Improving behaviour, relationships and learning in our schoolswhat does the international evidence s

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Improving behaviour, relationships and learning
in our schools-what does the international
evidence say we need to do?
Professor Katherine Weare University of
Southampton Skw _at_soton.ac.uk Edinburgh March 2008
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Aims of the presentation - to explore

• Why emotional and social aspects of education are
  now prominent
• International evidence on what works in school
  improvement
• Key principles
• Some balances and tensions

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Personal sources of inspiration and knowledge

• Secondary school teaching
• Programme development in England (e.g SEAL) and
  Europe, including Russia (e.g. Health Promoting
  Schools Mental Health)
• Reviewing international evidence base e.g. for
  EU and DCSF
• Advising EU, DCSF, Welsh and Scottish Assemblies
• Visiting sites of successful SEL work across the
  world

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Why social and emotional education is growing in
importance

• Knowledge explosion/ growth of the internet
  focus on the process of learning and skills, to
  help learners be more flexible and robust
• Accelerating pace of change. breakdown of
  families and social structures more personal
  responsibility, stress, autonomy
• Acceptance of emotion as important e.g. rise of
  emotional intelligence, changing nature of work
• Increasing knowledge about how to shape
  behaviour e,g CBT, positive behaviour management,
  solution focused,
• Failure of education to close the class gap-
  focus on inclusion and behaviour for learning

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New neuroscience - the brain is an emotional organ

• Cerebral cortex - value driven and can only
  process what the limbic system lets in
• Limbic system gatekeeper -responds to what is
  emotionally meaningful/ valued
• Reptilian brain basic survival - all that is
  left to us under stress

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Education needs to attend to social and emotional
learning because.

• It is central to learning and good behaviour
• We are ready to learn and behave well when we
  feel safe, valued
• We think about/ process what we feel good about.
• Learn better when alert but relaxed, focused,
  sense of flow
• Its for everyone e.g. gives brighter pupils an
  edge, helps staff feel more motivated, and
  perform better

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Changing view of social and emotional education

• Modern view
• Everyone including adults
• Everywhere e.g. secondary schools, workplaces
• All of us, including without problems(?)
• Positives e.g. wellness, growth, strengths,
• Central to educational goals learning and
  behaviour

• Traditional view
• For young children
• Responsibility of the home
• For special needs/ those with problems
• Trouble shooting/ prevention
• Bolt on extra/low status activity

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Some sources of quality programmes and sound
research world wide

• US Social and Emotional Learning - thousands
  of programmes at district level. 20 pass
  systematic review
• Australia - Health Promoting Schools,
  Resilience
• Europe coping skills, mental health, Health
  Promoting Schools, anti-bullying
• UK Some adapted US programmes (Paths, Penn
  Resilience), Some home grown (SEAL, Being Cool in
  School)

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Relevant work is taking place under many
different terms, e.g.

• emotional literacy

• resilience

• school effectiveness

• mental health

• emotional wellbeing

• Confidence

• leadership

• social skills

• behaviour improvement

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All the evidence shows that we cannot separate
out efforts to promote.
Emotional wellbeing
Confident individuals
Effective contributors
Responsible citizens
Successful learners
Good behaviour
Relationships
And that good schools can promote all of them
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Given time - well designed and effective
programmes can affect

• Behaviour
• Crime and Violence
• Attendance
• Exclusion
• Cultural and racial understanding
• Teacher retention, performance and morale
• Mental health problems - anxiety, depression,
  stress

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Some effective programmes which pass systematic
review

• PATHS (Promoting Effective Thinking Strategies
  (US now Worldwide)
• Second Step (US now World Wide)
• Penn Resilience (US now World Wide)
• Child Development Project (California)
• Seattle social development project
• Social decision making (New Jersey)
• Friends (Australia)
• Tri-ministry study (Canada)
• Anti-bullying (Norway)
• Stress reduction/ relaxation (Germany)

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Some programmes also impact on learning e.g.

• Paths thinking skills, problem solving,
  reading
• Child Development Project reading, maths,
  social studies, science
• Social decision making maths, modern languages,
  arts, social studies
• Resolving conflict creatively maths
• Primary SEAL reading and science

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Theory and evidence
• Whole school approach
• Positive and balanced school environments
• Effective leadership
• Universal and targeted approaches
• Explicit learning of skills
• Involving parents
• Tailoring approaches to the setting
• Staff training and development

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Sound theory and demonstrated evidence

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Good evaluation design involves

• Clear aims
• Designing before the approach starts
• Baseline data collection
• Sufficient numbers
• Controls - or at least before and after
• Allow time for change to happen
• Involve a credible research agency

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Good evaluation is also people friendly

• Involves people in the whole process
• Keeps it as simple as possible
• Integrates with existing monitoring processes
  where possible
• Uses a range of quantitative and qualitative
  methods
• Uses data to improve the process, not label
  individuals

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Whole school approach

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A whole school includes
Staff development Management Leadership Policies
Curriculum and Methods Pupil support Pupil
involvement
School climate, ethos and environment
Community Parents Agencies Health Boards
Special needs Targeted approaches
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Characteristics of an effective holistic/ whole
school approach

• Planned
• Starts small
• Long term
• Developmental
• Consistent, coherent, coordinated, congruent
• E.g.The motivated school, Health Promoting
  School

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Integrate your approaches into mainstream
activity e.g.

