Developing your personal philosophy of classroom

management
John De Nobile
School of Education, Macquarie University
With adaptations by Roberto H Parada, School of Education, Western Sydney University

This resource consists of a series of linked activities chapter-by-chapter to the De Nobile et

al 2017 course text Positive learning environments: Creating and maintaining productive
classrooms. These activities enable you to progressively work on and develop your own
philosophy, plan and style of classroom management.

A classroom philosophy, simply put, is a statement of what you believe about how to best
manage a class and how you will go about achieving that vision. This resource will help you
build it bit by bit. Complete the activities linked to each chapter of the text and by the end
of chapter 10 you should be able to bring your work together to form your classroom
philosophy.

FINAL PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY FOR ASSESSMENT 2

Insert in the box below your final personal philosophy (max 1000 words).

My personal philosophy is greatly influenced by the wellbeing of my students. This

became extremely evident during my professional placement at Kingswood Highschool, a

school that has in the past had a reputation for poorly behaved students and for being a

bit rough. In the lead up to my Placement I was forewarned about the type of experience I

may have and was told that it would make me a better teacher. I went into the

experience expecting the worst. My experience there could not have been further from

the expectations I had been led to believe.

The first thing I learnt that has shaped my philosophy is that you need to enter a

school free from any outside influences, reputations and expectations. Because the reality

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 of the school could be very different and entering a school preparing for the worst is

doing both you and your students a disservice. After a few observations of my mentor

teacher and some others within the HISE faculty I soon came to view behaviour

management and student wellbeing as one in the same. I saw that the greatest and most

effective classroom management skill a teacher had at their disposal was having a strong

and meaningful rapport with their students. This has become a core attribute to my

philosophy and was a key area that I tried to build upon during my placement.

Thinking back to my own schooling that ended close to 8 years ago, the teachers

that I believe had the greatest impact on my life were those that were passionate,

encouraged me to achieve, were creative and had a bit of fun, and above all

demonstrated kindness, respect, understanding and empathy for my experiences and

struggles during my adolescence. These attributes are found in teachers who have a high

emotional intelligence. Which Salovey and Mayer (1990) describe as the ability to

recognise one’s own emotions and an awareness of other’s emotions. Teachers who

possess these attributes can use the emotional information they perceive from their

students and in turn shape how they interact and guide their students.

My philosophy has also been greatly influenced by how I structure and set out my

classroom climate. Throughout the semester we have discussed how we should view and

address challenges we will face in the classroom. I have concluded that the classroom is a

very fluid and ill structured environment that can be disrupted by a full range of factors

from the surrounding school climate and the larger community. Therefore, I have come to

see classroom climate as something that creates consistency and structure for students

through routine, rules and expectations, consequences and through a sense of

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 connectedness. These are characteristics I believe create a positive learning environment

and one that I found worked for my students during my placement. This was because

students had an environment in which they felt comfortable to express themselves and

learnt to understand and respect the position of others within the school. Another part of

my philosophy is the establishing of classroom rules and expectations. These will be

determined through the values and moral code of both myself and my students as to have

significance and relevance to their experiences in life and at school.

A major influence in my personal philosophy surrounding behaviour management

strategies has been the role of social emotional learning. Zins et. al. (2007) argues that SEL

provides students with the skills to improve not only their academic success but also their

life outcomes. Likewise, Cohen (2006) highlights how important SEL is in guiding students

to become empathetic, productive and active members of society. I believe that my

philosophy is also underpinned by Glasser’s choice theory and was very effective tool

during my placement, I also prescribe to Corr’s positive behaviour support system as it is

rooted in satiating student behaviours that are learnt and not just the reflection of

environmental and biological factors. I found that Zirpoli’s arguments regarding the role

of reinforcement and praise in the classroom as a key issue I faced during my placement. I

found that the praise offered by my mentor teacher gave her students the drive to

complete their work and continue their positive behaviours within the classroom.

It is a strong belief of mine that reflexivity and reflection are vital to how I create a

positive learning environment for my students. Reflection shapes the skills and

understandings I have about my classroom and my students and determines how I grow

as a teacher. I have found that reflecting on my own personal beliefs has provided me

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 with a lens into how I relate to my students and how I perceive their actions and life

experiences. I have also found that during my placement reflective processes have been

extremely useful in guiding the structure and content of my lessons. I was able to do this

through ascertaining the feedback I received from my students, their engagement with

the lessons and the formative results I garnered from the responses. The most important

aspect of reflection during my placement was the positive impact establishing a routine

made to the flow and culture of my classroom.

