Research School Network: The Great Teaching Toolkit Part 3: Classroom Management Our series on Evidence Based Education’s Great Teaching Toolkit

The Great Teaching Toolkit from Evidence Based Education is an evidence review that sets out to answer a question: What are the best bets for teachers to invest time and effort in if they want their students to learn more? In the foreword, Dr Tristian Stobie states that​“helping teachers become better is the most important responsibility we have as educational leaders, as it is the best way to help learners fulfil their potential.” 

There are four dimensions, split up into elements. An understanding of each of their elements is a brilliant launchpad for teacher reflection, coaching and CPD. This is the third in our series of posts on the toolkit. You can catch up on the others here:

The Great Teaching Toolkit Part 1: Into the Fourth Dimension

The Great Teaching Toolkit Part 2: Interaction, Motivation and Expectation

We’re sorry that it’s taken 9 months to follow up with Part 3! Today we look at Dimension 3: Maximising opportunity to learn – Great teachers manage the classroom to maximise opportunity to learn.

It’s no surprise to see classroom management as one of the dimensions. How can ​‘great teaching’ take place without it? Evidence based Education narrow it down to three elements: (1) using time efficiently, (2) establishing clear rules, and (3) managing disruption. We’ll look at each element and pose a question for teacher reflection.

Our question: What is the best way to start a lesson to minimise disruption?

One headline when the EEF’s Improving Behaviour in Schools guidance report was published was​‘Greeting pupils at the door improves behaviour’. Our research lead, Luke Swift, explored the evidence further and spoke to some of the researchers involved. ​‘Positive Greetings at the Door: Evaluation of a Low-Cost, High-Yield Proactive Classroom Management Strategy’ Cook, et al. (2018). You can read Part 1 and Part 2 of his exploration. As is ever the case, the reality was more nuanced than the headline, but he ended with the following conclusions:

• Foster positive relationships;
• Be consistent (and organised);
• Be real: carry out the above with sincerity

Lessons starts are not just about behaviour management. The first of Barack Rosenshine’s ​‘principles of instruction’ is to ​‘begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning: Daily review can strengthen previous learning and can lead to fluent recall.’ The focus here is on learning, but we know that consistent routines at the start of lessons are a good way to minimise distractions. As they write in the toolkit, ​“Routines can also be an element of great teaching – explicitly teaching students a pattern of behaviour that will be used regularly.”

Our question: Who has most responsibility for this – is it the individual or the school?

The full element is brief and worth replicating here:

The second component is about the consistent and fair application of rules. Rules and expectations should be clearly understood and accepted by all students. Violations should be rare, but when they do happen are treated fairly and appropriately, and as consistently as possible, so that students know that predictable consequences will follow.

The bold text is my emphasis. It strikes me that the evidence points towards classroom management approaches that are consistent and fair. And then we come back to the question: who is responsible for this? Whichever approach a school leadership team prefers, they should ensure that it is implemented effectively. This means being very clear about the active ingredients of the school behaviour system and communicating them well. Not just to teachers, but to pupils to ensure they are clearly understood, and parents to ensure they are supported. Lack of clarity lets everyone down.

While we shouldn’t deny teachers agency, there is still a weight of responsibility on school leadership to support teachers to ensure that the fairness and consistency is there. The EEF School’s Guide to Implementation has a few ideas for how support can come:

• Create opportunities for explicit discussions around how to apply new ideas and strategies to classroom practice and adapt existing practices.
• Model the delivery of new skills and strategies.
• Encourage staff to deliberately practice specific skills and apply what they have learnt by experimenting back in the classroom.
• Structure in time for reflection on the success of experimentation and what can be improved next time.
• Observe classroom practice and provide regular and actionable feedback on performance and implementation.
• Provide ongoing moral support and encouragement.

If a teacher is working in a school where effective leadership of behaviour doesn’t exist, go back to the ideas in the element. Make it fair, make it predictable, make it consistent.

Our question: How do you grow eyes on the back of your head?

The report cites Kounin’s term of ​‘withitness’, as that je ne sais quoi that the best teachers have when it comes to classroom management. And we know exactly what that means. Yet it can be really difficult to see the roadmap out of struggling with classroom management towards gaining ​‘withitness’. When you go to observe a colleague who has it, it can be difficult to unpack methods because so much is hidden.

It’s helpful to look at some of the broader ideas presented in this element and look at concrete strategies that we can implement. And there are so many of these. We’ll all have our own strategies. My dog-eared copy of Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is testament to that. Instead of just providing a list to teachers of these, we can do a little more.

“Great teachers do not actually have eyes in the back of their head, but their students may think they do.” There’s a Teach Like a Champion technique called RADAR/​Be Seen Looking that is my favourite. There’s a blog post and video about it here. This can be easily practised with or without pupils in the classroom. Often it”s just a case of instructions – stand still – pause – look around the room.

“Great teachers also use praise and positive reinforcement to support desired behaviour.” Praise can often be random and in the moment. And while praise tends to be a good thing, it can be better if we think in advance how we are going to use it to elevate classroom behaviour. So we might list what we will target e.g. we have a general problem with pupils shouting out, so we will intentionally praise every example where a pupil does not do this. The Art of the Consequence, another Teach Like a Champion technique is great for individual praise with purpose after a reminder or consequence.

“Great teachers draw on targeted approaches that are tailored to the individual needs of students with a history of challenging behaviour.” I think this is helpful for two reasons. One, it reminds us that we must always think about individual needs and approaches, and helps us to manage behaviour in the concrete rather than abstract. Two, it reminds us that in a challenging class most pupils will behave well. I mentioned the EMR method in our last blog post, and it’s a useful way about thinking about relationships with individual pupils: Establish; Maintain and Restore.

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