Memorandum submitted by Dr Simon Gibbs,
Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology, Newcastle University
Relevant Personal details: I taught in secondary
schools for 15 years before training as an Educational Psychologist.
Since 1988 I have worked as an Educational Psychologist in the
NE of England. I gained a PhD (in Psychology) in 1997. In 2007
I took up my present post as Programme Director for Educational
Psychology training in Newcastle. In addition to my commitment
to training Educational Psychologists, my main research areas
are in relation to "Teachers' beliefs and attributions about
children's behaviour", "Inclusive Education" and
"The development of children's reading."
PREFACE AND
SUMMARY
The challenge of managing the diversity of children's
behaviour and learning requires skillful and well motivated teaching.
The costs of failure (economically and socially) are unsustainable.
The following outlines one line of approach to support teachers
in their professional duties and to help ensure good behaviour
in schools.
The beliefs of teachers are reciprocally associated
with the outcomes of their actions. Teachers who express confident
beliefs in their ability to manage and teach all children in their
classrooms are generally successful. The effects of poorly managed
behaviour can erode teachers' confidence and the practice of schools.
The result of poor school and classroom management can be too
many inappropriately excluded children. Teachers may have, or
can be helped to acquire (or regain) more positive beliefs in
their individual and collective efficacy. The outcomes can be
fewer exclusions and higher levels of achievement. A key to this
lies in good training, management and policy.
1. There is substantial evidence that the perception
of and management of children's behaviour is strongly influenced
by the beliefs and attributions of teachers (Gibbs & Gardiner,
2008; Gibbs & Powell, in prep; Miller, 1995).
2. The "rate" at which children are
excluded from school appears to fluctuate with time and across
countries. This appears to be at least partly in response to changes
in policy and practice (Gilliam & Shahar, 2006; Imich, 1994;
Theriot, Craun & Dupper, 2010).
3. Many researchers have also noted that children's
age, race and socio-economic status are all important factors
implicated in the way that school staff deal with behaviour and
that some groups are over-represented amongst children excluded
from school (Bourne et al, 1994; Gillborn & Gipps,
1996; Noltemeyer & McLoughlin, 2010; Osler et al, 2001;
Wright et al, 2000).
4. Whilst children's poor behaviour may be an
issue for teacher recruitment and retention (with associated costs;
Ingersoll & Smith, 2003), children excluded from classrooms
and schools implicate considerable additional costs for alternative
provision (Parsons, 1998; Vulliamy & Webb, 2000).
5. The relative socio-economic characteristics
of the community served by a school are related with exclusion
rates (Gibbs & Powell, in preparation; Noltemeyer & McGloughlin,
2010).
6. There is evidence that the characteristics
of neither children nor schools fully account for rates of exclusion.
Thus, schools with very similar characteristics and intakes may
differ significantly in the rate at which children are excluded
(Galloway, Martin & Wilcox, 1985; Munn et al, 2001;
Osler et al, 2001, Vulliamy & Webb, 2000).
7. When they are successful in managing children's
behaviour teachers are likely to attribute their success to their
own skill and strategies; when they are unsuccessful, teachers
will typically attribute the causes of the misbehaviour to factors
outside school—for example children's home and community
circumstances (Miller, 1995, 2003).
8. "Unless people believe they can produce
desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to
act. Efficacy belief therefore is a major basis of actions."
(Bandura, 1997, p3).
9. Teachers who express little belief in their
professional efficacy may be less tolerant of unusual behaviour
or patterns of learning and more likely to seek removal of "problematic"
students from their classroom (Jordan & Stanovitch, 2003;
Podell & Soodak, 1993).
10. Teachers' ability to provide confident management
of their classroom is a primary requirement for successful teaching
(Woolfolk Hoy & Weinstein, 2006).
11. Strong, positive, correlations have been
found between teachers' beliefs in their classroom efficacy and
their management of behaviour (Almog & Shechtman, 2007; Friedman
& Kass, 2002).
12. The management style of senior staff may
affect how supported the staff feels and how confident staff are
working effectively with children (Ross & Gray, 2006).
13. Appropriate conceptualisation and implementation
of teachers' training and professional development, supported
by policy and management can endorse and develop teachers' successful
inclusion (non-discriminatory) practice (Stanovitch & Jordan,
2004).
14. A strong positive sense of the shared, collective
efficacy of the school staff as a whole can enhance individual
teacher's efficacy beliefs (Gibbs & Powell, in prep; Goddard
& Goddard, 2001; Goddard, Hoy & Woolfolk Hoy, 2004).
15. Enhanced efficacy is associated with an increasingly
inclusive ethos, improved behaviour and achievement, and lower
incidence of discrimination and exclusion (Gibbs, 2007; Jordan
& Stanovitch, 2003).