This belief of reflexivity and reflection is also highly relevant to my planning and

programming practices. My learning sequences and lesson plans are rooted in the

reflective processes of The PIR cycle, this process highlights three stages of planning,

implementing and reviewing. Although I have had little experience in applying this

process to a program of my own design, I have had the ability to apply this to the

programs I had been given during my placement. I found that there needs to be a middle

ground in between covering the syllabus content and creating lessons and activities that

stimulate a student intrinsically. I often found during the implementation and review

phases that the lesson plans and resources I created for students needed to be improved

either to make them more engaging, to suit the classroom climate, or to make them more

manageable for the time allotted. From my experiences I found that my most engaging

and effective lessons have been the ones that gave my students as sense of agency and

relevance to their lives.

Word count: 1033 words

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 Acknowledgements
Cohen, J.,. (2006). Social, Emotional, Ethical, and Academic Education: Creating a Climate for
Learning, Participation in Democracy, and Well-Being. Harvard Educational Review, 76(2),
201-237.

Corr, E.,. (n.d.). Positive Behaviour Support .

De Nobile, J., Lyons, G., & Arthur-Kelly., M.,. (2017). Positive Learning Environments. Cengage
Learning Australia Pty Limited.

Glasser, W.,. (n.d.). Choice Theory.

Killu, K. (2008). Developing Effective Behavior Intervention Plans: Suggestions for School
Personnel. Interventions in School and Clinic, 43(3), 140-148. Retrieved April 2018

My views and ideas regarding student wellbeing and classroom management are taken from my
mentor and experiences on Professional Practice 1 at Kingswood Highschool. (2018).

Roberto Parada . (2018). Pedagogy for positive learning environments lectures .

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J.D.,. (1990). Emotional Intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality,
9, 185-211.

Zins, J.E., Bloodworth, M.R., Weissberg, R.P., & Walberg, H.J.,. (2007). The Scientific Base Linking
Social and Emotional Learning to School Success. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL AND
PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSULTATION, 17(2-3), 191-210. doi:10.1080/10474410701413145

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(Week 1) Pedagogy for Positive Learning Environments: A problem based
approach
Reflection of the week’s Lecture, tutorials and readings.
The following activities are designed to get you thinking about your own model of teaching
and classroom management.

1.1 What is a ‘good teacher’? Think about the teachers from your days in primary and
secondary schooling. What qualities did they have that made them ‘good’? Make a list
in the box below.

The teachers who I perceived as good when I was at school were generally the ones who
were passionate about what they were teaching. They encouraged me to achieve the
results I was capable of, they were creative and found interesting ways of looking at a topic
and learning about it. I also remember that the best teachers were the ones who showed
a bit of empathy and understanding when you weren’t doing the right thing or didn’t
complete an assigned task, or you were having a particularly difficult week. They treated
students with respect and a bit of humanity.
Smile, sense of humor, intelligent, approachable, understanding, empathetic, elevated level of
emotional intelligence, reflective, evaluative, reflexive, responsive, engaging, creative, quick
witted, human, instilled a sense of achievement and lofty expectations, forgiving, fair, strong,
funny, driven, involved within the school community,

1.2 Using the what you have learnt about ill structured vs structured problems in relation to
classroom behavior, what do you think are the key considerations when a teacher is
planning their strategy for classroom management? list them below.

The Majority of behavioural problems/challenges are ill structured. All attempts to view
these challenges through the lens of a structured problem lead to you creating
unnecessary boundaries that can exacerbate the challenges at hand. – there needs to be
consistency in your actions, the rules you have, how you implement them and consistency
with the rules of the school as a whole. There should also be fairness and a human
element to how you deal with student behavioural issues including how you handle
specific student situations. Sitting with a student and having a conversation about their
behaviour and how they are feeling and if they need anything is a very effective way of
building trust and a rapport with a student who may need an adult in their life to talk to
and guide them.

1.3 With your responses to the last two activities as a source of ideas, complete the
sentence in the box below.

I believe a positive learning environment is about creating spaces for students that
engage them on both an intrinsic and extrinsic level. One where students feel safe and
feel that they can be themselves. An environment where a student can feel comfortable
in asking the questions they want answered and where they feel connected to not only
the teacher but also with the rest of the class and school as a whole.

