Behaviour in Scottish schools: 2016 research

This report is from the fourth (2016) wave of behaviour in Scottish schools research, first undertaken in 2006.


Footnotes

1. Talking out of turn, hindering other pupils, work avoidance, using/looking at mobiles phones when they shouldn't (secondary pupils only) and making unnecessary (non-verbal) noise e.g. by scraping chairs, banging objects (mainly primary pupils).

2. Including, for example, Curriculum for Excellence; Better Relationships, Better Learning, Better Behaviour; How Good is Our School 4.

3. In one secondary school, it was not possible to undertake a focus group with support staff as the school was unable to release them from their classroom duties.

4. Although they had children in the relevant year, the parents who took part were not necessarily the parents of the pupils who had participated.

5. Headteachers were not asked this question in the survey.

6. Talking out of turn, hindering other pupils, work avoidance, using/looking at mobiles phones when they shouldn't (secondary pupils only) and making unnecessary (non-verbal) noise e.g. by scraping chairs, banging objects (mainly primary pupils).

7. Headteachers were not asked about specific low-level behaviours in the classroom.

8. Support staff were not asked about low-level disruption around the school.

9. Where a trend line appears to show an increase or a decrease but the text indicates 'no change', this is because the difference is small enough to have occurred by chance ( i.e. there is less than a 95% chance that it represents a real change).

10. To help distinguish between findings from the quantitative survey and findings from the qualitative research, throughout the report, sections discussing the qualitative research have a pale pink background.

11. In this Chapter, it may appear that staff were quite critical of parents in general. However, it should be noted that, where there are criticisms, staff were not talking about ALL parents – rather they were suggesting reasons why the approach of some parents may have contributed to problems.

12. Scottish Government (2016). Pupil census supplementary data. Available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/dspupcensus/dspupcensus16

13. There number of pupils identified with ASN varies greatly across LAs, which may be in part due to different thresholds being set. Changing thresholds may explain part of the rise in numbers'.

14. for more details on the data on which these variables were based, please see Annex B.

15. To help distinguish between findings from the quantitative survey and findings from the qualitative research, throughout the report, sections discussing the qualitative research have a pale pink background.

16. Learning where the learner is responsible for instigating, planning or managing what they do (or where teachers are responsible for instigating, planning and managing what the learner does in a way which involves the learner actively e.g. through engaging the learner in dialogue, asking questions, posing problems, setting stimulating tasks, encouraging investigations and through cooperative learning approaches). Building the Curriculum 2 – Active Learning: a Guide to Developing Professional Practice, Scottish Government (2010). http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/325191/0104856.pdf

17. Pitching the same lesson at different levels to accommodate learners with different levels of ability, interest or prior learning.

18. To help distinguish between findings from the quantitative survey and findings from the qualitative research, throughout the report, sections discussing the qualitative research have a pale pink background.

19. This section is about support for all pupils, not about the specific support provided to some pupils with Additional Support Needs.

20. One of the negative behaviours from the original list, 'Going on sites they shouldn't ( e.g. to play games, use social media) when digital technologies used in teaching and learning' was excluded because, by definition, it can only occur when digital technologies are used and therefore must be more common.

21. To keep the questionnaire to a manageable length, half the sample (randomly allocated) were asked about positive behaviours and the other half were asked about negative behaviours.

22. To help distinguish between findings from the quantitative survey and findings from the qualitative research, throughout the report, sections discussing the qualitative research have a pale pink background.

23. Teachers reported that the use of digital technologies in the classroom were likely to make no or very little difference to the occurrence of the majority of serious disruptive behaviours, therefore these have been omitted from Figure 9.2. Behaviours not shown (where the net percentage of teachers thinking the behaviour was more or less likely was less than 10%) were: making unnecessary (non-verbal) noise; not being punctual cheeky or impertinent remarks or responses; general rowdiness, horseplay or mucking about pupils deliberately socially excluding others using digital technologies abusively; pupils missing lessons ( e.g. truancy); physical destructiveness ( e.g. breaking objects, damaging furniture and fabric); racist abuse towards other pupils; sexist abuse or harassment of other pupils; abuse towards other pupils who have a disability; abuse towards other pupils who have additional support needs; religious abuse towards other pupils; homophobic, bi-phobic or transphobic abuse towards other pupils; general verbal abuse towards other pupils; physical aggression towards other pupils ( e.g. by pushing, squaring up); physical violence towards other pupils ( e.g. punching, kicking, head butting, use of a weapon); racist abuse towards you/staff; sexist abuse or harassment towards you/staff; abuse towards you/ a member of staff because of a disability; abuse towards you/ a member of staff because of an additional support need; religious abuse towards you/staff; homophobic, bi-phobic or transphobic abuse towards you/staff; general verbal abuse towards you/staff; physical aggression towards you/staff ( e.g. by pushing, squaring up); physical violence towards you/staff ( e.g. punching, kicking, head butting, use of a weapon); pupils under the influence of drugs/alcohol.

24. For brevity, the term 'approach' is used throughout this Chapter but it is used in its broadest sense and includes both specific techniques and wider strategies.

25. The wording of some approaches has been amended in 2016, meaning results are not comparable for: 'motivational approaches ('the motivated school' in 2012); nurture approaches ('nurture groups/nurture principles' in 2012). Rewording may have also had an impact on 'Anti bullying policy & programme ('anti-bullying policy' in 2012) responses.

26. Half the sample (randomly selected) were asked about serious disruptive behaviour and the other half were asked about low-level disruptive behaviour.

27. The results are not directly comparable with the 2012 findings as the questionnaire in 2012 asked whether staff had spent 'no time', 'under an hour', 'an hour to three hours' or 'more than three hours'. The question was amended in 2016 to obtain more accurate estimates and enable a calculation of the average amount of time spent.

28. To help distinguish between findings from the quantitative survey and findings from the qualitative research, throughout the report, sections discussing the qualitative research have a pale pink background.

29. "External exclusion" refers to a formal removal from school for a period of time.

30. Because such a high proportion of headteachers gave positive ratings of the ethos of their school, this analysis was not undertaken for headteachers.

31. for details on the data on which these variables were based, please see Annex B, Table B7.

32. Where charts do not show a response from a specific group of respondents ( e.g. headteachers, teachers or support staff) this is because they were not asked about a particular statement.

33. Question amended slightly from 2012 so not comparable

34. New question in 2016

35. Question amended in 2016 so not comparable

36. To help distinguish between findings from the quantitative survey and findings from the qualitative research, throughout the report, sections discussing the qualitative research have a pale pink background.

37. Staff were not asked about the use of violence incident forms or given the option to choose 'in another way not mentioned above' in 2012.

38. To help distinguish between findings from the quantitative survey and findings from the qualitative research, throughout the report, sections discussing the qualitative research have a pale pink background.

39. Including, for example, Curriculum for Excellence; Better Relationships, Better Learning, Better Behaviour; How Good is Our School.

40. Recognised by The National Parenting Strategy 2012.

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