This blog is Part 2 of 3.
In Part 1, we laid the groundwork, emphasising the essentials of effective communication.
Audience. Purpose. Medium. Message.
Now, we can start to look at some practical strategies you can use in your work, starting with techniques around behaviour management, rapport building and communicating high expectations.
Behaviour Management and Building Rapport
Good behaviour management is built on three things: consistency, high expectations and relationships.
I’ll attend to the second of these in a separate section below.
Here, our focus is on consistency and relationships.
The future is unknown.
We live in the present and have knowledge of the past.
If we feel we can predict the future, then we tend to feel more at ease with our surroundings. It gives us certainty.
Traditionally, in stable human societies of all shapes and sizes, rules, formal and informal, help us to do this.
They are usually backed by sanctions or consequences that can be applied if the rules are broken.
When it comes to behaviour management, consistency means that learners know what to expect.
That means it is easier for them to predict the future with a reasonably high level of accuracy.
This helps make their experience of your classroom better.
This is because they have a greater chance of behaving in a way that matches or exceeds your expectations.
It is harder for them if you are inconsistent.
They will not be able to decide with any degree of confidence whether an action fits with what you want or not.
To foster good behaviour management, your communication around rules, sanctions and expectations needs to be consistent.
If it is, learners will quickly come to know what to expect.
If it is not, they will remain uncertain.
This uncertainty will have a deleterious effect on behaviour in nearly all cases.
Also, if your communication regarding behaviour management is inconsistent, you will find it harder to exercise authority.
The inconsistency that marks your efforts will diminish your capacity to act effectively.
For example, if you inconsistently communicate and enforce sanctions, then a learner to whom a sanction is eventually applied has every right to question the legitimacy of this application – based as it seems to be on whim or chance, rather than a predictable, rule-based pattern.
Similarly, if you communicate one thing one lesson and one thing the next, learners may question whether you fully understand how to lead the class.
For example, let us say that one lesson we allow learners to be as loud and as boisterous as they like, then the next lesson we tell them they must work in silence from start to finish.
This is likely to arouse surprise and ill-feeling in some learners.
They will rightly ask the question: Why is today different from last lesson?
So, it is vital that, throughout your training, you seek to communicate behaviour expectations, rules, sanctions and praise as consistently as possible.
This might result in some negative experiences in the short run, like when learners protest or try to challenge what you are proposing.
However, the medium and long-term benefits are substantial.
Learners will come to understand what you want and will be able to view their own behaviour through this lens.
Building Positive Relationships
We move now to relationships, another essential element of good behaviour management.
Building relationships means building rapport.
Rapport is the ability to communicate effectively with individuals or groups.
If we do not understand someone, if we know little about them, if we fail to consider their perspective, then rapport suffers.
This has consequences for our relationship with them.
In the context of the classroom, strong relationships and good rapport means learners and teachers see themselves working together towards a common goal.
This is why so much good behaviour management rests on the development and maintenance of positive relationships.
Of course, it is important to remember that your relationship with learners should be friendly but never that of a friend.
Distance must always be kept.
You are the adult, and they are the learner.
The relationship cannot be one of equals, because you are the professional and will need to exercise your authority and take decisions on occasion that may be unpopular, even if they are in learners’ best interests.
Here are seven simple ways through which to build rapport with your learners.
Ask questions
Did you have a nice weekend? How has your day been so far? What did you think about the homework?
We all like to be asked questions about our lives.
Such questions signify interest and demonstrate that the question-poser views us as important and worthy of being spoken to.
Listen
Whenever learners talk to you, make sure you listen.
And listen well.
This means paying close attention to what they say and showing that you have listened.
You can do this through your body language, by making eye-contact and by responding in a way that takes account of what they have said.
These are obvious points, I know.
But the frenetic experience of the classroom can often cause us to forget them.
Greet them at the door
If possible, stand at the door of your classroom and greet learners as they come in.
Ideally, you will have the starter activity displayed on the board so that learners can get straight down to work.
Greeting learners means signalling that you are in charge and in control of the lesson.
It is also polite, friendly and indicative of a positive, welcoming attitude.
Model excellent manners
Manners are the gold leaf that gilds the most mundane of interactions.