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(Week 2) Review of classroom management theories
This week you have been introduced to some theories of behaviour/classroom
management. Your readings (Ch 8 & 9 of the text and De Jong in tutorials) introduced you to
different views on why young people misbehave and particularly what to do about it. Some
of these might have caused you to react in some way, either negatively or positively. Of the
ones you developed a positive feeling about, was there a particular theory that stood out?
Was there a theory or approach that you felt might fit your view of how children should be
treated and how teaching happens? Think about this before responding to the activities.

2.1 In the box below, list the theories that you think are ‘not for you’ under the heading
‘Not me’, and the theories that you think are more favourable under the heading ‘More
like me’.

Not me More like me

 Restorative justice  William Glasser – Choice theory
 Rudolf Dreikur’s – Democratic discipline  Edward Corr – positive behaviour
model support (PBS)
 Ed Fords – Responsible thinking process
 Lee and Marlene Carter – Assertive
Discipline model

2.2 Now take a closer look at the theories you placed in the ‘More like me’ column. Read
the suggested readings provided in this chapter and the online companion. Get to know
the theories more intimately. Use this new knowledge, specifically the key philosophies
behind the theories (or theory), to develop your own statement of belief about the sort
of places classrooms should be. Complete the following sentence and perhaps add
another to accompany it.

I believe classrooms should be places where children take responsibility for their own
actions. Where they are given the chance to make the right choices and see how their
actions impact upon other people.

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(Week 3) Relationships, communication & professional reflexivity
Effective communication is a key component of effective classroom management, and
quality teaching depends on it. The lecture, tutorial readings as well as Ch 2 & 3 of the
textbook describe some very useful skills for dealing with inappropriate student behaviour
in a non-confrontational and positive way. Being aware of non-verbal cues will lead a
teacher to be more sensitive to how their messages are being received as well as how to
send messages and provide feedback more effectively. Active listening allows teachers and
students to interact with minimal interference from underlying emotional factors. I-
messages provide the teacher with a tool to convey to students how their behaviour is
affecting the class in a non-submissive, informative and positive manner.

Teaching philosophies often describe the way a teacher will interact with their students and
this, in turn, provides a window into the classroom climate that a teacher is trying to
establish. The following activities should help you to identify your preferred way of
communicating with the class generally as well as in dealing with inappropriate behaviour.
After completing them you should have a better idea of how your classroom philosophy will
describe your communication style in the classroom.

3.1 Using your readings of the chapters, in particular the Relationships and communication,
Interference, Communication process and Non-verbal communication sections,
complete the sentence in the box below. You might need to add a second or even a
third sentence.

I believe that good communication between teacher and student is vital to a positive
classroom climate because it promotes positive behaviours within the school. Having a
positive and effective communication strategy can facilitate and foster a greater sense of
belonging for students and can provide teachers with the skills needed to pick up on the
messages students are telling us through their body language and how they respond to
our lessons and conversations.

This week you also looked at how personal beliefs can help or hinder in your relationships
and communication with students.

3.2 Briefly outline your understanding of how beliefs can help or hinder your ability to
create positive learning environments:

Teacher personal beliefs affect the way we create Positive Learning Environments by
influencing how we interact with our students. Whether we like it or not it is clear that my
own personal understandings and beliefs will shape how I perceive my students and how
my students perceive me. It is clear however that a teacher’s beliefs should not be a
predominant factor in how they interact with their students because there will be times
that their beliefs will contradict with the actions or personal beliefs of their students and
this should not affect how they feel or help their students.

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Your teaching philosophy should describe how and for what purpose you might engage in a
cycle of professional reflexivity, be it through critical analysis using various perspectives or
an action research model, or both.

3.3 Why should teachers engage in professional reflexivity?. Once you have given this some
thought and done some further reading, complete the following sentence.

I believe professional reflexivity is important to my teaching because it shapes how we

grow as teachers and develop the skills and understandings needed to create inclusive
and caring environments for our students. Reflecting on my own professional beliefs and
conduct has a significant impact on how I go about dealing with students and helping
them through their troubles. This is a wonderful way of determining where your lessons
went well and why they fell apart.

3.4 Having thought up a justification for it, how will you go about engaging in reflection
about your practice in your teaching career? Once you have thought this out, think of
some practical and achievable ways you can engage in professional reflexivity and
complete the next sentence.

