Bahviour Management in schools

Why is behaviour management important in schools?

Effective behaviour management is essential to enable the school to run effectively. It also creates an environment whereby everyone’s rights and responsibilities are addressed.

Behaviour management means preventing problems before they start!

Exploring practical ways leading to consistent, positive and purposeful school-wide practice. (Roger, 2007)

1. Prevent and minimise- unnecessary problems, can never eliminate distracting and disruptive behaviour in classrooms. Develop rights and responsibilities that are non-negotiable:

• All have a right to feel safe
• All have a right to learn
• All have a right to basic respect and fair treatment

2. Encourage and correct- encourage positive and responsible behaviour and correct behaviour which infringes on students’ or teachers’ rights.

How can we balance encouragement and correction when students breach the rights of others?

Discipline is necessary. How can we do so in the least intrusive way so that respect and dignity still remain? Discipline must be supportive and encouraging. Discipline does not need to be humiliating as this can be embarrassing harbour resentment and lower students’ self esteem.

Is there such thing as a right way to discipline?

The key is to where possible; avoid any unnecessary confrontation with students by intentional use of put downs- ‘cheap shots’, public shaming or exclusion. Humour will defuse tension and ease anxiety, however, malicious humour is considered “counter-productive to co-operative discipline” (Roger, 2007)

Emotional- control what you say and do when angry.

Language – gestures, tone of voice, facial expressions change according to emotion. Overuse of ‘don’t’, ‘stop’, ‘no’, ‘cant’, as an emotional response. It is best to use positive language.

E.g. Instead of stating “don’t do that!” why not rephrase your sentence to “Is that the best you can do?” Or, “Working quietly thanks” instead of “don’t talk”

Consequence must teach students:

• Relationship between behaviour and outcome applied
• Students choose their own behaviour. Students must learn responsibility as it is not innate. Teachers’ role is just to help students make good behavioural choices.
• Reconciliation. Repair, rebuild damaged relationships attitudes and actions.
• Allow time to “cool off” when applying consequences. Students may be very upset. Depending on the situation, it may be difficult to expect students to apologise right away as emotions are involved.

Example: Student pulls out their IPod and listens to music in class.

Instead of taking it off the student and confiscating it, the teacher can use a direct question (avoid using asking ‘why’).

T: What is the school rule for listening to music during class?

S: But other teachers don’t mind if we listen as long as we do our work.

T: Even if other teachers do (partially agree), what is the school rule for music in class? (Focus back on the primary issue-main)

S: “It’s not fair!”

T: “It may not seem fair to you, but it is the school rule. You know what you need to do. I’ll come back later to see your work, thanks”.

What does this encounter demonstrate to us?

The teacher conveys confidence and trust in the students’ common sense and co-operation.

T: “If you choose not to put it away, I’ll have to ask you to stay back”.

This once again puts the responsibility back on to the student without arguing. If the student “chooses” not to put it away, the student can stay back during lunch/recess. This is known as follow up where the teacher can follow up the incident and discuss behaviour. (Something implemented by Hume Central)

3. Unified student behaviour support system- involves all teachers and staff. Unified resolve to implement the policy. Unable to say, did you know what, “your Sam did this and that...”

Teachers at Town Park find it overwhelmingly difficult to stick by the school rules when not all teachers decide to implement them accordingly.

Actively promote teach and support positive behaviour.

When discussing behaviour management, teachers tend to focus on the disruptive, misbehaved students. Teachers often have the tendency to forget the well behaved students. Even students who misbehave do behave positively from time to time.

• Acknowledge students when they are behaving responsibly and positively even though it is expected behaviour. Encouragement affirms effort in thought and behaviour. Reinforces good behaviour. Simple as: “That’s good, you’ve got your book out”, “That’s great to hear you use the technical terms for ....”, “Great thoughtful response to....”. (Be specific)

• Build a positive working environment in class.

