Jeremy Swinson

Natural rates of approval and disapproval in British infant, junior and secondary classrooms.

BACKGROUND Investigations in the 1970s showed, amongst other findings, teachers giving more disapproval than approval to their pupils. In the late 1980s, different investigators, whilst concurring with other findings, found approval rates to be higher than disapproval at all school levels, an important finding in view of the number of investigations which have shown the positive value to pupils of contingent verbal approval and the negative or ineffective value of disapproval. AIMS We aimed to examine teacher approval and disapproval a further ten years later and unlike previous investigations, which used classroom observers, to utilise a permanent method of recording. The permanent recording was partly to facilitate precision of recording and partly to enable a more complex analysis of data than had previously been achieved. SAMPLES Participants were 10 infant school teachers, 10 junior school teachers and 10 secondary school teachers. METHODS The teachers taught their classes whilst wearing radio microphones. The tape recordings of the lessons were systematically observed using eight defined categories of behaviour. Category definitions were initially established by two independent observers who attained a level of above 80% agreement. Analyses of the data were both within group and between groups. RESULTS Findings were generally in line with those of the investigations of the 1980s. Aspects not previously investigated included findings that approval was given predominantly to pupils working individually rather than in groups, that redirection (a teacher response following disapproval which describes an approved behaviour) was markedly lower in secondary schools than in junior and infant schools, whilst redirection occurred at about the same rate in junior and infant schools. CONCLUSIONS That the results for approval and disapproval rates agree with those of the 1980s in which differing methodologies were used in different school systems is encouraging evidence that teachers are using appropriate verbal responses to their pupils. Some of the more detailed results of the investigation do, however, indicate areas for concern.

A mass observation study of student and teacher behaviour in British primary classrooms

A large scale observational study by educational psychologists of 141 UK primary classrooms used a partial interval time‐sampling observational schedule to record the frequency and type of verbal behaviour of teachers and whether students were “on‐task” (following the teacher’s directions) or “off‐task” (not following the teacher’s directions). Results were analysed and comparisons made between lessons that followed National Literacy Strategy or Numeracy guidelines and those that did not; between schools from different geographical contexts, e.g. rural or inner‐city; between classes where there was one, or more than one, adult present; between schools with different percentages of free school meals; and between a.m. and p.m. lessons. A range of findings included higher rates of students being on‐task than found by previous studies, and correlations between high on‐task rates and teachers who used high levels of verbal behaviour including positive academic feedback. Teachers used three times more verbal approval for desired social behaviour in the classroom than has been reported in previous studies. It was found that teachers verbally interacted more with students during National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy lessons but that this did not lead to statistically significantly higher on‐task rate. Similarly, teachers in inner‐city schools interacted more with students, but on‐task rates in inner‐city schools were not significantly higher. Reasons for this effect are discussed.

Including Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties Pupils in a Mainstream Comprehensive: A study of the behaviour of pupils and classes

A group of twelve pupils from an emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) school were transferred to a mainstream comprehensive school. They were supported by a specialist teacher and two Educational Support Assistants. The behaviour of the pupils was monitored. The behaviour of the EBD pupils was found to be very similar to that of the other pupils in the school. Only two of the EBD boys showed behaviour significantly worse than their peers. On the whole, the EBD pupils behaved extremely well in well-run classes, but their behaviour deteriorated in less well-organised lessons. Their behaviour tended to decline over the course of the school day, and the behaviour of all the pupils in the school was shown to be worse for the last period of the day. The implications of this research on the whole concept of EBD is discussed, as is the role, attitudes and practice of both teachers and educational psychologists.

