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10 common behaviour management mistakes teachers make
| Guest post by: Andrew Mowat |
Article Overview: Teaching is a complex social activity, and while teacher training prepares teachers well around content expertise and delivery, very little is done to skill teachers in behaviour management. Behaviour management, in what is already a high-stress profession, remains one of the most significant stressors for teachers, yet little has been done systematically to solve the problem. Much of the literature addresses teacher stress from a stress management perspective (treat the symptom). In this article, I plan to explore the 10 most significant mistakes teachers can make in managing student behaviour. Further, I also set out to show what a brain-based, coaching or best-pratice alternative might be to each of the ten mistakes.
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Free Download - 10 common behaviour management mistakes teachers make By Andrew Mowat |
10 common behaviour management mistakes teachers make
1. Not staying calm under pressure - being in your own Red Zone
Red Zones are very infectious mind states. The Red Zone competes with
the Blue Zone for brain resources, reducing observation, situational awareness,
goal setting, behavioural error-checking, empathy, confidence, creativity,
complex problem-solving... Consider the cost of losing these rich behaviours!
Students have over-developed Red Zones in comparison to their Blue
Zones. Red Zones are more contagious, as are the emotional states from leaders
(ie the teacher). The classroom is primed for the Red Zone, and teachers have
the professional responsibility to be in the best mind state for learning: the
Blue Zone.
The Red Zone is a state of vigilance; looking for things that are
outside expectations, for threats, for challenges. The culture of education can
cause teachers to become hyper-vigilant and over-sensitive to challenges to
authority. The most outstanding teachers consistently see deviations to
expected behaviour as just that, and respond with a calm, consistent, planned
and fair approach to managing challenging behaviour. These teachers do not
interpret such behaviour as a personal attack on them, the profession or their
knowledge. They observe and manage from a calm 'situationally aware' space,
from the Blue Zone.
If you walk into your classroom 'in the red', or even have a 'mid-class
meltdown', you are making it so much harder to manage the behaviour of the
whole class, while reducing the quality of the learning!
2. Investing your emotional budget in misbehaviour
Take a moment to reflect on how we tend to respond to behaviour in
general. As parents and as teachers, the generality is to respond to unwanted
behaviour with significant emotional energy (for example, yelling, strong
facial emotions and aggressive body language), and we are often less energetic
with wanted behaviour.
We have this the wrong way around. The attention appetite of students
and children is such that, if they cannot get positive attention from you, negative will do. The higher your
emotional energy in response, the higher the attention reward to the student.
Responding vigorously to unwanted behaviour is very inefficient, and just ends
up putting everyone back in the Red Zone. Keep your emotional budget for wanted
behaviour, and discourage unwanted behaviour from a neutral, even distant
position.
This links strongly to the number 1 mistake (not staying calm under
pressure), and learning to stay cool , calm and collected allows you to be much
more strategic in how you ‘spend’ your emotions.
3. "I am the expert... " or demanding positional respect
In many ways, the era of the expert leader (or leader as expert) is
over. There remains a strong role for experts in content and/or process, yet
increasingly, leaders today are facilitators.
How many of you now consult a weather radar application or page on your
smart phone or computer? How often do you or your friends ‘self-diagnose’
medical problems on the internet before seeing your doctor? Have you noticed
that the dominance of the media in distributing news is waning and that social
media is often first to report?
We are in a content rich world, and access to this content and knowledge
is increasing exponentially each year. The time of the teacher (who is the
leader in the classroom) as a content expert is over. Any teacher that attempts
to demand respect because “I am the teacher, and I have the knowledge” will
simply not engage students.
Such teachers (and indeed, leaders and parents) listen less to others:
they have the content and need to be listened to. Students, however, would say
“why should I listen to you if you won’t listen to me…”. This has been the
recipe in education for a number of years, otherwise known as the behaviour
management grind.
While content (i.e. curriculum) remains essential, the teachers who take
the position “I have the content, how can I best help you access it?” are far
more likely to engage students, and are likely to spend lots less time on
behaviour management. These teachers are ‘modern mentors’ – hybrids of
content/process experts and coach/facilitators. Teachers who remain in Education
2.0 as experts can move to Education 3.0 (as facilitators) by gaining some
coaching training.
4. Playing the approval game - being best buddies with the students
A common pitfall of the young and the new to teaching is to play the
approval game. The behaviour that emerges with this need for approval is often
over-friendliness to the students, wanting to appear to be ‘one of them’. The
mistaken strategy here is make friends, form a relationship and it will all
work out ok.
A key fallacy here is that engagement needs a relationship to exist.
Conversely, relationships often emerge from engagement, and engagement can
occur in minutes with no prior relationship. When students detect a listening,
unconditionally respectful and encouraging teacher, engagement rises. When
these elements are present with role clarity (i.e. role separation), clarity of
expectation (i.e. rule clarity) and a calm approach to holding students
accountable, then you see a high-performing classroom. In Group 8 Education’s
language, a Success Zone classroom.
