Using Research-informed Teaching to Support Behaviour Management in FE

There are many books offering practical advice to further education (FE) based teachers about managing disruptive behaviour; less is known about the FE-based research undertaken into this important issue. This chapter looks at how FE-based research on behaviour management can support teachers’ professional learning and inform their practice; it is organised into seven sections. The first introduces Stenhouse’s concept of research as a basis for teaching. The second provides an overview of FE-based research on disruptive behaviour since 1988. The third is a case study of the largest study of behaviour management in FE and considers how it might inform practice and further research. The fourth uses the concept of ‘mapping’ to identify ‘blank spaces’ on the FE-based research ‘map’ of behaviour management. The fifth presents a case study of Marzano, Marzano and Pickering’s meta-analysis of four behaviour management strategies including teacher ‘withitness, the most effective. The sixth suggests three methodologies – action research, self-study, and supported experiments - that might be used to study FE-based behaviour management. The chapter concludes by claiming that research should not only create new knowledge but make the places where we teach better spaces to learn and practise in.