Best Practice

Behaviour myths – and what to do about them

Behaviour Early Career Teachers Learning environments
Classroom teaching is complex and so is managing behaviour. Sean Harris busts some common behaviour management myths and considers how teachers – especially those new to the chalkface – might think about behaviour

Teaching in a classroom is hard work. A myth I have learned to tackle in my time as a leader is the belief that teaching becomes easy over time. While experience is helpful, teaching is seldom easy.

Kennedy (2016) reminds us that teaching is, among other things, a cultural activity. Researchers have spent thousands of hours observing teaching practice and have formed competing ideas of different and sometimes contradictory philosophies about classroom practice.

Kennedy writes: “Just as a child might form the naïve conception that the sun circles around the earth, she/he might form the conception that teaching practice comes naturally, or is effortless, because teachers always appear to know what to do.”

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