Use them at all times.
You will be an excellent model for your learners, eliciting positive sentiments and a sense that you recognise the importance of other people’s feelings.
Rapport will naturally follow.
Thank them at the end of the lesson
When drawing the lesson to a close, thank your learners for their efforts and participation.
Once more, this is about finessing relationships by taking the time to publicly acknowledge the importance of your learners and the role they play in your teaching.
Of course, if a class has behaved poorly, it may not be appropriate to thank them.
In these situations, you should decide whether it will be worth thanking those who have behaved well, or if it would be better to share your disappointment with learners and make clear your expectation that matters will improve in the next lesson.
Remain upbeat and enthusiastic
Enthusiasm is infectious.
We all warm to positive people.
It’s as simple as that!
Be firm and direct
This is an extension of the points made earlier about communicating consistency.
Being firm means setting clear boundaries and sticking to them.
Being direct means communicating with clarity and giving learners the information they need to be successful.
Cutting out ambiguity makes life easier for learners, further predisposing them to you.
High Expectations
Our final area to consider concerning behaviour management and effective communication is that of expectations.
And there is only one type of expectation you should have in the classroom: high ones.
We are always communicating our expectations to learners.
When we talk to them, when we listen to them, through our body language, through the lessons we plan, the questions we ask and so forth.
When planning, teaching and marking we are always and forever communicating our expectations.
And the one simple fact about learners that all teachers come to know is that they will almost always, without fail, live up or down to the expectations we communicate.
A single example from my own experience.
A new Year Nine class came to me one September.
I say new because I had never taught any of them before.
One lad’s name was familiar to me because he had been known in school the previous year for regularly getting into trouble and being disruptive.
Here I faced a choice: work from the previous knowledge floating around in relation to his behaviour or ignore it and communicate the same expectations as I had for everyone else.
I chose the latter and, not long after, he was producing excellent work.
Throughout the year he was focussed, conscientious and polite.
I told him off if his behaviour dipped, praised him for his effort and the good ideas he had, and the results were excellent.
I’m no miracle worker.
This vignette, while true, could be echoed by tens of thousands of teachers up and down the country.
I share only to illustrate the point.
All learners benefit from high expectations.
Some might not reach them, and there will be occasions where you feel your high expectations are having no effect.
But retaining and maintaining them will always place you and your learners at an advantage compared to the alternative.
You can communicate high expectations in everything you do.
Dress smartly.
Be organised and prepared.
Expect these things of learners.
Make challenge everyone’s business.
Tell learners that you expect everyone to work hard and to apply maximum effort.
Praise them when they do.
Refuse to accept giving up, I don’t knows, or shoulder shrugging.
Do this in a conciliatory, positive way.
Give personalised feedback.
Provide time in which learners can implement it and then draw their attention to the progress they have made.
Encourage less-able learners to aim for extension tasks.
Encourage more-able learners to follow independent interests, teach others, and write their own super- or hyper-extension tasks.
These are just a few examples of the practical measures you can take.
As a rule of thumb, ask yourself when you are planning, teaching and marking whether what you are doing is communicating high expectations.
Consider what else you could do to convey this message – and consider what you might need to cut out because, intentionally or not, it is undermining this central tenet of your teaching.
Just one more point before we finish.
If you are uncertain as to whether you accept my point that all learners will live up or down to the expectations you set, find time to observe a learner who is perceived as less-able or difficult to teach in one area yet quite the opposite elsewhere.
The experience will be instructive.
I am not taking responsibility away from the learner here.
Clearly it is their duty to behave and work hard.
That’s part of the expectations we have for all learners in school.
But, regardless of where the expectations come from, whether they are solely a result of the teacher’s communication or if they are a result of the views the learner has about themselves, high expectations will always raise learners up in a way that low expectations never will.
Perhaps the starkest demonstration of such a point is the learner who looks physically different in one lesson compared to another – their shoulders are no longer hunched; their face is now alert.
This physical manifestation reminds us that we can influence how a learner views themselves and their relation to learning through the expectations we communicate.
Outstanding behaviour management rests, nearly always, on the communication of high expectations.
Make sure it plays a significant part in the messages you convey to the audience in your classroom.
