Why do some teachers become better than others at managing pupil behaviour? What do teachers say?

Characteristics of student teachers who become good at managing pupil behaviour

Several interviewees mentioned students being ‘quick to learn’/change/adapt/’open-minded’:

‘Like most heads, I have some teachers who are exceptionally accomplished at working with difficult and troubled pupils, they are incredibly resourceful, persevering… and clever. Some student s and NQTs learn from them, others don’t pick things up’ (Head Teacher).

‘Can anyone become good at it? No. If they haven’t got self-awareness there’s no chance. They won’t get better because they can’t see it, they can’t understand. It’s as if they are pedagogically autistic. They can’t take things on board, try things out, adjust and adapt in the light of experience and advice. They’ve made their minds up… they know how to do it. It’s all the kids’ fault, it’s not me’ (Teacher Educator).

‘Some of them overdo the self-flagellation bit in their evaluations, you can beat yourself up too much, but rather that than that they can’t grasp that they are doing things wrong… stubborn, closed minded, rebutting rather than considering comments which mentors are making to try and help them. If fact most mentors are fairly gentle in terms of pointing things out and making tentative suggestions. But some of them just won’t have it. They seem to be incapable of genuine reflection. They are not good learners. They either won’t get through the course, or they will scrape through and be whipping boys for the kids for years’ (Teacher Educator).

‘If you are working with someone who has a reasonable degree of self awareness, who is honest and open about the fact that they are having problems, you are in with a chance, you can work with them, you can try and work together. If they are in denial, if they can’t admit that they are not coping well with a class… it’s more a matter of managing the situation, damage limitation. This is “heartsink” territory’(Head of Year).

Other respondents talked about the importance of perseverance – continued determination to get better at it:

Time after time (in over 40 of the responses), ’perseverance’, ‘not giving up’, ‘being patient and determined’, ‘determination’ and ‘resilience’ emerged as factors which experienced teachers mentioned as delineating between beginning teachers who became accomplished at managing their classes, and those who stayed on the lower levels of the 10 point scale. This did not just apply to student teachers and NQTs: teachers who had moved on to teach in new schools as Heads of Department were at pains to stress that it took time, patience, effort and determination to get pupils to comply with the standards of behaviour that were desired:

‘What you are looking for as a mentor is not proficiency across all the competences… it’s unusual to find student teachers who are good at everything… the standards are a bit artificial in that sense… lots of very good experienced teachers have some gaps in their ‘competence’. It’s more about how hard they are trying to get better and how good they are at learning and getting better… there are a core of key qualities such as trying really hard to do things well, being conscientious in trying to prepare good lessons, keeping trying when things aren’t going well and not giving up or going through the motions’ (Head of Department).

It was generally felt that most people who had satisfied the selection criteria to get on the course in the first place (‘such as being professional in approach, intelligent, reasonable skills of communication, able to learn’) could become at least competent in managing classes, ‘as long as they are not then pitchforked into situations way beyond their experience and ability to cope’, but that personal characteristics might make it quicker for some to get there than others:

‘Yes, but the length of time it could take might vary quite a lot, it might take some people up to five years to reach higher levels, others get there more quickly’ (Teacher Educator).

‘I think it is easier or quicker for some of them than others.. I’ve got some that seem to have “don’t mess with me” written all over them.. It’s slightly indefinable exactly what it is, why it’s there. Some grab their attention the way they speak…. Perhaps it’s in the eyes.. a sort of quiet calm firmness of purpose. Nothing to do with size… I’ve got one student – very small, short… I suspect she may have been difficult to teach hersel.’ (Teacher Educator).

‘I had one student who did have a bit of a weakness in this area… she was good in lots of other ways but class management wasn’t her strength. I had to say “don’t worry it will come with time” and I saw her three years later and she came up to me and said “You were right, it did come with time… for the first two years the exercise books used to have graffiti on them.. they don’t this year. I don’t know why, I don’t know what I’m doing differently. It’s just stopped’ (Teacher Educator).

‘As much as anything it’s about persistence and consistency. It took a while with some classes but now things don’t usually go below around level 7. It’s about developing a shared understanding of the parameters of what’s acceptable.’ (NQT)

‘I teach in what some might call a “bogstandard” comprehensive school… we get some kids who are just a delight to teach and some who can be quite difficult but who you can get through to if you work hard at it and do the right things consistently.’ (NQT)

‘I did have to battle with some classes when I came here… with kids who had been here at this school before me… who are you, new person, who do you think you are? A bit of it is about determination and perseverance. Not giving up. You are not going to win, we will have a good lesson. It’s a sort of sense of will that eventually gets through to them. You gradually get more of them on your side.’ (NQT)

‘Obviously they (student teachers) are going to have to work with some classes that are difficult… that are tricky even for experienced teachers. The test here is whether they are resilient, whether they keep trying in the face of consistent failure and disappointment over a series of several lessons rather than being passive, not trying anything, not even asking about what they might do They are not judged on what levels they get to, they are judged on whether things are going in the right direction and whether they kept trying.’ (Head of Department)

‘I spent most weekends of my NQT year obsessing about a year 8 class that tortured me every Friday period five and every Monday period one. I was annoyed with myself at the time for letting them ruin my weekends, but the hours I spent reading and planning and thinking about how to deal with the little beggars paid off in the end. I teach the same class this year and most of them have chosen History for GCSE.’ (Second year of teaching)

