How to mix up your teaching to get better results

A US psychology professor is proposing a rethink on how we teach to improve retention of learning - but the reaction has been muted

The common reaction of a teacher to a student haphazardly flitting between tasks and topic areas is to tell that child to focus on the job at hand, or they'll get a sanction or two to help maintain their concentration.

This may be the wrong move, according to Robert Bjork, distinguished research professor in the department of psychology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in the US. For, rather than being deliberately wayward or lacking in attention span, the student may simply be adopting a learning style that Bjork believes could soon be used in a more structured way throughout education.

Although conventional wisdom dictates that the best way to teach students a subject is by "blocking" - focusing on one particular topic for a sustained time - Bjork argues that teachers could enhance learning and levels of retention if they instead embraced a technique known as "interleaving".

Interleaving basically means mixing up lesson topics. For example, say you wanted to teach children about the Tudor monarchs of England. The conventional method would dictate that you taught all the information on Henry VII, then all the information on Henry VIII and so on through each of the monarchs in turn, to give an overall knowledge of the subject. Bjork argues, however, that children would retain the information better if the heads of state were interleaved.

"People don't think they should introduce a topic, cover some of it and then come back to it and pick it up in the context of something else. But research suggests that this should be the approach taken," Bjork reveals.

To date, the bulk of the research into interleaving has focused on how it relates to motor skills - Bjork is involved in a trial with an amateur golfer, where he is interleaving coaching methods to help the player significantly reduce his handicap - but more recent research has gone further.

Bjork cites the example of a trial undertaken by Professor Doug Rohrer and his colleague Kelli Taylor in 2007, in which participants were given the task of learning formulae for calculating the volumes of different solids. Those taught using interleaving enjoyed retention levels of 63 per cent when tested a week later compared with a 20 per cent retention rate in those taught by blocking.

In another of Bjork's studies - about which he co-authored an article for Psychological Science titled "Learning concepts and categories: is spacing the 'enemy of induction'?" - participants were asked to learn the style of 12 famous artists based on six paintings by each. The study found that interleaving the artists' paintings, rather than presenting six by one artist and then moving on, increased participants' ability to identify an individual's work later. Overall, 78 per cent of participants performed better with interleaved learning than with blocked learning.

Bjork says the key finding of the research is that interleaving may mean a slower rate of learning but it gives a better long-term effect. "Conditions of learning that make performance improve rapidly (such as blocking) often fail to support long-term retention and transfer (of knowledge), whereas conditions that create challenges and slow the rate of learning often optimise long-term retention and transfer," he explains.

No strict rules currently exist about how teachers might apply interleaving most effectively in a classroom environment, according to Bjork, but he says that the best results have been achieved when the intertwined subjects are related - as in the artist or Tudor monarch examples above.

As for what age groups would respond best to interleaving and how much time should be spent on each topic during the process, Bjork says that good results have been achieved with children of all ages, while optimum time per topic tends to depend on the subject matter. He concedes, however, that more research needs to be done to provide definitive results.

Testing process

One of the ways to fast-track this research - and research into interleaving in general - would be for more teachers to test Bjork's interleaving theory in a classroom environment and measure long-term retention versus results achieved by blocking. For that to occur, Bjork's theory will need some high-profile support.

Alistair Smith, one of the UK's leading trainers in modern learning methods, thinks that in some circumstances interleaving as a mechanism for delivering content may be necessary and so, tentatively, would offer such support. He adds, however, that application would not be easy, particularly in the UK.

"Typically, schools do not create the right circumstances for this method because they block subjects, teach them discretely and do so in narrow chunks of time," Smith says. "In a 45-minute lesson I would revisit and test but I wouldn't try to interleave. Over two hours I may well do so but I would try to stay within the discipline."

Guy Claxton, professor of the learning sciences at the University of Winchester, England, is more wary of interleaving, arguing that determining the best method of learning is dependent on what you are learning in the first place.

"It would be utter nonsense to suggest that someone prepare for their piano exam by interleaving bars from Chopin, Ravel and Scott Joplin. Or that you got to be a Nobel laureate in physics by mixing your experiments up with bits of chemistry and biology," he says.

