Duration: 11:44
About the teachers
Niall Heron has taught Foundation to Year 6 in metropolitan contexts for 18 years.
Kellie Nicholson has been teaching Years 7 to 12 in metropolitan contexts for 20 years.
Emma Cheers has been teaching for 6 years. She has experience in both rural and metropolitan contexts, teaching primary school students in Years 2 to 5.
Transcript
[On-screen text] Viewer advice: First Nations people should be aware that it is possible that some individuals depicted in this video may have since passed away.
Niall Heron, classroom teacher, Briar Road Public School: A deliberate pause is when you stop teaching. You stop moving around the classroom. Your voice is off and you're scanning every individual face in the room.
Kellie Nicholson, Head of Department, Science & IT, Woodcrest State College: A deliberate pause is an opportunity for me to gauge where the students are at, to make any corrections or reiterate any instructions if I need to, and it also gives me an opportunity to allow them some processing time to uptake what it is that is expected of them and to enact that.
Niall Heron: It draws the students' attention to me as the teacher and it makes them aware that I'm aware of them in the room.
Emma Cheers, classroom teacher, Renmark Primary School: I would use a deliberate pause after giving an instruction to the whole class. I might use it with a child after giving a behaviour correction and giving them time to think about what they need to do next.
Niall Heron: Deliberate pause after a quick correction of behaviour is just to make sure the student knows that I've been watching them, and that behaviour is stopped, then we move on. After instructions, it's to make sure the children get a bit of processing time to have a think about what's been said so they can then act on it.
Emma Cheers: Using a deliberate pause ensures that learning time is maximised and the flow of the lesson continues. It also allows students to get organised and set up for learning without impacting on others. It's important to pause long enough to allow students to process information to reduce cognitive load and to ensure that students actually understand the instruction.
What was step number 3, please? Sophia.
Student: Crunch&Sip at your desk.
Emma Cheers: Crunch&Sip at your desk. Beautiful, let's have a think. The 3 things we need to do. As always, moving calmly around the room and tucking our chair in so people can move. Go.
I don't want to send them off too early where they might have misunderstood the instruction or they might not have processed what they need to do, so pausing allows time to make sure that they can be successful and understand the requirements. I would use a deliberate long pause to gain all students' attention and make sure that they are focusing on me.
This, this, this, this —— Waiting for a few people's eyes —— Thank you.
When using a deliberate pause to correct behaviour, I've noticed that students are able to take time to reflect upon what they might have done. It also allows them to really, truly think about the expected behaviour and what process they need to carry out to demonstrate that.
Thank you for your eye contact. Well done. And hands down. Okay. Oh, I've lost a few people —— I'm going to give you 5 more minutes.
If a deliberate pause does not have the desired effect, I would then move to a verbal cue.
This. Thank you —— Just waiting for one person. Thank you. Okay. Next one —— is some extras ...
With a deliberate pause, you might use other skills, such as a look, a gesture or circulating to that particular student.
So we're going to learn about an artist called Keith Haring and we're going to do some research —— And then we are going to look at some examples of his artwork and do some of our own drawing.
Using a deliberate pause has impacted my teaching because I've noticed that students are having that time to think about what they need to do and they're actually being more successful when carrying out the instructions. I've also noticed that it can reduce that cognitive load, and students aren't as overwhelmed when going off to complete their instructions.
Kellie Nicholson: A deliberate pause allows me to provide a non-verbal correction to a specific student or group of students whilst not impacting on the other students that are already engaged in the learning activity.
Three … two … one … equipment down, eyes on me, thank you. Alright, excellent job with the dissection, we're now going to start our cleanup routine —— Thank you, girls. So in regards to cleaning up your biological material ...
The occasions that I would use a deliberate pause is mainly when gaining student attention. I find that the use of a deliberate pause allows me to make eye contact with students around the room to ensure that they're all following my instructions and meeting my expectations. The pause then allows me to emphasise any student that isn't meeting that expectation and provide a non-verbal correction.
Three … two … one —— Laptops at 45, thank you. Good job, guys, well done.
