Positive motivation rather than control will achieve so much more with our students.
What concerns me most about education is the apparent desire so many people have for control. That somehow the more we control staff and children, the more they will do what is expected, achieve their full potential or do their job. But exerting control never works in the long term. My current husband loves a history podcast when we are driving anywhere. Whenever it’s about a dictator there’s always a pattern. Get to the top, worry about staying at the top, exert massive control, get overthrown. Now I’m not saying schools are dictatorships before anyone does a twitter virtue signalling type response. I’m saying why are we obsessed with control rather than postitive motivation and inspiration.
Why are schools exerting excessive control on uniforms despite there being no evidence that having a shoe made out of leather rather than fabric enhances learning. I’m not saying get rid of school uniform (that’s a whole other debate) but I am saying flexible uniform options are much better, specifically for girls, poor families, religious and ethnic minorities and gender diverse students.
It seems that we then want to control behaviour to the nth degree (I was expecting nth to come up on spellchecker, but it appears it’s ok). We expect children to adhere to archaic rules that education staff themselves are not able to stick to – as someone who regularly trains education staff, I see this often. There is a wealth of data proving that strict behaviour management policies don’t work and are actually discriminating against protected characteristics under The Equality Act 2010. Trust me, more legislation will be coming to education around this.
If children don’t attend school, we use punitive punishments such as fines and court threats to control children and parents. Again, these have been proven not to work.
I feel the need to say here that I’m not saying we should allow children to misbehave or be absent from school as that’s often something thrown at me. What I’m asking is; “What is the end goal?”. Is it to positively change behaviours and improve learning or just to punish and control in the belief that this will stop the behaviours?
I worked with someone once who said that students only misbehaved because he hadn’t found out the severest consequence to stop them misbehaving yet. I did remark that prisons are full of people for whom that policy doesn’t work so I’m not sure how doing it with children will be any different. I am aware of a school that was ‘turned around’ by a new Headteacher with the introduction of stricter rules. However, what was actually achieved was the off-loading of the ‘undesirables’ so the cohort only existed of compliant children. I am sure there are many other schools that have achieved this magical ‘turn around’.
We know that autonomy is crucial to our positive mental wellbeing – age appropriate obviously. So, by becoming more controlling of students we are negatively impacting their mental wellbeing. In order to become successful adults, children need to be given more autonomy as they grow older.
Self-determination theory says that people are motivated by intrinsic motivation not extrinsic. Motivation to be in control of their own behaviours, to be in control of our learning, knowledge and skills. Sports psychology and coaching embraces the concept of motivation very successfully, so why are we so far behind in education? Usain Bolt doesn’t win because he might get a detention if he doesn’t. Imagine I was your line manager (a range of emotions triggered there I’m sure). We’re doing your appraisal and I say “You’re one of the worst members of staff I have ever had. You aren’t good at your job and you’re letting down the whole school. If you don’t improve you are going to ruin your future and I’m going to reduce your salary.” How does that feel? How does that affect your mental health? You might comply but it won’t be long term as you’ll be looking for another job and you’ll likely develop a work-related stress illness in the meantime.
My targeted intervention programmes begin with motivating students to make changes – to attend school, to manage anxieties, to display positive behaviours and manage anxiety. If they are motivated to make positive changes, then outcomes are much more likely to be successful. Motivating isn’t complicated. It’s about using basic coaching techniques. Ask the questions – what are you missing out on with your current thoughts and behaviours? What would you gain from changing how you think and behave? Are you prepared to try some new things to achieve your long-term goals? Once the motivation is in place you can look at the ‘how’.
Ironically, the biggest motivation for many fabulous educationalists I work with isn’t money. It’s that we want to be a positive influence in the life of a children and remembered fondly. We want to make a difference. We want children to feel good about themselves and achieve their potential. Control doesn’t do that.
My CBT Based Targeted Interventions for school/college staff to use are available from: