On 8 July 2008, Engage held a successful national conference on ‘Establishing Effective Behaviour for Learning’.

Chloe Wardle teaches in a primary school in North London. In this project she demonstrates how she encouraged her Year 6 class to develop thinking skills by using interactive classroom displays.

Graeme Napier, an ICT teacher in a Lancashire comprehensive school, was concerned that while he was able to use the school’s structured system of ‘consequences’ to manage poor behaviour effectively, there was little focus given to students who behaved well.

Louisa Nichols, the head of psychology and teacher in an inner city school, helped her students develop positive attitudes towards learning through a more interactive approach. She wanted to see how far thinking skills activities might be an effective strategy for doing this.

Anna Spruhan, a design and technology teacher at an Essex science college, promoted positive behaviours for learning by exploring her students’ expectations about the help they receive. She used the evidence about expectations of help to develop strategies for more independent learning.

When Colin Hill, a Key Stage 1 teacher, tried to involve his pupils in group work he found that it often ended in conflict. Colin attended two Engage events and used the behaviour for learning research resource to complete a Teacher Learning Academy (TLA) project.

Dominique Spillett, a Year 5 teacher in her first year of teaching at a primary school, was finding the behaviour of one particular boy in her class particularly challenging. At times he ‘switched off’ when he did not like what he was hearing. But there were also times when he was absorbed in a task.

Ruth Gowers, a science teacher in her second year of teaching, was concerned that only a small number of students were returning homework. She wanted her students to understand the role homework plays in their learning.

Colin Hill helped his pupils develop positive attitudes towards learning, and each other, by helping them to develop their skills for effective group work through the use of exploratory talk.

What do effective teachers do to promote pupil learning? The RoM tasters have been developed to get you straight to the evidence and begin to explore how to use it in your practice. Each Taster references the place in the RoM anthology and the original RoM where you can access more research and information, including practice case studies.

Links to resources provided by other national organisations

Use the ’manage your account‘ box at the top of this page to sign up and get the latest news, information and research, and contribute to national policy debates.