Working with a secondary school to improve social relationships, pupil behaviour, motivation and learning

This paper gives an account of a project undertaken by a multidisciplinary team, which included an educational psychologist, advisory teacher and behaviour consultant, to help revise and improve a schools behaviour policy and practice. At the onset, the team spent a great deal of time consulting with the teachers, parents but, above all, the students. These consultations included not only staff and class meetings but also a number of questionnaires derived from previous research. These consultations were augmented by a series of classroom observations. The students in particular provided great insight into why the original school system was so ineffective, and it was largely on the basis of their insight that a new system was devised. The paper describes the new behavioural policy and practice and the way it was introduced to the school. The success of the new system was assessed in terms of responses of teachers, parents and pupils, the effect that the new policy had on classroom behaviour, social relationships within the school, exclusions, attendance and GCSE results. The reasons for the success of the project will be discussed in relation to the recent work of Hattie into the most effective school‐based interventions.

The behavioural approach in schools: a time for caution revisited

This paper takes as its starting point an examination of the current status of some of the concerns that were raised in the mid‐1980s about methodological problems faced by educational researchers using the behavioural approach in schools. These concerns included the measurement of agreement between observers, the interpretation of raw data extracted, the potential influences of observers and the inherent properties of research designs. Subsequently, some more wide‐ranging concerns are considered, in particular the kinds of behaviour selected for treatment, the lack of analysis of what is involved in teachers’ positive responses to pupils’ behaviour and the relatively uninvestigated effects of teachers’ negative responses. The conclusions are presented as a series of points that are listed, as far as possible, in the order in which they confront the investigator.

Teacher Talk Directed to Boys and Girls and Its Relationship to Their Behaviour.

There have been a number of investigations into the extent to which teachers in the primary school interact within their classrooms with boys and girls and the results of these investigations have differed considerably, some showing boys receiving more interaction than girls and others showing no differences. The aim of this investigation was to try and clarify matters by examining specific categories of teacher verbal behaviour and by including a measure of the quantity and pattern of the off‐task behaviour of the boys and girls. Data were collected from 18 teachers and their pupils in junior school classrooms. The results showed that the boys received more overall verbal communication than the girls in those categories concerned with approbation and disapprobation and that the boys were also less on‐task overall than the girls. There were also marked differences between the boys and the girls in their patterns of off‐task behaviour.

Comparison of Teacher Talk Directed to Boys and Girls and Its Relationship to Their Behaviour in Secondary and Primary Schools.

There have been a number of earlier investigations, using differing methodologies, into the extent to which teachers in the secondary school interact with boys and girls and the results have suggested an imbalance in the teachers’ verbal behaviour towards the genders that is quite similar to the imbalance found in teachers’ behaviour in the primary school. The main aim of this study was to devise an investigation using the same methodology as that used in a recent primary school investigation in order to be able to make a fair comparison between the two levels. The results showed considerable differences in the teachers’ verbal behaviour towards the genders in the secondary school from that of teachers in the primary school. Where the primary school data showed teachers interacting more with the boys than the girls and the boys being less on‐task than the girls, the secondary school data showed no such differences.

The AQ scores of school-age children referred to educational psychologists

Abstract The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scale was designed to detect the level and distribution of autistic-like traits across both the general population and those diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Condition. Scores in the large normative samples were consistent with previous research in showing a continuous distribution of traits, implying that the Autism Spectrum might be viewed as one pole of an endless continuum rather than a distinct categorical condition. The preliminary research reported in this article looked at AQ levels in 75 random referrals to educational psychologists and identified a significantly elevated mean score with a large effect size (d = 1.46). The possible implications for practice and for further research are discussed.

Classroom-based research and evidence-based practice

I agree with the editors in this regard and would not want to direct any particular group of readers away from their book. Perspectives were in general explored in a straightforward way, and the book seemed to me to be very successful in highlighting a wide range of potentially important challenges to narrow, lazy and unduly orthodox ways of thinking about the variable nature of the human condition in modern societies. As an educational psychologist working in England, I was most struck by Baker and Walsh’s work (Chapter nine) on, “The Level-of-Functioning Arguments in Autism-related Political Discourse in Canada”. I found the reference here to the rise of an “educational autism” category in the United States to be of particular interest given the nature of my own day-to-day experiences in mainstream schools in the UK.