Several mentors and heads of department felt that it was helpful to survival in the classroom if the trainee or NQT could differentiate between the things that they could do something about, and the factors which were beyond their control. It was a question of finding the right point on the continuum between giving up because the situation is hopeless, ‘these kids are impossible to teach’, ‘this school is a zoo’, and pointless and counter-productive self-flagellation because you can’t make things perfect. Teachers have to be pragmatists. It’s about having a sophisticated understanding and good judgement of ‘the art of the possible’: asking the question, ‘what is the best I can do for this group of pupils given the circumstances, and the factors which are beyond my ability to change?’ and answering it intelligently. This is illustrated in the following extracts, from an experienced and successful head of department, working in a challenging school:

‘It’s the art of the possible… sometimes there isn’t an easy answer. It’s a matter of damage limitation. Your job is to do the best you can in the circumstances… to battle away and get as many pupils as possible to learn in spite of everything. It’s partly about determination to keep going… to get across to them that we are here to learn, that learning is important.’ (Four years in teaching in a tough school)

One teacher in her second year of teaching argued that not being ‘a natural’ had its advantages:

‘I know this is little help to a struggling PGCE student, however, I think it’s important to make the point that good class management is not something you are born with or without; it can be developed. Indeed, in some ways I think it’s better for your teaching to find classroom management a struggle in the early days, because it forces you to plan your lessons very carefully’ (Second year of teaching).

In similar vein, a head teacher suggested that ‘good learners’ often overtook those with natural assets but less application:

‘We see them developing over several years, not just in their training year. Some of the ones who are intelligent, good learners, end up being better… getting to higher levels… than those who have some natural assets and advantages but aren’t as clever at learning from experience and colleagues.’

Most of the respondents who talked about ‘control’ of the class felt that it is a mistake to think that control is primarily about exercising power over the class in the sense of creating a climate of fear. In another piece of research that I did, which focused on why take-up of history at GCSE varied so much across different schools (and within departments), pupils expressed a preference for teachers who could control the class in a calm, relaxed and almost ‘understated’ way (Harris, R. and Haydn, T., Factors influencing pupil take-up of history post Key Stage 3: an exploratory enquiry, Teaching History, 2009, No. 134: 27-36).

The relationship between planning/teaching and behaviour

This has often been a contentious issue. Some commentators who are not teachers have suggested that any deficits in pupil behaviour are due to poor teaching. I remember reading one commentary which argued that ‘Few. if any problems arise if the lesson has been well planned…’. Very few of the teachers I interviewed echoed these sentiments BUT, that is not to say that they suggested that there was no correlation between the quality of student teachers’ planning and teaching, and the response/behaviour of the pupils. As Professor Julian Elliott has argued, pupils differentiate in their treatment of and response to teachers according to the extent that they ‘rate them’ as expert practitioners (Elliott, 2007). The government’s current behaviour advisor has suggested that although teachers should not court popularity with their pupils, ‘if you are a good teacher, they will probably like you’ (Bennett, 2019).

Former Chief Inspector of Schools Christine Gilbert also makes this point, arguing that Ofsted had found ‘strong evidence’ that much poor behaviour in schools was down to dull teaching:

‘People divorce teaching from behaviour. I think they are really, really linked and I think students behave much better if the teaching is good, they are engaged in what they are doing and it’s appropriate to them. Then they’ve not got lost five minutes into the lessons and therefore started mucking around. Behaviour in our schools is generally very good. But there’s what I would describe as low-level disruption where children are bored and not motivated, so they start to use their abilities for other ends. That then can lead to other children being distracted in lessons and so on’ (quoted in Curtis, 2009: 7).

What did the teachers I interviewed say about the relationship between planning/teaching and behaviour?

‘The biggest and most damaging mistakes are those that stem from inappropriate planning. Either there is no plan or the lesson is under prepared and the trainee hasn’t put enough work and thought into it.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘I’m an experienced teacher and I’m not bad at getting kids to behave by controlling them. But the best way of getting them under control is to get them interested and engaged… to show them something that they would like to be able to do or to learn and then give them the chance to do it with a reasonable chance of success.’ (Experienced teacher)

‘When I think about which of my students end up being the best teachers, it is nearly always the ones who are strongest at planning.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘You can’t do this job without realising that there is a definite correlation between the quality of the planning for the lesson and what will happen in it in terms of the pupils’ attitude and behaviour. In most schools, I can usually tell by looking at the lesson plan how well things will go…. Skilful interaction with pupils can help, a sense of humour can be useful, a cheerful, lively approach, yes… but all of these things are just palliatives if lesson after lesson, the basic product, the lesson that has been put together by the teacher is basically poor.’ (Teacher Educator)

A teacher who had previously taught at a difficult school ‘in special measures’ and moved to a top independent school talked about the discipline problems in the latter when planning had been neglected:

‘Even at our place, pupils will mess teachers around if they are unprepared or aren’t on top of their subject. Clever pupils can be disruptive in subtle ways and can be very accomplished in the way they do it. It helps if you have good subject knowledge of what you are teaching, and you have a clear plan for the lesson, even if that plan is just in your head. If you are not prepared, if you haven’t got a plan or if you are having a real off day, our pupils will play up and can be quite difficult.’ Teacher at highly selective independent school.

