Latest Research

There have been a number of useful publications from various sources in the last couple of weeks, so today's post is simply a brief roundup of all the reports that users of this site may find interesting:

• The National Literacy Trust has just published a report by the Boys' Reading Commission, which investigates why boys' reading skills often lags behind girls'. You can access the full report here, and a summary of the background research is also available.

•  Those interested in outdoor learning may want to take a look at a new publication entitled The Outdoor Environment: How can our Children Learn to Care About their Futures?

•  The latest report on child poverty is from Save the Children and is entitled Ending Child Poverty: The Importance of Income in Measuring and Tackling Child Poverty.

•  The DfE has released it's latest batch of monthly publications - among the highlights are:

          Exploring the Flexibility of the Free Entitlement to Early Education: Research among Parents
          The Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on Seven Year Olds and their Families
          Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents 2010 (despite the title, it is new!
          Pupil Behaviour in Schools in England

New from DfE

A brief mention of two research reports recently published by the Department for Education:

• How is Parenting Style Related to Child Antisocial Behaviour? is a short(ish) report from the ongoing Helping Children Achieve study. It certainly covers a topic that I've had a lot of enquiries about in recent months.

• A Profile of Pupil Exclusions in England is a detailed study of which pupils are excluded from school, and the reasons why.

Best Behaviour

The Policy Exchange think tank has recently published Best Behaviour: School Discipline, Intervention and Exclusion. This is a report which proposes new discipline and exclusion policies to protect pupils whose education may be harmed by the misbehaviour of other children, as well as taking a broader view of the issue of discipline in schools.

Behaviour and Discipline in Schools

Another post for those of you who have been asking about behaviour management in recent weeks... The House of Commons Education Committee has just published a new report investigating behaviour and discipline in schools. The committee focused on a number of areas, including how to support positive behaviour, the nature of challenging behaviour, and how to involve parents and carers in managing their children's behaviour.

To read the full text of Behaviour and Discipline in Schools, click here. Don't forget that you can read previous posts on this issue by clicking on the 'Behaviour' link in the Hot Topics menu on the right-hand side of this page. The TeachingExpertise site also has a collection of articles on this topic.

Maintaining Classroom Discipline

It's retro film time again... While digging out some information on behaviour management in the classroom, I came across the little gem which you can view below. It's a US video from 1947 entitled Maintaining Classroom Discipline. But if you think that it has little relevance to modern teaching you may be surprised - when the video was uploaded to the Behaviour4Learning website, the site managers discovered that it quickly became one of the most popular items on the site - click here to learn more.

Positivity in Practice

While dealing with a recent enquiry I came across a new(ish) report from the NFER which may be of interest to some readers. Positivity in Practice: Approaches to Improving Perceptions of Young People and their Involvement in Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour is a response to previous research which has highlighted negative attitudes towards young people, and examines how local authorities are seeking to tackle this issue.

Classroom Management

If you've been out on placement or are shortly starting one, then you may want to take a look at an article in yesterday's Guardian. Entitled How to Manage Behaviour in the Classroom, it's a simple list of ten practical tips for use when working with children. See how many you already know, and perhaps you can also pick up one or two new bits of advice.

Sir Alan Steer's Behaviour Review

No doubting the big story in education over the last couple of days - the publication of Sir Alan Steer's review of pupil behaviour issues, entitled Learning Behaviour: Lessons Learned. Altogether the report makes 47 recommendations for improving behaviour within schools, although so far the report has met with a mixed response from teachers.

Perhaps it's appropriate that yesterday also saw the publication of new guidance for teachers on dealing with cyberbullying. More information on this topic can also be found from a dedicated section on the Digital Citizenship website.

Behaviour Review

Since December 2007 Sir Alan Steer has been carrying out a review of school discipline and pupil behaviour. While this is still ongoing, a new interim report from the project explores the links between school policies, behavioural standards and school behaviour and attendance partnerships.

The report ties on closely with the latest set of official statistics on pupil absence, which have been published today. You can access these here.

DCSF reports

There is always plenty of new research and reports being published in the Childhood and Early Years sectors, but lately there seems to have been a particularly large amount of new information being made available, so the posts for today and tomorrow will be a jumble of 'bits and bobs' to fit them all in. Today's blog entry will cover several reports from the DCSF which have just been released.

