I agree that complexity is inconvenient, so I offer a simplistic word bite: There is no child-intrinsic reason why children should 'behave badly' (however that may be defined) of their own volition. If they do, the cause(s) must be outside them. So the societal response to 'bad behaviour' should be overwhelmingly directed to addressing those causes rather than trying to 'fix' the child. (Just to be clear: Provide support: YES. Try to repair: NO.)
Also, schools are huge. They are overwhelmingly big at secondary and for children prone to dysregulation navigating these environments, without support or adaptations is incredibly traumatic. Really important arguments in your piece. Thanks x
I resonate really strongly with this, and I find a few people (this is the main reason I spend almost no time on Twitter) who think that children just need to be told to do better and that it is expected of them. I agree with them that robust standards and boundaries need to be in place. I agree with them that teachers should be strict on them. But without considering causes of these behaviours we don’t open children to meaningful, long-term changes in them. Children also need to be taught what constitutes more desirable behaviour. It’s all well and good reining them in during your lessons but there’s no incentive to behave and as soon as they leave the classroom they continue to face and cause problems because that intrinsic motivation isn’t there.
I’m fascinated by the idea of using interactive/engaging lessons as a behaviour management tool. I don’t suppose you can recommend any research or reading on this can you? I’ve found there to be a lot of research into, for example, enriching education and improving skills/academic outcomes with playful lessons but very little on using them to manage and measure behaviour.
I agree that complexity is inconvenient, so I offer a simplistic word bite: There is no child-intrinsic reason why children should 'behave badly' (however that may be defined) of their own volition. If they do, the cause(s) must be outside them. So the societal response to 'bad behaviour' should be overwhelmingly directed to addressing those causes rather than trying to 'fix' the child. (Just to be clear: Provide support: YES. Try to repair: NO.)
Also, schools are huge. They are overwhelmingly big at secondary and for children prone to dysregulation navigating these environments, without support or adaptations is incredibly traumatic. Really important arguments in your piece. Thanks x
I resonate really strongly with this, and I find a few people (this is the main reason I spend almost no time on Twitter) who think that children just need to be told to do better and that it is expected of them. I agree with them that robust standards and boundaries need to be in place. I agree with them that teachers should be strict on them. But without considering causes of these behaviours we don’t open children to meaningful, long-term changes in them. Children also need to be taught what constitutes more desirable behaviour. It’s all well and good reining them in during your lessons but there’s no incentive to behave and as soon as they leave the classroom they continue to face and cause problems because that intrinsic motivation isn’t there.
I’m fascinated by the idea of using interactive/engaging lessons as a behaviour management tool. I don’t suppose you can recommend any research or reading on this can you? I’ve found there to be a lot of research into, for example, enriching education and improving skills/academic outcomes with playful lessons but very little on using them to manage and measure behaviour.