When a teacher's having problems managing behaviour in the classroom some action has to be taken to remedy the situation.

I don't really like being asked to observe teachers' lessons when problems with kids' behaviour have been identified. You may think it's no big deal and on the surface you may be right. But when you delve a little deeper there are issues involved that aren't apparent on the surface...

What issues? Well, think about the reason someone is asked in to observe a teacher's class...

Maybe they're a student and observations are part of their training. Maybe a lesson observation could be part of a teacher's professional development. Or teachers may be observed so they can gain promotion or increase their teacher status. But, none of these reasons apply when there's a problem with behaviour.

The reason the teacher has to be observed is that they've got a problem with their behaviour management skills. They're in deep behaviour management water! Not a comfortable place to be!

And I really don't like this part of the job very much. Why?

The reason is that the person being observed is in trouble -- they know it too. The powers that be in the school also know. It begs the question why nothing is done about these problems before it gets to crisis level... That's probably because so many people in schools don't know what to say to a teacher who's having these problems... It's fairly typical of what happens in these cases.

School management tend to hide their heads in the sand with plenty of talking about the problems amongst themselves, sometimes telling the struggling teacher that they're not doing the job right, but offering little or no constructive advice to set them back on the right track... Sometimes they just moan about a teacher's inadequacies behind their backs... Not very pleasant -- or professional!

It's clear that the teacher who's being observed is suffering a great deal and suffering sky high anxiety levels -- they're stressed and often at the end of their tether, sometimes ready to leave their job.

They're expecting to be criticised... They've pretty well accepted that the situation is dire, so what else can they expect? It's an unpleasant thing to do, to observe someone who's at their weakest and most vulnerable point and then to criticise their efforts! They know it's all gone pear shaped but they don't need their face rubbing in it, do they?

Teachers in this position are shot at! They've had it! Their confidence levels are at rock bottom! It's not hard to imagine how you would feel when you know you're getting something so badly wrong and you don't know what to do about it. But, on a daily basis these teachers are forced back to face those who have consistently taken control from them in the classroom...

As you can see, it's not a good place for either the observer or the teacher to be... But, hopefully over time one can learn to give bad news in an acceptable way! It has to be done -- but in a form that enables confidence to be rebuilt. The teacher should be offered effective strategies (ammunition?) that they can use to get them back on the right behaviour management track. And sometimes all this can be achieved surprisingly easily!

So, this teacher had to be told what was wrong -- that's fairly obvious. But, more importantly he had to be told what he could do to put things right. There's no point just telling someone that they're not doing something right -- they've got to know what action to take to improve behaviour... Otherwise only half the job's been done!

The behaviour in this teacher's class wasn't good, with lots of low level disruption happening most of the time -- not a lot of learning going on.

But, the teacher cheered up when he realised that fairly subtle changes in his approach will improve the situation. This is quite common -- quite often the changes the adults have to make in their own behaviour in order to get better behaviour from children are fairly minor. This isn't always the case but quite frequently it is... But, follow good advice, use it consistently and changes in classroom behaviour will be seen immediately. It helps enormously if the advice is from someone who can effectively manage behaviour themselves! That seems pretty obvious but it's surprising how many 'experts' offer advice that they couldn't demonstrate in front of a class!

Effectively managing children's classroom behaviour isn't difficult -- anyone can learn behaviour management strategies that work time after time with any children you come across.

Do you need help to improve children's behaviour in your school or classroom? Liz Marsden is a highly experienced and successful behaviour management expert who works with children demonstrating extreme behaviour in school and at home. Visit http://www.behaviourbible.com where you can access Behaviour Bible and learn Liz's strategies and techniques. Follow her easy to follow advice and become more confident and effective when dealing with children's behaviour. Liz follows her own advice every day with amazing results.