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Terry Haydn

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You are here: Home / Levels of Control (test)

Levels of Control (test)

The working atmosphere in the classroom and the complex range of factors which influence classroom climate

Suggestions that the problem of poor behaviour is a fairly simple issue to sort out can be unhelpful for student teachers (see some examples here). This is not an aspect of learning to teach which is straightforward or susceptible to simple solutions or quick fixes. The reality is that schools and teachers will always have to work hard, and with considerable initiative and ingenuity, to eliminate the problem of disruptive behaviour and deficits in classroom climate.

In the UK, as elsewhere in the developed world, there are many pupils in high schools who are not perfectly socialised, and who are not wholeheartedly committed to learning (Elliott and Phuong-Mai, 2008, OECD, 2009).  ‘Level 10’ on the 10 point scale is not a natural state of affairs. 

With some teaching groups,  it takes a great deal of skill to get to a position where the teacher is in completely relaxed and assured control of the lesson, able to undertake any form of lesson activity, without having to even think about control issues, and having persuaded all the pupils in the room to commit themselves wholeheartedly to learning.

Elliott (2009) argues that teachers need to develop a range of complex and sophisticated skills in order to achieve and sustain these outcomes with the most challenging teaching groups. And although the teaching and management skills of the classroom teacher are amongst the most influential factors influencing classroom climate there are other factors which influence the working atmosphere in the classroom. This includes not just school-level factors such as the quality of school leadership and school systems for dealing with pupil behaviour, and the appropriateness of the curriculum, but ‘out of school’ factors, such as pupil intake, levels of parental support, and the culture surrounding attitudes to school and education.

The purpose of the scale and accompanying materials is to develop student teachers’ understanding of the range and complexity of factors which influence classroom climate.  

This is not how it works. Terry to add.

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This is not how it works.

Elliott, J. G.  (2007) Ecological perspectives on student behaviour: why teachers in training need to see the bigger picture, in T. Scruggs and M. Mastropieri (Eds.), Advances in learning and behavioural disabilities: Vol. 20, International perspectives, Oxford, Elsevier: 3-30.

Elliott, J.G. and Phuong-Mai, N. (2008) Western influences on the east, eastern influences on the west: lessons for the east and west, in J. Elliott and N. Phuong-Mai, What the west can learn from the east: Asian perspectives on the psychology of learning and motivation, New York, Information Age Publishing.

OECD (2009) Programme for International Student Assessment Results: what students know and can do, Paris, OECD.

What do the levels look like in practice? Some examples…

This is what level 5 looks like

https://youtu.be/f8ofQ_3CXA0?t=229

This is what level 10 looks like

https://youtu.be/f8ofQ_3CXA0?t=270

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ofQ_3CXA0&t=1230s – 3.35 minutes in, up to 6.10.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/supporting-learning-primary

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/categories/teaching-courses/secondary-education

This is what level 10 looks like!

This is what level 5 looks like!

HW conclusion additional note

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