UEA: Pupil's behaviour worsens

6 September 2012, 06:00

Children's behaviour in schools is a bigger problem than previously thought, according to research from the UEA.

The research, that was carried out in more than eighty schools in Norfolk and Suffolk, found that 83% of secondary school teachers has been in lessons in which control was "limited" or worse. 

More than half of student teachers surveyed about their school experiences, as a teacher or a pupil, said that they had often been in a lesson where the teacher was not in complete control of the class. 

The 10 year project carried out by Professor Terry Haydn also found that just under half said they could remember times when it was likely their teacher was "dreading the thought of the lesson", with pupils paying little or no attention to the presence of an adult in the room. 

But Professor Haydn argues that figures on good behaviour from school inspectors may present a misleading picture. He said that Ofsted inspectors may have no choice but to believe that behaviour standards are better due to head teachers doing all they can to minimise bad behaviour during inspections. 

"It should be stressed that there are many schools in the UK where the lower levels of the behaviour scale never occur. But the outcomes of the surveys I have undertaken over the past decade suggest that there would appear to be few schools in the UK where there are no deficits in the working atmosphere in classrooms. 

A second important point to note is that there would appear to be massive variations, both between schools and within individual schools, in terms of behaviour levels prevailing".