Campus 3 Summary

At Campus three the warning system is in place and is used quite regularly. There have been many occasions when students have chosen to not learn and misbehave when I have witnessed the steps be taken place.

On one occasion a year nine student was not listening and consistently interrupting the grade. They were yelling over the top of the teacher to students on the other side of the room as well as pass Byers walking around the learning space. The teacher implemented the system, first telling the students that “he was to behave because it was time for learning” the student chose to ignore the comment and the teacher said the students name and then said “if you continue to talk while I am teaching you will have to be moved; this is your warning” The student went quiet for about a minute then started yelling out to pass Byers once again, so the teacher moved the student to a more suitable position where he felt as though there would be less chance of distraction, however this was not the case. This was the student’s second warning and when told to move the student was made aware that if he was to do anything else wrong he would be exited. The student just started to be even more of a distraction throwing bits of paper at the other members of the class and laughing loudly which was not only stopping himself from learning but was causing the other students to disengage from the class work. The teacher then stopped the student and politely told him that he was being exited and to pack up his belongings, the student was annoyed and acted poorly to this but did as he was told with a lot of whining. After the lesson the teacher, the student involved and the coordinator got together to discuss the event which took place in the class time. The student had filled out the form in a rather negative manner and it was clear no real thought was taken when filling the form in. when asked about the answers he had given he didn’t recall it and wanted to change his response after talking thought the sheet with the student it was clear that the student was struggling in that particular class and was misbehaving to get out of the work. In conclusion to this situation the teachers arranged for a time to spend going over the material learnt that term with the student. After this the weeks that followed there was no misbehaving from this student. I feel as though the most important aspect of this system is the follow up which allows for teachers to effectively communicate how they are feeling and why they are acting the way they are. It also makes for a peaceful workplace for both teachers and students as they are given the chance to discuss what they feel is important for them to do their role right.

On a separate occasion and day I was able to see another event when this system was put in place. A year seven student came to class late and was given a warning that if she misbehaved she would be moved from her seating arrangement; the student spoke back to the teafcher saying that it was unfair and he always picks on her, she was clearly not happy, the teacher told her to calm down and it was fine for her to stay there as long as she worked cooperatively for the lesson; within five minutes of this discussion the student started to bang on her desk and play on her phone and show the other two students sitting next to her the screen of her phone. This was inappropriate use of class time so the teacher moved her to a new seat. She refused to move so the teacher had no other choice but to exit her. She left the class and the grade continually with much less noise and distractions. It set the rules for the other students that misbehaving was inappropriate and would not be tolerated. After the lesson the teacher and the coordinator met up with the student to discuss her behavior it was found from after talking to her one on one she got emotional and the teachers found that there was issues going on at home leading her to not be focused in class. These events at home were causing her to lose sleep which she felt was effecting her mood and therefore she found it hard to regain interest in class as her mind was elsewhere. She was arranged to meet up with the school councilor and arrangements can be made to help her with her learning so that she could continue to learn in a happy place where she felt comfortable and there wasn’t too much pressure. In this example of the use of the system although it might of seemed harsh to the student at the time she later learnt that the teachers really do care about her wellbeing and did their best to allow her to be educated to the best of her and their abilities so that she can moved forward with lots of knowledge.

I found that in all of the situations which this system was put in place all students which I later spoke to found that it benefited their learning although they may not of felt it at the time, with further reflection they believed that their teacher did the correct thing by exiting them. They also felt that with the warnings the system is fair. Overall the system worked to the schools favor benefiting all involved.

Campus 3

This campus is much smaller than the other two campuses it consists of year levels seven to nine. The school consists of five main buildings. A year seven, year eight, year nine, main building which houses the library and office and finally a large building for arts. The school is only two and a half years old as it opened in 2009. “The state-of-the-art design see students work in self-contained year level learning communities, which are open plan with flexible spaces that can be quickly and easily adapted for different types of learning activities. For example, some students can be reading quietly in one area while other students are working as a group on computers in another area. The spaces give students the chance to learn in ways that best suit their needs and allows for innovative and shared teaching. Clever design techniques, such as different ceiling heights, are used to keep noise levels to a minimum.”

