EDF5667 Leading positive approaches to behaviour in schools

This unit draws on prior learning in inclusive education and examines how schools can build positive, neuroaffirming and culturally safe environments in which all learners can engage positively, learn and thrive. You will consider how policies, relationships, routines, and physical and sensory environments shape learners’ experiences of safety, belonging and participation, and you will engage critically with debates about behaviour, discipline and student support in schooling. You will examine how behaviour-focused approaches have been used historically and in contemporary practice, and consider the extent to which these align with or undermine students’ rights, dignity and inclusion and which evidence suggests are the most effective and inclusive. Building on your earlier work with multi-tiered systems of support, you will explore how coherent school-wide approaches can be designed, implemented at scale, and sustained across classroom, school and system levels for all learners including those with complex disability and communication support requirements so that positive learning environments and needs-based support are provided for all without exception.

Throughout the unit, you will draw on research evidence and data-based decision-making to design and refine needs-based, relational and strengths-focused supports at universal, targeted and individual levels. The emphasis is on understanding what is happening in context, building communication, social and academic skills, and working collaboratively with students, families, teacher assistants and other professionals to develop sustainable, multi-tiered approaches that enable all students to engage positively, learn and thrive.