Managing Pupil Behaviour

Improving the classroom atmosphere

Terry Haydn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780415614320
• eBook ISBN: 9781136480607
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Classroom Management

• Why are some teachers and student teachers better at managing pupil behaviour than others?
• What are the factors which make a difference to classroom climate?
• Can any teacher or student teacher become accomplished at managing pupil behaviour?

Managing Pupil Behaviour provides routes through the classroom management maze to help practising and aspiring teachers learn to manage behaviour effectively in their classrooms. Using a unique 10-point scale, it encourages teachers to think about the degree to which they are relaxed and in assured control of their classrooms and can enjoy their teaching.

Drawing on the views of over 140 teachers and 700 pupils, it provides insights into the factors which enable teachers to manage learning effectively in their classrooms, so that pupils can learn and achieve, and teachers can enjoy their work. Key issues explored include the factors that influence the working atmosphere in the classroom, the impact of that atmosphere on teaching and learning, and tensions around inclusive practice and situations where some pupils may be spoiling the learning of others.

This new edition has been fully updated to take account of recent research and inspection findings and includes a new chapter exploring the wide range of sophisticated skills that expert teachers deploy in order to get pupils to want to learn, and to enable teachers to work in classrooms where the climate is perfect for learning.

Managing Pupil Behaviour will help all teachers ensure 'the right to learn' for all the pupils in their care and to think about different ways to approach this vitally important aspect of their working lives.

CHAPTER 1 The working atmosphere in the classroom and the right to learn

DOI: 10.4324/9780203134078-1

Terry Haydn

INTRODUCTION: WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT

This book focuses on a particular aspect of class management: the working atmosphere in the classroom. By this, I mean the extent to which teachers are in relaxed and assured control of their classrooms, the extent to which pupils’ learning is not limited by the poor behaviour of other pupils, and the extent to which teachers are able to structure their lessons around learning rather than control. If you are a teacher or a pupil, these factors are an important part of your quality of life.

The working atmosphere in the classroom can be thought of as a continuum: between classrooms where the teacher feels completely in control of proceedings, where there are no pupil behaviour issues which might impede the learning of others, and classrooms where the teacher has no control over what goes on in the classroom and little or no learning can take place because of the poor behaviour of some pupils.

This book is based on my experiences of working in schools, conversations with head teachers, teachers and student teachers in the course of my work, and more recently, on surveys of over 300 student teachers in London and East Anglia, interviews with over 140 teachers and head teachers in the eastern region, with 20 teacher educators, and a questionnaire survey of 708 pupils in Norfolk schools.

A sample of 140 interviews, with teachers and head teachers working in over 80 different schools, mainly in the east of England, clearly cannot claim to present a comprehensive, authoritative and accurate picture of the levels of control prevalent in classrooms in the United Kingdom. Nearly all those interviewed were known to the author and/or had some form of working relationship with the author (many were former student teachers or heads of department with whom the author currently works). This may have had some effect on the data emerging from the interviews. The respondents are aware that I have an interest in deficits in the working atmosphere in the classroom. There might be ‘insider’ influences on testimony (Elliott, 1988). Against this, it is possible that the working relationship (and assurance of confidentiality) might induce a degree of frankness not possible in dialogue with, for instance, Ofsted inspectors. As Charles Taylor, behaviour advisor to Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education points out,

Schools are very reluctant to admit they have an issue with behaviour. … It’s also interesting because it shows an emotional component to behaviour. There’s an element of threat around behaviour that there almost isn’t around any other issue in school. Deep down, behaviour is our biggest fear. … There is a pride about it … in the same way that schools don’t like to admit that they have a problem with behaviour, nor do teachers.

(Taylor, quoted in Vaughan, 2011: 20)

Given assurances of confidentiality, there was no reason to feel that heads and teachers were not being frank and measured in their responses, and it is possible that, at least in some cases, they welcomed the opportunity to talk more openly than is sometimes possible about an educational problem that has such an important bearing on their working lives.

