Ellis and Tod gave us the theory. The EEF gave us the evidence. The DfE told us to build a behaviour curriculum. Here are the 8 observable learning behaviours that tie it all together, with classroom strategies from Reception to sixth form.
A quiet classroom is not necessarily a learning classroom. A learner can sit still, answer when asked, and complete every task, yet still not develop the learning behaviours that make independent progress possible. Ellis and Tod (2018) make this distinction the foundation of their model: behaviours for learning describe how learners approach the act of learning itself, through three relationships: with themselves, with others, and with the curriculum. These behaviours are teachable skills, not personality traits.
The Department for Education's 2024 guidance now expects every school to teach a "behaviour curriculum", one that explicitly names and teaches the behaviours learners need in order to learn. The challenge for most schools is practical: what exactly should that curriculum contain? The eight learning behaviours framework provides a ready-made answer. It translates the theory from Ellis and Tod, the evidence from the EEF, and the policy expectations from the DfE into eight specific, observable, teachable behaviours that work across every key stage.
Ellis and Tod gave us the theory. The EEF gave us the evidence. The DfE told us to build a behaviour curriculum. The eight learning behaviours provide the ready-made framework that schools need to put all three together. This article sets out the complete framework: what behaviours for learning are, why they must be explicitly taught, how to observe them systematically, how to teach them at every key stage, the mistakes schools commonly make, and how to build a whole-school approach that satisfies both Ofsted and the DfE.
Behaviours for learning (B4L) describe how learners approach the act of learning itself. Ellis and Tod (2018) built their model around three relationships. The relationship with self covers confidence, motivation, and emotional readiness. The relationship with others involves collaboration, communication, and the ability to learn alongside peers. The relationship with the curriculum concerns a learner's willingness and capacity to access what is being taught.
Understanding these three relationships is important because it reveals where the difficulty lies for individual learners. A learner who has strong relationships with peers and curriculum but poor self-confidence (relationship with self) needs a different intervention from a learner who is confident and motivated but cannot collaborate (relationship with others). The three-relationships model prevents schools from applying a one-size-fits-all approach to what is, by definition, a varied set of challenges.
This model marks a clear departure from traditional behaviour management, which is largely reactive. Behaviour management responds to disruption after it occurs. Behaviours for learning are proactive: they name the specific dispositions learners need and teach those dispositions directly. The distinction matters because a school can have excellent behaviour management, with silent corridors and orderly classrooms, while still having learners who avoid challenge, copy rather than think, and disengage the moment supervision drops.
The DfE's 2024 "Behaviour in Schools" guidance formalises this shift. It introduces the concept of a "behaviour curriculum" in which schools define the behaviours they expect, teach them explicitly, and practise them routinely. This is not an optional add-on. The guidance positions a behaviour curriculum alongside the academic curriculum as a core responsibility of school leadership. Schools are expected to identify what successful behaviour looks like, not simply list what is prohibited.
Ofsted's 2025 framework reinforces this by evaluating how well schools establish a culture where learning behaviours are part of daily practice, not simply rules on a wall. The framework uses "Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines" as one of its evaluation areas, and inspectors look for evidence that behaviours are taught, modelled, and practised rather than merely expected and punished when absent.
A Year 5 teacher in a Birmingham primary school stopped using her behaviour chart entirely. Instead, she introduced a weekly focus on one learning behaviour, beginning with "Staying Engaged". She taught learners what sustained attention looks like during independent work: eyes on the task, re-reading when stuck, raising a hand only after trying two strategies. Within half a term, the time learners spent on-task during independent writing rose from 12 minutes to 22 minutes per session. She did not manage behaviour differently. She taught it.
The eight learning behaviours provide a structured framework that covers the cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions of learning. Each behaviour is observable, teachable, and relevant across subjects and key stages. Together, they form a practical behaviour curriculum that schools can adopt, adapt, and assess. Ellis and Tod (2018) argue that behaviours for learning sit at the intersection of their three relationships. The eight behaviours below map across all three, giving teachers a granular tool for both teaching and observation.
1. Learning Together. Learners work with others to build understanding. They listen actively, share ideas, challenge each other's thinking, and build on contributions rather than simply taking turns. Mercer (2000) identifies this kind of interaction as "exploratory talk", where reasoning happens collaboratively. This is distinct from group work where learners divide tasks and work in parallel. Observable indicator: learners ask each other "Why do you think that?" rather than waiting for the teacher to validate answers. In a Year 6 history lesson, Learning Together looks like two learners debating whether the evidence supports one interpretation or another, not one learner reading aloud while others copy.