5. Making assumptions & judgement
Your brain is particularly ‘wired’ to present you with what you are
expecting to see. It is wired for assumption: If you are about to buy a brand
new red BMW, it is amazing how many red BMWs you see.
When you label students, when you give them what you think students
need, when you ‘just know’ how the next class is going to be today, you are
indulging in assumption and judgement.
The point being made here is not about the accuracy of the assumption of
judgement, but the usefulness of
either.
Jarrod (for example) might often be a miscreant student (and, indeed, a
pain in the backside), but the more efficient behaviour management position to
take is to be prepared, take him as he is and present him with choices that
drive to self-managed behaviour.
Alternatively, if you whinge to your colleague, over coffee break, that
you have Jarrod again, and “Who knows what he will be up to today…”, all you
are doing for you and your colleague
is setting up your brains to be hyper-sensitive to Jarrod.
This difference here is clear. Instead of (e.g.) “Jarrod! You are a very disruptive student”
best-practice teachers say “Jarrod, you are making some poor decisions at the
moment”. An observation, not a judgement or label.
6. Ignoring the brain
Not knowing much about the brain and how learning is expressed in the
brain is very much like trying to navigate without understanding your map.
We’ve been educating systematically now since the early 1800s, yet only in
recent years has the call to understand the brain, as it learns, gathered any
momentum.
The most significant impacts on the student brain are:
So what can you do as a teacher? Read widely:
The manual to teaching manual to The Success Zone, Success Zone
Classrooms, has a section on teaching to the student brain.
Teachers would also bring a great deal to their professional skill set by being trained in coaching techniques.
7. Being disorganized in your behaviour management
Consider the recent major floods in Queensland and Brisbane
(Australia). In terms of the response
from authorities and government, three key phases were apparent: preparation,
the flooding itself and the recovery. In each of these phases observation, communication
and action were present, providing clarity and autonomy in particular.
Imagine the impact of the disaster if this level or organization was
absent. No communication, people not knowing what to do or where to go,
assistance not being targeted to those who needed it most.
Your classroom can be its own disaster zone. Using the floods as an
analogy, behaviour events in your classroom fall into the same three phases:
preparation, the event and recovery. Poor teachers respond simply in the moment,
without strategy and without plan. The inefficiency of this approach leads to
frustration (for all) and rising Red Zones.
Outstanding teachers use observation (as opposed to assumption and
judgement), communication and action in the following way:
Preparation:
Unwanted behaviour (the
event):
Recovery:
Just as the Queensland government have announced an inquiry into the
2011 flood events, outstanding teachers seek to take a learning and development
approach to their behaviour management plan.
8. Playing favourites
It is easy, as a teacher, to socially and emotionally reward those who
meet your expectations and conditions. It is also just as easy to be socially
and emotionally distant from those who don’t. This is a form of conditional
respect (do as you are told and you’ll get what you need from me).
The best teachers (and leaders) respond to all with equanimity and
equality, regardless of how well an individual might be behaving.
9. Being a proud professional
The ‘proud professional’ might experience an angry student swearing at
them. The mind state of this persona interprets the misbehavior as a personal
attack, and responds strongly from the Red Zone. Often, this sort of teacher will seek
punishment and retribution applied from middle or senior school leadership. In
other words, the outcomes sought are meeting the needs of the teacher. In some
ways, this type of teacher is displaying as much self-management as the
swearing student.
A professionally humble, or situationally aware teacher (aware of self,
others and environment) will respond more to the student themselves, not the
behaviour. If the behaviour is public, this teacher will seek to manage the environment
first. Next, this teacher will address the emotional state of student, seeking
first to mitigate any Red Zones before coaching the student around the
behaviour. This sort of teacher is nearly always calm in the face of verbal
abuse, and has not interpreted the behaviour as a personal affront. Outcomes
sought are those that meet the needs of the student. School leadership, in
contrast to the ‘proud’ teacher, is involved as a last resort, not the first.
The message here is again related to being calm under pressure: stay
calm, observe rather than judge, act with clarity and fairness.
10. Treating the classroom as a place where you teach, but not learn
In comparison to other professions, teachers have been historically slow
to change and adapt. Professional development, in widespread use only in the
last 30-40 years, has tended to be after hours of off site. Teachers have come
to see that where I learn professionally is outside of the classroom, and where
I teach is in the classroom.
Hence, systems have been struggling with PD efficiency for years. Very
little of teacher professional development makes its way into practice, simply because teaching is a highly
task and socially intensive activity. There is so little time, space, ability
reflect or to experiment – all needed for lasting change to occur.
Research suggests that once the early learning curve of classroom
practice flattens off, teachers learn vey little in situ, despite a strong
desire and belief that they can.
The most outstanding teachers consistently treat the classroom as a
professional learning opportunity. Every class, every day. They do this by
reflecting with peers, with students, with a coach. They seek informal and
formal feedback, make adjustments to practice, and seek more feedback. They are
continuously oscillating between reflection and action. Stuck teachers are either doing lots of reflection
with no action (i.e. experimentation), or more commonly, they continue with the
same practice with no reflection.
