This practice guide will support you to respond to behaviours associated with disengagement and disruption to maintain a safe and supportive learning environment.

About this practice

Positive learning environments are created when teachers establish and maintain positive teacher–student relationships and proactively teach, model, revise and reinforce the expected behaviours, routines and rules with their students. In a positive learning environment, expected behaviours are recognised, encouraged and reinforced using acknowledgement and praise.

Effective classroom management creates safe and supportive learning environments for all students. This practice guide is part of a suite of foundational resources for beginning teachers, teachers working in new environments, or experienced teachers who want to refine or refresh specific elements of their classroom management practice. They can be used to individually reflect on and refine one’s own practice, or as shared resources to support mentoring and other collaborative and whole-school approaches to improving classroom management.

See Classroom Management Resources: User Guide for more information.


Keywords: student engagement, disruption, disruptive behaviour