As a consequence of this belief, I will reflect on my lessons, how I engage with my

students, how I help my students and my own beliefs. I will seek feedback from my
students, I will make time to reflect on how my practice has impacted on my students
lives and results, setting up a routine for reflection on how much approach to classroom
behaviour and culture is going.

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(Week 4) Classroom organisation and curriculum, assessment and pedagogy
Classroom management is not just about managing behaviour. At the heart of teaching and
learning are the curriculum taught, the pedagogy used and the assessment designed to
measure how well that curriculum was taught and how well the pedagogy worked. This
chapter takes you through these three areas one at a time.

The next part of your teaching philosophy will be about how you will deliver curriculum and
assess student achievement/growth. After reading this chapter, please reflect on the
following:
 What will you take into consideration when planning your teaching program?
 How will you know what to teach and where to start?
 What are the many ways in which your students could demonstrate achievement other
than tests and quizzes?
 What teaching approaches will you use and what philosophical views will your
pedagogies reflect?

4.1 Using the PIR Cycle (see Ch 5 p118) as a stimulus, explain how you will go about
planning your teaching program in the box below.

My teaching program will take into account the three phases of the PIR cycle when
implementing the curriculum within my programming. Firstly, I would implement planning
of the units I will be teaching by deciding what my students need to learn and
determining what syllabus content will help them learn it. Using the syllabus, I will create
the learning sequences that will allow my students to learn as well as through adjusting
my learning approaches to assist with varying student needs. During this phase I will also
find and develop the resources to conduct the lessons for this learning sequence and
work out how much time will be spent on each part of the topics as well as work out how
it will be assessed. During the implementation phase my role as a teacher will be to
facilitate student learning by putting in place the resources, activities and lessons that will
allow my students to achieve the desired outcomes of the syllabus. During this phase I will
be monitoring how students’ progress and assessing what they have learnt through
formative and summative assessments. The last phasing being a reflective phase will
highlight where my plans worked and where they did not. This will allow me to regroup
and replan some areas of my lesson sequences and approaches for future application.

4.2 Pedagogy refers to how you will teach the curriculum. Usually, the type of pedagogy
you implement is influenced by a basic belief about how students best learn. After
considering your pedagogical approach and strategies, complete the sentences below.

I believe that students best learn through their experiences and through content that has
relevance to their lives and creates some sort of agency.

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 Therefore, I will use resources, topics, lessons, activities and ideas that reach students on
a level that provides them with a meaningful purpose, that engages them and helps them
reach their goals in life.

As explained in Chs 3 & 4, there are several dimensions to classroom organisation. Each of
these put together become the manifestation of your classroom culture. Your classroom
culture is, simply put, the way your class operates and incorporates:
 rules and procedures
 organisation of the physical space.

It is now time to think about how your teaching philosophy will describe these two aspects
and explain them in terms of an overarching set of beliefs or approaches. After reading
these chapters, complete the next two activities.

4.3 What values do you hold as important to establishing an orderly, productive and
positive classroom? Answer this question below, then list the key rules/expectations
you think flow naturally from those values and which you want to stress in your class.
Complete the section by explaining how rules and consequences will be established in
your classroom.

The values I hold as imperative to establishing an orderly positive and productive

classroom are: that a classroom should have a clear set of rules based on moral and
ethical values established by both the teacher and the students. These rules should also
be achievable, reasonable and have a purpose with a clear set of fair and relevant
consequences.
These rules will be established through the values students and teachers deem to be
relevant and significant to the classroom. These rules will centre around being respectful,
kind, helpful, punctual, eager to learn and engaged with their school work.
Rules and consequences will be established through group discussions within the class
and then a whole class discussion with the teacher to set the expectations of the
classroom. Consequences will be discussed as a whole class and established to maintain
consistency. Likewise, positive behaviours that will be rewarded will also be discussed and
thus will also have their rewards established in order to establish a positive learning
environment that inspires students to behave and achieve certain goals.
These rewards can be in the form of both merit and other intrinsic rewards as well as
extrinsic rewards including dojo points or class goals that result in a treat or party etc.

