Rethinking Classroom Behaviour Management: From Managing Behaviour to Building Behaviour Literacy

By Dr. Joseph Tyler

I’ve been working in education for just over 20 years now.

The last decade has largely been in higher education, but earlier in my career, I spent a significant amount of time in schools and alternative provisions, working closely with learners who were often described as “challenging.” Behaviour was not something theoretical in those environments; it was immediate, visible, and, at times, deeply complex.

And like many educators, I spent years focusing on how to manage it.

The Student Who Was “Rude”

There’s one student I often think about.

He had developed a reputation long before I met him. You could hear it in the language used to describe him, disrespectful, argumentative, always talking back. And to be fair, if you observed him in a lesson, you might well have agreed.

I remember watching a fairly ordinary interaction. A teacher gave a straightforward instruction. Within seconds, the student responded sharply, his tone defensive, his words edging into what most would reasonably describe as rudeness. The situation escalated quickly. The teacher responded, as many would, with correction and consequence.

On the surface, it looked like a simple case of poor behaviour.

But later, in a quieter moment, I spoke to him. Not about the behaviour directly, just a conversation.

And he said something that has stayed with me ever since:

“I don’t like being told off in front of everyone… I don’t really know what to say, so I just say something.”

And in that moment, the situation looked very different.

Because what we had all been interpreting as deliberate disrespect began to look more like something else entirely.

Rethinking Behaviour: More Than Just Choice

In education, behaviour is often framed as a matter of choice. Students choose to follow expectations, or they choose not to.

But research suggests the reality is more nuanced.

From the perspective of Albert Bandura (1986), behaviour is shaped through an interaction between personal factors, environment, and action. Similarly, within the field of Positive Behaviour Support, behaviour is understood as functional—serving a purpose, often as a response to a situation or need (Carr et al., 2002).

In other words, behaviour is not simply something students decide to do, it is something they are often trying to manage, in real time, with the tools they currently have.

And sometimes, those tools are limited.

Managing Behaviour vs Designing for Behaviour

Much of teacher training quite rightly focuses on managing behaviour.

This includes responding to disruption, setting boundaries, and applying consequences. These strategies are essential. Classrooms require structure, and teachers must be able to act decisively when needed.

But managing behaviour is, by its nature, reactive. It happens after the behaviour has already occurred.

What we talk about far less, but arguably need to focus on more, is designing for behaviour.

Designing for behaviour is about what happens before the moment of disruption. It is about how we structure learning, how we communicate expectations, how we establish routines, and how we anticipate where things might go wrong.

Research into classroom management consistently shows that proactive approaches, clear routines, well-structured tasks, and strong teacher-student relationships are more effective in reducing disruption than reactive strategies alone (Evertson and Weinstein, 2006; Education Endowment Foundation, 2019).

This suggests something quite important:

Behaviour is not separate from teaching, it is a product of it.

The Missing Piece: Behaviour Literacy

But even this is only part of the picture.

Because there is something else we need to consider—something that is often overlooked in discussions of behaviour.

Behaviour literacy.

Behaviour literacy is the ability to not only understand expectations, but to enact them in real situations. It involves interpreting what is happening, managing emotional responses, and choosing appropriate actions, often under pressure.

And this is where the earlier example becomes important.

That student knew the rules. He understood what was expected.

But in that moment, he did not know how to respond differently. This is not unusual.

Research into self-regulation and emotional intelligence highlights that behaviour depends not only on knowledge, but on the ability to manage emotions and make decisions in context (Daniel Goleman, 1995). Students may know what they should do, but lack the behavioural repertoire to do it when it matters most.

Behaviour as a Skill

If we accept this, then behaviour begins to look less like a compliance issue and more like a skills issue.

And that changes everything.

Because we would never expect students to write an essay, solve an equation, or analyse a text without teaching them how to do it. Yet with behaviour, we often assume that knowing the expectation is enough.

In reality, students may need explicit support with:

• how to respond when they are confused

• how to manage frustration

• how to participate appropriately

• how to recover from mistakes

These are not just expectations; they are competencies.

Implications for Teaching

This is not about removing consequences or lowering standards. Managing behaviour remains an essential part of teaching.

But it does suggest that we need to rebalance our approach.

• Managing behaviour deals with the moment

• Designing for behaviour shapes the conditions

• Behaviour literacy develops the capability

Together, these form a more complete picture.

A Final Reflection

Over time, I’ve found myself asking a slightly different question.

Not:

“How do I manage this behaviour?”

But:

“Have I designed this environment in a way that makes success likely, and have I taught students what to do when it matters most?”

Because if students are expected to behave in particular ways, then we must ensure they are equipped to do so.

And that requires more than rules.

It requires teaching.

References

Bandura, A. (1986) Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

Carr, E.G., Dunlap, G., Horner, R.H., Koegel, R.L., Turnbull, A.P., Sailor, W., Anderson, J., Albin, R.W., Koegel, L.K. and Fox, L. (2002) ‘Positive Behavior Support: Evolution of an applied science’, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 4(1), pp. 4–16.

Education Endowment Foundation (2019) Improving Behaviour in Schools. London: EEF.

Evertson, C.M. and Weinstein, C.S. (2006) Handbook of Classroom Management. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Goleman, D. (1995) Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.