Behaviour matters: introducing the new EEF…

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7 June, 2019 —
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Behaviour matters: introducing the new EEF Guidance Report ‘Improving behaviour in schools’

The most recent Guidance Report to be published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), Improving Behaviour in Schools

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by Unity Research School
on the 7th June 2019

The most recent Guidance Report to be published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), Improving Behaviour in Schools is essential reading for all teachers, teaching assistants, school leaders, governors and trust board members.

‘There is much research on the ramifications of poor pupil behaviour on the school learning environment. It is one of the most difficult tasks that both experienced and new teachers have to contend with in schools¹ and one of the perennial issues that affects teacher retention².’

- EEF Guidance Report, Improving behaviour in schools

The guidance, drawn from evidence, is applicable to primary and secondary school settings and has relevance to classroom practitioners through to those with responsibility for shaping policy and practice.

Behaviour

As a geographer, I was always taught to define my terms. In the context of this new guidance report, behaviour is taken to mean:

‘the whole range of ways pupils can act in school, including disruptive or aggressive behaviours*, prosocial behaviours*, and learning behaviours*’
*these terms and associated behaviours are explained further in Recommendation 2

The six recommendations aim to help schools to support their pupils with the entire range of behaviours, not solely dealing with challenging pupil behaviour.

This guidance report is divided in to three sections, themselves containing the six recommendations.

The first section details proactive strategies that can be deployed at classroom level to reduce the chance of misbehaviour occurring: a school-wide focus on these strategies should reduce efforts expended reacting to poor behaviour.

Recommendations in this section:

1. Know and understand your pupils and their influences

2. Teach learning behaviours alongside managing misbehaviour

3. Use classroom management strategies to support good classroom behaviour

4. Use simple approaches as part of your regular routine

In the second section, the guidance covers reactive strategies
for supporting pupils to improve their behaviour when they have misbehaved or have a chronic issue with their behaviour in school.

The recommendation in this section:

5. Use targeted approaches to meet the needs of individuals in your school

The third section covers implementation. Implementing approaches to behaviour strategically and consistently is likely to be more important than the choice of approach itself, and the impact of any good strategy can be enhanced by getting this right*.

The recommendation in this section:

6. Consistency is key

_{*to maximise its impact, this report should be read in conjunction with other EEF guidance including Putting Evidence to Work: A School’s Guide to Implementation}

This new guidance report will be a valuable addition to the growing library of publications, providing clear and actionable advice for improving behaviour in schools. So what next?

Next steps:

download the single side summary – which aspects resonate with your experiences?
download the full report – skim through to gain sense of the structure and contents before taking time to read through each of the sections and associated recommendations
share links and resources with colleagues
use these resources as starting points for discussion within meetings (department/senior leadership team/governors’ etc)
contact us for support in planning for effective implementation
explore specific references of interest to delve deeper into the evidence
check out‘Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain’ (2108) by neuroscientist Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (if you haven’t already) which explains, in an accessible and enlightening manner, the changes in the brain during adolescence and relates this to behaviour in children, teenagers, and young adults. We shared a TES podcast interview with the author in our March newsletter in which she outlines what teachers need to know about the teenage brain – listen here

Behaviour blog image4 inventing ourselves

References quoted:

All from review: Barmby, P. (2006) ‘Improving teacher recruitment and retention: the importance of workload and pupil behaviour’, Educational Research, 48 (3), pp. 247 – 265; Jennings, P. A. and Greenberg, M. T. (2009) ‘The Prosocial Classroom: Teacher Social and Emotional Competence in Relation to Student and Classroom Outcomes’, Review of Educational Research, 79 (1), pp. 491 – 525: doi:10.3102/0034654308325693; Kokkinos, C. M. (2007) ‘Job stressors, personality and burnout in primary school teachers’, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77 (1), pp. 229 – 243.
Aloe, A. M., Shisler, S. M., Norris, B. D., Nickerson, A. B. and Rinker, T. W. (2014) ‘A multivariate meta-analysis of student misbehavior and teacher burnout’, Educational Research Review, 12, pp. 30 – 44: http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.05.003