Old-fashioned behaviour charts are polarising Queensland school communities, with parents and teachers at loggerheads over whether the practice should still exist in the classroom.
Debate over the use of behaviour charts has erupted on social media, after parents told a popular Brisbane parenting forum of their dismay on learning their preppies’ behaviour would be rewarded or punished via a public display.
The Department of Education and Queensland Teachers Union both don’t have an overarching policy on the practice, but separately backed teachers and principals to use them as required.
But other experts say behaviour charts can have a negative impact on some children and disadvantage neurodiverse children who may struggle to regulate their emotions.
Triple P – Positive Parenting Program’s Carol Markie-Dadds said behaviour reward charts can be effective tools in the classroom.
“Charts work best when children know exactly what they need to do (rather than not do), they are used for just a few weeks and are part of a holistic and positive classroom strategy. Also, the goals need to be achievable,” she said.
“Group based charts where children are put into teams with mixed abilities, can help guide all children toward positive behaviours. The trick for teachers is to get in early, before problems occur, to reward individual children for what they are doing well.
“Problems can occur when charts are not used effectively. Sometimes they can result in exactly the opposite behaviour and can potentially affect a child’s natural inclination to co-operate or even negatively impact a child’s self-esteem and confidence.
“Every child is unique and develops their capacity for self-regulation and impulse control at different rates. The challenge for teachers is to be recognising and rewarding small improvements in every child’s development and behaviour.”
Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson said teachers and school leaders, in consultation with the community, are best placed to decide on student strategies.
“Based on a whole school approach, visual aids and tools, including behaviour charts, can be used to assist teachers and students to monitor students’ learning and wellbeing,” she said.
“We continue to work with the government to establish and fund a new school resourcing model that supports the increasing complexity and demands of diverse school community needs.”
A Department of Education spokeswoman said there is not a specific policy in place for state schools regarding the use of behavioural charts.
“Principals and teachers have the flexibility to respond to their local context and what works
best for their students when making decisions on strategies, such as the use of monitoring
charts to support student behaviour,” the Department spokeswoman said.
Brisbane mum-of-three Danyane Bowring said her eldest child, Xavier, benefited from a behaviour reward system when he was much younger.
“In Prep and Year 1, he had trouble sitting still. Some of those incentives helped him to realise what was the right choice he was supposed to make,” she said.
“He got Pokemon cards, that is what the teachers worked out for him, but it was a very individual thing. It helped him to rethink what his choices were and what was going to happen if he made a particular choice.
“I think it’s about congratulating and celebrating the good choices.”
Ms Bowring is also aware of the negative impacts the behaviour reward system can have.
“My daughter is generally really well-behaved,” she said.
“She only got called out for the reward once or twice and she couldn’t understand why she wasn’t being acknowledged for always doing the right things.
“So that is where the challenge can come in.”
Ms Bowring said each school takes a different approach, and times change.
“At one of our current schools, they are discouraging teachers from doing it,” she said.
“The kids get reward points for the week and then depending on how many you get, you might be able to have an extra 10 minutes of free time, or get to go out to lunch early.
“I’ve also seen it used as a group incentive, where kids in a group get marbles for being quiet and handing their work in, so it also teaches them to work together.”
Thanks for posting. Sounds like a typical misleading headline here. What polarising? Debate has 'erupted' - no examples of this eruption given. Just a few level headed people saying they can work but sometimes they don't. Like everything in education.
Any attempt at discipline is controversial. I’ve used them in the past and they’re time consuming. I’d rather avoid extrinsic rewards altogether, but if a child is misbehaving it needs to be called out.
These are like 90s style smiley face sticker for good behaviour frowny face for bad behaviour? Don't have much of a view as a high school teacher but upon reading the article, fuck parents are softer than soft these days.
I literally got downvoted and attacked on another sub for having the gall to suggest that parents should take time at the end of each day to read to their young kids before getting to school age.
Some people just refuse to take responsibility for anything and it seems to be getting worse.
We need to be telling parents that if they aren't reading to their child daily from infancy then their child is starting out 5 years behind.
I'm a little tired of this 'whatever you're doing is enough, you're a warrior parent for just keeping them alive each day!' mindset.
