Ans: B4L equips a teacher fully to draw a student’s strong connection with the curriculum, self and others. Teaching and learning is reciprocal if facilitated by appropriate behavioral circumstances.Learners can never learn in a restricted environment. To make them think out of the box ,different activities related  to curriculum need must be designed .These learning activities can be effective if a teacher knows behavior management strategies .The children who are unwilling to learn or have specific issues related to topic must be handled and many theoretical theories aid a teacher in this regard(Powell, S, Tod, J, 2004).The drawback is this that teachers may not be able to achieve all learning outcomes in class while dealing with these issues.It will result in low grades of performance indicators for a teacher when he/she will be observed in class.Using B4L strategy will create friendly and enjoyable environment but those who have no such behavioral  issues will find it a hindrance in their learning . 

Ans: An important key in developing artificial intelligence is to provide students opportunities or to enable them to improve their behavior for learning on their own (Goleman, 1996 cited in Capel, Leask & Turner 2009, p.141).This can be possible if teachers will work on the  students’ relationship of self, curriculum and others right from the beginning. The behavioral issues must be addressed and handled immediately  and must be aligned to school policy and national policy of behavior management. This theoretical model clearly justifies the need of learner to thrive in a better learning environment. However,it is difficult to draw borderlines specially when we discuss school policies and different situations which occur with different individuals.

1.      Discuss the similarities and differences between B4L, SDT & EFS in your sub-groups. Note them down and see which framework is appropriate for your theme emerging from your 4 CIs.

Ans: B4L identifies the link between students social conduct and behavior and the way in which they learn. This is a theoretical framework which provides support to new teachers to maintain a progressive learning environment in class by handling behavioral issues intelligently. Executive Function Skills direct us towards a set of skills which are fundamental to build the foundation for a skilled workforce, a responsible community, and a thriving economy. It provides information that how a teacher should consider a child for inculcating learning behavior and which systematic and biological processes are involved  in behavior development.B4L and SDT will help to develop EFS .Many factors such as self control, motivation and autonomy are common in these frameworks.According to the theme of  my CIs which is collaboration ,I will pick the relevant information from these three.

B4L helps me to understand the behavior of a learner but it cannot state what is running in a child’s mind.

B4L talks about rewards and sanctions but the students who could not get any reward get demotivated and assume favoritism from teacher’s side. I experienced that some students who are very confident, energetic and get good marks in their tests cannot perform as they were expected.

Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) tells me three strategies proactive, reactive and implementations and their sub headings support me how to influence students’ behavior.

·         It proposes detailed recommendations to differentiate problematic behaviours from ideal learning behaviours in a classroom environment. 

·         Through its trilateral relationship theory, with self, others and curriculum, it almost touches all the aspects of classroom management.

·         It offers strategies to ‘teach’ ideal learning behaviour at different age levels in the classroom. 

·         It does not co-relate teaching B4L to teaching strategies. 

·         It focuses mainly on extrinsic motivation to promote B4L.  

·         The three pronged relations, cognitive, self and others, are over lapping and are thus repetitive to a newly joined teacher. 

·         It portrays B4L to be as strictly supervised. 

It is a closed theory and does not instigate NJTs to explore the complicated multi-level depths of human psychology. 

b)      The framework has very few references of the work done by the other authors. More referencing is required to help understand work done by others and improve our understanding.   

c)       I can find alternative viewpoints from the policies of other local and international schools, journals and published articles available on the internet. Improving behavior report provides good recommendations that can help in improving students’ learning behavior and directing them towards set targeted goals of the school management. 

As a new teacher B4L theoretical framework allows me to deal with the challenges of student engagement and motivation towards learning. It helps me to analyse the unpicked incident from three relationship perspectives towards learning. The relationship with self, guides me to analyse pupil’s behaviour at a micro level. The relationship with curriculum allows me as s teacher to address a learner’s individual need or niche in building a positive relationship to improve the learning curve. Finally, relationship with others, guides me about both one on one relationship (teacher and student) and also the ability of a learner to work towards a combined goal.

