Greg Whitby: How to manage bad behaviour

THE executive director of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta, Greg Whitby reveals one of the most effective tool teachers use for dealing with poor behaviour.

Naughty school girl stands in the corridor after being sent out of class.

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IN 1998, Tom Herner, an academic working in the area of supporting students with challenging behaviours, wrote this: “If a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach; if a child doesn’t know how to multiply, we teach; but if a child doesn’t know how to behave, we punish.”

It’s no secret that the industrial model of schooling was built on ensuring students comply. Over the decades, we’ve used all sorts of “carrot and stick” approaches. It was only about 25 years ago that corporal punishment was banned. Fortunately, those days are gone but dealing with difficult behaviours in schools remains very challenging.

Many schools overseas and in Australia are using an evidence-based strategy called Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL). Developed by teachers, it is a commonsense approach to teaching young people about what is appropriate behaviour. Under this framework, discipline becomes more than just punishing the young person — it means working closely with them and teaching them appropriate strategies.

A schoolgirl waits in the naughty chairs outside the head's office.

The first step is to understand what is driving the behaviour. For example, if a child is disrupting a maths lesson, is it because the work is beyond their level of ability or is it because they are seeking adult attention, or something else? Once the teacher observes the behaviours, understands the drivers and gets feedback, they will have a better chance of intervening in a way that is more effective to the student than detention and demerits.

One of the key elements of PBL is that the teacher is looking at maximising the chance of students doing the right thing by making changes to the environment, modelling positive behaviour and using feedback to guide interventions.

Naughty student waits outside the classroom.

PBL is not a quick-fix but schools that have adopted the framework are seeing incredible results. We know the thing that teachers do best is teach. Managing student behaviour more effectively means adopting the same level of rigour and understanding that is applied to improving student learning.

Greg Whitby is the executive director of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta. Follow him on Twitter @gregwhitby