New research highlights barriers to alternative behaviour approaches in schools

A new research paper in the Psychology of Education Review has explored the reasons that schools do not employ alternative behaviour approaches within settings. The qualitative study involving 84 behaviour units, a focus group of 14 school leaders and interviews with teachers in systems with different approaches to discipline, found that cost, time and resource constraints were the main barriers to implementing a new behaviour system. The research carried out by Dr Laura Oxley comes on the back of the statistics showing that 1,500 students are excluded and 148,000 suspended for persistent disruptive behaviour. The research shows that even when a school sees that a pupil, despite multiple punishments, continues their behaviour, there is not impetus to try something different.

While alternative behaviour approaches such as ‘Restorative Practice’ or ‘Collaborative and Proactive Solutions’ have yielded positive results, they are not widely employed within schools. Many leaders feared that a culture change such as these would add additional burdens to already overwhelmed staff. The study highlighted that there is also insufficient promotion of alternative methods within government guidance to schools, which promotes the sanctions-based approach. It also recommends that providing adequate funding and time for staff to understand the techniques and why there is a need for change. At nasen we know that pupils with SEN are disproportionately within the statistics above for exclusion and suspensions, employing reasonable adjustments to behaviour policies may be a way forward to supporting more pupils to remain in school.