TEACHING THE DIVERSE

CLASSROOM TEACHER’S
HANDBOOK
Andrew Ayliffe a1688596
Table of Contents
KEY CLASSROOM FEATURES ................................................................................................................... 2

PREVENTATIVE ACTIONS ........................................................................................................................ 3

PRAISE .........................................................................................................................................................3
INTERESTING COURSE WORK AND RESOURCES ......................................................................................................4
CREATING A SAFE AND WELCOMING LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. ...............................................................................4
PROMOTING STUDENT MOTIVATION..................................................................................................................5
POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR PROMOTION .....................................................................................................................6
SUPPORTIVE ACTIONS .................................................................................................................... 6

S I G N A L I N T E R F E R E N C E .....................................................................................................................6
PLANNED IGNORING ..................................................................................................................................7
PROXIMITY INTERFERENCE .......................................................................................................................7
W AIT FOR SILENCE ...................................................................................................................................8
TASK & TEACHING ALTERATION ...............................................................................................................8

CORRECTIVE ACTIONS ............................................................................................................................ 9

BEHAVIOUR DURING CORRECTIVE ACTIONS............................................................................................9

ADJACENT REINFORCEMENT: (HIGHLIGHTING POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR) ..................................................10
NAME DROPPING/CALLING STUDENT .....................................................................................................10
HUMOUR ..................................................................................................................................................11
SENDING AN “I MESSAGE” .......................................................................................................................11
DIRECT APPEAL ......................................................................................................................................11
GLASSER’S TRIPLETS .............................................................................................................................12
CANTER’S “BROKEN RECORD” (REPETITION) .........................................................................................12
COMPLY OR FACE LOGICAL CONSEQUENCES: (YOU HAVE A CHOICE) ..................................................13

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 14

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 Key Classroom Features
Figure 1: Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal development is a key piece of information
when considering what to include in the lesson.

It clearly demonstrates how we must tailor our lesson to best suit the learner. It
works on the principle of the task at hand is nor too easy or too difficult for the
learn. This therefore should keep them engaged in the task. If the task is too
challenging, then the learner can become anxious. If the task is too simple, then
the learner can become bored. (Matthews, 2018) (Figure 1)

Figure 2: This figure displays the key features required within a classroom to
boost a student’s motivation to succeed. Such features are essential to keep the
classroom functioning at an optimal level.

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 (Marsh & Marsh, 2003)

Preventative actions

Praise

Praise is a major component of any teaching, not only do students want to feel
comfortable in a learning environment they want to feel like they can complete
the task. When a student completes a task it’s important to make them feel
successful.
The praise is most effective to the individual and the reason as to why the praise
is stated.
It’s important to show you really do appreciate what they have done. This can be
seen by:

“Wow, good job” (Non-specific & non-objective)

“Wow, good job Jacob” (Specific but doesn’t state what you like)
“Wow, good job Jacob. I really like how you demonstrated detail in your report.”
(This clearly demonstrates what you want out of the individual and highlights to
them what they did well at.) (Figure 3)

Something as simple as praise and the feeling of being appreciated can go a

very long way. Especially with students from a tough background.

It also can highlight students leading by example. As simple as encouraging

appropriate behaviour of other students by using statements such as “I’m glad to
see Dylan and Tessa both have their books out and have started reading
quietly”. This directs the learner’s attention to the good behaviour rather than the
off-task behaviour.

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Figure 3: The power of praise is clearly demonstrated by Amy the middle school
teacher in England in the video Teaching With Bayley. (Teachers TV, n.d.)

Interesting course work and resources

 Keeping the lesson material interesting and capturing

 Discovering what interests the students and linking that to the course
work.
 Demonstrating the link between real world scenarios and the course work
 Creating achievable challenges for students of all abilities to accomplish
 Clear and concise lesson tasks/objectives which allows for easy student
understanding. Greatly helps to have a do now task for the students to
get settled down with such as 5 minutes book reading or a quick and
easy task.

Creating a safe and welcoming learning environment.

