Themes: Behaviour, Inclusion
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Affective teaching: a method to enhance classroom management
Shechtman, Z. and Leichtentritt, J. (2004) University of Haifa, Israel
European Journal of Teacher Education, 27 (3) pp. 323-333
Does relating lessons to pupils’ personal interests and experiences improve their behaviour?
Many teachers, especially teachers in special schools, but also mainstream teachers faced with including pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties, find behaviour management a challenge. This Israeli study investigated whether using a particular teaching approach could improve pupil behaviour.
The researchers explored the impact of ‘affective teaching’ (which focused on valuing student attitudes, feelings and beliefs and encouraged students to discuss their personal interests and experiences) on pupil behaviour. They compared the approach with ‘cognitive teaching’ (which focused on providing information and explaining concepts).
Fifty-two student teachers taught special education classes in primary and secondary schools (each containing around 8 pupils) three lessons using both teaching methods – cognitive teaching for the first half of the lesson and affective teaching for the second half. The researchers’ statistical analysis showed a decrease in misbehaviour and an increase in positive behaviours during the affective teaching units compared with the cognitive units. The different effects of the teaching approaches were found at both primary and secondary level.
The researchers concluded that the affective teaching approach encouraged pupils’ personal growth, supported their mental health and promoted pro-social skills in a natural way and recommended that teachers include elements of affective teaching into their lessons to complement cognitive teaching.
Keywords:
Israel; Special schools; Primary schools; Secondary schools; Teachers; Student teachers; Behaviour; History; Teaching and learning; Teaching methods; Initial Teacher Training
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Contents
How did affective teaching differ from cognitive teaching?Page 3
What effect did affective teaching have on student behaviour?Page 4
How was the study designed?Page 5
What are the implications of the study for practitioners?Page 6
Where can I find out more?Page 7
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How did affective teaching differ from cognitive teaching?
Cognitive teaching involved regular and familiar methods, including individual planning, grouping and games. The focus was on information and concepts. Affective teaching also involved regular methods of discussion, grouping and individual work, but the focus was on personal experiences – clarifying attitudes, preferences, aspirations, relationships etc. The researchers gave an example of a history lesson about Independence Day taught to pupils aged 11-12 years, which incorporated both approaches.
The cognitive unit
This part of the lesson included a short story on the War of Independence. The teachers clarified key terms, explained the historical steps that led to the war and conceptualised the meaning of independence for the country. The flag was introduced as a symbol of the country’s independence and the children were asked to identify the Israeli flag from other flags and create their own flag.
The affective unit
This part of the lesson focused on personal independence. The children were asked to make up a list of functions in which they felt dependent and another list in which they felt independent, based around a general list of tasks, such as getting up in the morning, choosing clothes to wear, decision-making about free time and saying no to group pressure. The pupils shared personal information with each other, compared their responses and clarified issues. Finally, each pupil chose one behaviour that s/he would like to change from dependence to independence. The group challenged each other about the change they wanted to make, referring to perceptions, emotions and ways of achieving the change.
The researchers also explained how other subjects might be transferred to a personal level. For example, geography lessons could be used to investigate places the pupils have been to and places they would like to go, with whom and why. In mathematics lessons, pupils could explore ways of spending extra money or preferences for donating money etc.
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What effect did affective teaching have on student behaviour?
The researchers’ statistical analysis revealed a significantly lower occurrence of misbehaviours in the affective unit of the lessons compared with the cognitive unit. The kind of misbehaviours that were reduced included:
- talking without permission (any verbal response, even a relevant one, without first raising hand and getting teacher’s permission);
- off-task behaviour (day-dreaming, inattentiveness, playing with something);
- moving around or leaving the classroom without permission; and
- aggression (verbal and physical) towards children or the teacher.
The researchers also found a significantly higher occurrence of positive behaviours in the affective units compared with the cognitive units, including increased:
- expression of personal thoughts, ideas and perceptions;
- expression of emotions and feelings;
- self-awareness, self understanding and insight; and
- expression of support, positive feedback, and encouragement of classmates.
The biggest difference in the positive behaviours was the expression of feelings. In the cognitive lessons this hardly existed, while in the affective lessons they were very frequent. The differences between the types of teaching were consistent across primary and secondary classes.
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How was the study designed?
Fifty-two student teachers, all in their final year of a teacher-training programme, conducted three ninety-minute lessons with pupils in special education classes. Twenty of the classes were in elementary schools and thirty-two classes were in secondary schools in Israel. The pupils (who ranged in age from six to fifteen years old) usually demonstrated a variety of challenging behaviours, including attention problems, disturbing and destructive behaviour and aggression.
Each lesson was divided into two forty-five minute units. The student teachers used the cognitive teaching approach for the first unit and the affective approach for the second unit. A bell signalled the end of the first unit. The class’s usual teacher completed observation sheets for both parts of each lesson.
The observation sheet was divided into four negative and four positive behaviours. The classes (which contained around eight pupils) were observed as a whole and scores were given to each child for each of the behaviours observed during the lessons. An average score on each of the behaviours was calculated for every pupil. The researchers used statistical analysis to compare the effects of the two types of teaching.
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What are the implications of the study for practitioners?
In completing this digest, the authors began to ask questions about implications for practitioners.
Teachers may wish to consider the following questionsbased on the messages of this study:
- would it help enhance your pupils’ on-task behaviour if you increased their personal and emotional involvement in their learning by encouraging them to share with the class personal information about themselves, such as their aspirations, interests and anxieties during part of their lessons?
- would you find it helpful to share ideas with colleagues for ways of incorporating affective tasks into different topics and areas of the curriculum?
Leaders may like to consider the following questions:
- could you give your colleagues more opportunities to discuss and reflect upon the behaviour challenges they face and how they might respond to them?
- would your colleagues find it helpful to be given time and support in designing and carrying out small-scale research projects to help investigate ways of promoting positive behaviour in your school?
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Where can I find out more?
Rompelman, L. (2002) Affective Teaching. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
The campaign for emotional literacy website: (Accessed 20 June 2005)
The behaviour for learning website: 20 June 2005)
The teaching citizenship website: (Accessed 20 June 2005)
Evans, J. et al (2003) Support for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties in mainstream primary classrooms: a review of the effectiveness of interventions EPPI-Centre and NFER. Summary available on the General Teaching Council’s Research of the Month website at: 20 June 2005)
Wang, X. et al (2004) Engaging ADHD students in tasks with hand gestures: a pedagogical possibility for teachers. Educational Studies 30 (3) pp.217 –229. Summary available on the DfES website at: