Agree the toolkit

Hey 👋

Hope you’ve been having fun teaching behaviour and thinking upstream. Now to wrap up this series…

Big idea 🍉

One of the most reliable ways to achieve great behaviour for learning is through the development of a shared ‘pedagogical toolkit’ (a recurring feature of the most effective schools I work with). This typically demands 3 levels of consensus:

1. Committing to using a shared toolkit

2. Agreeing what tools to include (and exclude)

3. Codifying (and practicing) exactly how to use them

Why is a shared toolkit so powerful?

Firstly, when we run the same routines—such as how to call for silence, or orchestrate a classroom discussion—across multiple classrooms, students automate those routines waaay faster (which makes things much easier for new teachers).

Secondly, when we run the same routines across multiple classrooms, ‘norm’ effects across your school are waaay stronger (which makes students feel like they belong more).

Thirdly, it’s more equitable.

This is why the classic advice of ‘co-constructing rules and routines with your class’ is so pernicious... it dilutes school-wide norms, destabilises routines, and generates frustration (due to varying expectations between classrooms).

The fewer tools we agree to include in our toolkit, the quicker they can be mastered and the more skilled everyone can get at using them. And the more precise we our in our codification (exactly what to do, what to say, what to expect), the more powerful the overall effect.

Now, does all this reduce autonomy? Well, it depends how we see our role and what we value more... doing things our own way or student learning & colleague workload.

🎓 For more, see this paper on the fundamental units of behavioural influence, and for the ultimate customisable toolkit, check out the fandabulous Steplab.

Summary

• A shared ‘pedagogical toolkit’ can be a powerful thing.

• It entails agreeing to a limited suite of tools, and how you’ll use them.

• Achieving alignment across staff has the potential to help your students learn more and your colleagues lives easier.

Little updates 🥕

• Study exploring school attendance patterns → finds that absences are significantly higher on Fridays, especially in deprived areas.

• Review of school-based mental health initiatives → argues they offer limited benefits, face implementation challenges, and may unintentionally cause harm through poor targeting and over-diagnosis.

• Meta-analysis of visualisation in math(s) teaching → suggests it improves learning (with both analog and digital tools being equally effective).

• Plus a short video by the genius Chris Such on key ideas that teachers (and parents/carers) need to know about reading development.

Empower Peps & evidence up your school → TELL ME ABOUT SNACKS PRO