• Primary Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL): Evaluation of Small Group Work is a report on the national SEAL programme, which was introduced in primary schools to improve children's behaviour and attendance. The study suggests that the programme has had little or no effect on pupil's behaviour.
• On behalf of the DSCF, the EPPE Project has delivered its final report on the primary phase of its Pre-school, School and Family Influences on Children’s Development during Key Stage 2 (Age 7-11) project.
• Anyone with an interest in teaching should find Beginner Teachers’ Experiences of Initial Teacher Preparation, Induction and Early Professional Development: A Review of Literature very useful as a source of further reading
• The role of men in childcare is an area which seems to have attracted interest in the last couple of years, so A Review of How Fathers Can be Better Recognised and Supported Through DCSF Policy should interest those of you with an interest in this topic. This previous post also contains suggestions for further reading.
• Finally, The Impact of Parental Involvement on Children’s Education is a short review of practice in this area.

A Mixed Bag

Need some reading for the weekend? Once again the latest issue of the OnTheWeb newsletter (see this previous post for details of this excellent service) has come up trumps, so without further ado, here are some of the highlights from the latest issue...

• Aspirations: The Views of Foster Children and their Carers is a detailed examination of the fostering experience from the viewpoints of all people who are involved are in the process
• Practitioners’ Perspectives on Child Poverty is a new piece of research from the DCSF
• Students from all courses should be interested in the latest annual National Survey of Parents and Children, which has a strong emphasis on family life
• For a survey of how teacher's regard pupil behaviour, click here
• Promoting Take-Up of Formal Childcare Among Low-Income Families is a new report from the DCSF
• The Housing and Neighbourhood Impact of Britain’s Changing Ethnic Mix is a brief round-up of evidence from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
• Enquiring Minds: Schools, Knowledge & Educational Change is the latest report in a series exploring notions of student-centred learning
• Social Exclusion and gang culture are two of the themes explored in Young People and Territoriality in British Cities
• Gathering Evidence of the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Young People: a Scoping Exercise has been produced by the University of Bedfordshire
• Health-led Parenting Interventions in Pregnancy and Early Years aims to contribute to the development of the Child Health Promotion Programme
• Use of Alcohol among Children and Young People is a very detailed look at an issue that has received much media coverage in recent years
• Learning mentors may be interested in a new report from Ofsted: Good Practice in Re-engaging Disaffected and Reluctant Students in Secondary Schools
• Ofsted are also responsible for Learning Outside the Classroom: How Far should you Go?
• Finally, the Trust for the Study of Adolesence (TSA) has issued a new report entitled The Needs and Experiences of Parents of Young People who have Mental Health Difficulties

Happy reading!

Rounding Up The Reports

Friday feels like a good day to round up some of the reports which have recently been published but not yet featured on the blog, so hopefully there'll be something for everyone in today's post. The educationalists among you have two documents to choose from - Effective Teaching and Learning for Pupils in Low Attaining Groups has been published by the DCSF, while What Role for the Three Rs? Progress and Attainment During Primary School is a new report from the Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning. This new publication builds on the work of an earlier report entitled Development in the Early Years: Its Importance for School Performance and Adult Outcomes, which students may also find useful.

Also new from the DCSF is Youth Inclusion and Support Panels: Preventing Crime and Antisocial Behaviour, which examines the support services available to children aged 8-13 who are considered to be at 'high risk' of offending and antisocial behaviour.

It's been gratifying to note that since teaching began at the start of this week, the number of people viewing this blog has rocketed. Hopefully you're all finding the information here useful, and are making use of the links / archives at the side of the page as well. If you'd like to offer any feedback or suggestions on how the blog can be improved then feel free to email me or leave a comment on any of the posts - for instructions on how to do this, click here.

School Discipline & Pupil Behaviour

Today sees the publication of new guidelines for schools on discipline and pupil behaviour; the guidelines recommend that teachers should aim to praise pupils far more than they criticise them, although some critics are not impressed with what they regard as a "softly softly" approach.

Recent research on children's behaviour has been plentiful; if you have an interest in this topic then you may be interested in the GTCE report Improving Pupils' Behaviour through Multi-Agency Working. Also relevant are two DfES reports from the past three years - Research and Evaluation of the Behaviour Improvement Programme and Improving Children’s Behaviour and Attendance through the Use of Parenting Programmes, while the Behaviour and Attendance website is a useful source of official information.