Memorandum submitted by John Corrigan,
Director, Group 8 Education
This submission addresses the following point
of interest to the Education Select Committee:
How to support and reinforce positive behaviour
in schools
In May 2001 the author of this report interviewed
an experienced teacher in Balmain High School, Sydney, a school
at the time in a relatively low socio-economic catchment. This
teacher was on the point of retirement and was recognised by the
school as an outstanding teacher, that is, one who delivered above
average outcomes for pupils. When seen around the school this
teacher was frequently surrounded by a gaggle of children who
clearly loved being with her and she clearly loved teaching.
During the interview this teacher stated the
following: "in my 30 years of teaching I have never had a
discipline problem yet, in this school, there are two or three
teachers whose sole objective on entering the classroom is to
survive to the end of the lesson".
This raised two questions: what was the outstanding
teacher doing that the others were not? And, why were the others
not doing it?
Group 8 Education has focused over the last
nine years on investigating and answering these two questions
in order to develop ways of assisting teachers and schools to
become outstanding.
There is a sufficient body of knowledge and
practice now to state that it is possible to create quite systematically
a culture within schools that causes pupils to respect their teachers,
to feel confident in their own abilities, to go out of their way
not to disappoint or let down their teachers. In short, a culture
that supports and reinforces positive behaviour.
This culture promotes higher academic and pupil
wellbeing outcomes, particularly the building of resilience within
children.
This culture is sufficiently different as to qualify
as meeting Sir Ken Robinson's appeal for "something else"—"Every
education system in the world is being reformed at the moment.
And it's not enough. Reform is no use anymore, because that's
simply improving a broken model. What we need … (i)s not
evolution, but a revolution in education. This has to be transformed
into something else." Sir Ken Robinson 2010
The formal research (surveys) and action research
undertaken (with more than 130 schools in Australia and the UK)
has confirmed that:
What outstanding teachers do is sufficiently
rare as to be viewed as an outlier ie less than 10% of teachers
are outstanding in this way yet on average successful adults can
point to two such teachers in their own schooling who had a disproportionate
impact on their subsequent success. Few in number but a significant,
long-term impact.
What outstanding teachers do is effective because
it more closely meets the needs of children who in return respond
by paying attention to the teacher, by feeling confident in their
own abilities and by wanting to go out of their way not to disappoint
or let down their teacher ie positive behaviour ideal for learning.
What outstanding teachers do does not fit into
a currently recognisable framework so that outstanding teachers
themselves cannot explain what they are doing and average teachers
find it near impossible to emulate them.
When interviewed, outstanding teachers report
that they developed their practice despite the system, not because
of it (eg a particular family background, a teacher they had had
whom they wanted to emulate, a teacher they had had whom they
DID NOT want to emulate, a mentor early in their career who suggested
this way rather than that way, etc).
What outstanding teachers do is learnable and
so is teachable to most teachers and certainly teachable to teachers
just entering the profession.
The research investigated what children looked
for in their ideal school and found this very robust result:
"My ideal school is where …
I am respected by teachers"
I am listened to by teachers"
I am encouraged by teachers"
my teachers are knowledgeable in their subjects"
Our current systems focus very strongly (and
rightly) on safety, on ensuring that teachers are knowledgeable
in their subjects and, through accountability measures, encouraging
children to achieve.
Our current systems do not focus very much at
all on pupils being "respected by teachers" and not
much more on pupils being "listened to by teachers"
and it is in these areas that we found substantive differences
between outstanding and average teachers.
There are three main meanings attached to the
word respect:
Unconditional respect upwards: no matter how
a teacher behaves they must still be respected. This type of respect
was dominant in nineteenth century schooling (and society) and
came to an end—more or less—by the end of the First
World War (such that fascism, a political system based on this
form of respect, emerged between the wars as a separate—ism).
There are still a small number of teachers currently practicing
who view the world in this way.
2-way Conditional Respect: if the pupil respects
the teacher's wishes then they will be respected in turn and if
not, well, then some form of censure will follow. This is the
dominant form that underpins our current education system (and
society) and came in fully post the Second World War. Most teachers
view the world this way.
Unconditional respect downwards: despite the
fact that the pupil does not know how to behave and despite the
fact they cannot do the work they are still accepted, listened
to and encouraged to grow. This is sometimes described as separating
the child from the behaviour. Less than 10% of teachers view the
world this way.
What children mean by respect is the third one—unconditional
respect downwards—and it is this form of respect that is
exhibited by outstanding teachers. The majority of teachers offer
2-way conditional respect to children (which, incidentally, also
prejudices children from lower socio-economic backgrounds—those
least able to conform—and perpetuates the "performance
gap").
There are four main meanings attached to the
word listening:
The most superficial form (or level) is called
"downloading" and this describes when we listen to someone
and all we hear is what confirms our own views and beliefs (and
prejudices). This level of listening is designed for the listener's
benefit.
A second, deeper level is called "attentive
listening" where the listener is listening for what is different
in what the other person is saying. This is useful for the listener
if that difference stimulates new thinking.
A third, more profound level is called "empathic
listening". At this level the listener is beginning to see
the world from the speaker's point of view and begins to experience
the same feelings that they do. This is useful, indeed, can be
very useful for the speaker in allowing them to feel understood,
a precursor to them being able to make sense of their own thoughts,
needs, etc.
The most profound level is called "emergent
listening" and at this level both speaker and listener are
affected. When we experience this—and we all have—we
feel an almost visceral feeling of possibility arising from deep
within us. This expresses itself as a feeling of—yes, that
is possible! Or yes, I can do that! When we experience this we
are changed in a very deep way.
