What predictable behaviour responses do you have at your site already?

Is there a site behaviour plan that your site aligns with?

Is it followed through by all teachers? Are all teachers aware of the responses to behaviour errors at your site?

Imagine that your favourite restaurant was just taken over by a new owner – suddenly, everything changes. Each time you go in, the layout is slightly changed, there is a different menu, and the food is hit and miss every time.

Consider this scenario; how do you respond? Are we frustrated or annoyed? Excited?

Our brains are wired for predictable responses – so much so that we habitualise behaviours rapidly and can be shocked and disgusted when our predicted outcomes do not match up with the reality of what happened.

By having a small set of predictable responses to students eliciting the desired behaviour AND not eliciting the desired behaviour, we assist the brain in striving for automaticity. By making our responses to desired behaviour predictable, we remove the variance that could cause a reward prediction error in the brain.

Our brains don’t particularly like reward prediction errors – it can be summarised as a mistake in how the brain predicts the intensity and duration of the reward for its behaviour would be. We may often see the results of these in students who expected their behaviour to simply garner a good job, but instead, we regale them with specific feedback – this, in turn, gives them the emotion of joy that the brain was not expecting, making it wire in the behaviour faster.

On the other hand, this reward error can also be seen in students whose misdemeanours they assumed would get them a minor response but instead garnered a larger one – what is now the result? Fear, anger, dread?

Better yet, consider a predictable behaviour response so that all teachers who apply behaviour design can consistently and predictable response to behaviour successes and errors.

For our examples of ‘Be Kind,’ a response for success might look like specific feedback and a reminder to celebrate when they are caught engaging in the desired behaviour. Students with a behaviour error might look like they are given additional opportunities to practice or a peer mentor for the week.

Take the desired behaviour you have been working with and list the scenarios you would predictably have to respond to in school. Remember that there are not only behaviour errors but also behaviour successes.

List out as many ways the behaviour can be successful and then attach a predictable response to that success – likewise, do the same for behaviour errors; what will you predictably do when the student does not manage to do the desired behaviour.

Take between a day and a week and focus on implementing a predictable response for your desired behaviours, successes and errors.

Consider the students in your class – how may they feel if you start randomly assigning rewards and punishments with varying frequency and intensity?

What might their reaction be?

Have you ever considered having a site-wide conversation about not only the predictable responses to high-level behaviours but also low-level ones? What might this achieve?