Working to improve classroom climate and pupil behaviour

This chapter discusses a clear grasp of the range and complexity of factors that influence classroom climate. It provides an awareness of ideas and research evidence relating to classroom climate and pupil behaviour. Classroom management, and the ability to ‘run a room’, are major elements of the teaching and learning process, impacting on pupil attainment, pupil motivation and engagement, and the quality of teachers’ working lives. Variations in classroom climate are also one of the most important causes of inequality of educational opportunity in England. Classroom climate might be thought of as a continuum. At one end are classrooms where all the pupils are under the relaxed and assured control of the teacher, with the teacher able to undertake any form of lesson activity without concern. Deficits in classroom climate can influence not just the learning outcomes of the lesson, but the ways in which the teacher plans the lesson, sometimes resorting to defensive ‘teaching for control’ strategies.