2. Staying Engaged. Learners sustain their attention and persist with tasks even when the work is demanding. This is not the same as sitting quietly. A learner staring out of the window in silence is compliant, not engaged. Staying Engaged involves active cognitive investment: re-reading a paragraph that did not make sense, returning to a problem after a wrong answer, or choosing to extend a task rather than declaring it "done". Observable indicator: learners return to a task after a distraction without prompting. A learner who drops their pencil, picks it up, and immediately re-engages with their writing is demonstrating this behaviour. A learner who drops their pencil and starts talking to a neighbour is not.
3. Being Creative. Learners generate original ideas, make unusual connections, and approach problems from multiple angles. Creativity here means cognitive flexibility, not arts and crafts. It involves the willingness to take intellectual risks, to propose ideas that might be wrong, and to combine knowledge from different domains. Observable indicator: learners suggest an alternative method or solution that was not modelled by the teacher. In a Year 4 maths lesson, Being Creative might look like a learner who, rather than following the standard algorithm, draws a diagram to represent the problem and arrives at the same answer through a different route.
4. Thinking It Through. Learners analyse, evaluate, and reason carefully before responding. They consider evidence, weigh options, and avoid impulsive answers. This behaviour underpins higher-order thinking and prevents the surface-level responses that dominate classrooms where speed is rewarded over depth. Observable indicator: learners can explain why they rejected an alternative answer. When a Year 8 learner says "I thought about saying X, but the evidence in paragraph three suggests Y is more accurate," they are Thinking It Through.
5. Building Resilience. Learners respond to difficulty with persistence rather than avoidance. Dweck (2006) frames this as a growth mindset orientation, where challenge is seen as an opportunity to improve rather than as evidence of failure. Building Resilience does not mean ignoring frustration or pretending that difficult work is easy. It means developing strategies for managing difficulty: taking a breath, re-reading the question, trying a different approach, or asking a specific question rather than a general "I don't get it." In a Year 4 maths lesson, a teacher sets a multi-step problem designed so the first attempt produces an incorrect answer. When learners hit the wall, she teaches them to say "I haven't got this yet" rather than "I can't do it." Observable indicator: when stuck, learners try a different strategy rather than stopping or asking for help immediately.
6. Communicating Clearly. Learners express their thinking with precision, using subject-specific vocabulary and complete explanations. Alexander (2020) argues that oracy and classroom dialogue are not soft skills but cognitive tools that shape how learners think. When a learner is required to articulate their reasoning aloud, the act of speaking forces them to organise their thinking. Observable indicator: learners use sentence stems like "I think this because..." and "The evidence suggests..." without prompting. In a Year 2 science lesson, a learner who says "The plant grew taller because it got more light" is communicating more clearly than one who says "It got bigger."
7. Making Connections. Learners link new learning to prior knowledge and transfer understanding across contexts. This is what schema theory describes as integration: new information is attached to existing mental structures rather than stored in isolation. Making Connections transforms isolated facts into networked understanding. Observable indicator: a learner says "This is like when we..." and identifies a genuine conceptual link to a previous topic. A Year 9 learner studying the causes of World War One who says "This reminds me of the alliance system we studied in the Cold War unit" is making a meaningful connection. Without this behaviour, learning remains fragmented: each lesson is an island, disconnected from what came before and what comes next.
8. Reflecting on Learning. Learners think about their own thinking. Flavell (1979) calls this metacognition, the ability to monitor, evaluate, and regulate one's own learning processes. Reflecting on Learning goes beyond "What did you learn today?" It involves learners identifying what strategies worked, what they found difficult, and what they would do differently next time. Observable indicator: at the end of a lesson, learners identify not just what they learned but how they learned it and what they would change. This behaviour is the engine of self-improvement. Without it, learners repeat the same mistakes and remain dependent on the teacher for direction.
A common assumption is that learning behaviours develop naturally as learners mature. They do not. Ellis and Tod (2018) are clear on this point: behaviours for learning are skills, and like all skills, they require instruction, modelling, practice, and feedback. A learner who has never been taught how to sustain attention during a 20-minute task will not learn to do so simply by being told to concentrate.
Consider what happens when behaviours are not taught. A Year 7 learner arrives at secondary school unable to sustain independent work for more than five minutes. Their primary school may have managed this through constant teacher proximity and short tasks. At secondary, where lesson lengths increase and teacher ratios decrease, the learner's lack of "Staying Engaged" as an internalised behaviour becomes a barrier to every subject. The content is accessible. The behaviour is not.
The evidence supports this. The EEF's 2021 metacognition and self-regulation guidance report identifies explicit teaching of learning behaviours as one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost strategies available to schools. When learners are taught to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning, the average impact is seven additional months of progress. This is not a marginal gain. It is one of the largest effect sizes in education research, comparable to or exceeding the impact of one-to-one tutoring.
