Teachers' behaviour and practices in the classroom

The theory behind this study yielded the predictions that successful teacher–pupil interaction in the classroom is essential to the educational and social development of pupils and that teachers' understanding of their own behaviour is therefore of paramount importance. The study examined the behaviour and practices of 20 teachers, 10 in small schools and 10 in large schools. The teachers were grouped into three categories: empathetic teachers, non-empathetic teachers and uncommitted teachers. This study contributes several significant findings to the literature on teacher–pupil interaction in the classroom, most importantly that personal characteristics appear to be a good predictor of teacher competence and that there appear to be relationships between particular personal characteristics on the one hand and teachers' classroom practices on the other. These results seemed to be unrelated to class size and schools type.     

Career adaptability and entrepreneurial behaviour in the K-12 classroom

ABSTRACT

With data from 311 K-12 public school teachers working in the United States, we tested a predictive model of entrepreneurial behaviour that included demographic characteristics and career adaptability, and identified differences between highly and minimally entrepreneurial teachers on how and why they adapt their teaching practices. Statistical analysis identified education and career adaptability to predict entrepreneurial behaviour. Qualitative analysis revealed that highly entrepreneurial teachers considered their professional development and the broader school system, while teachers scoring low on entrepreneurial behaviour focused on behaviour management and coping with imposed regulations when adapting their practices. The discussion includes theoretical and practical implications.     

Bullying behaviour, intentions and classroom ecology

Anti-bullying commitment across school communities is seen as crucial to the effectiveness of interventions. This exploratory study used a mixed-methods design to investigate bullying behaviour, intentions and aspects of the classroom ecology within the context of an anti-bullying initiative that was launched with a declaration of commitment. Across the sample of 14 primary school classes, containing 338 children aged 8–11 years, changes over time in peer-assessed and self-reported bullying and victimisation were found to be associated with changes in pupils’ sense of school belonging and perceptions of their classroom climate. Using a newly-developed theory of planned behaviour measure, changes in bullying were found to be associated with pupils’ intentions and perceived control with regard to engagement in bullying behaviour. No differences were found between intervention and comparison classes on any of the pupil outcome measures. However teachers of intervention classes reported a relative increase in perceived control over undertaking anti-bullying work with their class. The role of the class as a meaningful unit of analysis in the investigation of ecological-systemic bullying interventions in primary schools is highlighted.     

Teacher attention and classroom behaviour1 1

The incidence of appropriate and inappropriate classroom behaviour was observed in ten children classified by their teacher as the worst behaved (WB) in the class and 10 children classified as the best behaved (BB). Teacher positive and negative responses to the WB and BB groups were also observed. The main finding was that the teacher responded at a higher rate to the inappropriate behaviour of the WB group than the BB group. This is not at variance with the notion that teacher attention serves to maintain high rates of inappropriate classroom behaviour. Unexpectedly, the teacher did not respond with positive attention at a higher rate to the appropriate behaviour of the BB than the WB group. That is, contrary to the theory that teacher attention is a major controller of classroom behaviour, there was no evidence in this study that high rates of appropriate behaviour are maintained by teacher attention.

     

The reliability and validity of the pupil behaviour questionnaire: a child classroom behaviour assessment tool

ABSTRACT

This paper assesses the reliability and validity of the teacher-completed Pupil Behaviour Questionnaire (PBQ), by comparing it to the already extensively validated teacher-completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Participants included 2074 primary school children participating in a universal school-based trial and 41 vulnerable children who were taking part in a study exploring the impact of exclusion from school. Exploratory factor analysis results (first factor accounts for 80.8% of the variation in the items) and the high Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.85 indicate that the PBQ consists of one substantive factor/dimension. Strong correlations between the total PBQ score and the conduct sub-scale (Spearman’s correlation coefficient (r_s) = 0.67) and total difficulties score (r_s = 0.59) of the SDQ indicate convergent validity. This study suggests that the PBQ is a reliable measure, and provides some evidence of validity. Further work is needed to test the PBQ in an older, more diverse populations and to measure sensitivity to change.     

