is, behaviours are deat with after they have become a probem. By this stage, unacceptabe behaviour can be ingrained in individuas or in groups. Staff too can be suffering from stress and fee unabe to retrieve the situation. Whoe institutiona poices need to be deveoped so there is a consistent ine across an institution. They need to be cascaded through an organisation to departmenta, facuty and schoo eve to ensure there is consistency of approach. WHO ARE THE KEY PLAYERS? Modern approaches to behaviour management promote the democratic as opposed to the authoritarian. This means istening to earners. If earners are on the wrong courses, or their abiities and preferences have been ignored, then behaviour probems are more ikey. Rues and reguations are more ikey to be kept if earners are invoved in their design. Teaching is potentiay a stressfu situation. Teachers want to maximise the earning that takes pace in the cassroom and teaching is most effective when it is practised in an environment of mutua respect. This is made possibe when earners and teachers have cear guideines and expectations of what is and isn t acceptabe within the institution. Managers have responsibiities for both earners and teachers. They tend to hod power when it comes to the aocation of resources and the identification of priorities. Behaviour management is a whoe organisation s responsibiity Behaviour management strategies work best when the aims are made expicit and shared with the key payers earners, tutors and managers Athough there are things you can do as a teacher in terms of cassroom and behaviour management, whoe institutiona poicies in these areas are the best means of deaing with the issues. The most effective approach is for management to impement strategies for resoving these issues across an institution. UCU branches and members shoud be pressing for such poicies and their effective impementation, incuding proper training and professiona deveopment as we as manageria and departmenta support. Behaviour has been an issue in schoos for a ong time. Many schoos and some oca authorities have undertaken a great dea of work and training around behaviour poicies and have some very good initiatives in this area. However post-compusory education institutions, which have not been part of oca authority structures since the eary 1990s, may not have been invoved with, or even know about, these initiatives. It wi be worth UCU branches pointing this out to management. FE coeges shoud, at the very east, be informed of the behaviour poicies of the schoos who are sending them students, and shoud as far as possibe be seeking to co-ordinate their own poicies so they are consistent with their partner schoos. Equaity issues Cassroom and behaviour management poicies and their impementation must take on many issues around equaity and diversity. Disruptive behaviour may party stem from underying issues of sexism, racism and discrimination based around students perceived menta and physica disabiity or sexuaity. Teacher expectations and 7 Cassroom management
UCU Continuing Professiona Deveopment stereotyping can be based on shared but erroneous perceptions, cutures and practices. Institutiona discrimination is now recognised as taking pace across organisations and services. For exampe the incidence of schoo excusions and schoo pupis defined as having behaviour probems is significanty higher for pupis from back and minority ethnic communities. It is ony 30 years ago that back schoo pupis were being routiney assessed as being educationa sub-norma. Staffroom cuture can exert a powerfu infuence over teacher and ecturer expectations and perceptions of both individua students and groups of students. Simiary gender, age, race, ethnicity, reigion, sexuaity and perceived physica and menta abiity may affect the kinds of behaviour that certain students dispay. Sometimes the behaviour may be overty chaenging, sometimes it may be the very reverse of this, with some students withdrawing from cassroom activity, or faing into depression and amost tota inactivity. Such behaviour wi often require very different responses. A fina word The issue of cassroom and behaviour management is an extremey important one for a teachers and ecturers. It is aso an area where there needs to be great care and sensitivity. We woud emphasise, however, that athough individua teachers have responsibiities in this area, and there are actions that they can take, these issues are the responsibiity of management who shoud be creating and impementing whoe institutiona poicies that are accompanied by training and continuing professiona deveopment. Cassroom and behaviour management poicies and their impementation must take on many issues around equaity and diversity USEFUL LINKS Cassroom and behaviour management in FE 1 LSDA, 2008, Behaviour management: www.itsifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/fies/behmgt_lsda.pdf 2 LSDA, 2007, What's your probem?: www.itsifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/fies/lsda_whatsyourprobem.pdf 3 FEDA, 1998, Ain t Misbehavin: http://bit.y/b3zavw 4 Pau Bum, Anger and confict management: http://bit.y/cjsayd Cassroom and behaviour management in schoos 1 DfES, Sept 2004, Pedagogy and Practice: teaching and earning in secondary schoos Unit 20 Cassroom management: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5707/1/sec_ppt044304u20cassmanage.pdf 2 DSCF website dedicated to behaviour management www.education.gov.uk/schoos/pupisupport/behaviour 3 DCF, 2005, Learning Behaviour Principes and Practice What Works in Schoos: http://bit.y/atbvpk Buid the Union: Want to get more invoved in your union? Visit btu.web.ucu.org.uk 8 Cassroom management