One of the things I commonly see classroom teachers struggle with is managing behaviour, and I actually strongly believe that we often take the fundamentally wrong approach. We tend to default to a position of, “I am authority and I set rules, you must follow” and, if we are honest, we probably wouldn’t react positively to that either. So, how do we break that cycle?
The first step is to think about why we have rules. We have some for safety, some to create an appropriate learning environment, some to ensure fairness, some to prepare students for the world, etc. I recommend taking a look at any rule you set, and first and foremost, would you be able to explain why we have the rule? If not, why are you setting and enforcing a rule with no purpose? Get rid of rules you cannot explain.
Despite its popularity, I don’t generally get older students to write rule lists; I write them myself, but use the above to decide what they should be. The next step for me is to share that reasoning with students, to be transparent about why the rule exists, and what the spirit of the rule is. This also more closely models how reality works, and is very inclusive of many students with SEND needs. It not only gets much better buy-in from students, but it also helps you build a better rapport with students whilst having strong boundaries and helps students learn a much more realistic way that rules work in the adult world. The latter point is perhaps something neurotypical adults do not notice, but is a challenge for a lot of neurodivergent people because in the adult world we are often expected to follow the spirit of a rule, not the word of it,. and this can result in situations that seem unfair to neurodivergent individuals.
Once you have these rules in place, the key is consistently enforcing them. You should have fewer rules, all of which you know are important, so it is already an easier challenge. The main barrier to keeping this consistent is setting the consequence. The consequence to a rule being broken should be consistent, fair, and reasonable. Never pick a punishment you won’t follow through on, and any exceptions to a consequence should only happen if they can be transparently and fairly explained. I think this is common sense, but a lot of the time we set the consequence and think about these things when a rule is broken, instead of considering them when we set the consequence.
My final tip, for this post about why, is to never set the action while you are angry. Stop the student from breaking the rule. Take a moment away and then from a place of calmness set the appropriate consequence from your pre-defined consequences. Teachers are human; pretending we don’t have any emotional responses is not effective. Controlling them and responding appropriately is better for the teacher, student, and outcomes.
[Photo by Joshua Miranda]