Claxton adds that interleaving would work only if schools were judged as a success based on the "most trivial kinds of learning", involving the "retrieval of relatively isolated or disconnected gobbets of 'fact'".

Bjork concedes that interleaving faces challenges, not least in convincing the likes of Claxton of its merits. He explains that another barrier to wider adoption is that no one currently knows with any certainty why the approach works.

"One theory suggests that having to resolve the interference among the different things under study forces learners to notice similarities and differences among them, resulting in the encoding of higher order representations, which then foster both retention and transfer," Bjork says. "Another explanation suggests that interleaving forces learners to reload memories (and) such repeated reloadings are presumed to foster learning and transfer."

Bjork says a more definitive answer to this and the other queries and criticisms posed about interleaving will emerge over the next decade after more research. He believes that at the end of this period he will also be able to clarify how curricula should be structured to accommodate interleaving. One thing that is clear is that Bjork's work has some potentially dramatic implications for teaching.

"A lot of these things still need to be tested because there have been relatively few controlled experiments in classrooms to date, but more testing is going on all the time and I think that potentially the body of research that's accumulated over the past 20 years provides the foundation for some pretty dramatic changes," Bjork says.

"The possibilities are exciting but there's still a lot more work that needs to be done."

In short

• Research suggests that interleaving - mixing up learning - increases levels of retention compared with traditional blocking methods.
• While this can be a slower learning process, advocates say that it works better in the long term than conventional methods.
• More research needs to be done to clarify particulars such as at what age students will respond best to interleaving and how it should actually work in practice.
• Some argue that applying interleaving is impractical for many subjects and has been shown to be successful only with trivial kinds of learning.
• But advocates argue that with more research they can prove its effectiveness.

References

Rohrer, D. and Taylor, K. (2007) "The shuffling of mathematics practice problems improves learning", Instructional Science, 6/35: 481-498.

Kornell, N. and Bjork, R.A. (2008) "Learning concepts and categories: is spacing the 'enemy of induction'?", Psychological Science, 6/19: 585-592.

http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/content/how-mix-your-teaching-get-better-results

Adjusting behaviour management to suit the student

While consistency is important, students perform best when teachers tailor sanctions to the individual, not the behaviour

Put yourself in the shoes of a child for a moment (if it’s not too uncomfortable). Aside from expecting that the teacher will not physically abuse you, what is the minimum expectation that you should have of them when it comes to behaviour management?

At the very least, most teachers agree that we must be consistent. Children, like all humans, get confused if they do the same thing on successive days and get a different reaction.

If a child pokes Dwayne in the eye with a pencil on a Tuesday, for instance, and gets away with it (as the teacher says that Dwayne shouldn’t have put his eye in the way), and then does it again on Wednesday and gets a detention, you end up with a confused child. “Sir seems to have relocated the goalposts on to another pitch entirely today,” mouths Poor Tiny Tim.

Far better that the message students receive is consistent: the same result every day, so potential offenders are in no doubt as to whether Dwayne should be eye-pencilled or not. Consistency helps children to manage their own behaviour; if they are aware that they’ll receive the same consequences for the same offence, they can carry out a brief “cost- benefit analysis” before deciding whether an offence is worth committing.

Consistency vs. fairness

The problem with consistency, though, is that it can sometimes run up against the equally important concept of fairness with an unpleasing friction. It can seem unfair to enforce the same consequences for the same action on all children when you’re aware that one child is having an awful time at home and that this is the reason for their behaviour.

So should you ignore fairness to maintain consistency? It’s a difficult question. One solution comes from John Murphy, national director of academies at Oasis Community Learning. One of his cardinal rules for managing behaviour is that “real fairness comes from the explicit understanding and acknowledgement that different children have different starting points”. He argues that although consistency is vital, to be truly fair we have to differentiate our behaviour management according to who’s in front of us.

For Murphy, fairness trumps consistency and, looked at practically, his advice makes a lot of sense. As teachers, we can often feel that consistency is making us act unfairly. What we should be doing is adjusting our behaviour policy to every child’s unique circumstances, trusting ourselves to allow consistency to be overruled if the situation warrants it.