Subject knowledge, including pedagogical subject knowledge, was also mentioned as a factor which influenced pupils’ response to teaching. One assistant head felt that student teachers were at different stages in terms of how able they were to get across to pupils ‘the point’ of what they were learning about, describing a likeable and conscientious student teacher who was struggling with pupil behaviour:

‘He’s a nice guy… sincere, likeable, gets on well with the kids on a one to one basis but his lessons just don’t interest them… he doesn’t seem to know why he is teaching this subject to classes, either overall, or with reference to particular topics. It makes you realise how important subject knowledge is. If the teacher isn’t clear about why he is teaching something…’ (Assistant Head)

This raises the question of the lengths which student teachers should go to in order to try to make the lesson ‘interesting’ (or ‘useful’, or ‘relevant’) to pupils. Lawlor (1989: 68) has pointed to the possible dangers of going too far down the route of trying to make it ‘fun’ or ‘dumbing down’, perhaps sending the message that learning is something that is unpleasant and has to be ‘sugar coated’:

Teaching should not be a form of salesmanship; and pupils will not necessarily learn through games and puzzles, or without hard work and conscious effort. Very many things in life – at school and in later life – including the acquisition of knowledge, require effort and concentration. Unless pupils are trained to concentrate and make the effort necessary to master knowledge, they will suffer in two ways: They will not necessarily master the required information and they will not become trained to cope with the demands of adult life.

What did teachers say about the lengths to which teachers should go to in order to make their lessons interesting and enjoyable for pupils?

Although it might be argued that Lawlor works at some distance from the realities of life in secondary classrooms, might there not be a degree of truth in her argument? In the course of giving talks about class management to student teachers, I have asked if any of them can remember being given tasks to do as pupils which were pointless and which were fairly obviously designed to ‘pass the time’, or to ‘get their heads down’, ‘keep them quiet’. On each occasion, almost every hand went up. (Although it was over 40 years ago, I still remember being asked to draw a Roman vase in a history lesson and thinking that it was a fairly pointless thing to do).

Putting aside the teacher testimony from my research for a moment, my own view on this is that most secondary pupils have a degree of discernment about the value of the tasks which they are given, particularly as they make their way though the school. They will have encountered a number of ‘settling’ activities designed to quieten them down, and ‘this will pass the time’ activities where teachers have not been able to think of high quality learning experiences. They do generally enjoy lessons which contain some elements of fun and enjoyment – light hearted video extracts, recap ‘games’ such as ‘Blockbusters’ or ‘Who wants to be a 20p-aire?’, but if it is overdone, if it becomes apparent that the teacher is just desperately looking for things for pupils to do until the bell goes, the law of diminishing returns will apply. Some teachers are able to gain the respect of their pupils largely through the quality of their pedagogic subject knowledge, and do not need to ‘blend in’ low value components to sustain pupil engagement. One NQT talked admiringly of an experienced teacher who was able to do this, whilst acknowledging that not all teachers were able to achieve control in this way:

‘He has fantastic control in the classroom. He doesn’t believe in doing light-hearted, fun things, he doesn’t go to any effort to make it relevant, topical. He makes it absolutely clear that they are here to learn. Although this seems an austere message, the pupils really like being in his classes. They like the fact that he is very strict and in control. No one ever gets punished in his lesson because no one would dream of misbehaving. Also no time is wasted by kids messing about, there are no chaotic or messy bits to the lesson, the kids can see that he is a really good, effective teacher, that they are learning and that they will do well in the subject. Another member of the department is good but in a completely different way… he is a fantastic planner, he has hundreds of great ideas for pupil activities and for structuring lessons effectively and there are lots of “fun” bits in the lesson. You learn from experienced colleagues even if you can’t replicate exactly what it is that they do, even if you can’t do it like them.’

The teachers who were interviewed had differing views about the ways in which teachers might try to engage pupils in learning, but overwhelmingly, they believed that planning needed to consider how to persuade the pupils to engage in learning:

‘There are sometimes quite small things that you can do that will make a difference to their general attitude to being in your classroom. Just making them feel welcome as they come in, having something that might interest them or at least make them feel that you are doing your best… that you are aware that it can be dull for them, that you care about what it’s like for them.’ (Head of Department)

‘Anyone who just plans around control is on to a loser. Really thinking hard about making at least some bit of the lesson… preferably at the start of the lesson… interesting… Making the kids feel they are achieving, persuading them that what you are doing together is worthwhile… then you are in with a fighting chance. Doesn’t mean that you won’t get some kids trying to spoil the lesson and you’ll have to use your control skills as well. If there’s nothing for them to do or think about then more of them will start messing about.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘These days you have just got to try and make it interesting for them, to get some sliver of entertainment into the lesson to matter what subject you teach. They expect it and some teachers are good at it. You are up against it if there are never any bits of your lessons where you can have a bit of a laugh with them, or show them something interesting. If you try and do it through just cowing them, being severe, threatening them… they might be quiet but it will be a surly, resentful quiet, there won’t be a nice climate in the room. Better than getting slaughtered but not what you want in the longer term.’ (Head of Department)

‘I must make a conscious effort in every lesson to provide a good opener in the form of a hook to try and capture their interest. This will hopefully get at least some of the class interested and wanting to give the lesson a chance. I have found that when I adopt this approach to lessons, I nearly always have a successful lesson. I would therefore like to make this an integral part of all the lessons I plan.’

