How can positive recognition change behaviour in classrooms
People will behave in a specific way dependent on the underlying habits and the situational cues. Repeated behaviour becomes a habit and habits evoke automatic actions when stimulated by situations.
“‘habits’ are defined as actions that are triggered automatically in response to contextual cues that have been associated with their performance. They are acquired gradually as people repeatedly respond in a recurring context (e.g., performance settings, action sequences, Wood and Neal, 2007, Wood and Neal, 2009)” (How do habits guide behavior? Perceived and actual triggers of habits in daily life)
To put it simply, if we want to change behaviour we need to build strong habits that achieve a positive outcome. Habits require a reinforcement tool such as Superbly to recognise the positive behaviour and reward it with a positive reinforcement message as close to the time of the behaviour.
What drives habits?
Habits are driven by reward-seeking mechanisms in the brain. They’re often triggered by something specific. For instance, walking past a cafe and smelling coffee beans can trigger you to want a cup. Feeling stressed at work can trigger you to smoke a cigarette. After a while, habits become a repetitive part of your lifestyle.
Here are some examples of habits:
- Brushing your teeth mornings and evenings
- Putting on your seatbelt when you get inside a car
- Drinking a glass of wine when you get home from work
- Eating sugary or salty foods when you’re stressed at work
- Fidgeting with your notebook during a meeting
What’s the difference between habits and routines?
The main difference between a habit and a routine is awareness. Both are regular, repeated actions. But while habits run on autopilot, routines are intentional.
Routines can lead to habits if repeated long enough with positive reward. For a routine to turn into a habit, the behaviour will need to happen with little or no thought. For instance, let’s say you ask your students to line up in 2 lines before they enter the room, if this is repeated every time you have class, one day they will arrive and line up without you reminding them, this is a habit.
To make a positive habit stick it should have context in the form of a routine. Students will react to the reminder every class if the teacher starts the lesson with the same routine of writing the name of the reward system on the board and reminding students they can gain rewards if they act positively.
Note: Some classes react well to writing names of well behaved students on the board under the name of the reward system, however, remember each student is motivated differently so use this method according to the class’s maturity level.
How long does it take to form a habit?
“A study from the European Journal of Social Psychology found an average of 66 days was required to form a habit, with a range between 18 and 254 days.” (How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world)
Forming positive behaviour habits in the classroom
This might seem an obvious process, however, we all fall into old habits if we aren’t focused on the best practices. So here are some simple steps to change the classroom habits.
- Outline a clear goal with the class based around rewarding positive behaviour. This can be simple for example completing classroom work activities or turning up to class on time.
- Explain to them that if they work consistently and achieve the goals they will receive Superbly points (or the name of the school merit system)
- Remind the students every time they enter the room for the class and write on the board the name of the merit system, for example “Supers” (each school can customise the name). Remind the students that you will record the names of students’ behaviouring well and allocate them “Supers” at the end of the lesson.
- At the end of the class send “Supers’ ‘ to all the students who have been behaving well with a message describing what they did well. This will instantly provide feedback and reinforce the positive behaviour. Students will see this on the student app immediately.
- Repeat this every lesson and you’ll see more students will gravitate to this positive behaviour. Over time this will become a habit in the classroom and you’ll have a manageable classroom to teach in.
Implementation of positive recognition across the school
Classroom behaviour can change within the classroom over time with persistent routine and build habits, however, if the positive recognition is reproduced in every classroom across the school the habit of positive behaviour spreads like wildfire.
Superbly can be used as a merit system that filters by year groups, school terms, entire year or faculty. The filtering system makes assigning awards easy and reduces time wasted on allocating awards.
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