Tag Cloud
afl angry child articles assessment assessment for learning attention behaivour behavior behavior. paul dix behaviour behaviour management behaviour management course behaviour tips bill gribble business development careers certainty christmas classroom management colleges confrontation consequences consistency curriculum detention dfe differentiation discipline drama education education policy education select committee emotional control erica russell watson exams exclusion extreme behaviour fe fe behaviour functional skills gender girls' behaviour governement gtp habits holidays home inclusion itt learning legal issues lsas managing parents managing your own behaviour mutual trust negotiated assessment nick gibb nqt nqts nursery obesity school behaviour objectives off-site behaviour ofsted online behaviour course outstanding teaching pakistan parents paul dix pgce physical intervention pivotal team policy politics primary questions. reasonable force relationships reparation responsibilities restorative justice restraint rights routines safeguarding sanctions schools select committee sen site staff special needs teachers teacher training teaching teaching assistants teach nursery teach primary tes tolerance violent behaviour whole school approach
Browse by Date
- February 2012
- January 2012
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- January 2009
Signalling positive behaviour
Children read signs quicker than they read your intent or remember your voice. The digital child is icon intelligent. Signs and symbols guide them through new media and technology. Children use icons to plot their map of new worlds and new routines. Using them in the nursery means you can teach complex routines to very young children.
Pulling, punching, biting and shoving
This article was originally published in Teach Nursery Magazine in January 2011.
Motivating Children
This article was originally published in Teach Primary Magazine in 2009.
Behaviour Change, Magic Dust and False Promises
This article was first published on the Guardian Teacher Network blog in August 2011.
Gladwell, Dweck and Peak Performace
I have written before about the work of Dr. Carol Dweck. Broadly speaking, she divides people into groups who believe our intelligence is fixed (‘fixed mindset’) and those who believe it can be developed (‘growth mindset’).
The former often tend to feel the need to ‘prove’ their intelligence and so are likely to shy away from tasks they perceive as too challenging in case they fail them. From this viewpoint it would show they are not intelligent. Those with the growth mindset see themselves on a path of expanding skills and knowledge. They are happy to tackle a challenge because they believe it will develop them.
We want our students to be resilient and to see ‘failure’ for what it is: an event and not a state of being. We need to encourage them to adopt a growth mindset.
Dweck’s ideas are complemented by Malcolm Gladwell’s findings in his book , Outliers. Here he explores and accounts for outstanding success in fields as diverse as sport, music and computing.
He reports the findings of research conducted 1990’s by the psychologist Ericsson at Berlin’s elite Academy of Music. Professors divided the students into three groups. First, the stars who would probably go onto have careers as world-class soloists. Next, the good. The third group would probably never play professionally but would become music teachers. Each group was asked the same question: over your career so far, from the day you picked up the violin, how many hours have you practised?
They all started playing at around the same age and in the first few years they all practised about the same amount: two to three hours a week. By eight differences began to emerge. The best were practising more six hours a week by the age of nine; eight hours by twelve; sixteen hours a week by the age of fourteen and by twenty they were doing well over thirty hours a week. In total they had amassed about 10,000 hours. Good students had a total of eight thousand hours and the final group about four thousand hours. They found the same pattern with amateur and professional pianists. Indeed, 10,000 hours of practising seem to be the identifying marker of peak performers in a range of fields.
But the most significant finding was the busting of the myth of the ‘naturally talented’. The study found no examples of any elite performer who didn’t work very, very hard. Nor did they find anybody who put in the maximum hours without making the top rank.
This is very significant for learners to understand. It’s tempting to think that outstanding performers are just ‘born’ that way. That other people are more successful because they just have natural talent (a fixed mindset perspective). In fact, whilst a certain amount of natural talent is necessary, it needs very hard work to develop it. However, provided that the work is done, then progress will be made (a growth mindset attitude).
If students (indeed any of us) can understand this, then it can feed intrinsic motivation. There is no external limitation (your natural ability) dictating that you cannot make progress towards your goals. If you want something enough and are prepared to work (very!) hard, then Gladwell ‘s and Dweck’s work suggest that you can only improve.
Of course, knowing what we want and being able to motivate ourselves are separate issues and I shall return to these later.
