Behaviour and Discipline in Schools

Memorandum submitted by Dr Simon Gibbs

Re: Behaviour and Discipline in Schools

From: 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

References

Almog, 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, (2008) M. 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