Behaviour Interventions for NQT’s -Research based guidance for mentors

High on all new teacher’s priorities in the first term in a new school is behaviour management. This is particularly true for NQTs who need to demonstrate that they are on track to meet standard 7. Where do mentors go for advice on how to improve this important area?

So where do new NQTs get their advice?

All schools will now have rigorous behaviour for learning policies which will have been disseminated in INSET days and explained at induction sessions. The advice on application then fits under the ideology of the teacher, influenced by many external factors. This will range from the classic “Don’t smile till Christmas” to “It’s the student’s classroom and you are the facilitator of learning”. They may be influenced by colleagues, departments and wider educational discourse though social media.

We have looked in more detail at a research based model specifically for NQTs based around the behaviour interventions toolkit.

The key finding, we applied to NQTs here is:

Following the EEF guidance, we then considered:

We decided on Teach Like a Champion 2.0 as our go to program. We were primarily interested in using behaviour interventions to improve attainment by reducing challenging behaviour, principally low level disruptions. TLAC 2.0 has a proven track record of success in the USA and has extensive data to show its impact on teacher education and pupil outcomes.

Considering training and professional development, working closely with the CPD lead a program has been devised using all the Teacher Development Trust advice on effective CPD. We have devised a series of induction sessions to run fortnightly for NQT’s and their mentors.

EXPERT INPUT -Professional Mentor will deliver the expert input as a long term devotee and NQTs will be given techniques to try from the book. We have bought everyone a copy along with videos of the techniques in action.

EXPERIMENTATION-NQTs will try out these techniques their lessons working within existing Behaviour for Learning policy.

EVALUATION-mentors will observe 20 minute sections of lessons at weekly intervals and feedback on the techniques effectiveness. These observations are recorded via a google doc for diagnostic and supportive evidence of improvement. At the end of this term we will also serve NQTS on their perceptions of the program and their advice on how to improve it.

This is a simplified blog version of our program, please feel free to contact for more details.

References

EEF-Impact of behaviour interventions-https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/pdf/generate/?u=https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/pdf/toolkit/?id=151&t=Teaching%20and%20Learning%20Toolkit&e=151&s=

Teacher Development Trust- http://tdtrust.org

Teachers standards https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/283566/Teachers_standard_information.pdf

Teach Like a Champion 2.0http://teachlikeachampion.com