Introduction: Establishing a Friendly Tone

Friendly is the first of the five perspectives of Friendly and Fair Teaching (FFT).

Figure 7: Estabishing a Friendly Tone (overview)

Friendliness is a prerequisite and an essential element of your approach to teaching. By maintaining a calm attitude—even when addressing a pupil about behaviour or commitment—you not only build a good relationship with your pupils but also create calm in the classroom.

Pupils mirror the behaviour of their teacher while at the same time exploring boundaries. It is therefore important that you set the tone. When you present yourself in a friendly manner, you will notice that most pupils adopt this attitude. When a pupil tests a boundary, you reinforce positive behaviour calmly and systematically. In this way you consistently model the behaviour you expect. See ‘Behaviour Management Strategies‘

Figure 10: Most pupils adopt your behaviour

With this approach, friendliness is not a personality trait but a professional choice. It is a deliberate attitude that promotes calm and cooperation in the classroom.

If you manage to remain friendly while resisting the impulses of the child (see the quotation from Meirieu above) and address pupils who need it on behaviour and commitment, tension disappears from the lesson and the learning content becomes central.

What do you learn in this perspective? What changes in the classroom?

This perspective consists of four modules that help you apply friendliness in a practical way in your teaching:

1. In ‘Setting the Standard of Behaviour’ you read how important it is to approach pupils positively at all times, even in challenging situations.
2. In ‘Communicating through Gestures as well as Language’ we discuss how you communicate calmly with pupils through gestures. When you combine verbal instructions with non-verbal communication, pupils pay closer attention.
3. In “Managing Emotion” you learn how to calm or energise a group by consciously regulating your emotional expression.
4. In “Building Relations” you read how pupils can build relationships with one another by working together in different roles and combinations. As unfamiliarity disappears, pupils feel safer showing vulnerability. When pupils get to know one another in a positive way, the atmosphere in the group improves and everyone interacts more respectfully.

Friendliness alone is not enough. FFT advises combining friendliness with fairness.

Fairness can be created, among other things, through the Framework and the Triangle. With the Framework you formulate a guiding principle: a clear guideline for behaviour in the classroom. With the Triangle you indicate what you expect from pupils in different learning activities. Without fairness, friendliness can easily turn into excessive leniency, which undermines the lesson. That is why friendliness should always be combined with fairness.