Campus three has a warning and exiting system for their behavior management program. The students who are misbehaving, acting inappropriately or distracting others are put and talked through these three stages of warnings and actions:

Stage One: The students are told that what they are doing is wrong or inappropriate and are asked to regain focus and participate in the classroom activities and that if they don’t then they will be asked to move. This stage is aimed at “warning” them and is their first warning. It is hoped that after being warned they start to behave correctly.

Stage Two: The student misbehaving after being warned in stage one is now asked to move to a different seating arrangement within the classroom they are also told that if they misbehave again they will be “exited”. This stage is important as it is the last stage before the final stage. In this stage students know that this is really the last warning and if they misbehave they will be exited. They are warned of this in this stage teachers say “if you continue to misbehave now that you have been moved you will exited” Students are clearly told what will happen so that when and if they are taken to stage three they will have no excuse but to abide because of the previous warnings. They cannot say they didn’t know what would happen because the outcome was made clear in this stage.

Stage Three: The student’s actions are out weighing the positives of having them remain within the classroom. The student is told that he/she has been exited and is given a exit form which states that they have been identified as not ready for learning. If possible another teacher will take the student to another class in a different building. The new teacher is told what happened and the student is to sit quietly and fill in the form. The form is made up 16 questions with Strongly Agree to disagree questions, seven yes or no questions with ratings and four short answer questions. The form is aimed at getting the students to really think deeper into their behavior and what they are doing that is correct or incorrect. It also has a part for the teacher to write and reflect.

The Follow up: After the class the student, the teacher involved and the coordinator of the level sit down when they can it is useful if it can be arranged as soon as possible. They discuss the student’s answers and behavior in the classroom and try to work out some sort of arrangement which would be appropriate to the students actions for example they may be given a detention. The student also has a say and can contribute to the conversation as much as he or she wishes.

This system is put in place every day and the teachers and students have found it very helpful to teaching the students and getting acceptable and suitable behavior in the classroom from all of the students. The method of controlling classroom behavior and managing students is used in all year levels and all subjects. It is implemented daily when needed and teachers are all aware that they may receive another student throughout the day that will be filling in the form if he or she has misbehaved in their classroom. It is a clever system to which all the teachers work together to continue and hopefully improve students attitudes to learning and better their classroom behavior.

Summary Campus 2

The campus 2 behaviour management procedure was very successful in my opinion. Being able to use the procedure while teaching gave me a very good example of why it worked so well.

It was clear and easy to understand for the students and the teachers. Obviously to get the procedure right though it also took into hand the role of the teacher.

I found that using the procedure, the first warning had to be given out as soon as a student did something wrong, because they were able to see that the teacher would not be seen as a push over and that they (the students) can not get away with mucking around and disrupting the class.

Once that the students saw that other students were getting warnings, it helped the whole grade because they didn't want one.

If students kept going, with the open learning spaces it was easy to move them to somewhere where they would not disrupt the class but would also still be in the room and able to be seen.

If students push it to far, they should be issued with a demerit and clearly explained that the next step is for them to be moved from the grade. Once they have been given a demerit, they usually stop mis-behaving all together. When I was teaching if I gave a demerit, I was quick to have a chat to them just to let them know exactly why they have demerit, so they understand. I also found this when I was observing class'. It was funny to see how much a students behaviour can change when given a demerit.

I had only seen one exit in my time teaching, which let me know how much students respected the discipline procedure. No students wanted demerits, and if they did it was very rarely that their bad behaviour would continue after the demerit.

I found that once you were able to use this procedure to control behaviour that my class' were changing from giving out demerits to merits.

Campus 2 Procedure

Demerit slip (red)

Exiting Slip (Purple)

Merit slip (Green)

Campus 2 uses a demerit system for its behaviour management of its students.

