How to fix bad behaviour in schools | Tom Bennett

Australian classrooms are some of the worst behaved in the world. The girls are stressed out and the boys are bullied. Chaotic classrooms are, simply put, not environments conducive to learning. No one works well when they are anxious and distracted, our kids least of all.

Tom Bennett Director and founder of ResearchED, in conversation with CIS Education Director Glenn Fahey, discuss how we can make Australian schools more orderly, disciplined and calm.

ResearchED is a grassroots, teacher-led project to help make teachers more research-literate. Tom also serves as an advisor to the UK’s Department of Education, including leading the Department’s Behaviour Hubs project.

Many reasons for poor behaviour and classroom management can be blamed on mistaken ideologies about how children behave in school. Progressive educational philosophies make the work of teachers and parents more difficult than it needs to be. Reclaiming the classroom relies on evidence about what works from research in students’ attention, learning, and the psychology of behaviour.