The question focus of my case study was, would classroom behaviour management strategies such as positive reinforcement, verbal cues and visual cueing systems minimise talking within the class and help to bring student focus back to where it should be (either on the teacher or on their task)?
Data Collected: observations, mentor feedback, informal and formal conversations with mentor teacher.
Chill Out Zone Visual Aid
Class Award Star Award
Case Study:
My professional experience as a pre-service teacher for Western Sydney University was completed at Banks public school (PS). I was placed in a year 1 classroom, which comprised of 23 students. During my placement I was given the chance to observe my mentor teacher’s classroom behaviour management (CBM) strategies and then I was given the opportunity to try some of my own CBM strategies, which is the focus of this case study.
During my placement, I utilised the schools star reward system as a positive reinforcement to encourage respectful behaviour. This is a positive rewards system which accumulates over student’s entire school life at Banks PS. I paired this with my own visual cueing system on the board, where students could see who had received a star award. This involved having a smiley face on the board and I would write the name of students who would receive a star award for showing respectful behaviour under this. The use of a visual curing system to point out who was displaying respectful, quiet behaviour helped encourage other students to try and display this behaviour. This resulted in students being more responsive and becoming settled more quickly. I also had a class award which I gave out weekly for a variety of reasons. These were given for hard work and respectful behaviour. Students would get very excited about this reward and would strive to receive it. Students were very responsive to my positive reinforcement as mentioning it often would see a change in their behaviour. Conversations with my mentor teacher and my own observations concluded that the use of this visual cueing system was resulting in students settling and focusing quicker then they previously were.
I also utilised the ‘chill out zone’ which is a blue chair in the corner of the class where students are able to sit for five minutes to calm down and to think about their behaviour. Students were given verbal warnings before they were sent to the ‘chill out zone’. My mentor teacher commended me on my use of this chair, as I chose the appropriate moments to give students some time out to calm down so after the five minutes they would be ready to learn.
I also tried using verbal cues such as ‘eyes on me’ and ‘show me you are ready’ so students know when I wanted their attention on me. This was usually used after a transition period or when I needed to give an instruction during an activity. I found ‘show me you’re ready’ to be the most useful as students knew that when I said that I was looking for legs crossed, eyes to the front and for talking to stop. Mentor feedback and my own observations concluded that students were responsive to the use of ‘show me you’re ready’ as students understood this meant it was time to learn.
Overall, I found the use of different strategies as I was able to see what worked with my class. Behaviour management was a focus of mine which I continuously tried to refine and improve over my practicum. Mentor feedback stated that my ability to manage behaviour and control a class improved over my practicum as I improved my confidence. However, my practicum experience has taught me that it is important to continually refine my behaviour management, as things may not always work for each and every student, so it is important to find what will currently work for the class you have.