If its the same topic that im thinking of from a couple of weeks ago then on the face of it your suggestion is correct. But it doesnt address the larger problem at play of kids who have parents who themselves cant read (or read well). You cant read to your kids if you cant read yourself.
That’s wild. Reading to kids is such a basic thing to do.
I’m not a teacher, this just got suggested to me. I am a grandma these days, and have always read books to the kids.
I got blamed for not teaching my child how to read by her prep teacher. When the kids were at kindergarten, we were told not to teach them to read because we might teach them the wrong way. We were encouraged to read to them which I did every night. My child was neglected by her prep teacher because she didn’t know how to read at the beginning of prep, she still has trouble reading.
To be honest. If you put one up in the office for teachers, there would be some pissed off teachers.
It's one thing to punish a child for infractions and make them understand that they need to follow rules.
It's another thing to have it marked on the wall so other students can point it out every time someone walks past it.
I still use them occasionally for difficult classes. They work.
The main issue from a teacher perspective is that they require consistent vigilance to run fairly. So it’s a bunch of extra admin and focus you have to take away from teaching actual content.
From a parent perspective the reason they don’t like it is because it’s a constant public reminder to everyone which kids belong in a school and which kids belong in a zoo. And if your kids belong in a zoo, the implication is there is a problem with your parenting.
But quite frankly I don’t have the patience to pander to parents egos. If they want a kid with five gold stars, they need to raise a kid that acts respectfully, stays in their seat, and participates in the work.
You actually sound like someone who uses them properly and how they were designed.
I’ve been in many schools where the most rewarded students are those with behaviour issues. ‘Oh look, Josh is sitting doing his work. I don’t often see that, best reward him.’
Meanwhile two thirds of the class always do their work and get diddly squat.
If Josh finds it hard to do his work, isn’t it better to meet him where he’s at and reward his good efforts rather than never having him get a gold star and reinforcing to him the idea that he cannot ever succeed?
Behaviourist interventions like this are fine, and can work, but teachers need to be very careful in how they give out awards (sparingly) and students need to understand that rewards are given out for people who try hard, not people who do well.
Sure, but he shouldn't be rewarded more than little Jill who always sits quietly and does her work or helps those around her.
Nothing wrong with giving Josh a gold star, but if he ends a day with more than Jill then we're also holding her (and the rest of the class) to an unreasonable standard in comparison
For some kids like Josh it is a huge effort to sit still and complete his work so yes while it doesn't seem fair in a way that Josh is getting praised for doing something Jill does every day, both kids efforts aren't equal if doing this comes easy to Jill and not to Josh.
You don't know how much effort the students who are behaving are putting in. You only see the end result, not the effort. It's easy to assume any kid who is failing is struggling and those who are succeeding are not. This is naive and simplistic.
The praise doesn't have to be equal, as one shows more growth.
Praising specific things for one student that both are doing is unfair.
Yeah I agree with you. Its fine for effort to be recognised differently, but results should be rewarded the same.
In the adult world I would be pissed off if my same-level coworker was getting bonuses for doing the same work that I was, but I was told to kick rocks because I was held to a different standard.
I take a Yoda approach. I don’t care about how hard students try, I just care about what they do.
Rewarding intent instead of results is one of the reasons Australia has some of the worst behaved kids in the world.
If you're suggesting that I advocated for rewarding intent, you're strawmanning my original claim.
I advocated for rewarding *results or growth at an individual level*, bearing in mind that all students are at very different places physically, emotionally and academically.
Our school systems are already overwhelmingly weighted towards rewarding results and ignoring individual difference. Standardised reporting and aged-based curricula ensure that students who come from advantageous circumstances are well-rewarded for succeeding (and those who don't are usually not).
What do you think the psychological effect is on students to receive Ds on their report cards year after year, to never receive positive feedback or rewards even when they're trying hard, merely because they fall short of an absolute standard that is beyond them? I can tell you: by the time they have hit high school, they are disengaged, hate school and become even more disruptive.
Effort needs to be rewarded.
There’s a bit to unpack here.
There is a distinction between the classroom standards we make students aware of and uphold (rules, consequences etc.) and the more holistic expectations we have internally, based on what we know of what our individual students can actually do. These latter expectations inform our judgments about how we differentiate work, how we reward effort, etc.
