Establishing classroom rules
This is a short (4 minutes 30 seconds) YouTube clip, where I try to summarise some of the key ideas about establishing classroom rules, drawing on the ideas of some of the leading experts on behaviour in schools (with a couple of comments on my own experiences.
Although there were many different ‘schools of thought’ about classroom rules, there was a general consensus that a) you shouldn’t’ t have too long a list of rules, and b) you should try to ensure that your rules were as closely aligned to whole school rules, systems and conventions as possible.
This precept (like ‘Just…’ anything) runs the danger of portraying classroom management as fairly simple and straightforward. Most people who are experienced teachers will tell you that it is actually quite difficult treating all pupils in all groups with absolute consistency (which doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to be as consistent as possible in the way we deal with pupils).
What ground rules should you try to establish?
One concern I have heard student teachers express is uncertainty about exactly what ground rules to try to establish. There are different schools of thought on this.
- a) In ‘You know the fair rule’ and in other of his publications, Bill Rogers has suggested that teachers should try to negotiate and discuss classroom rules with pupils, with the idea that if pupils feel they have some ownership or say in the rules, they are more likely to respect them.
- b) Towards the other end of the spectrum, Paul Dix (TES/tespro 7 September 2012: 8-9) advises against starting out with a ‘rules’ lesson: ‘Don’t start with a rules lesson. The children will think you are a prig and ignore you. It will not do anything to improve their behaviour or their respect for you. It will not inspire them, engage them or interest them. You can agree routines as you go along. Please, I beg you, don’t tell them “how it is going to be” before you have shown them something of who you are.’ (btw, I think the article generally has lots of good suggestions for how to start off with a class). In a lecture to PGCE students at the Institute of Education, University College London, DfE Behaviour Advisor Tom Bennett advocated almost the opposite of Paul Dix, suggesting that it was worth investing a lot of time and effort in the first lesson with a teaching group, in order get things straight from the start in making it clear to the class what standards of behaviour you expected from them (see also, ‘Bootcamp breaks bad habits’, by Joe Kirby, in K. Birbalsingh, (Ed.) (2016) Battle Hymn of the tiger teachers, London, John Catt: 79-93, which details the considerable time and effort that goes into establishing norms of behaviour at Michaela school, London).
This divergence of opinion amongst people who are widely considered to be experts in this field demonstrates the complexity and context-dependent nature of advice in this matter – ‘What works’ sometimes depends on the culture of the school you are working in, and the efficiency of school systems for supporting teachers and enforcing school rules. Some would argue that it can also depend on what the pupils in the class are like. Most teachers in the survey seemed to acknowledge that it is not ‘a level playing field’, in the sense that some schools have more than their share of difficult pupils.
- c) Another fairly common sense suggestion is that you just try to get pupils to comply with the rules for the school as a whole – most schools have a set of basic rules/expectations, and these are often on the walls of the classroom (which is not to say that they are always rigorously and unfailingly complied with – depends what school you are working in and – to a degree – what the pupil intake is like; some schools have more than their share of very difficult pupils).
- d) Another school of thought is to keep them as short and simple as possible: Roy Watson-Davies of Northgate School, Ipswich tells pupils ‘to relax, behave and do your best’. I used to have just one rule which I tried hard to establish, which was that the pupils should not talk while I was talking (I think this is an important ‘litmus test’ as to whether the teacher is in basic control of the classroom or not, and it’s much easier to relax and enjoy your teaching if you can get to this level). In some schools and with some classes, this might be a fairly easy level to get to, but with others, it can be quite challenging. I used to call it ‘Rule 47’, which was the number of my teaching room, but it was the only rule. My fond imagining is that although it was over 25 years ago, any pupil who I taught would still remember what Rule 47 was, so ingrained was it in my day to day lessons, but I am probably kidding myself. One of my colleagues, who was very good at managing pupil behaviour used to go in for his first lesson with a class and ask anyone who wanted trouble to put their hand up. It worked for him, but it wouldn’t have worked for me – I wouldn’t have had the confidence or presence for it to sound a realistic and sensible move. This perhaps makes the point that you have to have a strategy which fits in with what you are like as a teacher, your personality and temperament.
Perhaps a more important question: how are you going to go about establishing the ground rules you have chosen to implement?