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(Week 5 ) Principles of behaviour modification
This week we looked at fundamental aspects of behaviourism and learning (see Ch 6 & 7 of
your text) But also Ziporli from your references in the Learning Guide and Killu your tutorial
reading which provide examples of the application of such theory and research to classroom
management and behaviour change. Important concepts such as reinforcement, functional
purpose of behaviour and behaviour shaping are discussed

5.1 After reading Ziporli and Killu and reflecting on the lecture content what would you add
about aspects of your classroom management that have not been mentioned so far in
your philosophy? Add these in the box below in rough draft form. You can refine them
later.

There are many behaviour management tactics that I have yet to consider the use of
within my classroom practice or the use of within the school community. One such
strategy is that of a behaviour intervention plan (BIP). These plans target a student’s
specific behaviour. These plans require educators to perform a Functional behaviour
assessment, to establish what the target behaviour for the student is and how to achieve
that goal and the establishing the consequences of not conforming to the desired
behaviour. This plan also looks at the antecedent factors that play a role in shaping and
triggering certain student behaviours, highlighting the factors that reinforce certain
behaviours and ensuring that the plan is implemented accurately and consistently.

There is also B.F. Skinner’s Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) which suggests that
behaviours are underpinned by their antecedent conditions and that reinforcers increase
the frequency and intensity of these behaviours and punishers decrease such behaviours
is in many basic classroom management strategies and skills, and often ABA requires
teachers to take not of the factors surrounding behaviours including various antecedents
and then manipulating the situation and environment to avoid unwanted student
behaviours.

Positive behaviour support is a behaviour prevention and intervention system that is

based on the values and preferences of its participants

Zirpoli highlights the role of reinforcement and praise in the classroom as a key
component to getting students to cooperate and work within a classroom

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(Week 6) Applying behaviour modification in schools PBIS
Positive Behaviour Intervention and Support also known as Positive Behaviour Support (see
Text Ch 6 p168) has become an accepted and often implemented part of schooling in NSW.
A key aspect of PBIS is to teach students behavioural expectations.

6.1 Previously (see week 4) you reflected on what your classroom could be like. In the
section below pick 1 expectation (e.g., respect self and others) and list how you will
teach what this expectation looks like, is exemplified by and demonstrated in your
classroom. Give as many examples as you can.

Being kind to and help others:

In a classroom teaching this behavioural expectation would be implemented through the
positive behaviour support system. This system is a whole school approach that aims to
improve student behaviour and sustain it over an extended period of time by tackling
issues that lie beyond the behaviour itself and in other environmental factors including
that of the meso and microsystems. This approach is rooted in the idea that although
some behaviours are reflective of environmental and biological factors, that most
behaviours are learnt and that an appropriate behaviour can also be learnt to combat it.
There are three tiers to this program and they deal with behaviour issues on a hierarchical
scale.
To implement this behaviour in my class room I will engage in activities that provide
students with the correct social and emotional skills to deal with the issues they are facing
and driving these unwanted behaviours. Some of these would include social skills training,
mentoring programs, think time activities, check ins and behaviour cards

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(Week 7) Social Emotional Learning in Schools SEL
Readings: Cohen, J. (2006) & Zins, et al (2007).
Social and Emotional Learning brings your attention to focus efforts on promoting students’
social and emotional competencies. Many leaders in the field underscore the importance of
skills-based teaching and learning to properly address this important facet of teaching the
whole child.
7.1 After reading Cohen and Zin and reflecting on the lecture content what would you add
about aspects of your classroom management that have not been mentioned so far in
your philosophy? Add these in the box below in rough draft form. You can refine them
later.

It is evident that social and emotional learning is a key component to providing students
with the skills and ability to deal with the issues that they face. Social and emotional
learning gives students the skills that not only have lasting impacts on their academic
success but also on their life outcomes, guiding them towards life long learning. SEL is so
important to the success of students because schools are social environments and require
students to develop the skills to interact and work with other students

Cohen argues that social and emotional learning provides students with the ability to
develop empathy the capacity to love and work an become a productive and active
member of society.