 Ensure that the students feel safe and welcomed when entering lesson
 Enable all students an equal opportunity for input
 Strive to create an environment where all students feel comfortable to ask
questions and share ideas
 Cater tasks so all students can accomplish
 Be clear and consistent with boundaries
 Be the role model for the students by always displaying appropriate
behaviour.
 Be approachable and friendly to the students.

Figure 4: Bill Rogers is a key icon within the Australian Education world due
to his grounded and fair approach to establishing a safe learning
environment.

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 (Osiris Educational , 2012)

Promoting Student Motivation

Intrinsic motivation: When the students own interests motivate them to

conduct own work or study (Psychology and Society, 2016). Example:
Interested in planes so the student researches planes information and how they
are made.
Enable this intrinsic motivation to flow through into coursework where
appropriate.
Enable the motivated students to study their passion within the course
framework, for student who likes planes, allow them to present to the class how
planes fly in physics.

Extrinsic motivation: External motivation for the student to do the work.

Commonly found with reward systems like Amy the teacher putting names on
the board for people with good behaviour and getting to go on the exclusive
science excursion. (Psychology and Society, 2016)
 Creates a goal for students to strive for
 Gives attention seeking students the ability to gain positive attention
 Can create a positive type of competitiveness.
 Enables school to keep track of who is performing well (merit system)
(Teachers TV, n.d.) (Figure 5)

Figure 5: Amy from Teaching with Bayley uses extrinsic motivation to gain
student interest in the work and also to behave correctly. She uses a merit
system which incorporates a letter home to the parents describing the good
behaviour and if they continue to behave well they become eligible for the
school science excursion.

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 Positive behaviour promotion

Be the role model for the students by always displaying appropriate behaviour.

Be approachable and friendly to the students. This will further increase the
chances of building student rapport whilst maintaining positive examples of good
behaviour.

Supportive actions
There are 4 main benefits to using nonverbal correctives when dealing with bad
behaviour. These are:
-Disruption to the learning process is less likely to occur
-Hostile confrontation with the student is less likely to happen
-Student is provided with the opportunity to correct their own behaviour before
the correctives become teacher centred or public interventions.
-Maximum number of alternate correctives are left for future use. Non-verbal
interactions aren’t always necessary to be deployed first, especially if the
behaviour displayed by the student is dangerous or harmful to other students. It
should be stopped quickly if its largely disruptive or dangerous.

Signal interference
Headshaking, blocking calling out student with hand, eye contact to
misbehaving students with blunt look and pointing to seat if student is wandering
around. Reference from reader

Figure 6: Part time French teacher has trouble with students calling out and its
effecting the whole class. She initially gives the misbehaving students attention.
Then Bayley says “stand there with your hand up to block them out and focus on
the well behaved”

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 (Teachers TV, 2007)

In the next lesson she blocked out the misbehaviour and focused on the positive
behaviour. Within minutes the off-task kids began raising hands to answer
questions. When they received praise for their positive behaviour they become
engaged in the lesson and strive to succeed for attention (Figure 3).
This is an excellent display of Signal Interference and Planned Ignoring.

Planned ignoring

Involves ignoring simple misbehaviour traits such as: excessive calling out, not
raising hand, aimless questions, clapping whistling.
This is an easy way to deal with simple issues without wasting your own time
and energy. It works on the idea of the reinforcement theory in which the
negative attention seeking behaviours are blocked and therefore denied of their
attention (Levin & Nolan, 2005) (Brophy, 1988). Therefore, it should generally
reduce the occurrence of the negative behaviour because it doesn’t receive the
intended reaction. Reference from reader.

Proximity Interference

The process of using your physical proximity to deter the bad behaviour of the
student or to reinforce them to concentrate on the task. Students are usually
less likely to misbehave if the teacher is near them (Levin & Nolan, 2005).
Proximity is an excellent tool but needs to be used carefully and use within
reason as it can be quite intimidating and an intrusion into the student’s personal
space (Levin & Nolan, 2005) (Figure 7).
Can be an excellent way to bring off task students back on task without saying
anything and disrupting the class.

