Positive feedback and Behaviour Management Oriel High School July 2012

Spare the rod, spoil the child  Historically teaching has been authoritarian  Dickens – Yorkshire school’s cruelty appalled him  1979 Rutter et all observe 12 secondary schools: schools rely too much on negative and critical approaches to behaviour. Punishments twice as frequent as rewards  Mortimer et al primary schools observed. Negative feedback exceeded rewards.  Both conclude that punishment does not correlate to improvements in learning or behaviour  1987 corporal punishment banned in schools.  Teaching needs to find other ways of managing behaviour

Research background  Uk teachers tend to give higher levels of praise for younger students  There is a useful distinction between praise/criticism and feedback. The latter is more effective and never harmful  Teachers differentiate between academic and social behaviours  overall, a strong relationship between teacher approval and on-task behaviour  Strong negative relationship between disapproval and on-task behaviour  “teachers were very quick to notice social behaviour of which they disapprove and continually nag children about it…. But they hardly ever approve of desirable social behaviour” Merret and Wheldall 1989

Relationship between negative feedback and on- task behaviour in secondary school classes Harrop and Swinson 2000

Rates of teacher feedback Type of feedbackpercentage Positive academic50.81 Positive social2.91 Negative academic12.16 Negative social36.23

Categories of off-task behaviour  Inappropriate in-seat behaviour: in-seat fidgeting, turning around, leaning back, sitting out of position, rocking, playing with items  Out of seat behaviour: walking around the class-room, leaving class, changing place, climbing on/under/around furniture  Shouting out: e.g. to attract attention of another pupil, shouting out answer inappropriately  Inappropriate talking: e.g. social conversations  Disturbing other pupils: e.g. interfering damaging possession/work/person; taking, borrowing or throwing property; making demeaning/disapproving comments about others; singing/chanting ort non-verbal noises  Arguing with/challenging teacher: backchat; refusal to follow instructions; disregarding teacher instructions; prevarication and petulant behaviour  Distracting teacher: engaging teacher in inappropriately, non-task related conversation; personal comments to teacher  Inattentive to task: daydreaming, attending to other pupil’s behaviour

Four essential steps  Instructions are direct, clear and in manageable chunks (i.e. not reams of information as children with language and working memory difficulties lose track and disengage).  Follow any instruction by noticing pupils who are doing as they have been asked and acknowledge them: “Tracy, you are sitting as I asked, thank you”  Frequently acknowledge pupils when they are on-task and doing as required. This so important for disruptive students – they need to have a higher ratio of feedback for on-task behaviour than for off-task. Ideally a ratio of 5 positive feedback comments to 1 negative.  Have clear consistent strategies for managing inappropriate behaviours – using existing behaviour management policies.

Does it work? % on-task rates for whole class and least well behaved before and after 4 steps training: Swinson and Harrop 2102 Before trainingAfter training Whole classBottom 5%Whole classBottom 5% Infant junior Secondary