It was not felt to be necessarily about injecting ‘fun’ components into the lesson. One experienced teacher educator felt that some student teachers were better than others at conveying to pupils the importance of what they would be doing in the lesson:

‘They have a sort of intelligent serious thoughtfulness, they treat the topic they are doing as important and this seriousness can get through to the pupils… we’ re doing something important and worthwhile here…’

Teachers had different views about how to get their pupils to want to learn, but given the nature of the pupils they taught, they nearly all felt that it was an important consideration in planning. In the words of one teacher,

‘Even with exam classes, you must not assume that they are all keen to learn and do well, to work to the best of their ability. Part of your job is to get them to want to do that.’ (Experienced teacher)

‘They are not learning machines. Some of them don’t really want to be in your classroom and haven’t got any great desire to do well in your subject. But a lot of them can be lured into learning. There is almost like a “credit” system… so that if they’ve had a bit of fun, a bit of a laugh, something interesting, then they will accept doing something that is hard work, that is not low level stuff.’ (Experienced teacher)

‘We had one trainee who was excellent… very bright, conscientious, good ideas. I’m sure he will have become a really good teacher…. But every single minute of every lesson was focused on things to get them through the exam. This might sound great… just what parents want. But the kids hated him and were resentful… reluctant to work for him… the homeworks went off, they would work under protest. Even sixth formers need a bit of thought to be devoted to interest and engagement, never mind year 10s.’ (Head of Department)

‘Our pupils are quite streetwise… they are aware when they are being given childminding stuff. They resent it and feel patronised when an activity is patently designed to just pass the time until the bell goes.’ (Head of Department)

‘If you just transmit information, and the pupils are passive for large bits of the lesson, either just listening to the teacher or copying things out, you will have more problems with class management than if they are doing active learning, if you have given them a real task that has a clear purpose that they can understand… the sort of task a grown up might do… Once they get into trying to solve or do whatever it is… they stop thinking about messing about.’ (Head of Department and experienced mentor)

‘At the start of the placement, I tell them that getting the pupils to copy a paragraph from the board can be a way of settling them down, but my heart sinks when I see them doing this lesson after lesson. There are lots of ways of settling pupils down and getting them started… getting them into the learning.’ (Head of Department)

‘I do understand if they (trainees) try something and it doesn’t work and they retreat, at least for the moment… with that particular class, to something a bit safer. But if they are not prepared to at least experiment… to go beyond the comfort zone, even with their easier classes… that sets alarm bells ringing.’ (Experienced Mentor)

‘They (student teachers) should at least be prepared to “have a go”. When did kids last come out of a lesson saying “Those questions on page 27 of the text book were great”?’ (Teacher Educator)

‘Some trainees stick to the lesson plan with grim determination even when it’s clear that something isn’t working… you’ve lost them, a component of the lesson isn’t working… you need a plan B… do something else.’ (Experienced teacher)

‘We do try to almost strike a deal with them… you’ll have a good time in the lesson and enjoy it if you work, you’ll get to do stuff, we can have a bit of fun if you know how far you can go… when to stop. But you’ve got to be prepared to follow this up if Plan A isn’t working, and you have to have something reasonable to do for Plan B… preferably not just copying out the text book.’ (Second year of teaching)

‘You hope that when you warn the pupils that if they don’t calm down, the fun work will stop, the good kids in the class will exhort the ones who are messing about to stop. We know that they don’t like worksheets and written work. Sometimes the threat works, sometimes it doesn’t, but you must carry it out and you must have something planned for them to do as an alternative.’ (Head of Department)

‘Most kids, even in this school, are rational human beings. If you offer them something that is a bit different, or “back to working from the text book” they will choose the pleasanter option. Having said that, we have some teaching groups who are exceptionally difficult and who will not give things a chance so you sometimes have to resort to crowd control type work, just trying to keep the lid on things.’ (Head of Department in a challenging school)

Several teachers mentioned ‘initiative with resources’ as a factor which made a difference to pupils’ response to student teachers. Three examples are given below:

‘When you start, you haven’t got many ideas about what you can do in terms of “things to do in a classroom”…. You can use the text book, have reading round the class, worksheets… showing them a video, talk to them, give them writing tasks, do a newspaper front page. It’s fairly basic and dull repertoire and the kids probably have quite a bit if this stuff in other lessons. It wasn’t until later in the course that I realised that there are hundreds of different activities you can do in a classroom, using the space in the room, pair work, dozens of different things with group work, continuum exercises, participation stuff with whiteboards, card sorts, getting the pupils doing things for themselves in terms of presentations, composition, competitions, quizzes, stuff from the net. The net in particular is a fantastic resource for teachers… there are lots of websites where teachers share good ideas about how to vary what you do in the classroom.’ (Second year of teaching)

‘A lot of it is about being proactive with resources, not just relying on what is in the stock cupboard. The internet has more than quadrupled my stock of ideas for what activities I can do in my lessons.’ (NQT)

‘It’s hard when you start because you haven’t got a vast stack of ideas about what sort of tasks to give them. This is where the internet is fantastic… it’s got hundreds of ideas for things to do… they don’t all work but at least it gets you trying out different things. I now know quite a few sites where there are a high percentage of activities that work, and which they enjoy. Some of them are just a quick bit of fun, idiosyncratic, not particularly relevant to the key concept you are trying to get across, but at least it gets across to the kids that you have made an effort to think about them.’ (Second year of teaching)

Changing competence specifications for the ability to engage pupils in learning: The 1998 version of the Teaching Standards (DfEE, 1998: 13-14) specified 14 different competences related to being able to engage pupils in learning – Engaging pupils in learning -DfEE, 1998).

The relationship between planning/teaching and behaviour

Former Chief Inspector of Schools Christine Gilbert also makes this point, arguing that Ofsted had found ‘strong evidence’ that much poor behaviour in schools was down to dull teaching:

What did the teachers I interviewed say about the relationship between planning/teaching and behaviour?

