WHAT IS PBIS?
Positive Behavioural Intervention and Support is an approach to discipline where the emphasis is on school-wide systems of support that include proactive strategies for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviours to create positive school environments.
WHY PBIS?
Teaching behavioural expectations and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive approach than waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding. The purpose of school-wide PBIS is to establish a climate in which appropriate behaviour is the norm.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PBIS?
When schools embrace PBIS, students are more likely to:
- achieve greater success academically
- attend regularly
- demonstrate positive behaviour
- co-operate fully
- contribute more frequently
HOW DOES PBIS ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF ALL STUDENTS?
WHAT IS NEEDED FOR PBIS TO BE EFFECTIVE?
- commitment from the administration
- team-based implementation
- commonly defined
behavioural expectations
- teaching behavioural expectations
- acknowledging and rewarding appropriate behaviour
- using information/data for decision making
- parent/guardian and community involvement
- procedures for building individualized programs for students who do not respond to school-wide management system
WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND STUDENT BEHAVIOUR?
Behaviour has a purpose and conveys a message. Behaviours are learned responses. If they get us what we need, they are repeated.
Teachers must work toward realizing what the student is communicating with his/her behaviour or what function it is serving. The teacher can then help the student learn new behaviours to help meet their needs.
“People’s behaviour makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives”.
Thomas Mann
WHAT CAN CLASSROOM TEACHERS DO TO PROMOTE PBIS?
- teach the desired behaviour
- have clear and specific expectations
- model the desired behaviour
- use positive reinforcement
- re-teach behaviours not learned
The goal is always to teach and reinforce appropriate behaviours.