Teacher time and attention: Realigning student participation to build collaboration through values education

When teacher time and attention is directed to manage student misbehaviour teachers need a clear vision and an understanding of the values being promoted in the classroom. There were thirty one year 4/5 students who participated in the year long qualitative study, many of whom behaved in an antisocial manner. The aim of the study was to realign participation to build the prerequisite skills for collaboration. A manual open coding system of emerging patterns and themes (Yin, 2012) was used to analyse the data. The teaching and research elements were based on the principles of good practice for values education with a collaborative focus. Y charts were used to negotiate five class agreements to make values explicit and develop a shared values language. Other data sources included sociograms, lift ups, students’ reflection logs and interviews, teacher observations, weekly class meetings, parent surveys and feedback from other teachers. The outcomes of the research were that students widened their friendship networks based on mutual respect and trust which realigned participation to work effectively with each other. The challenge for teachers is to understand the values communicated to students through classroom practices and develop expertise and confidence to take risks and realign student participation