September 2010
REFERENCESAlmog,
O & Schechtman, Z (2007) Teachers' democratic and efficacy
beliefs and styles of coping with behavioural problems of pupils
with special needs. European Journal of Special Needs Education,
22(2), 115-129.
Bandura, A (1997) Self-efficacy: The exercise
of control. New York: Freeman.
Bourne, J, Bridges, L & Searle, C (1994) Outcast
England: How Schools Exclude Black Children London: Institute
of Race Relations.
Friedman, I A & Kass, E (2002) Teacher self-efficacy:
a classroom-organisation conceptualisation. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 18, 675-686.
Galloway, D, Martin, R & Wilcox, B (1985) Persistent
Absence from School and Exclusion from School: the predictive
power of school and community variables. British Educational
Research Journal, 11(1), 51-61.
Gibbs, S (2007). Teachers' perceptions of efficacy:
Beliefs that may support inclusion or segregation. Educational
and Child Psychology, 24 (3), 47-53.
Gibbs, S & Gardiner, M (2008) English and Irish
Teachers' Attributions for Misbehaviour: A preliminary cross-phase
and cross-cultural investigation. Journal of Research in Special
Educational Needs, 8(2), 68-77.
Gibbs, S & Powell, B (In preparation) Teacher
Efficacy and Pupil Behaviour: the structure of teachers' individual
and collective efficacy beliefs and their relationship with numbers
of children excluded from school.
Gillborn, D and Gipps, C (1996) Recent Research
on the Achievement of Ethnic Minority Pupils. Ofsted Report
London: HMSO.
Gilliam, W S & Shahar, G (2006) Presschool and
Child Care Expulsion and Suspension: Rates and Predictors in One
State. Infants and Young Children, 19(3), 228-24.
Goddard, R D, & Goddard, Y.L. (2001). A multilevel
analysis of the relationship between teacher and collective efficacy
in urban schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 807-818.
Goddard, R, Hoy, W & Woolfolk Hoy, A (2004) Collective
Teacher Efficacy Beliefs: Theoretical developments, empirical
evidence, and future directions. Educational Researcher, 33(3),
3-13.
Grieve, A M (2009) Teachers' beliefs about inappropriate
behaviour: challenging attitudes. Journal of Research in Special
Educational Needs, 93), 173-179.
Imich, A J (1994) Exclusions from school: current
trends and issues. Educational Research, 36(1), 3-11.
Ingersoll, R M & Smith, T M (2003) The wrong
solution to the teacher shortage. Educational Leadership, 60(8),30-33.
Miller, A (1995). Teachers' attributions of causality,
control and responsibility in respect of difficult pupil behaviour
and its successful management Educational Psychology, 15,
457-471.
Miller, A (2003) Teachers, Parents and Classroom
Behaviour: A psychosocial approach Maidenhead: Open University
Press.
Munn, P, Cullen, M A, Johnstone, M & Lloyd, G
(2001) Exclusion from school: a view from Scotland of policy and
practice. Research Papers in Education, 16(1), 23-42.
Noltemeyer, A & McLoughlin, C S (2010) Patterns
of exclusionary discipline by school typology, ethnicity, and
their interaction. Perspectives on Urban Education, Summer
2010, 27-40.
Osler, A, Watling, R & Busher, H (2001) Reasons
for Exclusion from School. Research Report, No 244 London:
DfEE.
Parsons, C (1998) The costs of school exclusions.
In N. Donovan (ed.) Second Chances London: New Policy Institute.
Podell, D M & Soodak, L C (1993) Teacher efficacy
and bias in special education referrals. Journal of Educational
Research, 86(4), 247-253.
Ross, J A & Gray, P (2006) Transformational team
leadership and teacher commitment to organisational values: The
mediating effects of collective teacher efficacy. School Effectiveness
and School Improvement, 17(2), 179-199.
Stanovitch, P J & Jordan, A (2004) Inclusion
as professional development. Exceptionality Education Canada,
14(2and3), 169-188.
Tschannen-Moran, M & McMaster, P (2009) Sources
of self-efficacy: Four professional development formats and their
relationship to self-efficacy and implementation of a new teaching
strategy. The Elementary School Journal, 110(2), 228-245.
Theriot, M T, Craun, S W & Dupper, D W (2010)
Multilevel evaluation of factors predicting exclusion among middle
and high school students. Children and Youth Services Review,
32, 13-19.
Vulliamy, G & Webb, R (2000) Stemming the Tide
of Rising School Exclusions: Problems and Possibilities. British
Journal of Educational Studies, 48(2), 119-133.
Woolfolk-Hoy, A & Weinstein, C S (2006) Student
and teacher perspectives on classroom management. In C M Evertson
& C S Weinstein (Eds) Handbook of Classroom Management
(London: LEA) pp181-219.
Wright, C, Weekes, D & McGlaughlin, A (2000)
"Race", Class and Gender in Exclusion from School
London: Falmer.
|
