Great teaching involves “activating hard thinking” in students; in fact, this is defined as Dimension 4 of the Model for Great Teaching (Coe et al., 2020). This model argues that a great teacher is one whose students learn more – this is irrespective of teachers’ practices, specific skills, mindsets or understandings. Ultimately, our goal is for our students to learn.

However, learning does not occur in a vacuum. Classrooms are not laboratory settings with perfectly controlled environments and automated participants. Students are complex beings with a range of needs, priorities, motivations and interests.

Classrooms are plagued with interruptions and distractions – both within and beyond our immediate control. Ignoring all these imperils the likelihood of learning taking place.

Even the greatest “activation of hard thinking” is essentially meaningless if the conditions are not right for learning to take place – that is, if a teacher has not considered students’ needs and the classroom environment.

“Good behaviour” is often used in colloquial speech without a clear definition. Sometimes people fall back on the maxim: “It’s hard to define, but I know it when I see it.”

Instead, this eBook offers a definition for good behaviour and what it entails, as well a strategy that any teacher can consider to encourage good behaviour in their students.