Induction tutor materials
Training session - helping pupils regulate their own emotions
Duration: 30 minutes
Session objectives
Learn that:
- The ability to self-regulate one’s emotions affects pupils’ ability to learn, success in school and future lives.
Learn how to:
Develop a positive, predictable and safe environment for pupils, by:
- 7e. Using consistent language and non-verbal signals for common classroom directions.
- 7f. Using early and least-intrusive interventions as an initial response to low level disruption.
How to prepare for the session
Read the ECT’s self-study materials for this topic.
Session structure:
Introduction to the session (2 to 3 minutes)
Welcome ECTs and run through the objectives this session will focus on.
Explain that the ability to self-regulate emotions affects pupils’ ability to learn, and their subsequent success in school and future lives. This session will cover some techniques to help pupils to develop their ability to self-regulate emotions, giving them the best chance of success.
What are emotions and what do we mean by regulating them? (8 to 10 minutes)
Ask ECTs to list as many emotions as they can.
It would be useful to capture and display the list as you’ll need to refer to it again later on.
Ask ECTs:
- to define what emotions are
- where emotions ‘come from’
- what the effect of emotions can be
Make sure that the following information is covered:
- an emotion is a mental state that arises in response to an internal or external stimulus
- the emotion may result in physiological changes, such as changes to someone’s heartrate or breathing
- the emotion might cause a behavioural change, like laughter or crying
- the emotion might cause a change in thinking
Ask ECTs to discuss what they understand by ‘regulating’ emotions.
Make sure the following points are understood:
- regulation does not mean suppressing the emotion: this could cause psychological harm in the long term
- it means being able to stay in control of one’s own actions when strong emotional urges are present: being able to think clearly even when the brain is being ‘hijacked’ by emotional urges
- regulation is therefore having the mental discipline to be able to offset emotional urges when there are other priorities
It's important for teachers to have a good recognition of their own emotions in order to help children with their emotional self-regulation.
A teacher who cannot regulate their own emotional state effectively is not well-placed to help a child to regulate theirs.
How can teachers help pupils to self-regulate their emotions? (10 to 15 minutes)
Ask ECTs to work in small groups.
Share one or both of the case studies below. They’re snippets from a Year 5 and a Year 8 lesson.
Case Study 1: Year 5
After lunch, pupils arrive at the classroom in small groups. They’re chatting noisily in the corridor as they hang up their coats and put lunch bags away. As the pupils enter the room the teacher is standing by the door. She greets each pupil with a smile and puts a finger to her lips to indicate quiet, then points to the reading corner and raises eyebrows to indicate pupils should get their book. Most pupils react quickly when the teacher catches their eye, some even put their finger over their lips as well and they proceed to pick up a book and sit down and start reading. For those who do not react immediately, the teacher says “calm” which the pupils react to by slowing their walk and putting fingers on their lips.
One pupil arrives at the end of the group and is clearly upset. They push into the room and go straight to their seat and put their head on the desk. The lunchtime supervisor pops their head around the door and whispers to the teacher that the pupil got into trouble at lunchtime, but it’s been dealt with.
Once the teacher is sure that all the pupils are reading quietly she approaches the pupil whose head is on the desk and kneels down beside them. They suggest that the pupil tries one of the breathing exercises they do in the morning: breathing in for 3 and out for 3 along with the pupil. The teacher says: “When you’re ready you can go and choose a book and join in with our reading time.” After a few minutes the pupil goes to pick a book and joins in.
Pupils read for 15 minutes. To get their attention the teacher claps her hands once and says: “I need you to put your books down and all eyes on me.” A few second later she claps twice: “Books down and all eyes on me.” She claps 3 times and says: “All eyes on me.” Pupils are all ready and listening for the next instructions.
Case Study 2: Year 8
This drama class is working on small group projects. Pupils are spaced around the room. The teacher is working with one group and notices that the classroom noise has increased while they were focusing on this group’s project.
They turn and survey the class before moving around the room, leaning into each group and using a hand signal to indicate that they should reduce the volume. One group is particularly noisy, so the teacher moves over to them and says: “Your enthusiasm is catching but do you mind lowering your volume a bit so you do not disrupt the other groups.” The pupils apologise and tell the teacher about the idea they were getting so excited about.
The teacher moves to another group where they’ve noticed 2 pupils are hanging back from their group and appear to be poking each other with props. The teacher approaches them, raises their eyebrows and indicates that they should put the props back where they found them. The 2 pupils respond and continue with their group work.
The teacher continues to scan the room, and spots that the group who were excited by their new idea are getting loud again and appear to be disagreeing about how to move forward. The teacher approaches and says: “OK everyone. Let’s pause for a moment and just remind ourselves of the way we behave in group work: number 1, we treat each other with respect. The way I just heard you speak to each other was not very respectful.”
Ask ECTs to discuss how the teachers:
- help pupils to self-regulate their emotions?
- make use of non-verbal signs?
- use early and least-intrusive interventions as an initial response to low-level disruption?
Some key points to pull out about the teachers:
- they stay calm throughout all of the interactions: they’re able to self-regulate their own emotions even though they may have felt frustrated
- they use non-verbal signals consistently so that pupils are able to recognise them
- the Year 5 teacher has taught the pupils some techniques, such as breathing, which they can then draw on when a pupil needs it
- the Year 8 teacher has already established some clear classroom rules and expectations which they’re able to remind pupils of when they’re not self-regulating, without making it personal
What will you do in your classroom? (3 to 5 minutes)
ECTs should think about what they’ve learned in this session and how they’ll use this in their classrooms.