Managing Behaviour

For most trainee-teachers issues relating to the management of pupils’ behaviour loom very large as they begin their professional training. The possibility that pupils may attempt to undermine the authority of the trainee and the feeling that, should this happen, it will be both a professional and a personal failing, are understandable anxieties. Behaviour management often features in the generic parts of PGCE courses, but you will need to consider how trainees’ skills in managing pupils’ behaviour can also be developed through the history-specific elements of the course.

As with other aspects of teaching and learning, a well-planned and targeted combination of critical reading, focused observation and self-evaluation will enable trainees to gain confidence in managing pupils’ behaviour. In particular, you will need to ensure that trainees are clear about how they should engage with individual whole-school policies and practices on behaviour management before they begin each school placement. It is also crucial that, before trainees undertake their first teaching block, they have developed an understanding of the effective management of learning in history lessons. The TTA- sponsored website Behaviour4Learning (www.behaviour4learning.ac.uk) provides a range of articles and information which you may find helpful when constructing your course and working with trainees.

Although trainees will need specific training in a range of ‘low key’ strategies for dealing with misbehaviour it is important to establish, from the outset, that three factors are crucial in ensuring that off-task behaviour does not arise in the first place:

• Engaging pupils with individual learning activities in history by firing curiosity, providing intellectual challenge and ensuring inclusion
• Managing learning activities effectively so that pupils are clear what they are meant to be doing and how they are meant to be working
• Creating a positive classroom climate in which enjoyable learning can take place.

You will need to think carefully about the strategies which underpin these principles of behaviour management and about the ways in which you can provide trainees with a firm grounding in the principles before they begin their first school placement.

Activity 9.5.1 Developing strategies for effective behaviour management in history lessons.