Explicit Teaching of Behaviours
A Matter of Equity, Values, and Reflective Practice
Classroom management is a major societal issue for teachers and students. It poses a challenge for teachers, difficulties with classroom management can even lead to leaving the profession (Cooper et al., 2017). For students, positive and effective classroom management is crucial because it promotes success and graduation, and helps reduce school dropout (Bissonnette et al., 2020).
Despite its importance, classroom management is sometimes mistakenly reduced to managing problematic behaviors and applying punishments. Punishments involve giving the student a negative consequence that is unrelated to either the misbehaviour or to the positive behaviour that should be developed. For example, copying a text after making a mess in a classroom does not help the student learn a more appropriate behaviour. In this article, classroom management is not limited to handling misbehaviour, and even less to punishments. It is defined as a set of professional practices implemented to create conditions conducive to learning, help students develop social skills, and prevent and manage misbehaviour (Bocquillon et al., 2025; Evertson & Weinstein, 2006; Gaudreau, 2024). Classroom management interventions therefore aim to establish an environment that supports learning, while also explicitly teaching students behaviours that allow them to embody values recognized as important by society, such as solidarity, respect, and cooperation. This is a matter of equity because not all students have the opportunity to learn these types of behaviours outside of school.
The following text briefly presents the scientific research underpinning the explicit teaching of behaviours and how this pedagogical approach supports equity. Next, it offers practical strategies for explicitly teaching behaviours and encouraging student reflection. Finally, the text explores how explicit teaching can support teachers’ reflective practice.
The Foundations of Explicit Teaching of Behaviours and Its Equitable Nature
Since the concept of classroom management is broad, this article focuses on professional classroom management practices identified through field research, without excluding other classroom management approaches. Based on observations and experiments in classrooms and schools, researchers have highlighted a set of preventive and corrective strategies that increase student engagement in tasks and/or reduce misbehaviour. Preventive strategies are implemented before misbehaviour occurs. They aim to encourage positive behaviours and create an environment conducive to learning. Corrective strategies, on the other hand, allow educators to manage misbehaviour when it arises. Explicit teaching of behaviours is one of the preventive strategies identified by this research (e.g., Bissonnette et al., 2016; Bocquillon et al., 2025). Furthermore, explicit teaching of behaviours is a key component of Positive Behavioural Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a system based on a set of preventive and corrective strategies implemented both in the classroom and school-wide. The effectiveness of PBIS in improving school climate and academic outcomes, as well as reducing tardiness, absenteeism, suspensions, and major behavioural issues, has been demonstrated by numerous studies (e.g., Pas et al., 2019).
Explicitly teaching behaviours allows educational teams to shift their perspective: behaviours are no longer seen solely through the lens of managing misbehaviour, but as a legitimate subject of instruction. This is essential and contributes to equitable education, because not all students have the opportunity to acquire certain positive behaviours outside of school. This is especially important for students with behavioural difficulties, who are at the highest risk of dropping out before graduation (Bissonnette et al., 2020). Moreover, explicit teaching makes it possible to teach students positive behaviours that embody values such as solidarity and responsibility, thereby contributing to the development of tomorrow’s citizens while fostering their reflection.
Practical Approaches for Explicitly Teaching Behaviours
In our latest book (Bocquillon et al., 2025), we propose a three-step approach to explicitly teach positive behaviours, drawing on the work of several authors (e.g., Bissonnette et al., 2020; Center on PBIS, 2025; MSPBS, 2019).
First, the teacher selects three core values for the class (e.g., respect, responsibility, solidarity). Choosing these values is crucial because they form the foundation of explicit behaviour instruction. In schools implementing PBIS, these values are chosen for the entire school and taught across different school settings. In some cases, these values can be selected through a discussion with students about which values and behaviours are necessary in the classroom to ensure that every student can learn (Center on PBIS, 2025). With younger students, the teacher selects the values and explains them in terms that are easy for children to understand (for example: “Solidarity means helping friends and having them help us too”).