So, fairness, not consistency, should be the minimum expected of teachers when it comes to behaviour management. And yet fairness is often forgotten. The following golden rules should help you to avoid some prime examples.

Don’t set whole-class punishments

The majority of the class may well have run you ragged but two of them were just trying to do their work. If you punish them for the behaviour of others, you are not only being unfair but also making a rod for your own back. You are not showing the offenders that the path of righteousness gets you out of lessons on time; you are giving the message that there’s no point behaving properly in your class. You are also punishing the good two for the excellent example they were setting to more errant students. They may not bother next time.

Judge each situation on its own merits and attempt to do this as objectively as possible

It is poor practice to allow your decisions to be informed by what happened yesterday, and one of the worst things you can do is to allow a child’s reputation to affect your judgement. It may be that Tom is often in trouble but this time he really didn’t do it, and if you allow his reputation to creep into your decision, you are teaching him that there’s no point in behaving well as adults never believe you anyway.

Don’t rely on your position or status

The temptation to indulge in the phrase, “Because I said so! I’m your teacher!” can be overwhelming, as it is tiresome continually having to justify yourself. But it is reasonable for a child to ask you to explain things. This doesn’t mean that you enter into extended dialogue, nor that you negotiate. But explaining things shows that your judgements are reasoned and, although the student may not like your decision, fair.

Say sorry when you get things wrong

We are meant to be modelling the behaviour we want to see. You would expect them to say sorry. It’s only fair that you do.

Classroom layout: your questions answered

Fretting about how to set up and organise your classroom? Gererd Dixie dispenses some advice

What’s the best classroom seating layout – in rows or groups? 

Experience and research has shown me that the best way to keep a group of pupils focused and engaged is having pupils seated in rows. Personally I would have this as your ‘default’ arrangement. There will be time when you do actually want ‘cross-table chat’ and of course this is when you do need to sit pupils in groups. My advice would be: do not have groups of any larger than four because there will be more opportunities for pupils to be a) distracted and b) marginalised. 

It is also vital that you set up your parameters for group work. ‘What does good group work sound like’ and ‘what does good group work look like’. Then get the pupils to ascertain how this positive learning environment might be achieved. You can make things easier on yourself by producing a series of different seating formats, labeling them A, B, C, D etc and then appointing monitors to lay the desks out according to the plan provided for them.

What about using the horseshoe layout for infants' desks?

Advantages: The horseshoe seating arrangement creates a degree of intimacy which pupils appreciate. It allows the teacher to make appropriate eye contact with each pupil. Breaking away from the traditional and formal seating arrangements can indicate to pupils that they are being treated like adults and they usually respond positively to this. The physical layout of the desks also engenders a degree of trust between teacher and pupil. Encourages fuller contribution - as there's less likely to be marginalisation.

Disadvantages: If pupils are not provided with firm parameters before you introduce this seating arrangement you could be met with chaos. All it needs is pupil to make inappropriate eye contact with their peers and the spell is broken. What do I mean by parameters? You need to tell the pupils that you will be treating them as big boys and girls and that you expect them to behave appropriately. You need to warn them if anybody can't manage to learn like this then they will have to be moved.

My advice is that this seating arrangement is not used on a regular basis but for specific discussion type activities where you would be looking for contributions from all of the pupils in the class.

How can I make my classroom a friendly environment for my students?

In general terms you need to introduce a ‘wow’ factor for when pupils enter your room (This means that your displays need to be constantly updated and changed). I suggest a strong use of primary colour as background paper. You can get cheap wallpaper remnants quite easily – these make superb backing paper.  I also suggest introducing lots of green plants into your room – these along with the playing of music, can create a calming effect in the classroom. Bombard the pupils with interesting photographs, proverbs, quizzes, riddles jokes etc. In addition to this give due consideration to the role of the ‘hidden curriculum’ when planning your displays by displaying material that supports academic, social and emotional learning.

The Senco has advised me to have a relaxing area in my Y2 classroom for with emotional difficulties. Is there anything you can suggest?

