4.1- Support student participation
Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities
4.3- Manage challenging behaviour
Demonstrate knowledge of practical approaches to manage challenging behaviours
On a recent professional experience placement I worked in a low socio-economic school that had many challenging behaviours on a daily basis. In my prep classroom there were a number of students who faced daily challenges that contributed to their behaviour including ADHD, ASD, Global Developmental Delay, and two were from trauma backgrounds. The school used a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) approach combined with the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) which is a trauma-informed teaching approach designed to promote self-regulation, positive relationships, and wellbeing.
In order to support student participation and maximise learning outcomes, it was important that I create and maintain a supportive and safe learning environment for all students (APST 4.1, 4.3). To do this, I implemented the school’s PBL model by using proactive and positive classroom teaching strategies including establishing positive relationships and explicitly teaching behaviour expectations and positive social skills (Peel & McLennan, 2019). I modelled the appropriate behaviour and placed visual cues on the whiteboard as a reminder. These expectations provided an element of flexibility to support inclusion and ensure all students were able to achieve them (Hyde et al., 2017). For example, students were not expected to sit cross-legged on the carpet, but the expectation was that they were sitting with their hands and feet to themselves. For the students who had difficulty attending on the carpet, I provided a chair at a table so that they had their own space and were able to engage in the lesson without the distraction of other students around them (APST 4.1). Before every lesson I referred to the visual cues to remind the students about the expected behaviour and I used a whole-class reward system as positive reinforcement when the behaviour goals were achieved (Artefact 4.1).
During my lessons I responded to undesirable behaviours by using strategies from the Essential Skills for Classroom Management (Education Queensland, 2007). This include using both verbal and non-verbal instructions, waiting and scanning to provide students time to process and respond to instructions, descriptive encouragement and parallel acknowledgement, body language encouragement such as proximity, facial expressions and hand gestures, and selective attending. When the behaviours escalated beyond minor disruptions, I followed the school’s behaviour response flow-chart (Artefact 4.2) which included giving a choice and following through with a consequence (APST 4.3). As a result of these classroom and behaviour management strategies I experienced fewer disruptions and challenging behaviours, and a much calmer and positive learning environment for all students.
