Creating a Positive Learning Environment

1. Establishing Positive Relationships • Advantages of Positive Relationships • Enhances effectiveness of a teacher as a role model • Students are more willing to accept feedback. • Students are more likely to give their best effort. • Praise and compliments are more meaningful. Positive Behavior Support In Secondary Schools: Guiding Principles and Evidence-Based PracticesK. Richard Young, Lynnette Christensen, & Paul Caldarella Creating a Positive Learning Environment Why adult behavior matters Environments can be punishing or reinforcing, consistent or unpredictable. The way in which educators combine these elements can make teaching more or less effective. Learning occurs best in environments that are positive, warm, safe and predictable. Relationship Bank Every time you interact with a student, you have the opportunity to make a deposit in your account by behaving in a way that shows care and respect or make a withdrawal by behaving in a way that is hurtful

2. Fostering Student Self-Management • Reinforcing Appropriate Behavior • The combination of teaching and reinforcing positive behavior is the most powerful way of helping students learn to behave within boundaries established by the faculty. • Purposes of Effective Praise • Builds relationships • Teaches and clarifies expectations • Reinforces students for practicing and mastering positive behavior • Increases competence and confidence • General vs. Effective Praise Nurturing Pedagogy • Teaching Appropriate Behavior • After establishing high expectations it is necessary to directly teach positive social emotional skills and routines. • To be considered socially competent a student must be capable not only of using the social skills but of using the skills in appropriate contexts . . . with the right people, in the right place, at the right time. • Direct teaching • Name and describe the skill. • Give a rationale for why the skill is important. • Model the social skill for students. • Have students practice the skill several times. • Give feedback and praise. • Provide opportunities to practice the skills in natural settings. • Establishing High Expectations for Appropriate Behavior • Creating and teaching high expectations for positive behavior is fundamental to student success. • Students who are striving to meet high expectations are less likely to misbehave. • Expectations need to be: • Clear and specific • Challenge learners at appropriate levels • Directly taught, encouraged and positively reinforced. • Definition of Self-management: • A behavior management system that helps to reduce academic and/or social behavior problems, while shifting the responsibility of managing behavior from the teacher to the student. • Strategies that a person uses to alter his/her behavior • Self-management is: • Key to social competence • An integral part of school success and future accomplishment in life • Helps in the acquisition and maintenance of positive social behavior • http://education.byu.edu • richard_young@byu.edu • paul_caldarella@byu.edu • lynnette_christensen@byu.edu General Praise “Good Job!” “Thanks for doing that.” “You are smart.” Effective Praise “Good Job! This was a very creative short story with great characters.” “I appreciate the way you cleaned off your desk quickly when I asked you.” “You are smart. I’m impressed with how you’ve improved. You completed all the problems accurately.”