Implementing the flipped classroom: an exploration of study behaviour and student performance

The flipped classroom is becoming more popular as a means to support student learning in higher education by requiring students to prepare before lectures and actively engaging students during lectures. While some research has been conducted into student performance in the flipped classroom, students’ study behaviour throughout a flipped course has not been investigated. This study explored students’ study behaviour throughout a flipped and a regular course by means of bi-weekly diaries. Furthermore, student references to their learning regulation were explored in course evaluations. Results from the diaries showed that students’ study behaviour in the flipped course did not appear to be very different from that of students in a regular course. Furthermore, study behaviour did not appear strongly related to student performance in both the flipped and the regular course. Exploration of student references to their learning regulation in the course evaluations showed that some students experienced the flipped course design as intended to support their learning process. Other students, however, demonstrated resistance to changing their study behaviour even though changing study behaviour is expected in order to benefit from the flipped classroom. Further research on the relationship between students’ learning regulation and actual study behaviour and course results is necessary to understand when and why implementing the flipped classroom is successful. Recommendations that may help more effective flipped classroom implementation include considering the prior history between students and instructor(s), the broader curriculum context, and frequent expectation communication especially with large numbers of students and non-mandatory lecture attendance.     

Social and emotional pedagogies: critiquing the new orthodoxy of emotion in classroom behaviour management

This paper examines new structured attempts to address and manage emotions in the classroom. Critical analysis focuses on the broad emotional literacy agenda operating within schools, and more specifically the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme. Data are drawn on from an ethnographic study located in Behaviour Support Units in three mainstream, inner‐city comprehensives to highlight the gap between the ‘rational emotionality’ being promoted and the fraught, and often uncontainable, emotions that drive everyday school life. It is also argued that the therapeutic model underpinning SEAL activities in schools risks individualising and thereby misinterpreting socially and culturally embedded difference, pathologising particular pupils in the process.     

Impact of a brief ego depletion procedure on creative behaviour in the upper primary classroom

In the course of normal classroom lessons, 103 students (median 11.10 years) were asked to spend 15 min writing ‘anything you can think of’ about the number 50 on a blank page. The products were independently scored by 2 specialist art teachers and 2 specialist mathematics teachers on criteria relevant to their specialisations. Immediately before this task, however, half the students (depleted group) worked on difficult matching problems for 3 min, whereas controls worked on facile problems. Although volume of creative response appeared only marginally affected, depleted students were rated as lower on overall creativity (d?=?.8) by the arts teachers. The mathematics teachers also rated the depleted students as showing less quality in their work (d?=?.97). The depleted students cited fewer mathematical statements, but displayed more errors in statements they had written. The findings were interpreted in terms of ego depletion effects upon creativity.     

Classroom behaviour and academic achievement: how classroom behaviour categories relate to gender and academic performance

Latent profile analysis was used to identify different categories of students having different ‘profiles’ using self-reported classroom behaviour. Four categories of students with unique classroom behaviour profiles were identified among secondary school students in Oslo, Norway (n = 1570). Analyses examined how classroom behaviour categories are related to gender and school performance and whether a dual understanding of gender in school is helpful when trying to explain achievement differences as supposed to classroom behaviour categories. Analyses showed that gender was a better predictor of school achievement than classroom behaviour categories, even though the behaviour categories did contribute to the explanation of variance in students’ academic marks above and beyond gender.     

Effect of integrating IoT courses at the freshman level on learning attitude and behaviour in the classroom

Education and Information Technologies - As a technology the effect of the Internet of Things (IoT) is so strong that it has changed the way of living. The transition is also apparent in the field...     

The meaning of student engagement and disengagement in the classroom context: lessons from organisational behaviour

Despite the popularity of student engagement and, by association, student disengagement, the academic literature is unclear about the meaning of these terms. This review extends existing conceptual studies of student engagement by offering clear definitions and conceptualisations of both student engagement and disengagement in the classroom context. To develop these conceptualisations, the present review draws upon organisational behaviour theory on work engagement and disengagement because the literature in this discipline is notably more refined than in educational research. Using an organisational behaviour backdrop, student engagement and disengagement are defined by the degree of students’ activation and pleasure. In order to operationalise student engagement, measures that are aligned with the proposed conceptualisation are recommended. Recommendations are also suggested for the development of a measure of student disengagement. The proposed measurement of student engagement and disengagement should provide a unified direction for future empirical research on these topics.     

Pedagogical Dilemmas in the National Literacy Strategy: Primary teachers' perceptions,reflections and classroom behaviour

This paper argues that the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) offers contradictory pedagogical advice to teachers on 'interactive teaching'. It reports research on teachers' perceptions of and responses to this advice and focuses particularly on NLS demands for teaching which is 'well paced with a sense of urgency'. Evidence from case studies and systematic observations of classroom interaction is used to show that whilst teachers vary in their sensitivity to the dilemmas posed by NLS demands, their classroom discourse in the Literacy Hour is quantitatively and qualitatively different from pre-NLS discourse. It is suggested that opportunities for critical reflection on practice are needed to help teachers articulate and resolve the dilemmas created by the imposition of prescribed programmes on personal educational principles.