Managing Behaviour in the Early Years Classroom: Teaching Children To Be Good - Paperback

by Pam Cuff (Author)

While there may still be those amongst us who pine for the days when you could cane an unruly child, hopefully we now live in more enlightened times and we have learned that physical punishment is not only barbaric, it is also mostly ineffective. Those of us who do remember those days will also remember those who were repeatedly punished and never 'learned their lesson'.So how do we maintain some kind of order and an effective learning environment, when just one disruptive child can cause mayhem and nullify hours of careful lesson planning?While it is often necessary, and even desirable, that there should be some kind of 'punishment' as a consequence of bad behaviour, teaching children to accept responsibility for their actions may be a better approach to improving behaviour - and where better to start this training than in the Early Years classroom?As the title suggests, the book is aimed primarily at Early Years teachers, but the approach it proposes is relevant throughout the primary years. It examines some of the theories which should underpin any attempts to try to develop social awareness in young children, in terms of the cognitive stages which they must go through, and suggests practical ideas for planning and exploiting situations in order to give children the opportunities they need to develop these skillsThis is a revised edition of a booklet I wrote several years ago, so some of the references may seem a little dated (particularly those relating to the National Curriculum), but the issues it raises and the suggestions it offers are as pertinent today as they were when it was first written.