 

The drawback is that the three are closely interlinked and dealing with one particular relationship needs to be worked with others, that results in time consumption. The efficacy of the analysis leading to new strategies might not be always applicable to a whole class every time.  

b)      How would you critique this theoretical model?

The major critique for B4L framework is that it argues that schools are providing an environment in which outside factors should not impact the disposition and skills of a learner. The question here is if behaviors vary in learners, it might mean that behaviors cannot be absolute and isolating external factors not classroom learning remains a grey area. The framework identifies generalized behaviors and mentions whole class strategies for self efficacy which might not be easily understood by the learner it is intended for. Therefore there are other theories such as Self Determination Theory and Executive Functioning Skills. In light of this the school policies for B4L need to be revised yearly with unique behavioral challenges brought up by learners in a classroom environment. 

As a teacher I have found the following benefits of behavior for learning theory keeping in view my teaching context:

·It focuses on relationships. Ellis and Tod emphasize that good teaching is rooted in relationships.

 

·  It enables me to understand that relationship with self, others, and with the curriculum, develops or enhances multiple other factors and skills amongst learners i.e. confidence,, improved emotions and self-esteem, social skills, willingness to collaborate within the group situation, intrinsic motivation, cognitive skills etc. These skills will ultimately develop a learner into a more responsible, reflective human being with good communication and social skills. 

 

·  This approach focuses on developing positive learning behavior among learners. To develop this positive behavior, I feel that I have to opt for deep-down research into a particular behavior that is not desirable. I have to be reflective and through dialogue and close observations of that peculiar behavior, I have to find out the rationale.

·  I have gathered from B4L approach that the three relationships of B4L model help a teacher devise strategies that will help him in managing the changed behaviour of his particular student. For instance, if a learner is not performing well academically, the teacher can evaluate his progress on regular basis and can come up with strategies of reward and praise to boost his confidence and encourage him to perform well by looking into his relationship with self and then with the curriculum. This can be done by raising his self-esteem through motivation and praise.

·         I have understood that the B4L approach conveys that the behavior is the problem, not the person.

·         At times teacher’s own behavior can impact learners’ behavior towards learning.

·         In B4L framework, the teacher is often seen as a manager and the pupil as the managed. It seems that the learner is a passive receiver of the teacher’s management techniques, rather than an active participant. 

·         I could not find any guidance as to how to build relationships with and between pupils that can guarantee improvement in behavior. 

The framework stresses on the importance of three core relationships that affect the learner’s behaviour.  As a trainee teacher I find the framework quite relatable as it is based on learner’s behaviour and how it could be made more productive by giving a set of examples of characteristics that characterize a learning classroom. 

The framework does not talk in detail about the implications of other factors that may affect the learning behaviour like ethnic diversity or classroom interactions. Here it goes for a more generalized approach. 

Moreover. I feel that it does not give a link or hint to the challenges that a new teacher might face while developing the addressed learning behaviours may be because. 

The conflict in using remarks. At first, this theory explains the importance of using reward and punishment as motivational factors. On the other hand, it says that these rewards can take away the students of independence, which can make them less interested in competing with their peers. Consequently, this aspect can negatively influence their learning. Therefore, it made me think about whether to use positive and negative remarks or avoid them.

a)       What may be the benefits and drawbacks of using this framework as a new teacher?

As a new teacher, I have chosen “Behavior for Learning” as my behavioral framework. My reason to choose this framework is that it leads to the development of ‘learning behaviors’. I believe these learning behaviors are the most important part of the B4L framework and their development is directly inclined by emotional, social and cognitive aspects. I can use this framework to recognize learning behaviors I wish to develop in my students and what influences these behaviors have on children. To understand these impacts, this framework permits me to develop suitable action plans to encourage positive learning behaviors (Ellis & Tod, 2009). It also provides me the guidelines of actions to be considered in certain circumstances and I admit that behaviors need to be learnt and high quality teaching and learning includes B4L.