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(Weeks 8 & 9) Drafting your personal reflection/philosophy
In the space below cut and paste each of the sections you have completed above and create
a (very) draft version of your personal philosophy

My personal reflection/teaching philosophy (Draft 1)

The teachers who I perceived as good when I was at school were generally the ones who
were passionate about what they were teaching. They encouraged me to achieve the
results I was capable of, they were creative and found interesting ways of looking at a
topic and learning about it. I also remember that the best teachers were the ones who
showed a bit of empathy and understanding when you weren’t doing the right thing or
didn’t complete an assigned task, or you were having a particularly difficult week. They
treated students with respect and a bit of humanity.
Smile, sense of humour, intelligent, approachable, understanding, empathetic, elevated
level of emotional intelligence, reflective, evaluative, reflexive, responsive, engaging,
creative, quick witted, human, instilled a sense of achievement and elevated
expectations, forgiving, fair, strong, funny, driven, involved within the school community,

The Majority of behavioural problems/challenges are ill structured. All attempts to view
these challenges through the lens of a structured problem lead to you creating
unnecessary boundaries that can exacerbate the challenges at hand. – there needs to be
consistency in your actions, the rules you have, how you implement them and consistency
with the rules of the school as a whole. There should also be fairness and a human
element to how you deal with student behavioural issues including how you handle
specific student situations. Sitting with a student and having a conversation about their
behaviour and how they are feeling and if they need anything is a very effective way of
building trust and a rapport with a student who may need an adult in their life to talk to
and guide them.

I believe a positive learning environment is about creating spaces for students that
engage them on both an intrinsic and extrinsic level. One where students feel safe and
feel that they can be themselves. An environment where a student can feel comfortable
in asking the questions they want answered and where they feel connected to not only
the teacher but also with the rest of the class and school as a whole.

I believe classrooms should be places where children take responsibility for their own
actions. Where they are given the chance to make the right choices and see how their
actions impact upon other people.

I believe that effective communication between teacher and student is vital to a positive
classroom climate because it promotes positive behaviours within the school. Having a
positive and effective communication strategy can facilitate and foster a greater sense of
belonging for students and can provide teachers with the skills needed to pick up on the
messages students are telling us through their body language and how they respond to
our lessons and conversations.

Ethan Sais - 17974628

 Teacher personal beliefs affect the way we create Positive Learning Environments by
influencing how we interact with our students. Whether we like it or not it is clear that my
own personal understandings and beliefs will shape how I perceive my students and how
my students perceive me. It is clear however that a teacher’s beliefs should not be a
predominant factor in how they interact with their students because there will be times
that their beliefs will contradict with the actions or personal beliefs of their students and
this should not affect how they feel or help their students.

I believe professional reflexivity is important to my teaching because it shapes how we

grow as teachers and develop the skills and understandings needed to create inclusive
and caring environments for our students. Reflecting on my own professional beliefs and
conduct has a significant impact on how I go about dealing with students and helping
them through their troubles. This is a terrific way of determining where your lessons went
well and why they fell apart.

As a consequence of this belief, I will reflect on my lessons, how I engage with my

students, how I help my students and my own beliefs. I will seek feedback from my
students, I will make time to reflect on how my practice has impacted on my students
lives and results, setting up a routine for reflection on how much approach to classroom
behaviour and culture is going.

My teaching program will take into account the three phases of the PIR cycle when
implementing the curriculum within my programming. Firstly, I would implement planning
of the units I will be teaching by deciding what my students need to learn and
determining what syllabus content will help them learn it. Using the syllabus, I will create
the learning sequences that will allow my students to learn as well as through adjusting
my learning approaches to assist with varying student needs. During this phase I will also
find and develop the resources to conduct the lessons for this learning sequence and
work out how much time will be spent on each part of the topics as well as work out how
it will be assessed. During the implementation phase my role as a teacher will be to
facilitate student learning by putting in place the resources, activities and lessons that will
allow my students to achieve the desired outcomes of the syllabus. During this phase I will
be monitoring how students’ progress and assessing what they have learnt through
formative and summative assessments. The last phasing being a reflective phase will
highlight where my plans worked and where they did not. This will allow me to regroup
and replan some areas of my lesson sequences and approaches for future application.

I believe that students best learn through their experiences and through content that has
relevance to their lives and creates some sort of agency.

Therefore, I will use resources, topics, lessons, activities and ideas that reach students on
a level that provides them with a meaningful purpose, that engages them and helps them
reach their goals in life.