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 Figure 7: During Jenny’s year 8 science class we see her using
proximity to try to deter Vulcan’s misbehaviour. (Teachers TV,
2007)

Wait for Silence

Within the same clip we also see Jenny use the Wait for Silence cue which was
one of Cowley’s key behavioural techniques as students are often very aware of
sudden change (Cowley, 2006) (Figure 4).

Task & Teaching Alteration

This can be done in many forms, but it tailors the task set for the individual
students or class. Examples of this include:

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-Creating small challenges within the subject criteria to challenge the learner
and hopefully create enthusiasm. (How much can you finish before hometime,
Challenge questions near end of topic for high achievers)
-Scaffolding to suit the learner, it enables us to guide the learning if needed
and allows us to take a step back and let the students guide themselves (Foley,
1993).

Corrective actions
Behaviour During Corrective Actions

It’s especially important to maintain your composure as an adult and a teaching

professional whilst implementing corrective behaviours. It’s vital to not escalate
the situation or start an argument. Within the composure it’s essential to not
escalate your voice or “back the students into a corner “where they feel the only
way out is to argue or be on the defensive.

Fundamentally the correctives must be consistent and logical in order for them
to appear fair to the students.

 Clear and concise reasoning

 Calm and respectful
 Do not spark argument or escalate event
 Clear boundaries and consequences for crossing boundaries.

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 Figure 8: The various levels of interventions available to teachers escalating in
disruption as the list continues.

Adjacent Reinforcement: (Highlighting Positive Behaviour)

This technique is similar to a praise technique as it highlights the positive
behaviour wanted. This focuses the classes attention to the positive behaviour
rather than the negative.
When a student is calling out for attention and other students have their hands
up this presents the perfect opportunity to utilise the technique. This technique is
more of a supportive action rather than a corrective.

Example: “Fred, I really appreciate you holding your hand up to answer the
question”.
This hopefully allows the misbehaving student to realise to put their hand up. If
they do this, it enables you to then praise them for putting their hand up.

Name Dropping/Calling Student

This technique is a simple but effective one which can be used if students are
working or during a lecture (Rinne, 1984). It enables the teacher to remind the
student that they have been spotted conducting the inappropriate behaviour and
should return to the task (Rinne, 1984). It’s simple and can be effective even
though it’s more of a supportive action than a corrective.

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Example: *Billy is a drawing on the desk during quiet work time rather that
working*
“Billy” says the teacher in a subtle but clear voice. Billy now realises he has
been spotted off task and returns to the task. This technique minimises
classroom disruption.

Humour

Humour is an excellent technique as it can be used in many scenarios. It can be

utilised as a tool for diffusing a situation or even as a way to parry off jokes from
students (Skinner, 2010). It also is a good trait which often builds rapport with
students. But it must be used within reason and professionally.

Sending an “I message”

This works on the principle of using a three-part method and works similarly to
the questioning the awareness of the effect.
It aims to bring to the attention of the student that their behaviour is not only
disturbing the teacher but the whole class. The three parts it works upon are:
- simple description of the disruptive behaviour
- description of its effects on the teacher or students
- description of the teachers’ feelings about effects of the misbehaviour.
This works best if the relationship between the teacher and student is positive.
IF they have a negative relationship this should be avoided as the student can
learn what the teacher doesn’t like and finds annoying (Levin & Nolan, 2005).
Example: “John, when you call out without raising your hand, I can’t call on any
other students to answer the question. This disturbs me because I would like to
give everyone a chance to answer the question.”

Direct Appeal

Direct appeal is a straightforward request to stop the bad behaviour. This is

removes pleading with the student to stop the behaviour. This can be effective
when the correct language is used but some students especially in higher years
will resent being governed by a set of rules.

Example: “John, please stop calling out answers so that everyone will have a
chance to answer” This doesn’t ask John if he would stop calling out, it’s more of
a demand.