‘When I think about which of my students end up being the best teachers, it is nearly always the ones who are strongest at planning.’ (Teacher Educator)

What did teachers say about the lengths to which teachers should go to in order to make their lessons interesting and enjoyable for pupils?

Several teachers mentioned ‘initiative with resources’ as a factor which made a difference to pupils’ response to student teachers. Three examples are given below:

Talking to pupils in an appropriate tone and manner

Although there was not much teacher testimony on this aspect of teaching (other than on the importance of keeping calm), several experts in the field of behaviour have argued that the way in which you talk to pupils has an influence on the ways in which pupils will respond. Several teachers mentioned having learned from the work of Bill Rogers, and his advocacy of the ‘As if….’ tone (when instructing pupils to do something, try to sound relaxed and confident and try to convey the impression that you are confident that they will do as requested):

‘I remember the Bill Rogers thing about dealing with the things you can control, not the things that you can’t control. I try really hard to keep calm, even when provoked, I try hard not to let it get to me. You can make a mental effort not to get angry or upset or exasperated and that has helped me.’(NQT)

‘I wish I’d known about Bill Rogers when I started teaching. The things he says just ring true and make a huge amount of sense. For instance, the “act as if…” aura… say something as if you just assume it’s going to happen. I sometimes see student s at the other end of the spectrum, whose whole body language is screaming at kids “Even as I say this I don’t believe you’re going to comply with what I say”… it’s all bluster.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘She’s great, talks to them in a normal, confident manner, very natural, uses the usual range of techniques for getting them settled – has obviously read Bill Rogers, particularly good at counting down…. 54321… in a confident and relaxed manner, and even our year 9s fall in with the routine. There’s definitely an element of behaviourism in the way they get conditioned to respond if people are calm, firm and consistent and make it really clear to the kid what the procedures and norms are.’ (Head of Department, describing a strong trainee)

‘There is less chance of refusal if they have been asked to do something in an eminently reasonable and polite way which gives them no chance to take offence, and if it doesn’t seem big deal. Sometimes teachers don’t make enough use of very small sanctions, which serve the purpose of getting the pupil to accept the teacher’s authority or risk seeming ridiculous and “out of order” for refusing to do something that is such a small thing. So, “Can I just see you for a minute at the end please Alan’, said as a statement rather than a question, and moving on quickly with the lesson, leaving the matter as accepted, is better than, “Right, you boy, see me at the end!”’ (Mentor)

‘I saw a trainee handle a pupil who was trying hard to force a confrontation very skilfully by just staying calm and unflustered, not raising to her provocations. After a clear, firm warning, he eventually sent her out to the remove room and just walked away from the consequent invective and noise by moving to help some other pupils, ignoring her and getting on with the lesson. In the end she just despaired of getting the drama she wanted and mooched off.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘You have to come across as a reasonable person… fair, consistent, using sanctions more in sorrow than in anger, to try and keep the other pupils tacitly on your side, thinking that it was the pupil’s own fault that he got into trouble. Reasonableness in the face of difficult pupil behaviour can be helpful… disarming even. Interpersonal skills as well… the way you talk to them. The skill with which you present alternative possibilities to them, and the tone of your voice.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘One piece of advice: ‘Say things as a polite statement not a question or request… the ‘as if…’ intonation, low key, relaxed, “just straighten that chair up, thanks.”. When I started I wouldn’t have dreamed of talking like that, it wouldn’t have sounded polite but I’ve learned that tone… intonation matter.’ (Second year of teaching)

In terms of talking effectively to pupils, a second quality was mentioned, to be used in conjunction with being relaxed. It was felt that some teachers had the ability to say things in a way that was quiet, calm and relaxed but which came across to the pupils as ‘meaning business’:

‘It’s not about volume but tone.. a quiet purposeful sense that you mean it… it will happen.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘There’s a second phase to the calmness thing… it has to be combined with a sense of firmness… will. They need to make it clear that in addition to being calm, patient, not flapping… that you are displeased with an aspect of their behaviour and that if it doesn’t stop… if they are not careful… something unpleasant or inconvenient will happen to them. There are fewer of my student teachers who combine both of these qualities. Sometimes they are strong in one or the other. Both bits are essential.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘One of the bottom lines is that you’ve got to take an interest in them, to show you care about them. This takes time.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘There are judgement issues about not trying too hard… rushing at it… being intrusive and phoney. Sometimes you need to sense when to leave them alone but in the longer term you try to establish some sort of contact or relationship with them even if it’s just acknowledging their existence… try just nodding to them in the corridor… very low key… just to acknowledge that you know them. If it does more harm than good, don’t carry on doing it.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘Not everyone’s got the facility to talk to pupils in a really natural and unaffected way. Most student teachers have to work on it over a period of time. It’s about relationships with the pupils and the groups… it takes time… you can’t do it in one lesson and in a sense you can’t rush it. If you are seen to be trying too hard it could even be counter-productive.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘The ones who were really good with their classes seemed to have been able to build up a way of being casual and detached, but in a friendly, vaguely interested sort of way.’ (Teaching Assistant)

(A good example of Rogers modelling this tone and manner can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1bIQ1Hg00c).

Chris Parr has done a literature review on ‘tone’, exploring whether teachers should try to find an ‘authoritative’ tone for their interactions with pupils, or a more natural and relaxed mode (‘Adult mode’, in transactional analysis terms). His conclusion was that ‘your natural tone is best’ (https://www.tes.com/magazine/article/how-important-teachers-tone-voice).