Verbal Kung Fu: Fighting Without Fighting (Part 4)
Watch enough Kung Fu films and sooner or later you will see a martial artist practice kata. This is a rehearsed sequence of moves demonstrating techniques against an imaginary opponent.
This silent action provides the metaphor for the next piece of Verbal Kung Fu: silent actions.
For example, you are standing at the classroom door applying your MEET-GREET-CORRECT routine. You MEET the pupils, have a friendly GREETING for them and are ready to CORRECT them if necessary. Say, somebody arrives with ear phones in or chewing gum. Instead of telling them to remove said earpiece/gum you MIME the action. This signals what you expect them to do (By the way, that it is much more effective to expect compliance than hope for it). From the pupil’s point of view (we do well to keep this firmly in mind) this feels less aggressive, less like they are being told what to do, told off, singled out. They feel less threatened and more often than not will comply.
Of course, this can be used at any time during the lesson. Catch a pupil's eye and make the signal for four legs down, direct their gaze to the person they should be listening to, indicate they need to move on with their writing etc.
Verbal Kung Fu: Fighting Without Fighting (Part 3)
In judo, you can use your opponent's weight to overcome them. We can apply this (sort of) in our verbal king fu.
Verbal Kung Fu: Fighting Without Fighting (Part 2)
We begin the next of our Verbal Kung Fu series with a scenario that plays out all too often in classrooms up and down the country. Perhaps you recognize it.
The scene. In a classroom David is turning around instead of working on his Maths.
Teacher: David, turn around and get on with your work.
David: I am.
Teacher: No, you're not.
David: (Holds his exercise book up) Dur! What's this then? I'm on number eight. How can I not be working if I am already on number eight, eh?
Teacher: You were working but you stopped. You were turning around and talking to Michael.
David: (Turns to look at Michael's book) He's only on number four. Why don't you have a go at him then? I've done more work than him and you start having a go at me.
Teacher: He's not working because he was talking to you.
David: (triumphantly) So you admit that he wasn't working either but you still had a go at me. You're picking on me again. You're always picking on me. That's bullying. I thought there was a policy against bullying in this school. Not for teachers, though...as usual. Like you can all push in the dinner queue.
Teacher: How dare you say that? I treat everybody equally. Now, you were turning round talking instead of working. I saw you.
David: Yeah, just because you're a teacher doesn't mean that just because you say it it's true. (Turns to the class). OK hands up all those who saw me turning around talking?
Class goes into uproar. Teacher into meltdown.
The teacher could have used Verbal Kung Fu Tactic 1 (‘You may be right...') immediately after David replied that he was working (even though he wasn't). Verbal King Fu 2 (‘The thing I like about you...') isn't going to be very effective here.
Which brings us to the third technique: What should you be doing?
This is a fantastic way to re-direct the pupil way from what they shouldn't be doing back to what you want them to do. More often than not they will reply, ‘Exercise 4' (or whatever the task is). You can simile and say, ‘Great. Are you managing OK with that?' They say they are so you smile and nod and they get back on task.
It's not about punishing or having the last word. That's boxing, not Kung Fu. It is about low level, discrete, subtle, interventions from a teacher who is in charge of their own emotional state. It is because we have an effective prepared script to draw on that we are able to maintain that self-control which is central to effective behaviour management.
Paul Dix answers a FE teacher's concerns about punitive sanctions
Q: Working in FE I often find that after the census date there is precious little we can do about low level, persistent issues like poor punctuality, patchy attendance, poor commitment to handing in homework and general lack of work ethic. Myself and my colleagues use the sanctions available to us - letters and calls home, putting students on "report", reviews with tutorial managers etc as well as providing rewards to students with good studentship. However, we cannot give detentions, temporary exclusion only serves to put students further behind and is practically a reward for a kid who can't be bothered to come into college, and as retention is the major factor that impacts on our pay, continuation of our employment and general esteem within the workplace, realistically, students will not be excluded for this kind of issues. We attempt to remove any students who, after being set targets and encouraged still seem like they just can't be bothered before the census date but this doesn't entirely solve the problem at all. Any tips? (Apologies for poor typing/phrasing! see user name!!)
Thanks,
Sophie
You know, the thing I like about you is...
Another great verbal kung fu tactic is 'You know, the thing I like about you is...'.