Joe Elliott (2009) makes the important point that it is not which approach or strategy you choose that matters (for instance, ‘Don’t smile before Christmas’ or ‘Be warm and welcoming when they come into your classroom; try to build up good relationships with pupils). What matters most is how skilfully you implement whatever you are trying to do. This depends on your skills of exposition, your interpersonal skills, your resourcefulness, your initiative, perseverance and determination, your skill in using colleagues and the school system. It is also linked to your overall teaching skills (if you are a really good teacher, in all sorts of ways, pupils are more likely to respond positively and respect whatever you are trying to achieve in the area of ‘rules’).
Your first ‘script’ explaining rules can be done adroitly or maladroitly; clear, succinct, plausible and engagingly phrased or rambling, turgid, leaden and unconvincing. It’s a really difficult skill combining lightness of touch with a real sense of purpose, and delivery, facial expression, tone and body language are all part of the equation. It is not cheating to practise how you are thinking of broaching the issue of classroom rules.
But it’s not just this first intervention that matters – important though this occasion is. It’s about how accomplished and ‘on the ball’ you are in dealing with the first instances where pupils break or test the rules/expectations which you have explained. It does help if you can deal with the first instances effectively; firmly, calmly, unflustered and yet getting across that this infraction has been noted and calibrated, even if it is just a polite and relaxed but firm request (again, just think of the skills involved in getting this combination of factors in exactly the right balance) for the pupil to stop whatever it is they are doing.
Then there are the judgement calls involved in deciding what level of response to the infraction is appropriate. A glance to show that whatever happened has been noted, a raise of the eyebrow and eye contact to note disapproval, a pause and glance to indicate that you are waiting for them to stop doing whatever is causing a problem (what Bill Rogers calls ‘shortfall, i.e. a light touch, ‘What am I waiting for here?’). Then there is the first low key, casual but clear request for them to stop breaking the rule, and then a carefully calibrated series of responses, from ‘yellow caution card’ or ‘choice’ pointed out, up to ‘First strike’, name on board (no shouting, not made big deal of or dramatized, quickly moving on in a relaxed way). If it is a school where the third warning means that something serious happens, it is important that pupils do not get the impression that you are reluctant to give the third warning – that you are ‘scared to go there’. Not uncommon mistakes by some student teachers are to not pick up quickly on the first low-level transgressions, so that incidents multiply and escalate – making it hard not to act in an arbitrary manner when the student eventually and belatedly does decide to act, and a reluctance to use the school system (and in particular ‘the third step’ which triggers serious consequences), because they think that this in some way indicates failure to head off the behaviour, or just lack or resolution (it’s not a very scholarly term, but sometimes in teacher argot called ‘bottle’), or because they think the pupils will start to dislike them (there is a degree of sad irony in this line of thinking as this ‘wanting to be liked’ is exactly the sort of characteristic that incline many pupils to lose respect for, and even despise the teacher). Pupils are usually quite quick to pick up the signals of ‘what sort of teacher’ they are dealing with, and to discern which ones they can mess about with and which ones they will behave well for. Again, pupil responses are not purely determined by the teacher’s skills in managing their behaviour, it is linked into the degree of respect they have for other aspects of the teacher’s professional skills and performance – is the teacher’s exposition and questioning good, is the lesson well planned, are there at least some bits of the lesson that are a bit interesting, has the teacher managed to get hold of some good resources, etc. (for a more developed explanation of these points, see Elliott, 2009).
Even this is not ‘the end’ of it, in determining the extent to which pupils will comply with teacher ground rules. Perhaps the most important thing is the constant (but adroitly done) reinforcement and reminder of the ground rules and the diligent following up of incidents, both personally, and using school systems, year heads, form teachers, parents, in order to discourage pupils from breaking the rules. It is partly about the art and practice of calmly, dispassionately and firmly doing everything possible to persuade the pupil that it would be easier to just follow the rules in future. In interviews with over a hundred teachers, many of them emphasised that it often takes a considerable amount of time, patience and effort to get the standards of behaviour which you would like (Haydn, 2012). Of course, how easy it is to do this depends in part on how effectively colleagues support each other, how good school systems are, and how supportive parents are.
I have worked with teachers who are exceptionally accomplished at embedding in pupils’ minds the standards of behaviour which they would like to prevail in their classrooms, to the extent that the classroom norms and rituals are so securely established in pupils’ consciousness that they unthinkingly comply with the rules. This usually takes time and high-level teaching skills, but it does make teaching a very enjoyable activity, once these levels of control have been achieved.
Useful suggestions for how to handle the start of your first lesson with a class by Tom Bennett can be accessed at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/meeting-your-class-6344139 (about 3 minutes).
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