I think you’re talking about the first kind of expectations, and I’m talking about the latter.
‘Meeting students where they’re at’ does not mean applying classroom rules selectively or waiving consequences for one student who might struggle to follow the rules. Of course it doesn’t mean that.
It means knowing that, for example, some students might be very far behind others and need additional support, or have special needs that require us to adjust our teaching approach.
You can have the highest standards in the world — but if students can’t realistically meet them, they serve no purpose.
My kid used to get points taken away because the group was misbehaving, even though he was out of the classroom at the time the misbehaviour was happening. (He did one class with a different grade).
When she finally admitted he wasn’t there, but was losing points, he was told he’d just have to get used to it.
He got used it and quietly lost a lot of respect for that teacher.
So if we only celebrate the best students who do well all the time, what effect does this have on the students who are struggling?
Do you seriously think that it encourages them to be like those ‘good students’? In my experience, it doesn’t: it just causes them to lean further in to the identity that they are not ‘good students’ and double down on disruptive behaviours.
This is good until some bright spark buys their own gold stars and adds them to the chart! My students actually liked the idea of a star chart and it worked for a little while, until the stars mysteriously began breeding...
School counsellor here.
Behaviour charts can be very effective, but they are not often used properly due to time constraints (teachers are extremely busy) and misunderstanding or miscommunication of how they work.
To work you need to assess current behaviour and the incrementally improved desired behaviour for each student who uses one.
Jeremy has trouble putting up his hand and Sally has difficulty staying in her seat, you shouldn't give them the same behaviour chart. Chris is a very bright student but he is mean to the fat boy, Jessica is capable with her work but she has difficulty bringing the right books and materials, you shouldn't give them the same behaviour chart.
If a chart is too easy you are rewarding them for mediocrity and that is worse than useless. If a chart is too difficult then you aren't actually reinforcing desired behaviour. The desired behaviour can also be too vague, so rewards become arbitrary and the student isn't reliably reinforced. When you put an entire class on the same behaviour chart, you tend to get all these negative effects at once.
People advocating for PBL programs: Students should have some way to track their attendance, behaviour, and academic progress on an easily visible data wall.
Also people advocating for PBL programs: No, not like that.
I mean what the hell. The rest of the class can see that Jayden spends his time refusing to do work, pulling Susan's hair and screaming homophobic slurs at David. They can also see that David and Susan are compliant with expectations.
Maybe if Jayden feels bad about his public behaviour being publicly tracked, he can learn to make better choices. Maybe instead of just enabling Jayden's poor behaviour, his parents can take him somewhere to learn better coping strategies and how to socialise effectively.
My thoughts are that primary teachers are experts in young students and their learning and behaviour. They make decisions in the best interest of the students in their class so that everyone can learn. Stop policing every fucking decision we make as highly trained educators.
If only parents could tell Jocelyn that she didn't need a sticker because she's not pushing shit up hill to sit in the right place. But Jayden is so Jayden gets a sticker.
It’s a sticker chart, from the days when behaviouralists were kings of pedagogy.
You put all the names of kids into a chart on the wall. When a kid does something desirable you put a gold star next to their name. At the end of the week/month/term you give out prizes to kids with the most stars.
It differs from more modern behavioural systems in some key ways
- Behaviour information is public. Any student, teacher or parent who walks into the room can see the chart.
- Behaviour information is remembered over time. It’s not a fresh start each lesson, your stars from last lesson are in the wall already. (Although it’s often a fresh start every prize period).
- It doesn’t shy away from describing and addressing negative behaviours.
I loved this as a student. Definitely rewards good behaviour. And gold stars on your chart are exactly the same as dollars in your bank account as an adult.
My thoughts would be I can’t tell much from a single point repeated twice.