I strongly support the advice given to you by your Senco. Providing a safe, secure and relaxing area for all pupils can have a significant impact on the behaviour and learning climate in the classroom. As far as older pupils are concerned I would take away the soft toys but would encourage a soft seating area - perhaps an easy chair or bean bags. A water dispenser might be good; plants also add a calming effect. The form classroom is often the only safe haven for some of these pupils, so you need to give your class ownership of who is allowed in there during breaktimes and lunchtimes.

In order to get to know pupils names quickly, I am planning on sitting my classes in alphabetical order to start off. My problem with it is initially getting them to sit in this order without chaos.

Produce a series of laminated name labels for each of your groups. Place these labels on the desks before the pupils enter the room. Meet the pupils at the door – explain that they are to sit where their labels are and robustly warn the class that you do not want them to a) write on the labels, move the labels, take the labels away with them or eat them (yes, I know it sounds far-fetched but I have had this happen). Allow a few pupils into the room at a time – this way you can check that they do not move the labels.

What should be included on a tutor group notice board and ensure evolves over the year?

You can divide your noticeboard into sections with the following headings:

• Things to do/happening today – for example, hand in reply slips, school photographs, get log book signed etc.
• General information – parents evenings dates, school productions etc
• Pupil of the week – type out reasons why this pupil received this award – this could be academic, social or an out of school contribution
• Celebration of pupils’ work  – Gather examples of your pupils’ work from across the curriculum.

How do I introduce the classroom rules and routines?

It is important to convey the message to your pupils ‘I say what I mean and I mean what I say’. In fact, I would strongly advise you to display a poster to this effect on your wall. However, this will only be effective if this is actually true. You have to convince your pupils that you will always follow up on everything – rewards and sanctions. 

You really do need to run a strong establishment phase. Design a PowerPoint and spend at least half an hour running through your expectations, rules, rewards and sanctions. Make it clear who you are, what you stand for, what you will not put up with, what will happen if pupils behave or misbehave. Produce a list of your own gradated sanctions and rewards to support the school system – get pupils to stick these into your books. Stress the ‘partnership’ aspect of the teaching/learning equation – tell pupils what you expect from them but also tell them what they can expect from you. 

Any tips for the first 'getting to know you' lesson? 

One good activity to run is called ‘Two truths and a lie’. Write down three statements about you and/or your life. Two of these statements are true and one is false. Get the pupils to discuss which one they think is the falsehood and to come up with a reason for their decision. Once you have modelled this process, get the pupils to have a go at the activity themselves. It is absolutely amazing what you learn about your pupils and what they learn about each other.

Gererd Dixie is an Advanced Skills Teacher specialising in Initial Teacher Training. He is also an educational consultant and author.

How to move your teaching on from 'requires improvement'

Teachers must listen, engage and act on the advice they are given in order to develop, says Ross Morrison McGill

 One size does not fit all. Teachers should have different styles and methods. Photograph: Alamy www.alamy.com

When a teacher who has been judged to "require improvement" asks for advice I always caveat it by saying that I can only offer the benefit of my own experience and a listening ear. But regardless of criteria, I do still remain vexed at the thought of consistently below-par teaching. Teachers who are judged in this bracket need to make a choice. They need to listen, engage and then act on the advice and develop. Or alternatively, they need to move schools or quit. It's an unsympathetic statement to make, but it is a reality.

I've worked with teachers at all levels, improving teaching and learning in departments and schools across London. Over the last two decades, in the majority of poor teaching I have observed, with beleaguered teachers I have mentored, or with staff who have simply got stuck, there is an inept lack of hunger to take responsibility for further improvement. This is something Carol Dweck calls, a "fixed mindset" in her book, Mindset.

Let us not neglect the fact that we are teachers in order to impart a love of learning, in order to gain qualifications, for our students. But, at no point should we stop learning ourselves. Earlier on in our careers we accept and expect the support and mentoring of a more experienced colleague. There is an appropriate dependency on others. We strive for greater independence as we begin to develop expertise and master the basics of being a teacher.

So what does a good teacher look like? Well, Ofsted head Sir Michael Wilshaw said in his speech to the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA): "One size does not fit all when it comes to being a successful teacher. We are satisfied as long as the children are engaged and learning."

