Thoughts on Behaviour Management

Thoughts on Behaviour Management in a Group Piano Class

Managing behaviour in our group piano classes is a concern for some of you. And if you have only ever taught 1-1, this concern is totally understandable. In fact even if you are experienced at teaching groups, you may also welcome some thoughts on managing behaviour.

First of all, let’s have a think about what exactly we are managing. I think we need to think about what types of behaviours are most conducive to learning and are the types we want to encourage. 

I have taught a class of 30 kids who were totally silent and didn’t give me anything back. You may think this sounds nice, but believe me, in a music class we need creative energy, engagement, willingness to participate and enthusiasm. And those things aren’t always present when the class are too quiet!!

On the flip side, you also don’t want a class that are too much of these things to the point where their enthusiasm takes over the actual learning process! 

But don’t worry about some noise, some movement (kids are wriggly!!), occasional diversions (kids love to chat!) and having to bring out your teacher look to settle the class down!

When you do need to be concerned is when the behaviour is disrupting the learning. Or when one child is dominating and the others are being impacted.

There may be lots of reasons why the behaviour tips into the undesirable. 

Here are some tips to try to avoid this, and also just for general learning behaviour management to get the best learning out of your students:

• Have a consistent lesson structure from week to week. If students’ experience is fractured and chaotic, their behaviour will be the same. Not only should your structure be consistent but it should be clear that you have particular learning aims that you are expecting them to reach, and you will be checking whether they have (make them achievable of course!!), making them fully involved in their own learning, and accountable.
• Have a mix of activities and always follow ones that could incite excitement/hyperactivity, with calmer ones (so sitting and listening to music can follow movement round the room).
• Always point out things that kids are doing well, making sure that most of what you say in your interactions with them are positive. As soon as you say, “look at the way Leila is sitting so nicely”, you can bet everyone will suddenly sit in the same way as Leila! Same goes for pointing out skills and application of learning points, “look how well Matthew’s finger/wrist is moving on the pickup note”. Again, they will all try and do the same. This is where the power of peer learning comes into its own! Praise effort more than outcome.
• Sportscast your lesson. Describing what we are doing and why, at each stage of the lesson helps students to manage their expectations and know the bigger picture of the smaller tasks that we are doing. 

• Set out your expectations (yes, rules!!) and be consistent in sticking to them. For example my kids know not to touch the piano when I am doing my teacher demonstrating. I am also pretty firm on everyone listening to each other when we are performing solos. Those are just two examples but don’t be afraid to have these standards and maintain them. Yes they are there voluntarily and for fun, but we still need to be the authority and they need to know we have everything under control!

Anything in particular you struggle with? Here are a couple of quick-fire solutions:

For my school classes we are in a big studio and the kids are ever so tempted to break dance and the like, while I am talking! I’m not even joking! I found that PE/Games spots in a circle that they each sit on, and asking them to cross their legs (it really works) help!! But if you have a generally wriggly class make sure you have lots of movement activities planned!

Have an activity that you can suddenly bring out at a moment’s notice should disaster strike (i.e. kids go crazy and you can’t bring them back). There are two things that calm kids immediately: colouring and a story. Have both to hand! Have something that is relevant to the theme/topic so it’s not completely unrelated to what they’re doing!

Essentially, successful behaviour management should be a result of careful planning where everyone’s needs are met – the work is not too easy or too difficult for anyone (so you need to plan for differentiation), different activity types and a well-thought out structure will keep students engaged, and an overarching plan for learning will enable them to clearly see their progress, which will in turn keep them focused and motivated.

One final thought:

It’s so interesting to hear my own children and their friends talking about their teachers. The summary of their thoughts is that they want teachers to have integrity (no sarcasm, falsities or use of humiliation as a discipline tool), be king and caring, to genuinely care about them and their learning, and to smile! My youngest puts everything down to whether a teacher is smiley or not!