Plans for Better Behaviour in the Primary School

Sue Roffey, Terry O'Reirdan

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136636745
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

This work suggests strategies for working with children who can't settle down to work, who have angry outbursts, who demand constant attention or who display a whole range of challenging behaviours.

The book's special format allows the reader to look up the specific type of behaviour and see a range of tactics to help him or her deal with the situation in the short term, and then to consider what might be done in the longer term to prevent recurrence. No more ploughing through dense text - this is all at your fingertips.

By drawing on the good practice of many practioners and by looking at the most commonly experienced behavioural difficulties, the authors suggest approaches that really work. This is a behaviour handbook that should appeal to every teacher and teaching assistant and prove a useful resource for learning mentors, behaviour support staff and educational psychologists.

Part One: Introduction

Plans for Better Behaviour in the Primary School provides a selection of ideas to help teachers and others manage and respond to a variety of behaviours which impact on learning in the primary classroom. The book is intended as a handy reference for educators to dip into as the need arises.

Although the plans and strategies outlined here give guidance about managing incidents of difficult behaviour it is important to remember that behaviour management is most effective when

• it is consistent with whole-school policy and practice which promotes positive behaviour;
• a positive relationship between the adult and the child concerned has been established so that the child feels that he matters;
• parents are involved as closely as possible in a way that they feel valued;
• the child's sense of self-worth and self-efficacy is developed and maintained;
• teachers feel supported in their endeavours and are able to retain professional integrity

Behaviour is the outcome of many interactive factors, some of which are more open to change than others. What adults do and don't do can have a powerful impact on the way children's behaviour changes over time. Teachers and other adults in school can have significant influence on the following:

• teaching styles and approaches;
• classroom layout and use of resources;
• expectations of children and the demands placed upon them;
• classroom atmosphere and ethos;
• how children think and feel about themselves;
• ensuring that children have structured opportunities to experience success;
• the way parents and carers are valued in the school context;
• school policy and practice for behaviour management;
• the discourse in school about children who present with difficulties and their families;
• how staff support each other.

It is easy to become discouraged when progress in improving behaviour appears slow or minimal. Consistent good practice takes determination and patience. Teachers need to feel that their efforts are acknowledged and supported. This can be done by a joint celebration of progress, however small. Share successes with children, colleagues and with parents. An emphasis on targets, achievements, solutions, strengths and competencies is more effective and motivating than simply focusing on problems and deficits.

Using this book

Which behaviour?

Children who are struggling often manifest difficult behaviour in a variety of ways and in a variety of situations. Adults sometimes find it difficult to know which problem behaviours to address first. Should it be the area that appears to causing most difficulty for the student or perhaps what is most problematic for the teacher? Should it be an underlying behaviour that is affecting other things? Children who do not easily settle to work, for instance, may also be disruptive so it might be best to work on strategies to help the child to settle first rather than attempt to deal with the disruptions. Although it is tempting to begin with the most entrenched difficulty it is often more productive to attempt to change the behaviour which is more likely to respond to intervention first. When the student begins to feel more effective and successful in school as a result of interventions put in place to address less serious concerns, behaviour often improves overall as the spiral of negativity begins to be replaced with a spiral of success.

Although children often display difficulties in many areas, for ease and speed of access to plans and ideas, behavioural issues have been arranged in five chapters.

Part Two: Settling to work

This is where a child may not appear to focus on instructions or follow directions. The student may flit from activity to activity, completing very little. She may show little motivation to achieve and may be restless and impulsive.

Part Three: General disruptive behaviour

This applies to the child who seeks attention inappropriately, responds badly to limits being set, may want to please but in the process annoys/distracts others. This behaviour is wearing and while an individual incident may not appear to be significant, the frequency and duration of such incidents can be a major source of stress for adults.

Part Four: Social interactions

This applies to the child who has difficulty in establishing and maintaining friendships. Bullying behaviour, difficulties in the playground and poor group skills would fit into this category.

Part Five: Emotional distress

This section is intended to give guidance to teachers in dealing with children who are generally hostile, have poor self-control, who may have very negative views of themselves and others and/or are clearly distressed in some way.

Part Six: Unusual behaviours

Some children behave in ways which may puzzle and even alarm the adults who witness their behaviour. This final section covers behaviours which fall into this category and gives some guidance on actions to take for management and intervention in the short term before more specialised advice is given. Child protection procedures should, however, always be followed if behaviour is indicative of such a concern.

Each section has a brief introduction followed by individual pages detailing behaviours that may fall into this category. It is not intended to cover every behaviour. Those which have been included either occur most commonly in schools or cause teachers most concern.

Each page is divided into columns. The first column names the behaviour that is problematic and identifies a related target behaviour to aim for. Prerequisite learning may also be included. The second column gives some ideas for assessment. The third column suggests short-term management strategies while the fourth outlines possible intervention plans for longer-term change.

Assessment

We may not be able to do much about the causes of unwanted behaviour but we can do something about what is happening now. In order to do this, it is essential to formulate some idea of what is maintaining or, indeed, modifying the behaviour. Meeting with families would normally be part of the process of gaining additional information which may be useful. As well as finding out about any concerns they may have, parents will be able to give their perspective and also valuable information. This could, for example, be about the student's language skills, general levels of maturity and events at home which might be contributing to his difficulties in school. Assessment also needs to look at the child's strengths, how he may view the situation and what would be helpful to him. Finding out what is happening in the playground and/or classroom, such as interactions and expectations, may also give useful clues to intervention. It is often helpful for an assessment to include establishing a baseline against which improvements can be measured. The following explains the terms used in the assessment column:

Context: In which contexts does this behaviour occur – in the classroom, in the playground, at home, everywhere, or in specific situations only?

Frequency: How often does this behaviour occur? This may be estimated using a tally.

Tally: This simply means keeping count of every time a particular behaviour is observed during a particular time-frame, e.g. during a half-hour. It will sometimes involve using an adult as observer.

Duration: For some behaviours it is how long the child ‘keeps it up’ that is important. It is important that this is accurately determined as those experiencing the effects of difficult behaviour may overestimate its duration.

Patterns: Is there a pattern to the behaviour? Is it more frequent at certain times of the week, of the day, after, before or during certain activities?

ABC: This stands for antecedent, behaviour and consequence. Using an ABC framework, consideration is given to what is happening for the student concerned immediately before and immediately after a particular behaviour. This involves observation carried out over a particular and usually short time-frame. With this knowledge it is sometimes possible to alter the immediate antecedents and therefore prevent the behaviour from occurring in the first place. It may be possible to change the consequences, e.g. not giving attention for negative behaviour so that the frequency of the behaviour diminishes.

Triggers: Is there something – action, event or social interaction – which triggers this behaviour?

Onset: When was the behaviour first seen? What is known about the child's life at that time which may help to explain this behaviour? Has there been a distinct c...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Part One Introduction
• Part Two Settling to Work
• Part Three General Disruptive Behaviour
• Part Four Social Interactions
• Part Five Emotional Distress
• Part Six Unusual or Highly Inappropriate Behaviour
• References and Resources