The values I hold as imperative to establishing an orderly positive and productive

classroom are: that a classroom should have a clear set of rules based on moral and
ethical values established by both the teacher and the students. These rules should also

Ethan Sais - 17974628

 be achievable, reasonable and have a purpose with a clear set of fair and relevant
consequences.
These rules will be established through the values students and teachers deem to be
relevant and significant to the classroom. These rules will centre around being respectful,
kind, helpful, punctual, eager to learn and engaged with their school work.
Rules and consequences will be established through group discussions within the class
and then a whole class discussion with the teacher to set the expectations of the
classroom. Consequences will be discussed as a whole class and established to maintain
consistency. Likewise, positive behaviours that will be rewarded will also be discussed and
thus will also have their rewards established in order to establish a positive learning
environment that inspires students to behave and achieve certain goals.
These rewards can be in the form of both merit and other intrinsic rewards as well as
extrinsic rewards including dojo points or class goals that result in a treat or party etc.

There are many behaviour management tactics that I have yet to consider the use of
within my classroom practice or the use of within the school community. One such
strategy is that of a behaviour intervention plan (BIP). These plans target a student’s
specific behaviour. These plans require educators to perform a Functional behaviour
assessment, to establish what the target behaviour for the student is and how to achieve
that goal and the establishing the consequences of not conforming to the desired
behaviour. This plan also looks at the antecedent factors that play a role in shaping and
triggering certain student behaviours, highlighting the factors that reinforce certain
behaviours and ensuring that the plan is implemented accurately and consistently.

There is also B.F. Skinner’s Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) which suggests that
behaviours are underpinned by their antecedent conditions and that reinforcers increase
the frequency and intensity of these behaviours and punishers decrease such behaviours
is in many basic classroom management strategies and skills, and often ABA requires
teachers to take not of the factors surrounding behaviours including various antecedents
and then manipulating the situation and environment to avoid unwanted student
behaviours.

Positive behaviour support is a behaviour prevention and intervention system that is

based on the values and preferences of its participants

Zirpoli highlights the role of reinforcement and praise in the classroom as a key
component to getting students to cooperate and work within a classroom

Being kind to and help others:

In a classroom teaching this behavioural expectation would be implemented through the
positive behaviour support system. This system is a whole school approach that aims to
improve student behaviour and sustain it over a prolonged period of time by tackling
issues that lie beyond the behaviour itself and in other environmental factors including
that of the meso and microsystems. This approach is rooted in the idea that although
some behaviours are reflective of environmental and biological factors, that most
behaviours are learnt and that an appropriate behaviour can also be learnt to combat it.

Ethan Sais - 17974628

 There are three tiers to this program and they deal with behaviour issues on a hierarchical
scale.
To implement this behaviour in my class room I will engage in activities that provide
students with the correct social and emotional skills to deal with the issues they are facing
and driving these unwanted behaviours. Some of these would include social skills training,
mentoring programs, think time activities, check ins and behaviour cards

It is evident that social and emotional learning is a key component to providing students
with the skills and ability to deal with the issues that they face. Social and emotional
learning gives students the skills that not only have lasting impacts on their academic
success but also on their life outcomes, guiding them towards lifelong learning. SEL is so
important to the success of students because schools are social environments and require
students to develop the skills to interact and work with other students

Cohen argues that social and emotional learning provides students with the ability to
develop empathy the capacity to love and work an become a productive and active
member of society.

Ready to roll …
Now, read it to yourself, and start editing to a maximum of 1000 words, it’s time to prepare
your final submission. Look at the Unit Learning Guide rubric and instructions and now write
your own personal reflection and philosophy You have to reflect on what you have learnt
and what you are still to learn. This reflection is an opportunity to provide your own
behaviour management philosophy/model.

Your personal model can be based on your personal experience and any of the theories and
research explored in PPLE or other Units which form part of your course. You need to
appropriately identify and credit these theories which influenced your thinking in relation to
the development of your personal approach within your text. You must provide at the end
(not counted to word limit) an ‘acknowledgement’ section where you may list the
theories/policies/ people that may have influence your model to date.

Into the future!

However, please be aware that your philosophy may well change as you gain experience in
teaching and are exposed to other ideas from your ongoing professional development, your
interactions with peers and other sources of inspiration. It will be an interesting task for you
to go back to this philosophy you have just completed in 10 years’ time and compare it to
the one you have then. Will it have changed much? How have your approaches evolved?
What kind of teacher have you become?

NOW WRITE YOUR FINAL DRAFT OF YOUR PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY (1000

words Max) IN THE SPACE PROVIDED AT THE START OF THIS DOCUMENT!

Ethan Sais - 17974628