Effective Support Strategies for Learners

Effective classrooms have a positive and purposeful atmosphere, where students and teachers feel valued, and work together in a supportive and safe environment. The effective classroom is one where students learn, and teachers help them to do so without spending much of their time managing 'problem' or 'difficult' behaviour. However, this is not an easy task, and at one time or another teachers may experience difficulty in maintaining a harmonious working environment. The main focus of this chapter is to explore ways of establishing and sustaining a purposeful, working atmosphere in the classroom. Behaviour management and maintaining discipline is clearly a concern for teachers when seeking to establish themselves in a new school context or with a new class, even for those who have plenty of successful experience. For short-term supply teachers, the challenge is increased by the number of different classes they may encounter on a daily or weekly basis. There is no shortage of advice in relation to behaviour management and there are marked differences of opinion across the teaching profession about behaviour and discipline in schools. What is certain is that there is no 'right' way to manage all situations.

The learning climate you create is crucial. Students are affected not only by the physical environment which surrounds them, but also by your own expectations and attitudes. Remember that small things matter.

ICT must become an integral and natural part of the learning process.

Ð'* ICT is used to improve access to learning for pupils with a diverse range of individual needs, including those with SEN and disabilities

Ð'* ICT is used as a tool for whole-school improvement

Ð'* ICT is used to enable learning to take place more easily beyond the bounds of the formal school organisation and outside the school day

Ð'* ICT capabilities are developed as key skills essential for participation in today's society and economy.

There is physiological evidence that although stress may initially galvanise humans for action, it interferes with thinking. The difference for the learner is between what can be defined as anxiety-provoking stress and what can be defined as commitment-engaging challenge

Ð'* a task perceived as involving a reasonable demand of knowledge, skill and effort is