Treating the classroom as a ‘place where I learn’ is often the
‘X-factor’ difference between motivated teachers, and those grinding in a rut.
Parting Word
A final observation here: all 10 mistakes above apply, in the context
here, to teachers. The principles of each point discussed apply equally to
school principals, to business leaders, and to parents.
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Article Tags: behaviour management, brainbased, coaching, education, principal, schools, student, student behaviour, teacher, teacher stress
Referred by: http://www.dglong.com
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About the Author: Andrew Mowat RSS for Andrew's articles - Visit Andrew's website Click here to visit Andrew's website   Teaching to the Student Brain |
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positive: the biggest mistake that I, and all other founders make is not doing survey. you wanna do a web dev shop? pick up the phone and do surveys. think that you don't need to? that's predictable
if you want to successfully kick start something to clock max returns at lowest risk, you must go and do surveys to a) build a data base of prospects b) put assets on your balance sheet so you can do financing c) qualify your opportunity....but you're not gonna do any of these things because you need to make your own mistakes
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- [quote="TannyL":28gm8l3x][quote="Alan Mater":28gm8l3x][quote="TannyL":28gm8l3x]I don't know how it goes in other countries, but here we have so many "student right" but they forget all the other rules students have to follow.
They do think they are smarter than their teachers, there is no respect to a teacher, or any adult.
I am working with kids at the ages of 12-18, what amaze me the most is the fact they have no boundaries, and they don't know the difference between right and wrong, and the teachers, can't do their job, to teach and educate, because they can't tell the students anythings, because it hurt their feelings.
What about our feelings?[/quote:28gm8l3x]
That's a real shame, Tanny. It must be hard trying to teach students who already think they know everything and don't give you any respect. I can't even imagine trying to deal with that.
At my high school, and most schools here including elementary grades, if a student acts up and gives the teacher a hard time, all they have to do is send them to the principal's office, and they'll be taken care of. That kind of attitude isn't tolerated over here. Most students are well behaved, but there's always a few that need dealt with.[/quote:28gm8l3x]
Alan. you are right, but here, teachers can't always do something. They can ask students to close their cell phones, but they can't take it a way if the student is speaking on the phone. You can't touch them, they photo everything and might accuse you with sexual harassment.
Last Tuesday the teachers had a strike, because there were 3 different cases where students beat up teachers. There is no respect!
At my school we are lucky, we have a big school with 3 principals. One of them is my boss, and since our building is separated from the rest of the school the students feel the freedom, but one of the principals is my boss, and his office is in the building and the kids afraid of him.
I know fear is not the way to solve things, but sometimes there is no other way.
OK, enough with the negativity. Our school is located at the top of the table in our country, and have some very good students, that do make you feel proud and make you smile.[/quote:28gm8l3x]
My goodness! I can't even imagine!
On the bright side, at least your school has an exceptional few that portray good character and will make something of themselves. To be at the top in your country must say something for the teachers as well.
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I outsource some management fields like business management, time management etc..
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Re: Dropped Out Of School To Startup!
- [quote="Alan Mater":3ospu8s7][quote="TannyL":3ospu8s7]I don't know how it goes in other countries, but here we have so many "student right" but they forget all the other rules students have to follow.
They do think they are smarter than their teachers, there is no respect to a teacher, or any adult.
I am working with kids at the ages of 12-18, what amaze me the most is the fact they have no boundaries, and they don't know the difference between right and wrong, and the teachers, can't do their job, to teach and educate, because they can't tell the students anythings, because it hurt their feelings.
What about our feelings?[/quote:3ospu8s7]
That's a real shame, Tanny. It must be hard trying to teach students who already think they know everything and don't give you any respect. I can't even imagine trying to deal with that.
At my high school, and most schools here including elementary grades, if a student acts up and gives the teacher a hard time, all they have to do is send them to the principal's office, and they'll be taken care of. That kind of attitude isn't tolerated over here. Most students are well behaved, but there's always a few that need dealt with.[/quote:3ospu8s7]
Alan. you are right, but here, teachers can't always do something. They can ask students to close their cell phones, but they can't take it a way if the student is speaking on the phone. You can't touch them, they photo everything and might accuse you with sexual harassment.
Last Tuesday the teachers had a strike, because there were 3 different cases where students beat up teachers. There is no respect!
At my school we are lucky, we have a big school with 3 principals. One of them is my boss, and since our building is separated from the rest of the school the students feel the freedom, but one of the principals is my boss, and his office is in the building and the kids afraid of him.
I know fear is not the way to solve things, but sometimes there is no other way.
OK, enough with the negativity. Our school is located at the top of the table in our country, and have some very good students, that do make you feel proud and make you smile.
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Many people will fall for that, because they are innocent and don't know how to recognize the spam in all their junk.
Another thing is the English. I only noticed the mistakes because you bolded (is this a word?) them. When we read, our mind know how to automatically change the mistakes to words we are familiar with.
The other reason is for people like me that English is not their first language, and may never notice these mistakes, unless someone points them out.
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