Wilshaw is absolutely right. One size does not fit all and teachers should have different styles and methods but we can all be "good" using divergent approaches.

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So what do you do if you have been judged to be "requiring improvement?" Primarily, do not hide. The issue will not go away. As a profession we need to move from dependence on others to a greater interdependence. This includes you and I as practitioners. As the headteacher of St Mary's Catholic College in Blackpool Stephen Tierney (@Head_stmarys) said in a recent tweet: "Take the next step ... Better never stops no matter where you are on the journey. Keep going and take people with you."

Some other tips include:

• Utilise the support around you and do something about it. Do not expect everyone to put the cogs in motion for you every step of the way. You are the professional. However, I do appreciate that support offered in schools will vary widely, especially from the senior leadership team. But in every school, there should be a cohort of good to outstanding teaching staff who are more than happy to help.

• Consider speaking with a clandestine group of teaching staff; these are the kind of staff who would jump at the opportunity to coach a colleague, yet have never been given the chance.

• As corny as it sounds, seize the day. Find your own coach. In or out of school hours. Whatever it takes, begin.

• Source your own professional development. There is an abundance of collegiality online, in various networks such as the GTN, Twitter and other forums.

I appreciate that this is not an easy challenge. School priorities; the leadership team, the students and life events can all make or break a good bout of enthusiasm in any teacher. Bereavement and a recent redundancy period created a blip year for me. This is entirely normal and acceptable, but not taking control of your own practice is unthinkable.

Teachers, soon after their induction year, can be left, indirectly, to rot in flagging departments and schools without support and mentoring to help shape and define their emergent practice. It is vital those standards are set high from the outset and that trainees are equipped with the mindset to be self-sufficient and reflective regardless. This can also apply to teachers well into their career and should be maintained and supported throughout.

There is also a responsibility on the school and those in the leadership team to hold underperforming teachers to account and ensure rigorous support and challenge. To ensure teachers produce a "good" lesson is a start; but what we must strive for, is for students to go from one good teacher to another good teacher, lesson after lesson in a secondary school or year after year in a primary school. This is the growth mindset needed to go from "requires improvement" to "good" to "outstanding" – both for the teacher and the school. To quote Dylan Wiliam, who always sums it up so fittingly: "Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better."

Ross Morrison McGill is an assistant headteacher and was Guardian Teacher of the Year in a secondary school in London in 2004. He is a member of the Guardian Teacher Network adviser panel. You can follow him on Twitter @TeacherToolkit or read his blog.

How to balance work with family life: a teacher's survival guide

Accept your to-do list will never end and remember to communicate. Teacher and mother Hayley Earl shares her work-life balance tricks .

 The hardest task of all is finding some time for yourself, writes teacher Hayley Earl. Photograph: Alamy

Open any newspaper or turn on any TV and the chances are you will see a negative report on the state of teaching. From heavy workloads to rising stress levels, times are tough.

But there’s lots to feel positive about too: I love my job. And despite the fact my life should be a recipe for disaster – I have two young children and a husband who is training to be a teacher – it’s actually not.

I’ve worked hard to find some sort of work-life balance. It’s not been easy and I don’t always get things right. Finding time for yourself is incredibly hard, and I am lucky to have a great support network (my in-laws help out, I have a flexible childminder and close friends for emergencies).

Can teachers ever have a work-life balance?

 

Read more

Along the way, I’ve developed a few survival tricks and I wanted to share these. I’m keen to hear how other working parents cope, so post your views in the comments or share them via @GuardianTeach:

Avoid taking on too much

I’m fortunate to work in a school where we think very carefully about the potential gains and pitfalls before launching any new initiatives to avoid unnecessary work. We already have a lot of good practice in the school which we don’t want to change unnecessarily.

Always weigh up your childrens’ needs and whether they’re likely to benefit before agreeing to take on more work. Teachers are often keen to make a good impression but it’s better to do your job well, rather than take on loads and collapse under it.

If you’re feeling pressured to do more, talk to someone at school, such as your line manager or headteacher. If they know that you are struggling, they should put strategies in place to help you. If you’re being asked to do more, remember to negotiate time in school to do it so you don’t have to take extra work home.

