Strategies for Dealing with Pupils
From Teach
- We cannot force children to change their behaviour. But we can encourage them to make better decisions over time. (Cowley 2006)
- We can only spark that crucial desire to learn if we can first get the children to concentrate, to have self-discipline and to behave themselves. (Cowley 2006)
- We can change our own behaviour to make life better for us and our pupils. (Cowley 2006)
- What works well in one setting can be useless in another. (Cowley 2006)
- Trust your instincts, and keep learning, to improve your practice. (Cowley 2006)
- The techniques need to become intuitive if your teaching style is to encourage consistently good behaviour. (Cowley 2006)
- It's about developing good relationships with your pupils. (Cowley 2006)
- If you get behaviour management right, your life is easy because you're free to do what you're meant to do, which is to teach. (Cowley 2006)
Strategies
Here is a range of teaching strategies taken from the DfES Behaviour and Attendance strategy at Key Stage 3. They are equally applicable to other Key Stages.
Choice
- Gives pupils some control over a situation which is less likely to initiate point-blank refusal. Examples include:
- ‘I want you to get on with your work or (consequences) it’s your choice.’
- ‘Are you choosing not to follow our rules on_______?’ or ‘Sit over here or next to Peter’ (implicit choice).
Take-up time
- Allows pupils not to lose face. Watching and waiting is, in a way, issuing a challenge. We need to be clear and confident about expressing expectations.
- Follows an instruction with a pause to allow pupils time to comply.
- Examples include:
- ‘Could you open your book and start work now, Jane. I’m going to see Bill, who needs some help but I’ll come back in a minute if you need any.’
Partial agreement
- Deflects confrontation with pupils by acknowledging concerns, feelings and actions. Examples include:
- ‘Yes, you may have been talking about your work but I would like you to…’
- ‘Yes, it may not seem fair but ...’
When-then direction
- Avoids the negative by expressing the situation positively. Examples include:
- It is better to say, ‘When you have finished your work, then you can go out.’ than. ‘No, you cannot go out because you have not finished your work’.
Privately understood signals
- Draw the class together and build in sharing times. Examples include:
- ‘Clapping your hands gently twice; or standing next to a ‘learning zone’ poster in the room. An individual pupil may recognise a gesture from the teacher as a reminder to concentrate on work.
Tactical ignoring
- May be appropriate for attention-seeking behaviour. This could be an example of secondary behaviour, so try to focus on the primary behaviour by concentrating on the pupil and not the behaviour. Ignore the ‘target’ pupil but praise the nearby pupil. If target pupils change their behaviour, praise them.
Redirect behaviour
The teacher may say to a nearby pupil. ‘Well done. You have remembered to put your hand up to answer a question.’ This reminds pupils what they should be doing and avoids getting involved in discussion about what pupils are doing wrong. It may be possible to focus their attention on the required task. Examples include:
- ‘Okay Maria and Mark. We’re looking at the extract from Tennyson on page 23 of your books.’
Consequences and sanctions
- Need to be in line with school policy and be implemented clearly and consistently. Examples include:
- ‘Remember the school rule, Phil. If you are late for lessons without a pink slip you make up the time at lunchtime. It’s there on the poster to remind us all.’
Deferred consequences
- Dealing with a misbehaving pupil later removes the ‘audience’ that is the rest of the class who are watching the drama unfold; it also avoids a possible confrontation. Dealing with a pupil in a one-to-one situation is more likely to have a positive outcome. Examples include:
- ‘I’d like to sort this out, Amy, but we can’t do it now. I will talk with you at 10:30.’
Key Strategies
Wait for silence
Use cues
For example:
- "Put your hand up if you can tell me..." (Cowley 2006)
- "When I say 'Go', I want you to start..." (Cowley 2006)
Give them the choice
- State the behaviour you require. (Cowley 2006)
- Make clear the benefits of doing as you ask. (Cowley 2006)
- Make clear the consequences of refusing to comply. (Cowley 2006)
- Give the pupil a short time to consider their decision. (Cowley 2006)
- If the pupil decides not to comply, apply the sanctions you have specified. (Cowley 2006)
Be reasonable, but don't reason with them
Use statements, not questions.
- Never ask a question if you don't want to get an answer. (Cowley 2006)
- "I want you to get on with the work now, so that you can leave on time." (Cowley 2006)
Use repetition
Set targets and time limits
- Children love clear objectives! (Cowley 2006)
Use humour
Put yourself in their shoes
- Source: But What if they don’t behave?
Good classroom and behaviour management is essential for your lesson to run smoothly. Knowing how to anticipate and manage problems will allow you to ensure that students spend maximum time on task.
Flow and momentum
For your lesson to run smoothly you need to establish and reinforce clear rules and procedures from the start. Stick to a small number of clearly understood and consistently enforced rules rather than a large number of regulations which will be harder to enforce. Make sure pupils understand why the rules exist, and involve them as much as possible in setting rules up.
Maintain the momentum of the lesson. Pupils will become bored and restless if you keep on explaining instructions after they have grasped what they need to do, or if you break down activities into too many different steps. Avoid stopping an activity already begun, or switching between activities without finishing them. This can cause confusion, and may trigger misbehaviour. You can easily prevent this through good lesson planning.
Seating arrangements
Seating will depend on the type of lesson you have planned. Placing groups around tables for ease of interaction is suitable for cooperative small-group work, but not for individual work. For whole-class discussion, pupils are best seated around a big table, or in a circle or semicircle, rather than in rows.
Misbehaviour: dos and don'ts
Do encourage desired behaviour. Praise should be specific, referring to a particular piece of work or behaviour, and should not be overused. Rewards, incentives and privileges like the following are also useful:
- House points resulting in a letter of praise to parents or entry into a prize draw
- Badges or symbols such as happy faces which children can wear
- Honour rolls
- Sweets
- Special responsibilities
- Being excused from some forms of work
When correcting misbehaviour do not overreact. Dealing with misbehaviour should not disrupt lesson flow more than the actual misbehaviour itself. The best way is to nip it in the bud in an unobtrusive way, for example, by invading a student's physical space, or by scanning the classroom, moving backwards and forwards on the lookout for any emerging problems.
It may be preferable to ignore minor misbehaviour, but you need to maintain consistency in deciding what you do and don't correct. Don't let your interventions seem either overly authoritarian, or arbitrary.
Follow this sequence when dealing with misbehaviour
- Try to divert misbehaviour, e.g. by distracting the student with a question, picking up the pace, boosting interest by starting a new activity, or removing certain tempting materials with which students can fiddle.
- If this doesn't help, then more explicit correction may be needed, by moving close to the disruptive student, making eye-contact, using verbal cues such as naming the student, pointing out in general that the class should be engaged with the lesson, or praising a particularly well-behaved student.
- If this still does not succeed, you should go on to more severe warnings, or if necessary, punishment.
Rewards help reinforce desired behaviour, while punishment is used to deter undesired behaviour. Punishment is less effective than praise, but can become necessary. Start off with a verbal warning for minor misbehaviour, before going on to increasingly serious punishments:
- Deducting house points
- Making students stay in after school or during play
- Removing privileges
- Expulsion from class or in the worst instances, from school
