Positive Behavior Supports Academic Learning Through Consistently Applied Techniques

Research in this area of classroom interaction highlights ten key strategies that contribute to classroom success.

Although it's possible to identify each element as a separate strategy, these ten strategies don't work in isolation.

The secret of using positve behavior supports successfully is developing the skill to overlap the strategies, putting a different emphasis on them according to the context and the needs of individual students at any given time.

Ten key behavior supports

Here are ten factors that research suggest help to promote positive behavior.

They are not listed in any particular order.

They are all important and are most powerful when they become a regular part of a portfolio of strategies that teachers can call on to use in class:

• although individual teachers have to take reponsibility for behaviour management, 'no man is an island' and the only way positive behavior supports work in individual classses is when they form part of an agreed system that works in all classrooms across the whole institution:every teacher needs to accept they are part of a bigger team, able to offer and get support from colleagues;
• having clear expectations about what is expected behaviour in class is really important, and ensuring that these expectations are consistently applied is an important follow up step; it often helps to involve students in discussion about classroom expectations and why they are important;
• there must be clear consequences for student behaviour:if students behave inappropriately they need to know exactly what the consequences will be for that behaviour - in this way teachers give students a choice to behave well or not, and so help them to take personal responsibility fro their actions in class;
• it seems that offering specific support for students who find it more difficult than the majority to behave appropriately, through measures that aim to help them improve, pays diividends if applied sensitively and consistently, and it's not only the targeted students who benefit, the whole class benefits from improved behaviour;
• it's important to give students personal recognition when they behave positively: this doesn't mean gushing praise every time a student behaves appropriately, but it does mean making it clear that good behaviour is noticed and acknowledged in order to reinforce the high classroom expectations: teachers need to 'catch the students doing something good' and make it clear that they approve of this kind of behaviour, so that positive behaviour becomes the norm in class;
• classroom situations are more successful when there are positive relationships between each student and the teacher; outside the classroom, striving for positive relationships with parents also plays a part in building overall success;
• the everyday classroom routines and the way the classroom space is organised affects the standards of behaviour in class: the best teachers take time to make sure routines become well established and this very predictability of the way things work avoids chaotic situations and helps to encourage students to behave in a positive way;
• positive behaviour needs to be taught in the same way that academic content needs to be taught: one of the most effective positive behavior supports is showing students how to interact socially in appropriate ways, because if students don't know what good social interaction looks like, sounds like and feels like, it's unlikely they'll attain high academic standards, which need a climate of co-operation and mutual support to flourish;
• one size does not fit all, so effective learning needs some differentiation in learning activities, that takes account of specific learners' needs and current level of progress: it's unrealistic to think each student in a class of 30 can have a separate learning plan, but allowing students to see that their needs are known and and taken seriously helps to promote positive behaviour;
• it helps to keep a record of the kind of behaviours that occur in class, especially if the behaviour is inappropriate: over time a pattern may become clear with regard to what triggers certain kinds of behaviour and the kinds of interventions that are successful in reducing or eliminating poor behaviour: this information can than become, where necessary, a starting point for teachers to improve their behaviour management skillls and to devise rehabilitation programmes for students

Teachers need to adopt a proactive approach to using positive behavior supports in class - they must take the initiative and exhibit 'classroom leadership' to help students behave well consistently in order to encourage them to achieve high levels of learning.

You can find books about how to develop positive behavior techniques at the Classroom Management Success Behavior Bookstore.



Return from Positive Behavior Supports to Classroom Discipline


Return from Positive Behavior Supports to Classroom Management Success

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