The EEF's six recommendations for improving behaviour in schools reinforce this further. Recommendation two states explicitly: "Teach learning behaviours alongside managing misbehaviour." Schools that focus only on sanctions and rewards for conduct are addressing half the picture. The other half, the proactive teaching of how to learn, is where the largest gains lie.
Ofsted's 2025 framework now evaluates whether schools create a culture where learning behaviours are explicitly taught, not merely expected. Inspectors look for evidence that staff model these behaviours, that learners can articulate what good learning looks like, and that the school's approach goes beyond reward and sanction systems. A school where teachers can name the learning behaviours they are developing, and where learners can describe what those behaviours look like in practice, is a school that will meet this standard.
The practical implication is clear. Schools already invest significant time in teaching academic content: phonics, times tables, essay structure. They rarely invest equivalent time in teaching the behaviours that make academic learning possible. A learner who cannot sustain attention, work collaboratively, or recover from mistakes will struggle with every subject regardless of how well the content is taught. Cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988) tells us that when learners lack the behavioural skills to manage a task, their working memory is consumed by managing themselves rather than processing the content. Teaching the behaviour frees up cognitive capacity for the learning.
In a Reception class in Leeds, the teacher introduced "Learning Together" through structured pair talk. Each morning, learners practised sitting knee-to-knee, making eye contact, and taking turns. The teacher used a puppet called "Listening Leo" to model the behaviour. She did not assume that four-year-olds would naturally know how to listen to a partner. She broke the skill into components, taught each one, and provided daily practice. Within six weeks, the proportion of learners who could sustain a paired conversation for 30 seconds rose from 35% to 78%. The teacher had not waited for social maturity. She taught the behaviour explicitly, and the learners learned it.
If behaviours for learning are to be taught, they must also be observed and assessed. This requires moving beyond surface-level judgements. Coe et al. (2014) warn that many common proxies for learning, such as learners being busy, being compliant, or appearing engaged, are unreliable indicators of whether learning is actually taking place. Observation of learning behaviours must focus on what learners do when they encounter difficulty, not what they do when the work is easy.
Systematic observation uses the eight behaviours as a rubric. For each behaviour, teachers identify what it looks like at four levels: emerging (red), developing (amber), secure (yellow), and embedded (green). This provides a shared language for assessment that is specific enough to be useful but simple enough to deploy during a lesson or learning walk. The table below illustrates how two of the behaviours can be assessed at each level. Schools can develop similar rubrics for all eight behaviours, tailored to their context and age range.
| Level | Building Resilience | Reflecting on Learning |
|---|---|---|
| Emerging (Red) | Stops working when stuck. Waits for help. | Cannot describe what they learned or how. |
| Developing (Amber) | Asks for help with a specific question rather than "I'm stuck." | Can say what they learned but not how. |
| Secure (Yellow) | Tries one alternative strategy before asking for help. | Identifies what worked and what was difficult. |
| Embedded (Green) | Selects from multiple strategies independently and explains reasoning. | Explains what they would do differently and why. |
The learning walk is the most effective tool for observing behaviours across the school. A senior leader conducting a learning walk focused on "Staying Engaged" would look for specific indicators: Are learners returning to task after interruption? Are they using resources independently? Are they re-reading their work without being told? The observation is focused on a single behaviour, with clear indicators, rather than a general sweep for "good behaviour". This specificity is what makes the data actionable.
A deputy head in a Manchester secondary school conducted fortnightly learning walks focused on a different behaviour each time. She used a simple tally sheet divided by the eight behaviours and RAG-rated each classroom. Over one term, the data revealed that "Reflecting on Learning" was consistently the weakest behaviour across the school, scoring red or amber in 74% of classrooms observed. This led to a targeted CPD programme on formative assessment strategies that embedded reflection into every lesson exit. By the following term, the proportion of classrooms rated green for reflection had risen from 26% to 58%.
pupil voice is an underused tool for assessing learning behaviours. Asking learners directly, "Which of the eight behaviours do you find easiest? Which do you find hardest? What helps you with the hard ones?" generates insights that observation alone cannot capture. Year 6 learners at a Coventry primary school identified "Thinking It Through" as their most difficult behaviour, explaining that "it's hard to think for a long time when you just want to write the answer." This honest feedback led the school to introduce structured thinking time, using silence and whiteboards, before all class discussions.
The eight behaviours apply from Early Years to post-16, but the strategies for teaching them shift with age and cognitive development. What matters is that at every stage, the behaviours are named, taught, practised, and assessed rather than simply hoped for.