In occasions where I feel it's necessary to use a long pause to gain student attention, it enables me to make eye contact with the student in question, but it also ensures that the rest of the class understand why the pause is so long and shows them that that behaviour isn't meeting expectation and that it will be addressed.
So a reminder of our expectations today —— Thank you —— We don't sit down during an experiment, so please make sure those stools are pushed in and out of the way.
It's important to use a deliberate pause after correcting a student's behaviour to give them an opportunity to re-engage and to make more positive choices to meet the expectations.
No sitting, no running, keeping those glasses on our face —— Thank you.
If a deliberate pause did not have a desired effect, I would firstly follow it up with a gesture. And if the gesture didn't work, then I would use a verbal correction.
What's a way that we could write that a bit shorter?
Student: Blade safety. Be careful with knives.
Kellie Nicholson: Can we show some respect to the person talking, please? —— Thank you.
Student: Be careful with ...
Kellie Nicholson: It's important to pause long enough to allow students to process information to ensure that they fully understand what's being asked of them, and to give them an opportunity to get my attention and to ask clarifying questions if required.
And then when you think that you've done all that you can do, put your hand up, and I'll come and check —— Any questions about that, Kian.
The impact of not pausing after giving an instruction to students, I find that students will be more likely to become disruptive if they don't understand what's being asked of them, is more likely to lead to some unwanted behaviour across the class, and I have to reset the class as a result. The positive responses that I've noticed when using a deliberate pause is that students are highly likely to re-engage with the expectations and to make positive choices.
Niall Heron: It's important to pause to let students process information, to allow them to assimilate what's gone in, be it a learning point or a set of instructions, so then they can then act effectively on what you've told them.
Okay, we're going to look at some word morphology, lids on your textas just now, hands all free —— Thank you, guys. Okay, we're going to revise ...
A deliberate pause helps behaviour and keeps the flow of the lesson going by not having to stop, draw attention to one particular child. You can quickly look around, rest your gaze on a student, behaviour is quickly corrected, and then you can move on with the flow of your lesson. I use a deliberate pause after I've given a countdown, for example. If I want to correct a behaviour and I also give a deliberate pause after I've given a set of instructions. I use a long pause to gain all students' attention, to make sure every student in the room has stopped what they're doing, and they're looking and they're listening.
Beautiful, guys. Listen ...
It's important to give a long pause when you're emphasising a point if dealing with an aspect of behaviour to give that child time to correct it, to make sure it's stopped, and they are engaged with you again before you can then move on and teach.
So sometimes, if it wasn't too far away —— Thank you. They walked up to it, turned it over with their feet.
I will read it first to help you with vocabulary and reading. Then you're going to write. We're not going to do that just now though, guys, you're going to put your textas back down because I'm going to read first, you're going to track with me, thank you —— Beautiful. I'm going to read it first, track with me.
If a deliberate pause has not had the desired effect, I would then resort to a calm verbal correction for that child.
Remember back when we did our persuasive text about child labour? You'd have some facts in there. Kazi —— That's fine, remember to pop that hand up when you stand up to get out of your chair, okay? Thank you. When you did your persuasive text ...
With a deliberate pause, other skills I might employ at that point is if I can use a quick non-verbal correction to quickly minimise disruption. You could also have a look at the student who is doing a behaviour that's not desirable in the class as well. That gives them time to fix the behaviour so you can move on.
Guys, I don't mind if you're doing 3 before me, just make sure that conversation is essential, like it is over there just now. Make sure it's exactly about a little thing you need to help with …
Deliberate pause has impacted my teaching by allowing me to quickly move on to my teaching, quickly move on after giving instructions, knowing that the students have assimilated what I need them to do. It's also allowed me to minimise smaller behaviours really quickly without needing to escalate them.
[On-screen text] Deliberate pause: Recap of elements for success
- Sustain a deliberate period of silence.
- Combine this with scanning for students’ responses.
- Follow this with another strategy if the deliberate pause did not achieve the desired outcome.
Acknowledgements
- Briar Road Public School, New South Wales
- Renmark Primary School, South Australia
- Woodcrest State College, Queensland
- Xavier Catholic College, Northern Territory
Keywords: student engagement, disruption, disruptive behaviour