Promoting Positive Behaviours for Learning

Classroom management is about more than keeping order. It’s about building positive relationships, setting clear expectations, and creating a culture where students feel safe and motivated to learn.

This guide covers practical strategies for promoting positive behaviours for learning, backed by research and classroom experience. Whether you’re an experienced teacher or just starting out, these approaches will help you establish a supportive classroom culture that boosts engagement and achievement.

Understanding Behaviour in the Learning Environment

Before applying behaviour strategies, it’s important to understand why unwanted behaviours happen. Well-planned, engaging lessons help reduce low-level disruption, but other factors also play a key role:

• Engagement with the subject: Are students interested and confident?
• Classroom relationships: How well do students relate to each other and to you?
• External factors: Are they dealing with stress or outside pressures?
• Brain development: Research by Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore shows teenagers are still developing impulse control and understanding of consequences.

When teachers shift from trying to “fix behaviour” to anticipating student needs, classrooms naturally become calmer and more focused.

The Three Key Relationships for Learning

Ellis and Todd (2009) highlight three critical relationships that shape behaviour:

• Relationship with Self: Confidence, motivation, responsibility.
• Relationship with the Curriculum: Engagement, focus, self-monitoring.
• Relationship with Others: Positive interactions, teamwork, respect for group norms.

Teachers also need to reflect on their own relationship with learning. Your confidence, subject knowledge, enthusiasm, and resilience all impact classroom behaviour.

4 Core Strategies for Promoting Positive Behaviours

1. Clear Expectations

Students need to know what is expected of them. Expectations should be:

• Clear and simple
• Consistent across lessons
• Framed positively (“Do this…” rather than “Don’t do that…”)

Clarity helps students meet expectations without second guessing what teachers want.

2. Consistency

Paul Dix argues, “Culture smashes strategy every time.” When teachers apply rules inconsistently, students test boundaries. Agreeing shared rules within your department and sticking to them builds fairness and trust.

3. Positive Intent

Always respond to behaviour with calmness and a focus on learning:

• Assume students want to do well
• Praise effort, not just results
• Avoid public put-downs or sarcasm
• View behaviour as communication, not personality

This helps students self-regulate and stay motivated.

4. Sanctions (When Needed)

Use sanctions thoughtfully:

• Start with low-level responses (eye contact, proximity)
• Use choices and reminders before applying consequences
• Always reconnect after any sanction, so students know every lesson is a fresh start

Final Thought

Managing behaviour well isn’t about control—it’s about setting students up to succeed. When expectations are clear, staff are consistent, and responses are rooted in positivity, the classroom becomes a place where students feel safe to focus, engage, and achieve.

Every lesson is a new opportunity to strengthen relationships and build a learning culture that benefits every student.