It is not sufficient for teachers to rely entirely on the schools behaviour policy to create and maintain a positive learning environment in their lessons. Discuss this with reference to your own/ observed practice within one or two

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Le Page, Martin

‘It is not sufficient for teachers to rely entirely on the school’s behaviour policy to create and maintain a positive learning environment in their lessons.’ Discuss this with reference to your own/ observed practice within one or two key stages.

One of the biggest and most demanding challenges faced by teachers is keeping control of the classroom. Even in the best of schools, pupil behaviour can be less than desirable. To be an effective teacher you must be able to manage pupils’ behaviour not just in the classroom but also throughout the school. Evertson (2006) states that everything a teacher does results in implications for classroom management and behaviour. These include such things as seating plans, how students enter the classroom, how you enforce rules and how you communicate to students are all areas that should be addressed when creating a positive learning environment. As many factors are involved in behaviour management teachers have adopted a number of methods and routines that work effectively for them. However schools must have a policy put in place for teachers to use and fall back on if they need to. It forms the basis of what the school expects from staff and pupils and gives a foundation of values which the staff and pupils must uphold whilst at school. Behaviour policies also ensure that there are certain procedures to adhere to when pupils behave in an exceptional, acceptable or unacceptable manner. It also states the hierarchy of rewards and sanctions that will be given and how they will be fairly and consistently applied. Each school will have its own behaviour policy. However, most will be relatively the same if worded slightly differently. All policies will be set out to be effective in the school and classroom. However, establishing a common set of values is never going to be easy. The values held by school staff, which are implemented in the behaviour policy, may conflict with those held by parents, carers and students. Also teaching teams may not agree with each other about the rules and how to implement them. Schools that involve the parents, carers and students often develop very successful policies (Overall et al 2003). However, in many situations these procedures may be missed or not adhered to at all. In this essay I will be recalling on past experiences and research to discuss why sometimes the school’s behaviour policy may not be sufficient enough on its own to create and maintain a positive learning environment within the classroom.

Like with any policy a school’s behaviour policy can be used effectively or ineffectively depending on the teacher, the pupils and how well the behaviour policy is set up. In a school I was most recently employed at I saw the effective use of the behaviour policy on a day-to-day basis with every class. This rule was that the teacher should be present in the classroom before the pupils at all times and ensure that pupils enter and leave the classroom in an orderly manner without undue noise. Every teacher I observed did this at the beginning and end of every lesson. Sometimes the teacher may not have been present before the pupils but they always stayed outside and lined up outside the classroom awaiting the teacher’s arrival. I think all the teachers at this school found this very effective as they could begin the lesson in an orderly and controlled manner. It also prepares the pupils for the lesson and any bad behaviour can be sorted out prior to entering the classroom and so creates a positive learning environment from the start.

The lining up procedure is advocated by both Rogers and Cowley. Rogers (2006) writes “corridor-settling does not take long but it prefaces the teacher/student expectation about purposeful behaviour on the other side of the classroom door” and “ what we establish tends to have a significant initiating effect from day one.” Cowley (2003a) states “the first strategy (lining up) is probably preferable in ’difficult’ schools, as it allows the teacher to structure the entry of the class into the room, and it also demonstrates a high level of control to the students”. This one point in the policy prevented a lot of disruptive behaviour from entering the classroom. This in turn prevents the teacher from needing to adopt further sanctions laid out in the policy. It’s an effective and very simple procedure to uphold at the beginning and end of each lesson and that is why I think most teachers choose to employ it. However, in some situations where I have not observed the lining up procedure being performed there has been a good reason for it. The main problem was the position of the classroom entrance along the corridor. If the entrance to the classroom was close to a door leading to stairs where a profound amount of ‘traffic’ could build up the corridors could become overwhelmed with students. If the lining up procedure was carried out here it could have been very difficult and so alleviating the corridor by letting the students walk straight in was the best option to reduce overcrowding and minimize disruption. Even though it was not practical in this situation there was still a lot more disruption at the beginning of the class due to the lining up procedure not being conducted. After observing the effectiveness of the lining up method and with many professionals, such as Rogers and Cowley, writing about its effectiveness I will be including this method to my routine of the entry phase. I hope to be able to set my expectations for behaviour before anyone enters the room, picking up on untidy uniform , any disruptive behaviour and give praise to pupils who have either behaved well in previous lessons or achieved high standards or work. Starter tasks can also be explained prior to entering the class to further prevent any disruption as the students will settle down quicker knowing that they have a task to get on with. Q10 will be achieved as I would be exhibiting a range of teaching, learning and behaviour management strategies within the classroom in order to produce a positive learning environment from the start.

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I have also seen many teachers ignore the behaviour policy with many teachers doing exactly what the policy tells them not to do. The procedure I refer to here is one in which no pupil should be sent out of the classroom as it only moves the disruption to another place where other teachers, pupils and therefore whole lessons may be affected. Instead they should either send a pupil to the Head of Department or, like another school, adopt a ‘buddy system’ where the misbehaving pupil is sent with a well behaved pupil to a pre-designated teacher who will ...

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