Prioritise and don’t procrastinate

Decide what needs doing immediately – don’t waste time on things that aren’t urgent. For everything else, make sure you keep a reminder. I always check that my planning and marking for the next day are done first, then prepare my resources for photocopying, and finally check minutes, agendas, handouts or presentations needed that day.

 Hayley Earl and family. Photograph: Hayley Earl

When you’ve worked out what needs to be done, try to avoid meeting our old friend procrastination. I break jobs down into smaller ones so they’re more manageable. You don’t want to add stress and panic so get straight on to tasks, regardless of how laborious they may be.

Find what works best for your family

Ofsted inspections and parents’ evenings sometimes make workloads less manageable, but I made a rule as soon as my son came along that I would not work during the daytime on days off. End-of-year reports can’t always be scheduled to fit around my children, but for the vast majority of the year the rule stays.

Colleagues with children sometimes stay later to avoid taking work home. My childcare arrangements don’t fit in with this, so working at home works best for me. What’s important is to find a routine that fits with your family life. I have at least one night off a week and always have dinner with my family.

Don’t worry if everything doesn’t get done

Your to-do list will only get bigger and you will never reach the end of it – even in the depths of the summer holidays. Once you accept this, it takes the pressure off. I find that positive thinking about what you’ve achieved is better than being negative about everything you have left to finish.

Communicate with your family

Sometimes, having another teacher in the house can be a blessing – my husband understands why I give up my free time in the evenings. But we do have to make sure we’re aware of the seasonal times when workloads increase. As a trainee he also has a particularly demanding workload. On top of the usual school work, he has paperwork and assignments. We try hard to spend time together, whether it be shutting down our laptops to watch a film, having a nice meal together or having a night out. It’s important.

Before he became a teacher, he would often be frustrated by the lack of time I had. The only way to ease this was setting aside time to spend together and making sure we had nights out.

Talk to the others in your house about their feelings towards your workload. If you have to miss an evening with the children because of parents’ evenings or school events, help them to understand why. I know my son found it difficult when I had my last Ofsted inspection as I went to work early and came back late, so I explained it all to him. He knows that when I do come home late, the first thing I always do is kiss him goodnight if he is in bed.

The most challenging point is probably making time for you. Even if it’s just stopping to watch TV or write a diary; give yourself a few minutes to breathe and unwind.

Hayley Earl is a class teacher and assessment leader at Beech Green primary school, Gloucester. She blogs here. Follow her on Twitter @hayleyearl.

How to use brain science to engage students after the holidays

 Neurologist and former teacher Judy Willis explains how techniques such as walking backwards and changing the furniture in your classroom can motivate students on the first day back of term

 It can be hard enough for teachers to feel motivated after the holidays, nevermind trying to excite students who just want to talk about what they’ve been upto. Photograph: Alamy

As the holidays come to an end, thoughts of students and lesson plans replace time spent indulging in puddings and turkey. But teachers know all too well that it’s challenging enough to motivate a class on a Monday morning after a weekend, nevermind after a longer break. To reignite energy levels this January here are my tips as a neurologist and former teacher:

What gets the brain’s attention?

All learning starts as information perceived by the five senses: vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. There are also millions of sensory nerve endings throughout the skin, muscles and internal organs. But the brain is only able to process about 1% of this information and it gives priority to certain things.

With the help of brain imaging, we can see that the sensory information that gets priority is that which helps mammals survive. This tends to be information that is unexpected – our attention filter first takes in sensory information about change and novelty.

On the first day back get your class to share stories

After a break, there is a higher than normal amount of new sensory information competing for access to the brain. Students have not seen each other for a while and the novelty of returning to school is enhanced by their interest in what classmates did during the holidays.

So beginning the first day back by returning immediately to routine is unlikely to get your students’ attention and can cause bad behavior and inattention. But if you know that a child’s brain is programmed to be curious about new experiences and what friends have done, you can use it to promote important qualities.

Students are likely to want to tell their class about what they got for Christmas or a trip they’ve been on. Tell them they can do this but only if they also share something that they did for others or generous acts that they saw or heard about.