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 Glasser’s Triplets

Glasser’s triplets work on the principle of directing the students to the correct
behaviour by asking three questions:
1. What are you doing?
2. Is it against the rules?
3.What should you be doing?
This is best used in classrooms with clearly established rules and the rules are
understood by the students. They are designed for the student to state what
they are doing wrong and then understand how to correct their behaviour. Not
all students will choose to answer properly or at all. This is when the teacher
comes in and responds with the correct answer. (Glasser, 1969)

Example: “John, what are you doing? Is it against the rules? What should you
be doing?”
“No, John, you were calling out answer, that is against our classroom rule, you
must raise your hand to answer questions”.

Instead of questions which increase the chances of confrontation, sometimes

the best approach is to enforce it by statements. This reduces the chances of a
student arguing back against the statements.

Canter’s “Broken Record” (repetition)

This is a clear strategy for clearly communicating across that you will not
participate in any verbal bantering that the student may try to create. The broken
record stops when the student returns to the appropriate behaviour. The teacher
begins by giving a redirection and if the student refuses to comply or becomes
defensive about his behaviour the teacher reiterates the direction.

Example:
Teacher: “John, stop calling out answers and raise your hand if you want to
answer questions.”
John: “But I really know the answer”
Teacher: ‘That’s not the point. Stop calling out answers and raise your hand if
you wish to answer questions”
John: “You let Mabel call out yesterday”
Teacher: ‘That’s not the point. Stop calling out answers and raise your hand if
you want to answer questions.”
Return to lesson.

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 Comply or Face Logical Consequences: (you have a choice)

This technique is aimed to provide the student with an option to make a choice
and in regard to their behaviour. The student can either choose to stop the
unwanted behaviour or face the consequences that the teacher has decided
(Brophy, 1988). Once the teacher makes this statement they must follow
through with it if the student misbehaves or the students may assume they can
get away with poor behaviour. This should be used when non-verbal and verbal
interventions have not succeeded. (Brophy, 1988)

(Figure 9): Jenny from Manage that class utilizes this well with Vulcan who is
misbehaving.
Jenny: “Vulcan, I am going to give you a choice. You can put this back
(plasticine) and follow my instructions, or I will take it away and you have to
watch everyone else do the prac class”

Figure 9: Image taken from “Manage that class” where Jenny is tacking a
misbehaving student.

WORD COUNT:

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Bibliography
Brophy, J. E., 1988. Educating Teachers About Managing Classrooms and Students. Teaching and
Teacher Education, 4(1), pp. 1-18.

Cowley, S., 2006. Getting the Buggers To Behave. London: Continuum International Publishing.

Foley, J., 1993. Scaffolding. Key Concepts In ELT, 48(1), pp. 101-102.

Glasser, W., 1969. Schools without Failure. New York: Harper & Row.

Levin, J. & Nolan, J. F., 2005. What Every Teacher should know about Classroom Management.
s.l.:Pearson Education Inc.

Marsh, A. E. & Marsh, H., 2003. Academic Resilience and the Four C's: Confidence, Control,
Composure and Commitment. Sydney Australia: University of Western Sydney.

Matthews, R., 2018. Teaching the Diverse Classroom: Motivation Lecture. [Online]
Available at: University Of Adelaide
[Accessed 2018 8 20].

Osiris Educational , 2012. Youtube: Dr Bill Rogers - Establishing trust to enable classroom co-
operation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r351z1MqL10
[Accessed 2 10 2018].

Psychology and Society, 2016. Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation. [Online]
Available at: http://www.psychologyandsociety.com/motivation.html
[Accessed 2 10 2018].

Rinne, C., 1984. Attention: Fundamentals of Classroom Control. Columbus: OH: Merrill.

Skinner, M. E., 2010. All Joking Aside: Five Reasons to use Humour in the classroom. 76 pp.19-21 ed.
s.l.:The Education Digest.

Teachers TV, 2007. Manage that Class- Jenny, s.l.: Teachfind.com.

Teachers TV, 2007. Teaching With Bayley: Attention Seekers, s.l.: Teacher TV.

Teachers TV, n.d. Teaching With Bailey-Praise and Preperation. s.l.:Teachers TV.

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