Peer pressure: good or bad?

Peer influences surround us all. These influences can be beneficial yet damaging at times. With children, there is a significant pressure to 'fit in' and mixing in with the wrong crowd can have effects on behaviour.

This issue of Behaviour Matters explains how peer pressure can be used as a positive classroom technique to improve behaviour.

Introduction

No one wants to be seen as the misfit or the one who doesn't quite fit in with the group, so peer pressure can be a major contributory factor in student misbehaviour.

How many times have you said of a student: "He (or she) is fine on their own but when you put him (or her) with the rest of the class...!"

There is no need to be in an educational environment to witness examples of behaviour clearly linked to peer pressure. As individual social skills and emotional literacy develop there is still a very strong tendency for individuals to follow the group. Even the strongest-willed individual will often be carried along by the general behaviour of the group, whatever the situation. In other words, students in a class group may not behave as they do on their own.

When asked how many difficult students there are in a class, some teachers may come up with 10 to 12 names. In other words, they see almost half their group as "difficult" or "challenging". However, when the class group is viewed rationally or by someone not directly involved in the teaching, the number of really difficult students will be somewhere between two and five.

Peer pressure causes many young people to follow their mates in their behaviour patterns, thus swelling the perceived ranks of difficult students in the classroom. There is unrelenting, and often severe, pressure on all students to gain the approval or win the respect of their fellow classmates. The student who can wind up the teacher or make everyone laugh gains considerable "street cred" by their actions and anyone who chooses not to join in leaves themselves open to verbal, and sometimes physical, abuse. It takes an exceptionally strong and confident individual to stand out from the crowd. They are likely to suffer ridicule and may well be bullied by the other group members.

There is no question that it is far easier to deal with unacceptable peer pressure in a generally relaxed and well-behaved classroom, where there are likely to be only a few incidents to deal with. If the majority of the group, however, are constantly misbehaving and the numbers of difficult students really does number between 10 and 15, you really have got a difficult job on your hands.

Practical Tips

Interestingly, positive peer pressure has been used for many years in the classroom, and some behaviour management programmes do promote the technique as a positive strategy. You can readily hear teachers across all age groups using strategies such as:

• "Let's see who is ready. Good, everyone on table three is sitting up ready to go out!" The clear message is that if the group on table three is ready, then the rest of the group should be too.

• "Well done group two, everyone is looking at me and ready to start!" Again the message, although directed at group two, is intended for everyone else.

In both the above examples the teacher is relying on the students wanting praise for complying with instruction. Those who are complying receive the praise and peer pressure encourages the rest to follow.

Faced with negative peer pressure among the students, teachers can become defensive, stressed and generally panicky. You can find yourself being "hooked" by distraction techniques or shouting at students in an effort to control the situation. The number of students involved will quickly increase. The original four to six ringleaders will be joined by the rest of the class, who are eager to be seen as part of the group.

There are several tactics which you can employ that are both proactive and reactive.

Proactive

• Consider restructuring your classroom. Rearrange the seating and ensure that equipment is easily accessible. It might be viewed as unfair to set difficult students next to those who are well behaved, but as a short-term strategy it is far better than allowing the misbehaviour to continue.

• Practise and continually rehearse your own styles of approach until your own behaviour becomes planned, structured and controlled.

• Take a long hard look at your styles of presentation, lesson timings and what you are expecting the students to undertake.

• Revisit your class-wide behaviour/discipline plan.

Reactive

• Be positive, focus on those behaving and following instructions.

• Use your class behaviour plan consistently and do not be afraid to impose class-wide sanctions.

• Have one-to-one meetings with the most difficult students. Do this when you are calm and have planned the conversation, preferably away from an audience.

• When working with the students ensure that you are among the whole group, not seated behind your desk, or working with the "easier" students.

• Use first names when scanning the classroom. The "hot" teacher will constantly be looking for opportunities to use age-appropriate praise.

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This e-bulletin issue was first published in November 2007

About the author: Dave Stott is the author of Behaviour Matters. He has nearly 30 years' teaching experience including seven years as a headteacher level. He has worked in mainstream, special and Local Authority Behaviour Support Services, and is now a successful consultant and trainer.