Get class attention through curiosity

Once students have had the chance to satisfy their curiosity about classmates, you can redirect their focus to classroom instruction by starting with sensory input that is most likely to get through the attention filter. Through neuroimaging research, we know the types of novelty or change that get attention priority include movement, curious objects, pictures, videos, unexpected class visitors or speakers, changes of colour and things you do that are unusual. So why not wear something unusual? Have music playing when children enter class, open with a dynamic video clip, a curious picture, or an optical illusion?It’s essential that students remember the information you teach them. For this to happen, you can use strategies to make sure the sensory information you provide (through what you say, show, do or have them experience through physical movement) gets through their attention filters.

Here are some other suggestions:

What you say (or don’t say). A sudden mid-sentence silence is a curiosity the attention filter wants to know more about. A suspenseful pause in your speech before saying something important increases alertness and memory of what you will say or do next.

Change the furniture arrangement. Or put up photos of last year’s students doing an activity your students will be doing in the unit they are beginning, light a candle, put a new exciting poster relating to the new unit under the one that has been hanging and when you walk by, “inadvertently” bump into the wall so the old one falls down and the new one is suddenly revealed.

Get moving. Since movement gets high priority, you can move in an unexpected way such as doing what you usually do (handing out papers or posting information on the walls) while walking backwards. That could lead to a lesson about negative numbers, negative electric charges, going “back” in history, or the past tense of verbs.

Rotate techniques, lest the unexpected become expected. Greet students at the door with a riddle or a note card with a vocabulary word. They can seek their new seats by looking for the table with the note card that has the riddle answer or the definition of their word.

Good teachers are highly responsive to their students’ moods and needs. Knowing a bit of the neuroscience can help you prepare for times when it’s harder to get your students’ attention. I recall a poster that read: “A Mind Stretched Will Never Revert to its Original Size.” That mind stretching is what teachers do. Using strategies to first captivate their attention will hook into their brains’ intake programing, stimulate their curiosity, and sustain the attentive focus needed to turn information into knowledge.

Dealing with behaviour issues - a guide for new teachers

I bet you don’t feel like a teacher yet, do you? No. You feel like a fraud. It’s as if the pilot just fainted and someone put the joystick in your hands. You’re wondering when a grown-up will be back to take the class. Well, buster, the grown-up is you. Their lives are in your hands. Suddenly, life is no longer a training exercise; suddenly, you are live, on air.

But what if they don’t do what you want them to? Because they won’t, I promise. Unless you possess the telepathic glamour of Professor X – and I will assume you don’t – then they will, however biddable, resist your intentions.

It’s terrifying, I know. You’re inhuman if you tacitly assume that they will tap dance to your command. Most new teachers I know could barely give a flying fig about whether they know enough about the topic. What they care about is behaviour. And they should; because good behaviour is intrinsic to good learning.

Believe me, a well-planned lesson is useful, but it is not the way to guarantee good behaviour. It helps, but so does a deep voice. It’s a tool, but it isn't the power drill. Almost without doubt, you’ll experience misbehaviour.

Children misbehave because they are children; because they can; because they, like any human, want to pursue their own interests, not other people’s. If you think the default sentiment of humanity is altruism and mutual cooperation, then I have some real estate on the Moon I would like to sell you. What most children want doesn't involve sitting at desks, learning maths, or practising verbs and vowel sounds.

But the fact that they would rather be doing something else doesn't mean you’re a failure; it doesn't mean you’re weak or pathetic; it just means that you’re going to have to get them into your habits, not theirs. And that takes time.

Remember that although some of them will come from backgrounds that have gifted them an impeccable sense of socialisation, many others will be less obedient. Their family home may be unstructured; they may compete for affection and attention; they may have learned survival habits at home that are positively peculiar when they come into the more rigid maze of your lessons. So don’t assume they’ll comply; don’t assume deference; don’t assume anything, except that you have a job to do.

What behaviours can I expect?