East Anglia, where over 85 per cent of the interviews were carried out, is not a particular ‘black spot’ in terms of containing an above-average number of schools in challenging circumstances. I did not make a conscious effort to seek out large numbers of schools in difficult circumstances. Fourteen of the respondents worked or had worked in schools ‘in special measures’, but many worked in schools which were popular, over-subscribed and had received various awards and distinctions. Eight of the respondents worked or had worked in the independent sector at some point. Overall, the teachers came from schools which were broadly representative of schools in the East Anglia region. The respondents’ testimonies indicated that to some degree pupil behaviour and disengagement from learning are problems in nearly all schools, and the questions of how to motivate pupils to want to learn, and how to get a calm, purposeful and collaborative working atmosphere in all classrooms are relevant to large numbers of teachers in UK schools. The extracts from the interviews which were selected were on the grounds of being broadly representative of the thinking of a number of teachers, or because it was felt that they provided some insight into teachers’ decision-making processes when dealing with problematic pupil behaviour and trying to manage learning in the classroom.

The book is an attempt to develop understanding of the factors which influence the working atmosphere in the classroom by providing access to the voices of head teachers, teachers and pupils who are actually in schools at the moment, and who, between them, are working to manage the very difficult tensions which arise from attempting to educate all pupils without allowing some to hinder the learning of others. I hope that their perspectives, contributions and insights will provide alternative view-points to those which might be derived from other sources, such as Ofsted inspection reports, policy reviews, politicians’ pronouncements and behaviour management experts. I hope that somewhere in the book, there will be something which is of use to those who have the very difficult and important job of managing pupil learning in secondary schools in the United Kingdom.

THE WORKING ATMOSPHERE IN THE CLASSROOM: A CONTINUUM

One of the instruments used in the research that went into this book is a ten-point scale that attempts to describe differences in classroom climate. The scale (Figure 1.1) is an attempt to get teachers and student teachers to think about the levels on the scale which they encounter in the schools they work in, and to consider the factors which influence the levels which prevail in their classrooms, those of colleagues in their own school and in other schools.

Figure 1.1 The working atmosphere in the classroom, a ten-point scale

Note For further development of the use of the scale, see Haydn, 2002 a.

The scale was initially devised to encourage student teachers to think about the degree to which teachers are in relaxed and assured control of their classrooms and can enjoy their teaching, and also, the extent to which there is a ‘right to learn’ for pupils, free from the noise and disruption of others. Media and policy debate about discipline in schools is often framed in terms of classrooms being either ‘under control’ or ‘out of control’; the reality is much more complex than this – as nearly all experienced teachers are aware, there are degrees of control in the classroom.

The scale was not designed to be used to pass judgement on the class management skills of teachers, but to get student teachers (and teachers, departments and schools) to think about the factors influencing classroom climate, the influence of classroom climate on teaching and learning and the equal opportunities issues surrounding the tension between the ideals of educational inclusion and the reality of situations where some pupils are impeding the learning of others.

The idea in phrasing the level descriptors was to attempt to evince a chord of recognition in practising teachers and student teachers, and to be sufficiently transparent and accessible as to be meaningful to others involved in the educational process – teachers, parents, governors and policy-makers. The scale was originally used in work with student teachers, based on the idea that it would be helpful for them to have some ideas about where they stood in the continuum between relaxed control and anarchy, to think about levels to aspire to, about what factors influenced the working atmosphere in the classroom, and why there were differences both between and within schools (some student teachers reported seeing or experiencing level 1 to level 10 within the same school placement). Student teachers who used the scale in the course of their teaching placement were also asked to consider what influence the scale had on their lesson planning and delivery, in terms of learning objectives and teaching strategies. Implicit in the level descriptors is the suggestion that below a certain point on the scale, the atmosphere in the classroom will influence not just the outcomes of the learning process, but the inputs as well – below certain levels on the scale, planning may be directed to at least some extent towards the objective of control rather than learning.