Second, the teacher creates a “behaviour matrix” (Table 1). This is a two-dimensional table used to identify, for each key activity, the expected behaviours in relation to the class values. The rows of the table list the class values, and the columns list the usual classroom activities. At the intersection of each row and column, the teacher writes behaviour expectations in a positive form and in the first person singular (a maximum of 3 to 5 per cell). For example, the statement “When it’s my classmate’s turn to speak, I stay quiet, look at them, and listen” is written in the first person because it is more personal and empowering for the student, and it is phrased positively to describe the expected behaviour, avoiding lists of prohibitions (e.g., “do not talk”) which do not help students understand what is expected of them (Bissonnette et al., 2016). Once the behaviour matrix is created, the teacher prepares posters that visually and positively present the values and expected behaviours. These posters can be created with student participation.
Table 1: Generic Example of a Behaviour Matrix
It is important to emphasize that after these first two steps, the teacher has not yet explicitly taught the behaviours. At this stage, expectations have been clarified, but a third step is needed, dedicated to the explicit teaching of behaviours. To do this, the teacher implements the five stages of an explicit instruction lesson:
- During the opening of the lesson, the teacher presents the values and behavioural expectations to the students and explains why they are important;
- During modeling, the teacher demonstrates and describes examples of positive behaviours that reflect each value, as well as counterexamples (unwanted behaviours). This can be done with humor and often provides an opportunity for students to reflect on some of their own behaviours. It is important that the teacher carries out both aspects of modeling: the demonstration – physically performing the behaviours – and the verbal description of these behaviours, thinking aloud as if using a “loudspeaker” for their thoughts;
- During guided practice, students practice implementing examples of expected behaviours (not counterexamples). This can be done through role-playing activities, during which the teacher checks students’ understanding and provides feedback on their behaviours;
- Independent practice takes place daily when students are expected to demonstrate positive behaviours in the target contexts. At this stage, it is sometimes necessary to re-teach the expected behaviours to students with behavioural difficulties (differentiation);
- During the closing of the lesson, the teacher organizes a synthesis with the students, during which they state what they have retained about the behavioural expectations and the reasons why they are important. This is a reflective activity focused on values and expected behaviours.
Explicit teaching also makes it possible to implement corrective interventions that differ from punishment and encourage student reflection. For example, the “Show Me Five Students” strategy involves asking a student who has misbehaved to point out five classmates who are demonstrating the expected behaviour and explain how they are doing so. This activity encourages the student to reflect on their own behaviour, the expected behaviours, and the class values (MSPBS, 2019).
Explicit Teaching: An Approach to Support Teachers’ Reflective Practice
Without excluding other approaches of reflective practice – given how broad this concept is – we propose a tool to support teachers’ reflective analysis (Bocquillon et al., 2019, 2025), along with different observation grids to help them closely examine their classroom management practices (or those of their colleagues) (Ibid., 2024, 2025; Delbart et al., 2023a, 2023b). Indeed, every teacher reflects on their practices with the aim of improving them, but the concept of reflective practice has been conceptualized in various ways, which can make it difficult to implement. The tool (Bocquillon et al., 2019, 2025), developed from the initial work of Derobertmasure (2012), includes specific questions (e.g., “What actions did I take?”, “How do I justify my actions?”, “What could I do next time?”) that teachers can ask themselves to analyze their practices in depth. These questions guide them through three main types of “reflective processes” (ways of thinking) to describe their practice, take a step back from it, and look toward the future by identifying possible areas for improvement.
To enrich their reflective analysis, teachers can also film themselves in class and closely observe their practices using observation grids, such as those mentioned above, which allow them to observe preventive and corrective professional classroom management practices in great detail. For example, in a previous study (Bocquillon, 2020) and in training programs, the use of these observation grids helped (future) teachers realize that they tended not to designate which students should answer their questions. This could lead to the following phenomenon: only a few volunteers participated, while the other students were not engaged in the task. It also enabled them to develop alternatives supported by research, such as designation strategies aimed at involving as many students as possible and reducing student misbehaviour. The use of these observation and reflective analysis tools has also allowed teachers, in the context of in-service training, to analyze their classroom management interventions and their students’ behaviours by answering questions such as: “Are my classroom management interventions mostly preventive or corrective?”, “Did I acknowledge this student’s positive behaviours, or did I only react to misbehaviours?”, “Do my interventions align with strategies supported by research, and are they adapted to my context and my students’ needs?”, etc.