One potentially useful point which came out of the interviews was the importance of ‘being yourself’, rather than trying to emulate the teaching persona of another teacher who may have qualities that you don’t:

‘When I started I tried to be like X in my class management style but it didn’t work, I couldn’t be like her… she’s just got a funny sort of way with them.. I just can’t do it like that. I felt that my class management was actually getting worse and I started to lose the confidence I had built up in my PGCE year. Then after a couple of years I stopped trying to be like her and doing things her way and I now feel much better and I’ve got methods that work for me… I can’t quell them at a glance but I can get them under control and I now really enjoy my teaching and I enjoy working here.’ (7 years in teaching, member of Senior Management Team)

‘Our kids hate pretension, and last year they saw through my attempts to be a disciplinarian/Bill Rogers disciple/Mary Poppins and punished me for them. My attempts to copy the techniques of one of our school’s experienced veterans backfired completely: “You’re trying to be Miss X and you can’t do it”, they told me.’ (Second year of teaching)

Get started with the learning – try not to let anything stop the learning

The DfES (2004: 7.3) has pointed out that learning ‘can often be derailed by administrative and organisational tasks’ (perhaps a degree of irony here). One mentor spoke despairingly of a trainee who would often spend several minutes giving the books out, or spelling out rules, dealing with administrative matters, clearing up missing homeworks, talking to pupils who arrived late. Experienced teachers had a range of strategies for dealing with pupils who were late, or who arrived without equipment, but the underlying principle behind action was to not let these matters take up a second more learning time than was essential: to get them started on learning as quickly as possible and sort out possible reprisals later, perhaps at the end of the lesson. It was felt that some student teachers and NQTs allowed pupils to ‘stop the learning’, and drift into a situation where the teacher was ‘telling off’ someone, but where there was nothing much for the other pupils to do, so that they too drifted into ‘messing about’. One teacher suggested that it would be an interesting experiment for teachers to time how long it took them to get all the pupils in a class either listening and attentive, or working.

‘We give them something the second they come in. You’ve got to try and get the learning going as soon as possible, to get them engaged and interested. Don’t give them time to think about messing about because they are bored and nothing is happening. So sometimes we are waiting at the door as they come in and give out a post it note or sheet or something that thy have to do. Or something on the board which they can all get going with.’

(Advanced Skills Teacher)

‘I try to set a purposeful tone to the lesson from the moment the kids walk in. When the students come in, the starter is already up on the board, so the majority of students settle down straight away and get on with it; then I can concentrate on picking off any naughties – people who won’t sit down, don’t have a pen, refuse to take their coat off etc, and I try to get this done as briskly as I possibly can.’

(Second year of teaching)

‘The kids can tell straightaway… that some teachers mean business. The control comes from the first few seconds of the lesson, right from the start, the way they come into the room. With some teachers, within a few seconds of them coming into the room, the pupils are learning, the lesson has started. With others, ten minutes have gone by and there is no learning going on, the lesson hasn’t really started, it’s still chaos, lots of kids aren’t sure what they are supposed to be doing and some.. an increasing number, are starting to mess around… there are some pupils who in spite of all this are quiet and well behaved, who are just resigned to the fact that here is yet another lesson where some kids will spoil the lesson, where it will all go pear shaped, where they will not get to learn… they quietly and philosophically just watch or doodle in their exercise books.’

(Teaching Assistant)

Bill Rogers points out that getting the pupils prepared for learning can start even before the start of the lesson by ‘corridor calming’, to remind pupils of the transition from ‘social time’ to ‘learning community’ time, and several experienced teachers described how they met pupils as they came into the room, just to settle things down.

They are good at giving clear instructions

Fontana (1994) argues that this is an aspect of managing learning in classrooms that is undervalued. In a parallel survey of pupils’ statements about why they behaved better for some teachers than others, many pupils’ main complaint about being in classrooms was that they simply did not understand what was going on and what they were supposed to be doing. Many of the teachers interviewed also regarded instruction as an underrated skill, and one which was perhaps ‘taken for granted’ by some student teachers, who might assume that pupils would be as quick to take things on board as adults:

‘The teachers who are good at this are calm, purposeful, organised, know what they are doing. If it gets a bit chaotic, they are prepared. Instructions are very clear. The pupils know exactly what they are supposed to do… they cannot plausibly say that they don’t know what to do because it is so clear. When pupils are not sure what it is they have to do, that’s when things start to get iffy.’ (Teaching Assistant)

‘On first placement, a lot of trainees are not clear in giving instructions to pupils about the tasks to be done, and don’t realise the need to patiently repeat those instructions so that the pupils know what they are being asked to do. It’s a real art, giving really clear instructions and patiently, calmly reinforcing them.’ (Teacher Educator)

One teacher had the idea of ‘The Core’; meaning the absolute minimum that pupils needed to do, clearly spelled out:

‘I ask myself, “Do they know what the core is.. the absolute minimum that they have got to do if they are to leave the lesson without consequences. I have the list for the core on the board so I can point to it at any time in the lesson. The core must be absolutely manageable for any pupil. So that there is no excuse for not doing it if it gets referred upwards… they will not have a leg to stand on if they have to explain it to a deputy or year head. “You must do at least 15 lines…” and I will point to the line that they have got to get to avoid consequences.’ (Third year in teaching)

Cowley (2003) also makes the point that repetition and modelling are vitally important tools for controlling pupil behaviour. Sometimes there is no substitute for showing pupils what you want them to do, going through it with them, giving them the first example, worked through. And pupils often do need to be told what to do more than once; they won’t all get it first time round.