The steps taken by the teachers are as follows;

1. Verbal warning

If the student has done something wrong, clearly state to them that they have a warning, and explain how their behaviour has had an impact on the class and how it has effected learning of others.

2. Isolation in learning environment.

Move the student to another table separated from the rest of the class. Explain to them that until their behaviour improves they will not be able to sit in with the rest of the class.
Make sure they have work to continue with while being in isolation.

3. Demerit

Clearly state that they have been issued a demerit and how they have been given 2 warnings and despite this their behaviour has not improved. Inform the student that if their poor behaviour still continues that  they will be exited, meaning a Leading Teacher/Coordinator/Principal will be called to collect the student from the collect the student to remove them from the class.

4. Exit

Send a good student to the office with the Exit slip (purple).
Office contacts Coordinator/Leading Teacher/ Principal who is available, then they collect the student from the class.
Exiting teacher fills in an incident report.
A meeting is held with student, Coordinator/Leading Teacher or Principal and exiting teacher, only then the student can return to normal class'.

Merit

A merit is awarded to students who have displayed excellent behaviour and have followed the school policy in class. It can be awarded for Communal responsibility and personal responsibility.

A merit can be awarded to students for;

Communal Responsibility

• Help in conflict resolution
• Helping create an orderly learning environment
• Helping other students' learning process'

Personal Responsibility

• Completing Tasks to an excellent standard
• Independent learning, beyond and above the expected level
• Meeting 90% attendance target for 2 weeks in a row
• Showing great improvement
• Being an excellent role model, respecting the teacher and fellow students
• Consistently showing readiness for leaning (5 days)

The incentive of merits is that once they receive 5 they receive a $20 canteen voucher.

School Managment Policy

Student Learning Behaviour Policy

Rationale:

• All students have the right and responsibility to learn
• All students have the right and responsibility to feel comfortable and safe

Every member of the college community is responsible for creating a positive, supportive and safe learning environment.

Purpose:

• Ensure a co-operative, supportive, safe and orderly environment where effective learning and teaching occur.
• Establish structures and processes which focus on a positive preventative approach to the management of student behaviour.
• Define acceptable student behaviour and appropriate discipline and support measures.

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 Town Park

This policy is adopted by all three campuses (Town Park, Dimboola and Blair St). However, the implementation of this policy varies between campuses as research indicates specific methods of discipline and support measures are most constructive when used with certain age groups. The following inquiry aims to dissect the current student learning behaviour policy, in particular behavioural management: is it implemented in the respective campuses and to what extent is its effectiveness?

It looks like misbehaviour. It sounds like misbehaviour and it definitely feels like misbehaviour. Acting up, disrespectfulness and other signs of apparent disobedience may have a strong link with lack of communication skills and a lack of cause-and-effect thinking rather than with deliberate malicious intent. 

For students at Town Park, behaviour management is not as big of a concern as it is in other campuses. Students at this campus are however, seemingly disengaged in learning and this therefore contributes to students’ overall behaviour and work ethic.

Town Park Campus

Similarities:

• Follows the ‘behaviour support system’.
• Students are given three warnings before they are exited from the class to the team co-ordinator/leader or principle. However demerit points are not handed out to students.
• Students are supported in a safe and orderly environment
• Structures and processes focus on a positive preventative approach to the management of student behaviour.
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Behaviour Management Procedures

This blog will discuss & examine the Behaviour Management Procedures of a school in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne. There are three campus', two cater for years 7-9 and a senior campus which caters for years 10-12.

Each campus has different Behaviour Managements Procedures, which will be discussed and examined. Campus 1, years 7-9 will be looked at by Mallory Trovato, Campus 2, years 7-9 will be discussed by David Mitchell and campus 3, years 10-12 will be discussed by Evelyn Nguyen. Mallory, David and Evelyn are students from Victoria University who have been spending time there under the project partnerships system.