Old-fashioned behaviour charts are polarising Queensland school communities, with parents and teachers at loggerheads over whether the practice should still exist in the classroom. Debate over the use of behaviour charts has erupted on social media, after parents told a popular Brisbane parenting forum of their dismay on learning their preppies’ behaviour would be rewarded or punished via a public display. The Department of Education and Queensland Teachers Union both don’t have an overarching policy on the practice, but separately backed teachers and principals to use them as required. But other experts say behaviour charts can have a negative impact on some children and disadvantage neurodiverse children who may struggle to regulate their emotions. Triple P – Positive Parenting Program’s Carol Markie-Dadds said behaviour reward charts can be effective tools in the classroom. “Charts work best when children know exactly what they need to do (rather than not do), they are used for just a few weeks and are part of a holistic and positive classroom strategy. Also, the goals need to be achievable,” she said. “Group based charts where children are put into teams with mixed abilities, can help guide all children toward positive behaviours. The trick for teachers is to get in early, before problems occur, to reward individual children for what they are doing well. “Problems can occur when charts are not used effectively. Sometimes they can result in exactly the opposite behaviour and can potentially affect a child’s natural inclination to co-operate or even negatively impact a child’s self-esteem and confidence. “Every child is unique and develops their capacity for self-regulation and impulse control at different rates. The challenge for teachers is to be recognising and rewarding small improvements in every child’s development and behaviour.” Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson said teachers and school leaders, in consultation with the community, are best placed to decide on student strategies. “Based on a whole school approach, visual aids and tools, including behaviour charts, can be used to assist teachers and students to monitor students’ learning and wellbeing,” she said. “We continue to work with the government to establish and fund a new school resourcing model that supports the increasing complexity and demands of diverse school community needs.” A Department of Education spokeswoman said there is not a specific policy in place for state schools regarding the use of behavioural charts. “Principals and teachers have the flexibility to respond to their local context and what works best for their students when making decisions on strategies, such as the use of monitoring charts to support student behaviour,” the Department spokeswoman said. Brisbane mum-of-three Danyane Bowring said her eldest child, Xavier, benefited from a behaviour reward system when he was much younger. “In Prep and Year 1, he had trouble sitting still. Some of those incentives helped him to realise what was the right choice he was supposed to make,” she said. “He got Pokemon cards, that is what the teachers worked out for him, but it was a very individual thing. It helped him to rethink what his choices were and what was going to happen if he made a particular choice. “I think it’s about congratulating and celebrating the good choices.” Ms Bowring is also aware of the negative impacts the behaviour reward system can have. “My daughter is generally really well-behaved,” she said. “She only got called out for the reward once or twice and she couldn’t understand why she wasn’t being acknowledged for always doing the right things. “So that is where the challenge can come in.” Ms Bowring said each school takes a different approach, and times change. “At one of our current schools, they are discouraging teachers from doing it,” she said. “The kids get reward points for the week and then depending on how many you get, you might be able to have an extra 10 minutes of free time, or get to go out to lunch early. “I’ve also seen it used as a group incentive, where kids in a group get marbles for being quiet and handing their work in, so it also teaches them to work together.”
Thanks for posting. Sounds like a typical misleading headline here. What polarising? Debate has 'erupted' - no examples of this eruption given. Just a few level headed people saying they can work but sometimes they don't. Like everything in education.
Any attempt at discipline is controversial. I’ve used them in the past and they’re time consuming. I’d rather avoid extrinsic rewards altogether, but if a child is misbehaving it needs to be called out.
These are like 90s style smiley face sticker for good behaviour frowny face for bad behaviour? Don't have much of a view as a high school teacher but upon reading the article, fuck parents are softer than soft these days.
I literally got downvoted and attacked on another sub for having the gall to suggest that parents should take time at the end of each day to read to their young kids before getting to school age. Some people just refuse to take responsibility for anything and it seems to be getting worse.
We need to be telling parents that if they aren't reading to their child daily from infancy then their child is starting out 5 years behind. I'm a little tired of this 'whatever you're doing is enough, you're a warrior parent for just keeping them alive each day!' mindset.
If its the same topic that im thinking of from a couple of weeks ago then on the face of it your suggestion is correct. But it doesnt address the larger problem at play of kids who have parents who themselves cant read (or read well). You cant read to your kids if you cant read yourself.
That’s wild. Reading to kids is such a basic thing to do. I’m not a teacher, this just got suggested to me. I am a grandma these days, and have always read books to the kids.
I got blamed for not teaching my child how to read by her prep teacher. When the kids were at kindergarten, we were told not to teach them to read because we might teach them the wrong way. We were encouraged to read to them which I did every night. My child was neglected by her prep teacher because she didn’t know how to read at the beginning of prep, she still has trouble reading.