Conclusion
This article has shown how explicit teaching can, grounded in values and with an equity focus, support students in adopting positive behaviours and encourage their reflection. It has also demonstrated how it can enrich teachers’ reflective practice. Our aim is not to claim that explicit teaching is the only approach to use for classroom management or for reflecting on one’s practice. Rather, it is to present the concrete professional actions associated with this pedagogical approach and what they can offer teachers and students, taking their context into account. It is important to note that explicit behaviour instruction is only one of the preventive strategies identified by research on effective classroom management. This research has highlighted a wide range of preventive and corrective strategies – different from punishment – that provide important avenues for improving classroom management, to the benefit of teachers and the students entrusted to them.
Learn More
For more information on these preventive and corrective strategies, as well as examples of behaviour matrices and lesson plans for explicit behaviour teaching, readers can refer to the following works: Bissonnette et al. (2016); Bocquillon et al. (2025) in French; MSPBS (2019) in English. In our latest book (Bocquillon et al., 2025), teachers will also find a tool to support implementation of the stages of explicit teaching: the teaching-learning scale, a tool consisting of five panels that describe, in student-friendly language, the actions from both the teacher and the students at each stage.
Références
Bissonnette, S., Bouchard, C., Saint-Georges, N., Gauthier, C., & Bocquillon, M. (2020). Un modèle de réponse à l’intervention comportementale : le soutien au comportement positif (SCP). Enfance en difficulté, 7, 131-152. https://doi.org/10.7202/1070386ar
Bissonnette, S., Gauthier, C., & Castonguay, M. (2016). L’enseignement explicite des comportements. Pour une gestion efficace des élèves en classe et dans l’école. Chenelière Éducation.
Bocquillon, M. (2020). Quel dispositif pour la formation initiale des enseignants ? Pour une observation outillée des gestes professionnels en référence au modèle de l’enseignement explicite [Thèse de doctorat, Université de Mons]. https ://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02929814v1
Bocquillon, M., Baco, C., Derobertmasure, A., & Demeuse, M. (2024). Enseignement explicite : pratiques et stratégies. Quand l’enseignant fait la différence. De Boeck Supérieur. https://www.deboecksuperieur.com/livre/9782807361720-enseignement-explicite-pratiques-et-strategies
Bocquillon, M., Baco, C., Derobertmasure, A., & Demeuse, M. (2025). L’enseignement explicite dans ma classe. Des stratégies pour gérer les apprentissages et les comportements. De Boeck Supérieur. https://www.deboecksuperieur.com/livre/9782807372238-l-enseignement-explicite-dans-ma-classe
Bocquillon, M., Derobertmasure, A., & Demeuse, M. (2019). Guide pour analyser des pratiques de classe (4e édition), Working Papers de l’INAS, WP11/2019, 1-85. https://web.umons.ac.be/app/uploads/sites/103/2023/03/WP10_2019_Guide_5_reflexivite-2019-2020.pdf
Center on PBIS. (April 2025). Supporting and Responding to Student’s Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Needs: Evidence-Based Practices for Educators (Version 2). Center on PBIS, University of Oregon. www.pbis.org.
Cooper, J. T., Gage, N. A., Alter, P. J., LaPolla, S., MacSuga-Gage, A. S., & Scott, T. M. (2017). Educators’ self-reported training, use, and perceived effectiveness of evidence-based classroom management practices. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 62(1), 13–24.
Delbart, L., Bocquillon, M., & Derobertmasure, A. (2023a). Guide pour analyser des pratiques de gestion de classe. Working Papers de l’INAS, WP02/2023. https://web.umons.ac.be/app/uploads/sites/103/2023/10/WP02-2023.pdf
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Missouri Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support (MSPBS). (2019). Tier 1 Implementation Guide. https://pbismissouri.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2019-20-SW-PBSTier1-IG-3.26.20.pdf
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