• Solution Oriented Approaches
• The Motivated School
• Social and Emotional Learning Frameworks
  Restorative Practices
• Being Cool in School
• Nurture
• Emotional literacy
• Inclusion for pupils with social, emotional or
  behavioural difficulties
• Teaching and learning

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Creating positive and balanced environments, in
  and around schools

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The key features of effective environments

• Clarity e.g. rules and boundaries
• Autonomy e.g. respect, independence
• Relationships e.g. warmth, listening
• Participation e.g. belonging, ownership

CARP?
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Creating good relationships

• Warmth/ belonging/ valuing
• Interaction, cooperation
• Teaching social skills
• Focusing on positives/ rewards rather than
  punishments and sanctions
• Creating fun, humour
• Zero tolerance of bullying, violence also
  sarcasm, belittling
• E.g. Circle Time, emotional literacy work

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• Teamwork - pupils, staff, parents, community,
  agencies, government etc
• Involvement, engagement, ownership takes time
  and consultation
• Valuing equity, inclusion, diversity
• Creating open and transparent/ shared goals,
  values
• E.g. Peer learning, restorative approaches

Creating real participation
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Clarity involves

• Being explicit
• Being consistent
• Having clear aims
• Strategic planning
• Creating a sense of safety
• Strong boundaries, rules, roles
• High standards, expectations
• Positive discipline

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Creating clarity

• Positive leadership senior staff present around
  the school
• Careful management of transitions
• Creating clear and consistent policies,
  procedures, consequences, rewards and sanctions
  and ground rules
• Effective staff training in behaviour management
• Being explicit about what behaviour is expected -
  and teaching it
• Including social and emotional objectives in
  lessons
• E.g. Staged intervention

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Autonomy, means

• Self determination/ independence
• Having control
• Having personal responsibility
• Encouraging critical awareness and expression
• Allowing real choices, decision making
• Giving real life rewards and consequences

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Increasing autonomy

• Teaching for critical thinking skills, reflection
• Pupil voice, engagement and responsibility
• Focusing discipline on rewards, choices and
  consequences
• Allowing schools to make their own judgments
• E.g. Solution oriented

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Getting the balance

• Clarity only cold, rigid environment
• Relationships only laissez faire
• Relationships clarity participation
  coercion, brainwashing
• Relationships participation autonomy
  confusing diversity
• Need all 4 features to balance
• The right balance changes over time, context
  etc

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Effective leadership

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Effective leadership

• Shared/ at many levels
• Explicitly articulates the schools vision
• Leads from the front models the skills/ walks
  the talk
• Takes time for own development
• Consultative
• Decisive
• Visible

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Provide a broad universal provision of work on
  social and emotional learning
• Plus targeted help for those with problems

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Universal approach more helpful for those with
problems than targeted alone

• Less stigmatising
• Problems are widespread, on a continuum,
  connected
• Same processes which help everyone help those
  with problems more not different
• Provides educated critical mass of people to
  help those with problems
• But also need targeted and early interventions

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Targeting special needs/ vulnerable pupils

• Early identification
• Intense work along the mainstream lines
• Small groups with the same problem if not too
  severe
• Use mixed ability topic focused groups e.g.
  self esteem, anger management, behaviour recovery
  
• One to one work e.g. anxiety, depression, suicide
  prevention
• E.g. Nurture

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Involving parents

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Working with parents

• Home/school contracts
• Parenting programmes
• Positive, proactive approach
• Recognise parental anxieties
• Use variety of outreach methods meetings,
  leaflets etc

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Sound teaching and learning - including explicit
  teaching of skills

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Sound teaching and learning

• Needs school wide policies and agreed practice
• Based on skilled classroom management
• Varied and flexible learning methods
• Integrates work on social and emotional learning

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Explicitly learning social and emotional skills
and values

• Start with staff
• Be explicit
• Empower, not coerce
• Use diverse methods
• Use the principles of skill learning
  generalisation, coaching, feedback,
• Monitored - to improve learning

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Examples of core skills- for students and staff

• Self understanding accurate self concept
• Understanding and managing the emotions
  including stress and relaxation
• Motivation optimism, resilience, planning
• Social skills
• Empathy

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Use all the learning opportunities in and around
schools
Out of classroom e.g. assemblies, sports days,
trips and visits, School council
Teaching and learning Curriculum
Whole school - ethos, atmosphere, policies etc
Staff development Coaching, modelling
Special needs Pupil support
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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches

• Tailoring approaches to the setting

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e.g. Secondary school context, need to focus on
the positives

• Challenges
• Size impersonality
• Subject rather than child focus
• Increase in problem behaviour
• Exam orientation

• Assets
• Size diversity
• Opportunities offered by subjects
• Greater range of staff strengths
• Links with world of work
• Student involvement

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e.g Secondary SEAL

• Built on primary SEAL, international evidence,
  and pilot
• Whole school approach
• 50 contrasting pilot
• Using diverse models of implementation
• Successful evaluation by Ofsted
• Web based materials
• Now integrating into new secondary curriculum

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The key principles/ ingredients of effective
approaches- which underlie secondary SEAL

• Staff training and development

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Supporting overstretched staff

• Vital as modelling is the key to improvement
• Provide explicit teacher education on the
  approaches - and monitor results
• Develop specific skills e.g. positive classroom
  management
• Integrate new approaches with existing activity
• Develop staff capacity, flexibility
• Take change slowly
• Link with professional development e.g training,
  coaching, mentoring

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Emotional and social learning is central to all
schools