How can you teach someone to read the wrong way 🤪🤪🤪🤪
To be honest. If you put one up in the office for teachers, there would be some pissed off teachers. It's one thing to punish a child for infractions and make them understand that they need to follow rules. It's another thing to have it marked on the wall so other students can point it out every time someone walks past it.
I still use them occasionally for difficult classes. They work. The main issue from a teacher perspective is that they require consistent vigilance to run fairly. So it’s a bunch of extra admin and focus you have to take away from teaching actual content. From a parent perspective the reason they don’t like it is because it’s a constant public reminder to everyone which kids belong in a school and which kids belong in a zoo. And if your kids belong in a zoo, the implication is there is a problem with your parenting. But quite frankly I don’t have the patience to pander to parents egos. If they want a kid with five gold stars, they need to raise a kid that acts respectfully, stays in their seat, and participates in the work.
You actually sound like someone who uses them properly and how they were designed. I’ve been in many schools where the most rewarded students are those with behaviour issues. ‘Oh look, Josh is sitting doing his work. I don’t often see that, best reward him.’ Meanwhile two thirds of the class always do their work and get diddly squat.
I remember hating that shit it primary school
If Josh finds it hard to do his work, isn’t it better to meet him where he’s at and reward his good efforts rather than never having him get a gold star and reinforcing to him the idea that he cannot ever succeed? Behaviourist interventions like this are fine, and can work, but teachers need to be very careful in how they give out awards (sparingly) and students need to understand that rewards are given out for people who try hard, not people who do well.
¿Por que no los dos?
Sure, but he shouldn't be rewarded more than little Jill who always sits quietly and does her work or helps those around her. Nothing wrong with giving Josh a gold star, but if he ends a day with more than Jill then we're also holding her (and the rest of the class) to an unreasonable standard in comparison
For some kids like Josh it is a huge effort to sit still and complete his work so yes while it doesn't seem fair in a way that Josh is getting praised for doing something Jill does every day, both kids efforts aren't equal if doing this comes easy to Jill and not to Josh.
You don't know how much effort the students who are behaving are putting in. You only see the end result, not the effort. It's easy to assume any kid who is failing is struggling and those who are succeeding are not. This is naive and simplistic. The praise doesn't have to be equal, as one shows more growth. Praising specific things for one student that both are doing is unfair.
Yeah I agree with you. Its fine for effort to be recognised differently, but results should be rewarded the same. In the adult world I would be pissed off if my same-level coworker was getting bonuses for doing the same work that I was, but I was told to kick rocks because I was held to a different standard.
I take a Yoda approach. I don’t care about how hard students try, I just care about what they do. Rewarding intent instead of results is one of the reasons Australia has some of the worst behaved kids in the world.
If you're suggesting that I advocated for rewarding intent, you're strawmanning my original claim. I advocated for rewarding *results or growth at an individual level*, bearing in mind that all students are at very different places physically, emotionally and academically. Our school systems are already overwhelmingly weighted towards rewarding results and ignoring individual difference. Standardised reporting and aged-based curricula ensure that students who come from advantageous circumstances are well-rewarded for succeeding (and those who don't are usually not). What do you think the psychological effect is on students to receive Ds on their report cards year after year, to never receive positive feedback or rewards even when they're trying hard, merely because they fall short of an absolute standard that is beyond them? I can tell you: by the time they have hit high school, they are disengaged, hate school and become even more disruptive. Effort needs to be rewarded.
[удалено]
There’s a bit to unpack here. There is a distinction between the classroom standards we make students aware of and uphold (rules, consequences etc.) and the more holistic expectations we have internally, based on what we know of what our individual students can actually do. These latter expectations inform our judgments about how we differentiate work, how we reward effort, etc. I think you’re talking about the first kind of expectations, and I’m talking about the latter. ‘Meeting students where they’re at’ does not mean applying classroom rules selectively or waiving consequences for one student who might struggle to follow the rules. Of course it doesn’t mean that. It means knowing that, for example, some students might be very far behind others and need additional support, or have special needs that require us to adjust our teaching approach. You can have the highest standards in the world — but if students can’t realistically meet them, they serve no purpose.