‘Clear warning, then do what you said you would do’ (Experienced Head of Department)

Several teachers used the metaphor of ‘the yellow caution card’, to stress the importance of giving pupils a clear warning before imposing a sanction. Having given a clear signal that if a pupil does not desist, the teacher will do something reasonable, plausible and specific, it was felt to be important that teachers should be as consistent as possible in doing what they said they would do. Vagueness, ‘bluster’ and false last chances (‘I won’t tell you again’, repeated several times) were not thought to be helpful. I can remember walking past a class in the school where I used to teach to hear a teacher saying to the class, ‘If you throw one more thing at me…..’, and being met by a volley of missiles (mainly paper) reminiscent of the battle scene in the Olivier version of Henry V. More words were spoken but no action was taken. Decisiveness, polite, calm firmness, consistency, and being ‘eminently reasonable’ were mentioned as desirable characteristics:

‘A punishment should never come as a surprise to a pupil. It should be apparent to them and to everyone in the room that it is coming. They shouldn’t be able to say, “well, that came out of the blue, I’d no idea the teacher was going to do that.”’ (Teacher Educator)

‘It quickly becomes apparent to pupils whether or not a teacher is actually going to do something if they mess about… whether there will be any consequences. Pupils quickly work it out… “he’s not actually going to do anything.. he’s just going to keep telling us off”… then some of them start exploring exactly how far they can go… because that’s what some kids are like.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘If teachers just keep telling them off… nagging them, continually sending out negative signals, betraying exasperation and impotence.. or jumping up and down, getting narky, speaking in a loud “teacher” voice… it’s actually worse than doing nothing. Just ignoring it and getting on with the lesson, trying to work round the fact that some kids aren’t behaving well would be better… not ideal but at least it wouldn’t make things worse.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘A couple of weeks ago I was doing a roleplay and they were messing around so I stopped it and went back to working from the text books. After that… after I had done what I said I would do… they would stop when I threatened to stop a “fun” activity. They realised that if I said I was going to do something, I would do it.’ (NQT)

‘The kids actually said to me.. “go on sir, you keep saying you are going to kick X out if he farts again but you just warn him again and again. You never do it do you?” I felt I couldn’t be seen to then respond to that but it made me realise that I had just been going on about it without doing anything. This was obvious to the whole class. You would think this would be obvious, that you would know you were doing it, but I didn’t.’ (NQT)

‘If I learned one thing from the lecture on class management it was to follow things up between the end of one lesson and the start of the next… If a pupil has been going out of their way to mess you around and give you trouble, do whatever you can to show that you can inconvenience them, and that you have a lot of resources at your disposal… taking breaks and dinnertimes, the school system, form and year teachers, heads of department. And when this works it makes you feel more confident about sorting out other pupils, other classes.’ (NQT)

The worst of all worlds is to consistently rebuke the whole class as a body, without singling out individuals who have behaved badly, and to not take any action against those individuals but continue with group denigration. Brophy and Evertson (1976) argued that this creates a ‘negative ripple effect’ with classes, and leads even the more compliant pupils to siding with disruptive elements.

Quite a lot of schools have a ‘3 steps’, ‘consequences’ system for managing pupil behaviour (often shorthanded to C1, C2, C3). The first two are quite soft – perhaps verbal reprimand, then name on board, and the giving of the third consequence is when something a bit more serious happens – perhaps a detention, or they have to go and see the Head of Year. Occasionally, I see some of my students being ‘too nice’ and being reluctant to go to a C3, but the problem is that the pupils very quickly pick up on this, and they see it as being being weak, rather than ‘too nice’.

Skill in ‘calibrating’ scale of response to infractions

Several teachers spoke of the skill with which some colleagues carefully ‘graded’ their responses to pupil transgressions, and went through a series of carefully considered steps, of gradually increasing seriousness, from the most polite and friendly of requests, to calmly but firmly sending a pupil out of the room. They did not ‘close-off’ options by using a high-level sanction too precipitately, thus leaving themselves less room for manoeuvre later, and leaving a smaller range of intelligent ‘choices’ for pupils:

‘It is possible to intelligently anticipate the sorts of thing that might occur and to make contingency plans… at least think through what your options are in terms of steps… friendly, polite but firm request to stop doing whatever it is… clear warning of minor, low level, eminently reasonable consequences if they don’t comply, a sort of yellow caution card.. whether there might be a stage where you invoke the school system or colleagues in the department, form teacher… year head. Some trainees are better than others at this sort of anticipation and contingency planning. Some go from nothing to thermo-nuclear in one step.’ (Teacher Educator)

‘You’ve got to point them towards the right choice… “Do A and you will get in less trouble than if you do B… you won’t be inconvenienced… you won’t get hassled as much… think about it.. is it worth it?’” (Three years in teaching)

They like group work so you can offer that as a reward if they do a written task or behave reasonably during QUAD work. You can use the text books as a warning. If you are OK…. group work, if not….’ (NQT)

Olsen and Cooper (2001) make the point that it is important to have a clear hierarchy of sanctions in dealing with pupil transgressions, and to deploy them consistently over time. Vacillation, indecisiveness and inconsistency can antagonise pupils further. One teacher made the point that with some teachers, pupils have got a pretty good idea what will happen to them when they do something wrong before the teacher has said anything about it.

Headteachers’ comments on the characteristics of teachers who were good at managing pupil behaviour

‘A lot of teachers come into the profession having been good at school, good at learning, loving their subject. The best ones have an understanding that some pupils have got none of those things. They can somehow empathise with that even though it’s alien to their experience.’

