Punish them or engage them? Behaviour at school study: Report Overview

This report presents the initial findings from an ARC Linkage Grant, titled ‘Punish them or engage them? Identifying and addressing productive and unproductive student behaviours in South Australian schools’, more commonly referred to as the Behaviour at School Study (BaSS). The study was conducted in 2011. A full technical report underpinning this overview is available at www.bass.edu.au . A central theoretical premise guiding this study is that engagement in learning directly influences student behaviour. We know that there is a well-established link between student engagement, student behaviour and academic achievement. In this study, therefore, we use the terms ‘productive’ and ‘unproductive’ behaviours rather than the more commonly used terms in the literature of ‘appropriate’ and ‘inappropriate’ behaviours to reflect the link between behaviour and teaching and learning.