Learning behaviours are explicitly taught
Attention, listening, participation, and persistence are not assumed. They are taught through modelling, practice, and repetition.
Many pupils are respectful and well-intentioned — yet still struggle to sustain attention, participate confidently, or persist when tasks become challenging. In EBTD, these are treated as learnable behaviours, not personal traits. If we want pupils to behave like learners, we have to teach them how.
Schools often describe the behaviours they want (“listen”, “focus”, “try hard”, “participate”), but pupils rarely receive direct teaching on how those behaviours look in practice. The result is predictable: adults feel pupils are choosing not to learn, while pupils feel they are being judged for not knowing what to do.
Learning behaviours become dependable when adults define them clearly, model them visibly, practise them deliberately, and revisit them until they are normal.
What this foundation is — and what it is not
This foundation is not about demanding compliance or assuming “good pupils” already know how to learn. It is about teaching the behaviours that make learning possible: attending, listening, participating, persisting, and responding to feedback.
It also avoids a common trap: behaviour systems that focus only on what not to do, rather than building a shared picture of what learning looks like.
Leader focus and classroom focus
Learning behaviours become stable when adults share the same definitions, practise the same language, and reinforce the same expectations.
Leader focus: making learning behaviours teachable
- Define a small set of learning behaviours the school will explicitly teach (not a long list).
- Ensure staff share common language and examples (what it looks like / sounds like).
- Protect time for staff to practise modelling and feedback, not just “tell pupils the rules”.
- Ensure adaptations support participation without lowering shared expectations.
- Expect revisiting: after holidays, after exams, and when routines drift.
Classroom focus: modelling, practice, and feedback
- Model learning behaviours explicitly (show it, narrate it, then practise it).
- Use short rehearsals: how to listen, how to respond, how to work independently, how to ask for help.
- Give feedback on behaviour as learning (“That’s listening”, “That’s persistence”), not only on outcomes.
- Use predictable talk routines so participation feels safe rather than risky.
- Re-teach behaviour after disruption rather than escalating conflict.
When learning behaviours are taught well, you correct less because pupils know what “good” looks like.
What this looks like in Bangladeshi classrooms
In many Bangladeshi classrooms, pupils are expected to be respectful — and they often are. But respectful behaviour is not the same as learning behaviour. In large classes, small uncertainties can quickly become noise: pupils talk because they are unsure what to do, copy because they are unsure what “good effort” looks like, or disengage because participation feels risky.
Teaching learning behaviour explicitly supports equity: it reduces reliance on home advantage, confidence, or prior exposure to “school norms”.
Common myths to challenge
Concrete example
A vignette that shows behaviour teaching, not behaviour policing.
A teacher wants more pupils to answer in full sentences, but the same confident voices dominate. They introduce a simple participation routine: a sentence stem (“I think… because…”) and a predictable partner-talk sequence. They model it once, practise it briefly, then reinforce it repeatedly with calm feedback.
Over time, participation widens. Noise reduces because pupils have something structured to do and say. Talk becomes a learning habit, not a gamble.
Making sense of the wider EBTD ecosystem
This foundation becomes significantly easier when the wider ecosystem is used well. Not as extra work, but as lenses that sharpen teaching and reduce guesswork.
The goal is simple: define learning behaviours clearly, model them consistently, practise them deliberately, and sustain them through professional learning.
Classroom Talk: participation as a routine
Use this to make talk feel safe, predictable, and cognitively useful.
- How will pupils rehearse answers before speaking publicly?
- Which talk moves will you explicitly model and practise?
EBTD Framework for Great Teaching: behaviours that enable learning
Use this to connect behaviour teaching to instruction, checking, and practice.
- Which behaviours make explanations land (attention, listening, note-taking)?
- Which behaviours make practice stick (effort, persistence, self-checking)?
Deliberate Practice: teaching behaviour like a skill
Use this to turn “expectations” into practised habits.
- DEFINE one learning behaviour to improve.
- MODEL it clearly, then PRACTISE briefly and often.
- REFINE and REFLECT until it becomes normal.
Foundations of Effective Professional Development: sustaining adult habits
Use this to prevent drift and support consistency across staff.
- Clarity: define what the behaviour looks like.
- Commitment: support staff without blame.
- Craft: practise modelling and feedback.
- Consistency: revisit until stable.
Explore the EBTD Foundations of Effective Professional Development (Bangladesh)
Early Years: self-regulation begins with routine and modelling
Use this to see how learning behaviours develop, not appear.
Explore the Early Years framework
Classroom Talk (Early Years)
BRIDGE and implementation: making change stick
Use these to diagnose friction points and sustain improvement.
Explore BRIDGE: Attendance & Behaviour
Explore Effective Implementation
Leadership Behaviours: coherence without compliance theatre
Use this to align adult practice and reduce “teacher-by-teacher” variation.
Explore other foundations in Structures for Learning
Routines create predictability, and predictable classrooms make learning behaviours teachable.
Synthesis
Learning behaviours are not assumed; they are taught.
When adults define behaviours clearly, model them consistently, practise them deliberately, and reinforce them calmly, pupils gain the conditions they need to participate, persist, and think. This is not a behaviour add-on. It is the work of teaching.
The aim is not perfect compliance. The aim is predictable participation — so more pupils can learn more, more often.