In EYFS, learning behaviours align directly with the Characteristics of Effective Learning: playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically. These are not separate concepts. The Characteristics describe the same dispositions as the eight behaviours, using different language. A Reception teacher might focus on "Being Creative" by providing open-ended resources, such as loose parts or construction materials, and asking "What else could you try?" rather than "Can you make a house?" The emphasis is on process, not product.
"Learning Together" at this stage looks different from KS2 collaboration. It might be two children sharing a construction task, negotiating who holds the base while the other stacks blocks. The teacher's role is to narrate the behaviour: "Look, you're taking turns. You're listening to each other's ideas. That's Learning Together." Naming the behaviour as it happens is more effective than explaining it in abstract terms beforehand.
One Nottingham nursery uses "learning behaviour bears": soft toys that represent each behaviour. When a child demonstrates sustained attention, the teacher says "You're being just like Staying Engaged Bear. You kept going even when it was tricky." The concrete, physical representation makes abstract dispositions tangible for three- and four-year-olds. Parents report that children use the bear names at home, asking siblings to be more like "Learning Together Bear" during play.
At KS1 and KS2, teachers can name the behaviours explicitly and build classroom routines around them. Visual displays showing the eight behaviours with learner-friendly language serve as constant reference points. Weekly "behaviour spotlight" sessions, where the class discusses and practises one behaviour, build a shared vocabulary that learners carry between lessons and subjects.
A Year 3 teacher in Bristol uses "questioning strategies" before every discussion. She poses a question, sets a 30-second timer, and says "This is your Thinking It Through time. Your job is to consider at least two possible answers before you share." Learners use mini whiteboards to jot ideas during the wait. The result: contributions to class discussion tripled, and the quality of reasoning improved measurably, with more learners offering justifications rather than single-word answers. The teacher did not add content. She taught a behaviour.
At KS2, teachers can introduce self-assessment against the eight behaviours. A simple weekly reflection sheet where learners rate themselves on two or three behaviours, with evidence from the week, builds the habit of Reflecting on Learning while also generating useful data for the class teacher. Learners who consistently struggle with "Making Connections" can be supported with explicit pre-teaching of prior knowledge at the start of new topics.
"Building Resilience" at KS1 and KS2 benefits from explicit "stuck strategies" that are taught, displayed, and practised. A classroom poster listing three options: (1) re-read the question, (2) look at the working wall, (3) ask a partner before asking the teacher, gives learners a concrete protocol for when they feel stuck. The teacher models each strategy during whole-class teaching, thinking aloud: "I'm not sure about this. Let me re-read... that helps, but I still need more. Let me check the working wall." Learners learn that feeling stuck is normal and temporary, not a sign of inability.
Reward systems at this stage should reinforce the behaviours that matter. Rather than rewarding task completion (which reinforces speed), reward the process: "I'm giving this table a Thinking It Through token because they discussed three possible answers before choosing one." This shifts the classroom culture from valuing productivity to valuing cognition. Over time, learners internalise the message: thinking well matters more than finishing first.
Secondary learners benefit from explicit teaching of self-regulation. This means showing learners how to plan their approach to a task, monitor their understanding as they work, and evaluate their performance afterwards. Scaffolding these processes with structured prompts, such as "Before you start: what do you already know about this topic? What is the examiner looking for?", bridges the gap between dependent and independent learning.
A Year 10 science teacher in Sheffield introduced "Making Connections" by starting every topic with a concept map. Learners identified what they already knew and drew links to previous units. When studying respiration, one learner connected it to the Year 9 unit on enzymes and the Year 7 unit on cells. The teacher photographed these maps and displayed them as "thinking maps" that tracked the growth of understanding over time. By the end of the year, learners were spontaneously creating connection maps without being asked, and their extended writing showed stronger use of cross-topic references.
Subject-specific application is particularly important at secondary level. "Communicating Clearly" looks different in English (precise analysis using literary terminology) compared to PE (coaching language and peer feedback during performance). Teachers can co-create subject-specific definitions of each behaviour with their classes, which deepens understanding and gives learners ownership of the framework.
At KS4, where exam pressure can narrow the focus to content coverage, learning behaviours become the mechanism for effective revision. A learner who has practised retrieval practice as part of "Staying Engaged", who can monitor their own understanding through "Reflecting on Learning", and who connects topics through "Making Connections" is a learner who revises effectively without being micromanaged.
At post-16, the focus shifts to independent learning behaviours. Learners preparing for A-levels and beyond need "Reflecting on Learning" and "Staying Engaged" as daily habits, not occasional teacher-led activities. Study skills programmes that teach retrieval practice, cognitive load management, and executive function strategies give learners ownership of their own learning behaviours.
A sixth form college in Kent introduced a weekly "study behaviour audit" where students RAG-rated themselves against four of the eight behaviours: Staying Engaged, Thinking It Through, