In the classroom, two things have a major impact on learners’ behaviour:
- The physical environment
- The learner’s mind
So, for example, learners perceive the walls of the classroom, the desks, the whiteboard, the displays, their fellow learners and the teacher.
This is the physical environment.
But they also perceive all these things through a system of meanings, signs, memories and assumptions.
This is the learner’s mind.
From here we can begin to understand why learners may behave completely differently in the same classroom with two different teachers.
The environment in which they exhibit their behaviour is not just a physical, external environment.
It is also a cognitive landscape, built upon the concepts, categories, experiences, and memories learners possess.
- To illustrate the impact of the physical environment, consider how you might alter your behaviour if you found yourself in a place where you felt unsafe.
- To illustrate the impact of our minds, consider how you would think about the place in which you found yourself if you did feel unsafe.
- And to illustrate the impact of the interactions we have with the physical environment, consider how you might alter your behaviour if someone in this unsafe place greeted you in a friendly, open and welcoming manner.
Contextualising this example leads us to the following:
- A learner is used to failing at school and being labelled as incapable of making good progress. As a result, they enter your classroom and see it as unsafe for them (psychologically). This leads them to walk in with a mental safety barrier in place designed to protect them from the unpleasant experiences with which they are familiar. This barrier manifests itself in attitude, appearance, and language (all constituents of behaviour).
- Instead of meeting the expectations of this learner and validating them, we put them to one side and put forward our own expectations.
- We greet the learner warmly, welcome them to our classroom and tell them we are looking forward to working with them in the lesson.
This helps demonstrate how we can shape the behaviour of learners in our classroom.
By taking control of the situation in which we find ourselves and by asserting a positive sense of what our classroom is – both in physical terms and in terms of the interactions that happen there – we can shape and mould the thoughts learners have, as well as the behaviours to which these give rise.
This reiterates the point that behaviour can be changed, that it is learned, and that the teacher has it within their power to manage this process – whoever they are and whatever their experience.
Of course, it goes without saying that with experience behaviour management tends to become easier, but then this is true of most things.
And it does not exclude the possibility of excellent behaviour management from the very start of your career.
To summarise, we have three key ideas. All important. All connected:
- Behaviour is learned. It is a result of past experiences.
- Behaviour can be changed through new learning. That is, through new experiences.
- How learners perceive you and your classroom is crucial in how they perceive what is acceptable and desirable when it comes to behaviour.
These ideas allow us to see our own actions as meaningful.
They help us to avoid falling into a situation from where we feel that no matter what we do, we cannot manage behaviour as we would like.
Starting with these ideas in mind means we are giving ourselves the best chance possible of managing behaviour effectively in our classroom.
