Education Matters

Education matters

April 25 - May 1, 2018
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Gulf Weekly Education matters


Managing children’s behaviour can be split into two clear strands:

- Classroom Management

- Behaviour Management

The two may look and sound the same and indeed they do complement each other beautifully, but intrinsically they are two different sides of the same objective; supporting children’s personal, social and academic life in school.

Classroom management is the organisational element of a child’s life in the classroom, for example, classroom displays, exercise books, resources and the use of ICT. 

It encourages students to be organised and ready to learn each day with homework done and the correct equipment. It celebrates student achievements through interactive displays and challenges them through clear targets and effective marking. 

Teacher and student are both responsible for effective classroom management as it is concerned with creating an environment which is conducive to learning in which students feel confident to investigate, explore and develop, teaching students independence, tenacity and cooperation skills.

Behaviour management is concerned with teaching the life skills and values that will enable students to develop and grow, both socially and personally.

It is concerned with the principles of right and wrong, making personal decisions, morality as well as actions and their consequences. 

Schools will invariably have a behaviour management policy that will highlight amongst many things the rules of the school. School rules aren’t some Draconian list of dos and do not’s, they are written with a child’s health, safety and personal development in mind and are usually underpinned with a system of positive behaviour management that encourages students to make the right choices and be rewarded, rather than make the wrong choices and face a sanction.

The key word in both types of a school’s student management systems is choice.  Students always have choices and, as the well-known author John Covey tells us in his book the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, we have the same choices in adulthood too.

Covey says that in the brief instance between our experience and our response to that experience there is a split second in which our subconscious mind can make a choice. Because it is a split second, we don’t have a lot of time to make it, but the choices we do make are normally biased by our upbringing, our experiences of life so far, our key behaviour influencers such as parents and our habits.

A good behaviour management policy teaches children the value of their choices so should they find themselves in a situation where they have to make a good choice or a bad choice, they will be more likely to opt for the former. 

Similarly, a good classroom management policy teaches children to trust themselves and be confident to try new things, so when faced with new social or academic choices, they will be less likely to be shy or to presume that they will get things wrong and more likely to embrace new challenges in learning or life that come their way since self confidence has been developed.

If schools get their policies right, that split second of cognition before experience leads to action will be used well and the decisions made that lead to actions will be positive, as they are built on the solid foundations.







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