‘A lot of the ones who are good at it are a funny mix of being perfectionist in some ways and easy going in others. Perfectionist in that they want to do their best for the kids, have high expectations, want to get good results, but easy going in that they just get on with it. It’s never perfect in schools, there are never quite enough resources, things are too thinly spread, you have to work with the kids you’ve got not the ones you’d like. They are copers… they don’t just moan when things aren’t perfect.’

‘As well as setting clear boundaries for the pupils, they are aware that when some pupils cross those boundaries, it’s not necessarily their fault, or the fault of management, but that some pupils are very troubled and have genuine problems with some aspects of life in classrooms. There are different “types” of teacher, in terms of their beliefs about pupils and about school systems, but both ‘traditional’ and ‘liberal’ teachers have this in common – they see part of their job as to use their professional skills and the resources of the school system and colleagues to help these pupils and to stop them spoiling the learning of others. It’s an incredibly difficult skill, even at a school like ours, which is not “at the sharp end” and many of my colleagues are very accomplished at it.’

‘More than anything, they just develop an ability to talk to pupils, collectively and individually, in a natural and appropriate way, to get through to them, whether in the classroom or out in the playground.’

‘The ability to connect with the children. To empathise. To understand what it’s like for them. Yes, you know your subject and care about it and them, and can communicate that to them.’

‘They are good not just in a technical way… seating plans, know their names…it’s how you are with them. Work on your relationships with pupils… give up some of your spare time to work with them outside the classroom, it’s a very powerful tool.’

‘It’s to do with how people are. I can’t think of anyone who’s good with pupils who is not also good in terms of their relations with colleagues.’

‘I watch her lessons and she just comes across as a normal human being. They operate within the normal ranges of human behaviour, not overpowering, shaky, miserable or sulky, just natural.’

‘If they sense you are not bothered about them, you’ve had it. They can sense that very quickly.’

‘I’ve got some where it’s about calm, steely determination and others where it’s meticulous planning and preparation. There are different ways of being good with pupils.’

As with teachers’ views in this area, another strand which emerged was the ability to learn from experience and to develop skills of interaction with pupils to higher levels, sometimes, to be able to change themselves, how they were as people to at least some degree:

‘It’s possible to be very clever in some ways and a bit dim in others. Some of them don’t appear to be able to grasp that some of the kids don’t want to be in the room, don’t want to learn the subject. They are reluctant or slow to take these considerations on board when they are planning their teaching approaches.’

‘One of the challenges for teachers is to say… “Right I am having major problems… why?” And to be able to do something about it, to rectify personal weaknesses.’

‘I’ve seen teachers who’ve been at it for over 30 years and they are still in level 3 territory. Thy just blame it on the kids all the time and don’t change how they are.’

‘Although in a sense you’ve got to be yourself, to be natural… perhaps you can’t go in just as yourself in the sense of saying, “this is how I am, I’m not going to change’… you can refine, experiment, adjust and work on your teaching persona.’

Heads were keen to stress that it was not about age, length of service, or level of qualifications. High levels of capability in managing pupil behaviour was seen as being linked to teachers who were intelligent and perceptive, who were adaptable in the sense of being able to learn quickly from experience and advice, and of being very professional and conscientious in approach – wanting to do the job to the highest possible professional standards, and being prepared to put time and effort into getting better at managing pupil behaviour, whether by reading and researching issues relating to pupil behaviour and classroom climate, or being prepared to invest time and energy in ‘sorting things out’.

Personal characteristics also featured prominently in heads’ views on teachers who really struggled to get on with pupils. Several heads suggested that teachers might have some technical weaknesses in their teaching but still establish very positive working relationships with their teaching groups. However, basic personality traits were more fundamental barriers to getting on with pupils:

‘If you don’t genuinely like kids it’s difficult. I have one or two colleagues who treat pupils like something smelly they’ve just trodden in. It’s something student teachers need to think about. If you don’t get some sort of buzz… some sort of intrinsic pleasure out of working with young people at least some of the time… don’t go into it. Do something else with your life.’

‘When she has difficulty with the children, she is very blaming of them, and blaming of my senior colleagues.’

‘I have one colleague… I’d hate to be taught by her. She’s an absolute misery. I don’t like talking to her. She is in many ways highly intelligent but just absolutely miserable and negative about just about everything.’

‘I can think of a teacher at our place who has horrendous problems with some of our kids. She doesn’t shout at them, she spits at them… she pulls a face when she’s told them off. It’s clear that she hates them. She never chills out. She doesn’t have any fun in the lessons, the lessons are boring.’

‘The ones who have apocalyptic outbursts and send kids out saying they will never ever teach them again. Or who storm out in a temper.’

References

Bennett, T. (2018) Lecture to PGCE Students, Institute of Education, University of London, 26 September.

Cowley, S. (2003) Getting the buggers to behave 2, London, Continuum.

Curtis, P. (2009) ‘Ofsted’s new mission – to get rid of boring teachers’, Guardian, 5 January: 7.

Department for Education and Employment (1998) Teaching: high status, high standards: Requirements for courses of initial teacher training, London DfEE.

Department for Education and Skills (2004) Pedagogy and practice: teaching and learning in secondary schools, London, DfES.

Fontana, D. (1994) Managing classroom behaviour, Leicester, BPS.

Lawlor, S. (1989) Correct Core, in B. Moon, P. Murphy & J. Raynor (eds) Policies for the curriculum, London, Hodder & Stoughton: 58-69.

Olsen, J. and Cooper, P. (2001) Dealing with disruptive students in the classroom, London, TES.

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