More Northside Teachers Trained in PAX Good Behaviour Game
On 26th and 27th September, 33 teachers from our partner schools in Dublin 5 and 17 gathered in the Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel for two days of training in the PAX Good Behaviour Game (PAX GBG) with programme creator Dr Dennis Embry from the PAXIS Institute. PAX GBG is a classroom based game to help teach children self-regulation skills. Whilst it isn’t a classroom management programme per se, a body of international research going back over 30 years has shown it can significantly reduce disruptive and off-task behaviours in classrooms and can help teachers claw back up to one hour of teaching and learning time each day currently lost to disruptive / unwanted behaviours.
Preparing for Life has been working with the PAXIS Institute and partners in the Midlands Area Partnership to introduce the programme to Irish classrooms since 2015. From January to May 2015, we carried out the first ever pilot of the PAX Good Behaviour Game in Ireland. 21 first and second class teachers from DEIS schools in Dublin and the Midlands took part in the pilot which was evaluated by Prof Mark Morgan and Dr Margaret O’Donnell from St Patrick’s College in Drumcondra. The evaluation results were impressive:
- A 43% reduction in off-task behaviours across the 21 participating classrooms
- Highly significant reductions in the incidence of hyperactivity and emotional symptoms for children and a highly significant increase in pro-social behaviours (as measured by the SDQ)
- Almost one third of children reported as displaying challenging behaviours at the start of the study were reported as showing behaviours within the normal range after 12 weeks.
- Qualitative feedback from teachers also demonstrated the positivity generated by PAX GBG in their classrooms. Classrooms have become calmer, children are taking positive control of their behaviour and teacher / pupil relationships have been positively impacted.
This latest round of training now brings the total number of Dublin teachers trained in how to implement this impressive model to over 90 with a further 90 teachers also trained in DEIS schools in the Midlands. Speaking at the training, Sinead Murphy, Communications and External Relations Manager with Preparing for Life commented that, "We are delighted to be able to offer PAX GBG training to even more teachers working in our partner schools. Since our first round of training in January 2015, teachers have heard about the research results and have seen first hand the impact it has had in their colleagues' classrooms and they are very keen to receive training in the model themselves. Some of our partner schools now have almost all of their teachers trained in the model and are planning to implement the programme on a whole-school basis."
