Let’s kick things off with a summary of how to effectively solve behaviour management problems in any classroom, then we’ll look at the specific scenarios of learners refusing to work and learners seeking attention.
Five Steps for Solving Behaviour Management Problems
- To deal effectively with any behaviour issue you must be proactive and decisive.
- Base your decisions on an analysis of what is happening and why you believe it is happening.
- Be aware that multiple solutions can be found to most problems and that part of becoming better at behaviour management involves trying things out, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and then using this information to make improved decisions in the future.
- When you act, remain positive and assertive, remind learners of your expectations, and give them a choice.
- Do not expect all problems to disappear straightaway. On many occasions you will need to keep applying your solution over time to habituate learners into a new way of acting. Be persistent!
Scenario 1: Learners Refusing to do Work
Explanation
One or more learners are refusing to do the work you’ve set.
Solution 1
Try to identify the cause of the problem.
Is it that learners do not understand the work or do not know how to complete it?
Ask probing questions to elicit information about learners’ understanding of the task.
If this is limited, provide them with a model of what successful engagement looks like at the same time as you re-explain what you would like them to do.
As part of this, you might also want to assess whether there is any ambiguity in your explanation of the work you want learners to complete.
If there is, simplify your explanation to make it clearer.
Solution 2
If learners are lacking motivation, tie completion of the work to wider goals.
For example, you might invoke the current target the learner is working towards or their general desire to do well in school and be successful.
As part of this, explain to learners why what you have asked them to do is in their interests.
Couple this with further explanation or modelling of the task.
Then, indicate the specific steps you would like learners to take to begin.
Praise the process they go through when they do this.
For example:
- ‘Thank you for listening to my comments and acting on them, it shows maturity and that you can make positive decisions.’
This positively reinforces learner engagement, helping to sustain it.
Solution 3
Reiterate your expectations to learners, explaining that, in your classroom, completing all the work set is a minimum expectation that everyone must live up to.
Tie this to your wider aims of helping learners to learn as much as possible and using their time with you productively.
As part of this, you might like to make a general comment referring to the engagement shown by other members of the class.
As you do, indicate that the learner has a choice to live up to this behaviour and imitate it, or to continue refusing to work – with these two choices leading to different consequences.
State what the consequences are and invite the learner to make a positive choice.
If they do, praise their behaviour.
If they don’t, explain the sanction and tie your application of it to the choice they made.
Giving the learner a choice shows them that they are in control of the situation.
It also shows them that if they choose to not engage, they are choosing to receive a sanction.
Scenario 2: Learners Seeking Attention
Explanation
One or more learners seek to gain your attention or the attention of their peers.
Solution 1
When the class are working on the task you have set, call the learner or learners who have been trying to gain attention to the front of the class to speak to you.
Explain the behaviour you have observed and ask them why they are doing it.
If they cannot provide a reason, indicate the behaviour has a negative impact on other people’s learning and that, for this reason, it needs to cease.
If they do give a reason, assess the value of this.
Perhaps they have a genuine need to feel noticed and you can agree to meet this need in a positive way – for example, by going and listening to their ideas at the start of main activities.
Or by asking them to write their thoughts down on a piece of paper, so they don’t forget them, that you can come and read once the class are up and running on a task.
Solution 2
If one or more learners try to gain attention while you are talking to the whole class, stop what you are doing immediately.
Turn to the learner or learners in question and say something along the lines of:
- ‘Our aim as a class is to learn. I need to lead that learning and I can’t do it if you behave in this way. I don’t expect it, and you know that you can behave better than you are doing. If you continue trying to draw attention away from me, I will ask you to step outside until I have finished talking to the class. Then I’ll come and speak to you one-to-one’
Here we are assertively reinforcing our expectations, drawing a link between the interruptions and the learning of the class as a whole, while also stressing that behaviour leads to consequences.
We are also giving the learner a choice and inviting them to make the positive decision.
Solution 3
Some learners find it hard to control their desire to draw attention.
In these cases, it is often good to work with the learner to develop a technique they can use.
This is about you and them identifying the behaviour that inhibits learning and working together to eliminate or minimise it.
Call the learner or learners aside, maybe even talk to them outside the room, and explain you have observed their behaviour and that it is not what you want from them.
Ask what you and they can do to change it.
From here, you can develop a strategy together, such as counting to ten before speaking, non-verbal signalling, or the learner writing down thoughts and ideas that you then look at when the rest of the class are working.
This approach is all about redirecting the learner’s behaviour.
We recognise the learner has a need they must fulfil, and we work with them to find a positive way to make that happen.