 

I believe one of the drawbacks of B4L is that it creates friendly environment which sometimes becomes hurdle in the learning of those students who do not have such behavioral issues. In my teaching, B4L does not guide me to opt the strategy which fulfil the requirement of specific behavioral condition, although this framework promotes relationships and the strategies to improve it. I found that to promote B4L, it mainly focus on extrinsic motivation. As a new teacher, it may lead me to opt inappropriate decisions due to the impact of less “relationship with self”.

 

 

b)  How would you critique this theoretical model? 

Relationship with self, relationship with others and relationship with the curriculum (Ellis & Tod, 2009:54), are the three important relationships that promote the behavior for learning. As a teacher, this theoretical framework clearly helps me out to validate the need of a learner to excel in a better learning environment. However, Powell and Tod (2004:6) believe that learning behavior can be defined by the following behaviors: “engagement; collaboration; participation; communication; motivation; independent activity; responsiveness; self-regard; self-esteem; responsibility; disruptiveness; disaffection and problems”. 

 

Well, sometimes being a teacher, I believe that all the strategies of B4L do not help me to cater all the students in a same way and even a strategy appears unfruitful. The three main relations, cognitive, self and others, are repetitive for me and I found them intersecting which can bring difficulty in my understanding and teaching. For example, relationship with others allows students to interact socially and academically with others around them and develop confidence and build positive relationship. Adams (2009) believes that group interaction differ from regular interaction to a superficial interaction but they show impact on us. (Adams, 2009). As a teacher I believe that it may become difficult for me to choose the right strategy according to the behavior need of the student as this strategy will not be fruitful to the introvert students who always feel shy in public speaking and do not want to interact socially.

 

 

c)  Where can I find alternative viewpoints?

According to my study, B4L is a closed theory that does not allow to navigate complex multi-level stages of human psychology. As an opposing ideology, this theory focuses on observable and measurable behaviors rather than emotional behaviors as it does not consider feelings and emotions. It does not deal with the impact of rewards or punishment

I personally believe that behavior for learning framework helps in improving behavior in schools. I will be applying this framework to bring fruitful results in learning behavior and environment in my classroom. This framework will provide me support to maintain a progressive learning environment by dealing with behavioral issues positively and help me to apply strategies for ideal teaching. 

There are alternative viewpoints which I believe can have better approach towards students’ learning in a positive class environment. As a teacher, it will help me to understand school and national policies, school ethos, community, family, more challenging behavior and promote personal style, self- management and reflection on my teaching- learning environment.

 

 

B4L also caters to the behaviour needed for learning but there is a difficulty imposing it to handle different and unique behaviours that are usually experienced by teachers in a class. So there is a need to improve or revise this theory regularly to cover more aspects of a variety of behaviours as there could be different reasons for the different display of behavior and everyone cannot be handled in a similar way so in the future if we come across some new challenge then we will have to handle it in the more generalised way.
When motivation is increases it results into engagement which then helps in getting success.

B$L framework has provided guidance towards effective and non-effective praise however, it does not provide detailed knowledge about the strategies to apply to different behavior issues that occur in class, which will obviously push me towards searching for other resource material.

In the B4L framework balancing three types of relationships at the same time is quite challenging with pupils of different thoughts and backgrounds.

Improving behavior in school guidance report is providing further information on how to improve the behavior of the pupils to support learning in the classroom. I would definitely work on using classroom management strategies to support good classroom behavior consistently to promote learning.

It also offers opportunities to teachers for self-assessment in-depth, to reflect upon their pedagogies critically and to move forward in the right direction towards facilitating their pupils on the right path during learning.

Limitations:

Appreciating pupils with rewards often can compromise pupils' self-esteem.

B4L reflects upon pupils to develop their behaviour passively while teachers work actively.

Therefore B4L is a well-elaborated book that offers me to look in-depth at many behaviour issues. It will also enable me to channel their energies in the right way to the extent possible in a disrupting class situation.