Reflection On Positivity In The Classroom

Despite the ephemeral nature of education theory and teacher training, one aspect of theory and training that remains constant is a focus on developing as a reflective practitioner (Loughran, 2002). This may in part be due to the belief that reflection and learning are intrinsically linked. Boud et al. (1985) summarise this link and write that “reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning”. I believe that the daily, weekly, and termly opportunities to implement change based on past experience that teaching offers is the reason that it lends itself so well to learning through reflection. It is …show more content…
Ming-tak and Wai-shing (2008) argue that “there is no single best way to manage classroom; and no one model or theory can address the great variety of circumstances and difficulties teachers encounter”. It is for this reason that I will focus my reflections on the effectiveness of positivity in behaviour management and look at strategies under this wide ranging area that may be useful to deploy to my own circumstances and difficulties.

I decided to focus my reflections on positivity in the classroom after beginning to see the effectiveness of praising more positive behaviour than punishing negative behaviour with a particular Year 7 class of mine. There are others, such as Grundy and Blandford (1999), who recognise “the need for education institutions to develop a culture for positive behaviour”. …show more content…
To reach a conclusion I will assess the most recent Ofsted report (2014), the Behaviour Policy (2015) and my own reflections on my experience of Academy A. Though the latest Ofsted report (2014) does not explicitly refer to positivity when evaluating Academy A’s behaviour management, there is a sense of positivity reflected in the report. They describe it as a “rapidly improving academy” (Ofsted, 2014) where the Headteacher has “drive, determination and high expectations”. I agree that, from my experience, Academy A has an air of positivity towards its continual improvement. Furthermore, I believe that the behaviour policy shows that Academy A directs this positivity to behaviour and classroom management. In the statement of their behaviour policy, Academy A states that they “hope that by encouraging positive behaviour patterns it can promote good relationships throughout the Academy built upon trust and understanding” (Academy A, 2016: See Appendix 1). From this we can conclude that - in theory - creating a positive culture is at the forefront of Academy A’s policy on classroom management. Positivity is also embedded in to the consequences system that Academy A enforces. Rather than harsh sanctions to those misbehaving, the policy gives students the choice and opportunity to