Integrating the Responsive Classroom Approach to Renew Your PBIS Framework
First Presenter's Institution
Clayton County Public Schools
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Michele F. Flowers is a graduate of Hofstra University, Hempstead New York, Georgia College, Milledgeville, and the University of Sarasota, Florida. Her background in psychology, special education, and behavior disorders has helped her to be a leader in the MTSS, Behavior, and Intervention World. She has 32 years of experience as a teacher on every level (special and regular education), Reading Specialist, Behavior Specialist, Educational Diagnostician, Special Education Coordinator, District PBIS and School Discipline Coordinator, Pre-K/School Principal, Principal K-8, and Professional Learning Instructor. She is also a Certified National Classroom Management and Restorative Practices Trainer/Instructor. She currently works for Clayton County Public Schools and serves as the Coordinating Supervisor of Student Discipline, Prevention, and Intervention, PBIS External Coach, and Professional Learning Instructor.
Document Type
Event
Primary Strand
Positive Behavior Interventions and Support
Relevance to Primary Strand
Positive behavior is a requisite for school success. Building healthy relationships and teaching concrete practices for ensuring a high-quality education for ALL children is critical to effective PBIS implementation. As educators and policymakers begin to recognize the truth of these statements, schools and districts are increasingly turning to two growing educational movements— Responsive Classroom and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)—to learn strategies for teaching positive student behavior.
Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics
Student Learning and Development
Brief Program Description
What educators believe know, and do impacts student learning. Healthy relationships and teaching concrete practices are critical to effective PBIS implementation. Schools are increasingly turning to two growing educational movements - The Responsive Classroom approach and PBIS. Come learn how these perfect pairs can recharge and renew your current culture and climate.
Summary
There should be no reservation that what educators believe, know, and can do powerfully impacts student learning. Positive behavior is a requisite for school success. Building healthy relationships and teaching concrete practices for ensuring a high-quality education for ALL children is critical to effective PBIS implementation. As educators and policymakers begin to recognize the truth of these statements, schools and districts are increasingly turning to two growing educational movements— Responsive Classroom and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)—to learn strategies for teaching positive student behavior.
Responsive Classroom works because it addresses this belief-knowledge-action triad. It shifts teachers’ beliefs about children and learning, equips them with new knowledge and skills, and encourages them to transform their teaching by putting their new beliefs and knowledge into action. Schools that adopt Responsive Classroom can use the PBIS framework to ensure systematic decision-making, and meet the PBIS goal of supporting positive behavior in all students.
The Responsive Classroom approach is grounded on the foundational idea that the four areas of teaching—engaging academics, positive community, effective management, and developmental awareness—are interrelated and are all crucial to student success. The Responsive Classroom approach gives teachers practical tools and strategies for raising their competence in all four areas. The result is that teachers are not just improving student behavior but constantly creating an optimal learning environment that promotes students’ overall school success.
The Responsive Classroom approach and PBIS are a perfect pair to help schools and district recharge and renew their current culture and climate.
They both hold as a central tenet the use of respectful, nonpunitive strategies for teaching students positive behaviors and practices for teaching positive behaviors and promoting optimal student learning, which is essential to a comprehensive schoolwide discipline system.
Evidence
The Responsive Classroom approach is grounded on the foundational idea that the four areas of teaching—engaging academics, positive community, effective management, and developmental awareness—are interrelated and are all crucial to student success.
R esearch by the University of Virginia has found that teachers’ use of Responsive Classroom practices is associated with: ✺ Higher quality standards-based instruction ✺ Greater student achievement in math and reading, regardless of socioeconomic background ✺ Greater gains for low-achieving students ✺ Improved social skills in children ✺ Improved teacher-student interactions ✺ More positive feelings toward school among children and teachers Findings are from the Social and Academic Learning Study (2001–2004) or the Responsive Classroom Efficacy Study (2008–2011). For more information, go to www.responsiveclassroom.org/research.
Learning Objective 1
explore the principles of the Responsive Classroom Approach and how they complement the primary ideas behind PBIS.
Learning Objective 2
learn how the integration of the Responsive Classroom approach can improve PBIS implementation.
Learning Objective 3
leave the session with resources to incorporate Responsive Classroom into their current PBIS framework.
Recommended Citation
Flowers, Michele, "Integrating the Responsive Classroom Approach to Renew Your PBIS Framework" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 72.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/72
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Integrating the Responsive Classroom Approach to Renew Your PBIS Framework
There should be no reservation that what educators believe, know, and can do powerfully impacts student learning. Positive behavior is a requisite for school success. Building healthy relationships and teaching concrete practices for ensuring a high-quality education for ALL children is critical to effective PBIS implementation. As educators and policymakers begin to recognize the truth of these statements, schools and districts are increasingly turning to two growing educational movements— Responsive Classroom and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)—to learn strategies for teaching positive student behavior.
Responsive Classroom works because it addresses this belief-knowledge-action triad. It shifts teachers’ beliefs about children and learning, equips them with new knowledge and skills, and encourages them to transform their teaching by putting their new beliefs and knowledge into action. Schools that adopt Responsive Classroom can use the PBIS framework to ensure systematic decision-making, and meet the PBIS goal of supporting positive behavior in all students.
The Responsive Classroom approach is grounded on the foundational idea that the four areas of teaching—engaging academics, positive community, effective management, and developmental awareness—are interrelated and are all crucial to student success. The Responsive Classroom approach gives teachers practical tools and strategies for raising their competence in all four areas. The result is that teachers are not just improving student behavior but constantly creating an optimal learning environment that promotes students’ overall school success.
The Responsive Classroom approach and PBIS are a perfect pair to help schools and district recharge and renew their current culture and climate.
They both hold as a central tenet the use of respectful, nonpunitive strategies for teaching students positive behaviors and practices for teaching positive behaviors and promoting optimal student learning, which is essential to a comprehensive schoolwide discipline system.