The scale is, of course, an artificial construct and does not encompass the full range of disruptive behaviour in classrooms. I have seen classes which would fall below level 1 as described here and have witnessed all of the levels on the scale. Similarly, at the top end of the scale, level 10 probably does not do justice to the complexity of factors that contribute to the ideal classroom climate that is perfect for learning. It is not just about teachers and pupils working together, it is about pupils’ attitudes to learning and to helping each other to learn. There is some evidence to suggest that in comparison to many other countries, England has many pupils who are not wholeheartedly committed to learning, and who do not see education as a precious or important process (see, for example, Elliott, 2007 b; Elliott and Phuong-Mai, 2008). Pupils’ attitude to learning is a commonly overlooked facet of classroom climate and learning.

It should be stressed that there are many schools where the lower levels on the scale never occur. But it is also worth noting that the outcomes of the surveys described in the chapters that follow suggest that there are few schools where there are no ‘deficits’ in the working atmosphere in classrooms; where all classrooms in the school are regularly functioning at levels 9 and 10.

The model is based on the belief that it can be helpful to have some idea, at least in rough terms, where one stands on the continuum, and of the levels to aspire to. The following quotes from some of the interviewees point to the dangers that might stem from teachers not being fully aware of the breadth of atmospheres possible in terms of classroom climate, and the advantages of becoming aware of the parameters which prevail even within the same institution:

It is possible that there are staff here who have neither experienced or seen a level 10 lesson … who think that the norm … or an inevitable fact of life in teaching … at least in this school … is that pupils talk while they are talking … that they move around and ignore the formal structure of the lesson at some points.

(Assistant head teacher)

There are some trainees who get despondent, demoralised and on the verge of packing it in because they are struggling to get to the higher levels on the scale. But they’re actually doing quite well, they’re getting there. They’ve got to realise that in a school like this, it takes time to get to know the kids. One of the key things is whether things are going in the right direction … are they getting better or worse as the placement goes on?

(Assistant head teacher)

It is helpful to think that there are lower levels on the scale than the ones I am working at. I have become aware of the massive differences even within this school … the time of day, the weather, the area of the school … some departments have it more sewn up than others.

(Experienced teacher)

I have worked with some teachers who seem perfectly happy with levels around 7 and 8; they don’t seem that bothered about going the extra mile to get the kids really sorted out so that they can just go in there and relax.

(Head of year)

There’s a stage at which, if you are at level 9 or 10 for a few lessons in a row … where they get used to it and it becomes ‘the norm’. They expect the lesson to be OK. There’s a lot of behaviourism in it. They can be conditioned to behave. … Not in a fascist, control freak way but just getting them used to things … rituals and routines, being able to have a bit of a laugh and relax at some points in the lesson.

(Experienced teacher)

I worried that talking about, or even acknowledging the lower levels on the scale might increase the trainees’ anxieties about class management. It’s an area that a lot of them are wound up about when they are in the early stages of first placement. But it led to some light-hearted discussion of levels which they had encountered when they were pupils and given that none of them were at level 1 with all their classes, they could see that things could be worse.

(Assistant head teacher)

The scale was not designed to judge the class management skills of individual teachers, and it is easy to see how its use might be unhelpful and corrosive of teacher morale and solidarity (see Chapter 6) if used as a managerial tool or in an inquisitional way, to make comparisons. The hope is that stu...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Acknowledgements
• 1 The working atmosphere in the classroom and the right to learn
• 2 Teachers’ views about colleagues who are good at managing learning
• 3 Planning for learning
• 4 Managing learning in classrooms
• 5 Understanding pupils
• 6 Working in schools
• 7 ‘Complex and sophisticated skills …’
• 8 Telling the truth about the working atmosphere in the classroom
• References
• Index