What children mean by "listened to by teachers"
are levels three and four—"empathic and emergent listening"—and
it is these forms of listening that are exhibited by outstanding
teachers towards their pupils. The majority of teachers listen
at levels one and two—"downloading and attentive listening"
but some may provide more profound levels to a minority of their
favoured pupils.
Why do "unconditional respect downwards"
and "empathic and emergent listening" matter to children?
We know what outstanding teachers are doing differently, but why
does it matter?
The answers to these questions lie within the
area of neuroscience and how it informs our understanding of both
the educative process and how we get the best out of people.
The process of education is one of gradually
leading (latin, educare = ex + ducere) the child out of the childhood
mind state (that we call the red zone) and into the adult mind
state (that we call the blue zone).
This process has TWO components:
Engagement with interesting and challenging content
to stimulate the adult, or blue zone, mind state (this is the
core of our current education systems and redesigning curriculum
is the first port of call when performance levels drop).
Engagement by a person to "quieten down"
the childhood, or red zone, mind state (our current education
systems do the opposite of this, they maintain the red zone active
within children and thus within the adult—historically,
this was for reasons of control, an active red zone makes us risk
averse and uncreative and thus dependent on authority figures,
an active red zone was controlled by the use of force in the past).
Being engaged by a person allows the child to
contemplate difficult, scary or challenging circumstances without
falling back into the childhood mind state or red zone (where
the response would be panic or fear, an inability to see any other
but a self-centred point of view and a general inability to face
up to the issue).
Engaging a child in this way on a regular basis
builds resilience in the child, and subsequently the adult, to
be able to face up to an uncertain future whilst remaining in
the adult mind state and with all their faculties available to
them ie the childhood mind state or red zone has been "quietened
down". The explosion of executive coaching over the last
fifteen years in all sectors is a direct reflection of the failure
to quieten down the red zone such that for adults to perform at
their best in uncertain times they need to be "engaged"
by a coach.
It is in the second component of the educative
process that outstanding teachers perform well and where average
teachers do not. It is the combination of unconditional respect
downwards and empathic and emergent listening that allows a child
to build resilience, to quieten down their red zone. This is also
the area that, just as with the example of the growth in executive
coaching, there is an increasing awareness in both children and
adults that they need to be engaged in this way to be able to
face up to an uncertain future. Unconsciously, children are increasingly
rejecting teachers who do not offer them this capability and embracing
those teachers who do. This has started at the bottom of the socio-economic
spectrum and is gradually working its way up. This rejection is
reflected in increasing levels of disengagement and negative behaviour.
This second component of the educative process
is excluded both from our current education systems and from thinking
about those systems. It is only those teachers who, despite the
system, have developed the key behaviours as well as a command
of the curriculum who can provide both the components of the educative
process that children need today.
Positive behaviour in schools can be best supported
and reinforced by integrating the missing second component into
our education systems by creating school cultures based on unconditional
respect downwards and empathic and emergent listening. Such integration
will create a transformed education system (what Cisco, and we,
call Education 3.0).
Group 8 Education has found that there are two
practices that we call "Observational Listening" and
"Powerful Questioning" that give access to "empathic
and emergent listening" and "unconditional respect downwards",
respectively.
Both of these practices are learnable, and therefore
teachable, and both can be disseminated very effectively by modelling
ie by leaders using them with teachers and teachers using them
with pupils. Outstanding head teachers can transform schools by
modelling these behaviours, such is their influence on culture.
As these are practices (or behaviours) then
repetition will turn them into habits and once a critical mass
have these habits then it becomes "the way we do things around
here" or the culture of the school.
It is thus possible to develop widely and quite
systematically the key behaviours that make outstanding teachers
outstanding in the classroom and thus support and reinforce positive
behaviours throughout a school.
Experience indicates that it is middle leaders,
rather than senior leaders, who can most readily adopt these new
behaviours and transformation models taking this into account
are the most effective.
To make such a shift in culture both systematic
and sustainable these behaviours need to be embedded in process
and the central process in a school is performance management.
Current performance management systems are based on conditional
respect and thus do not natively support the behaviours that are
key to "outstanding" performance and the creation and
support of positive behaviour.
Group 8 Education, for example, has developed
Performance Appraisal 3.0 to provide such a central process for
schools and other organisations that want to make this shift systematically
and sustainably. This process is based on unconditional respect
downwards and encourages empathic and emergent listening as a
matter of course as it creates the conditions for middle leaders
to lead and all staff to gradually adopt new practices.
TO SUMMARISE
Starting at the bottom of the socio-economic
spectrum children are increasingly rejecting as broken the education
system that is currently dominant (and this is observed by commentators
such as Sir Ken Robinson). Such rejection is reflected in increasing
levels of pupil disengagement and negative behaviour. This will
only get worse unless the systemic problems are addressed.
An education system that meets the needs of
children and builds resilience (and positive behaviour) rather
than dependence needs the twin components of the educative process—engagement
with content AND engagement by a person.
An education system that combines both content
and engagement supports and reinforces positive behaviour and
delivers higher achievement and higher levels of resilience.
Those teachers who can provide both content
and engagement are able to deliver superior results with minimal
behavioural problems today, but such teachers represent less than
10% of the profession, currently, and are created despite the
system not because of it.
It is possible to develop quite systematically
the behaviours that engage children in this way such that they
become the normal culture of a school.
Engagement by a person, its effect on positive
behaviour in schools and the recognition of the systemic nature
of the absence of one of the two components in the educative process
are only just entering the debate about where our schools are
heading.
September 2010
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