Some of your children will be natural teacher-pleasers. You’ll spot them in about two minutes; they devote themselves to anticipating and meeting your every demand, and for a moment you imagine that this teaching lark is a cinch. Be warned; if you get a full hand of these Jacks and Jills you are fortunate indeed. Most decks come with a few jokers. And it only takes a few for the teaching experience to become very tricky. One egotistical time bomb can sink your ship for a lesson or a day. But mostly, the real troublemakers are few and far between, and the class will probably follow a bell curve of compliance.

Here is some wisdom; you’ll get to know the names of the naughty kids in about five minutes flat. And you know what? That’s exactly what they want. Most kids who misbehave are looking for fun and attention and often don’t care what the source of either is. It doesn't make them devils, merely childish and selfish, which is to some extent the natural inclination of the human spirit.

The most common type of misbehaviour is what is often referred to as “low-level” misbehaviour which makes it sound relatively harmless, until you realise that it is kryptonite for your lesson because it’s the kind of misbehaviour that doesn’t justify the riot squad, but is just enough to keep them in your room.

It’s low level in the sense that a river running over a slab of granite is low level, until eventually it cuts it in half with persistence. It’s whispering, humming, chair rocking, pen tapping, turning around, arriving a few minutes late, throwing a pen at someone...this is what you’ll face. To an outsider it sounds like nothing; to the insider, it’s Chinese water torture. Make no mistake; ignore this, and your lessons will crumble.

Far more unlikely, yet looming large in the average new teacher’s nightmares, is high-level disruption, ranging from a rolling scrap to actual confrontation. Chair chucking is rare, but it’s like being struck by lightning – unlikely on a given day in mainstream schools (in special schools it can be common), but terrifying when it rains and you’re on the roof fixing the aerial.

Mistakes you mustn’t make

For God’s sake, don’t try to be too pally with them. The whole “Don’t smile until Christmas” thing has become dogma, but I assure you it is wisdom. Of course you can smile; it isn't a catalyst for mayhem. But take it slowly. Kids want to know many things about you, but high on their list is: “Is he/she strict?” If they decide in five minutes that you’re not, then good luck to you, and you certainly won’t be smiling before Christmas, you’ll be weeping. Don’t forget to set out your rules and boundaries. Don’t assume that they know how to behave; they probably do, but they need to see that you do too. Remember, they’re testing your boundaries as well.

How do I show them who’s boss?

Act like one. Be prepared for teaching: a tidy room; resources prepared; smart appearance; lesson ready for them as they walk in. Be on the door; make eye contact with them as they enter and say Good Morning, but don’t smile. Not yet. Resist the temptation to answer their questions; merely indicate that they should go to the back. When they are all in, get them quiet and then give them a seating plan. They will fuss and moan, but this is nothing to you. Get them into their seats, because that means you can learn who they are. Like demonology, naming gives you power.

Then – and I assure you this is wise – spend a good amount of time introducing yourself and telling them what the rules are. Don’t negotiate with them; don’t ask what rules they think would be wise. This doesn't get you buy-in; it merely shows them that you’re open to persuasion. Why should you? I know what the rules of the room should be because I'm an adult, and so are you. So tell them what you want. You can find a good set of basic rules on my resource list on TES Resources.

Tell them what the consequences of meeting and breaking the boundaries are. And make sure you tell the truth. Don’t shy away from talking about detentions, calling home, losing “golden time”, whatever. Go in hard in the first few days and you will reap the benefits later on. Don’t do it, and you’ll spend the rest of the year persuading them that you’d like them to behave. In the first meeting, I tell kids I care deeply about them; so much so that I'm prepared to police their behaviour with vigour. My room, my rules. If you’re uncomfortable with that then get used to it, because it’s essential to the job.

Learn the school behaviour policy

Don’t be afraid to get help, because that’s how we become mighty. The kids aren't master criminals and all but the most adamantine will succumb to being worn down. But you must be persistent. This is the magic ingredient. Don’t give a few detentions and think “it isn't working”. It just hasn't worked yet. We play the long game. We’re here to change their lives. That doesn't happen in a day or a week. Sometimes it takes months and years of dedication, guts, mindless repetition and fraught hours of confrontation and stress. But it’s worth it. So are you. And so are they.

Source: http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/content/dealing-behaviour-issues-guide-new-teachers