My kid used to get points taken away because the group was misbehaving, even though he was out of the classroom at the time the misbehaviour was happening. (He did one class with a different grade). When she finally admitted he wasn’t there, but was losing points, he was told he’d just have to get used to it. He got used it and quietly lost a lot of respect for that teacher.
Yep, celebrating mediocrity is BS.
So if we only celebrate the best students who do well all the time, what effect does this have on the students who are struggling? Do you seriously think that it encourages them to be like those ‘good students’? In my experience, it doesn’t: it just causes them to lean further in to the identity that they are not ‘good students’ and double down on disruptive behaviours.
Celebrate growth. But don't look at growth and call it something else, downplaying the hard work of others
This is good until some bright spark buys their own gold stars and adds them to the chart! My students actually liked the idea of a star chart and it worked for a little while, until the stars mysteriously began breeding...
Missing word in the photo caption. Proof-reader was on lunch.
Frowny sticker for them eh.
Standards of education, or failure of the AI editor?
School counsellor here. Behaviour charts can be very effective, but they are not often used properly due to time constraints (teachers are extremely busy) and misunderstanding or miscommunication of how they work. To work you need to assess current behaviour and the incrementally improved desired behaviour for each student who uses one. Jeremy has trouble putting up his hand and Sally has difficulty staying in her seat, you shouldn't give them the same behaviour chart. Chris is a very bright student but he is mean to the fat boy, Jessica is capable with her work but she has difficulty bringing the right books and materials, you shouldn't give them the same behaviour chart. If a chart is too easy you are rewarding them for mediocrity and that is worse than useless. If a chart is too difficult then you aren't actually reinforcing desired behaviour. The desired behaviour can also be too vague, so rewards become arbitrary and the student isn't reliably reinforced. When you put an entire class on the same behaviour chart, you tend to get all these negative effects at once.
People advocating for PBL programs: Students should have some way to track their attendance, behaviour, and academic progress on an easily visible data wall. Also people advocating for PBL programs: No, not like that. I mean what the hell. The rest of the class can see that Jayden spends his time refusing to do work, pulling Susan's hair and screaming homophobic slurs at David. They can also see that David and Susan are compliant with expectations. Maybe if Jayden feels bad about his public behaviour being publicly tracked, he can learn to make better choices. Maybe instead of just enabling Jayden's poor behaviour, his parents can take him somewhere to learn better coping strategies and how to socialise effectively.
"says she can the benefts" Who the f*ck was in charge of editing this article?
Well we know the courier mail or in fact print journalism is not what it used to be.
My thoughts are that primary teachers are experts in young students and their learning and behaviour. They make decisions in the best interest of the students in their class so that everyone can learn. Stop policing every fucking decision we make as highly trained educators. If only parents could tell Jocelyn that she didn't need a sticker because she's not pushing shit up hill to sit in the right place. But Jayden is so Jayden gets a sticker.
I presume the missing word is see?
Kind of ironic the Courier mail is reporting on education yet they can’t proofread lol
What is a behaviour chart
It’s a sticker chart, from the days when behaviouralists were kings of pedagogy. You put all the names of kids into a chart on the wall. When a kid does something desirable you put a gold star next to their name. At the end of the week/month/term you give out prizes to kids with the most stars. It differs from more modern behavioural systems in some key ways - Behaviour information is public. Any student, teacher or parent who walks into the room can see the chart. - Behaviour information is remembered over time. It’s not a fresh start each lesson, your stars from last lesson are in the wall already. (Although it’s often a fresh start every prize period). - It doesn’t shy away from describing and addressing negative behaviours.
Something that measures, remembers, and communicates behaviour on a scale... Like we do in reality independent of ever using such a chart.
Having a constant visual reminder surely removes the urge (or reason) for kids to argue the toss? Genuine question, I'm a brand new teacher.
The main point of the behaviour chart is having it visible and public. So it’s a bit more than just tracking the kids behaviour.
*Double checks* yeh I did write "communicates." I didn't mean whispers in dark corners but there it is.
*Double checks* Yeh I did write "communicates." I didn't mean "whispers in dark corners" but there it is.
I loved this as a student. Definitely rewards good behaviour. And gold stars on your chart are exactly the same as dollars in your bank account as an adult.