Assignment for you

Behavioural management
Introduction
In this section, you will be looking at behaviour management in primary and secondary schools. But what do we mean by ‘behaviour management?
Behaviour management is vitally important within the classroom. It is not just about punishing unwanted behaviour or even rewarding desired behaviour. Rather it is about having strategies in place to support children to behave in ways that help them gain the most from their schooling. Oxley (2015) considers that building positive learning relationships and intrinsically motivating children to learn is important for effective behaviour management. ‘Intrinsically’ is important here as it is about children being motivated for reasons inside the person, such as for enjoyment, or because it makes them feel better about themselves; as opposed to extrinsic motivations, such as stickers, money, etc.


This subject has been divided into three topics:
Child reactions look at children’s reactions – the forms of behaviour children might present within a school setting and the reasons why they might behave in certain ways.
Managing a class or a group looks at different approaches to managing children’s behaviour.
Recognising behavioural issues focuses on how mental health issues may affect a child’s behaviour.

Learning outcomes
By completing this section and the associated quiz, you will:
be able to identify behaviour management techniques used in schools
develop an awareness or understanding of undesirable behaviours and the possible reasons for such behaviours.


1 Children’s behaviour
Jon Richards, UNISON’s head of education (cited in Bennett, 2015a) notes a few simple truths about children’s behaviour:


Everyone experiences difficult behaviour at school
Children, like all people, can be selfish, cruel, kind and amazing
It isn’t your fault if they misbehave, but it is your responsibility to act if they do
Most students will be happy to abide by rules that are fair, consistent and proportionate
Almost all students prefer to be in a school where the adults take behaviour seriously.
(Bennett, 2015a)


Activity 1

Allow about10 minutes

List five undesirable behaviours children engage in, in your setting.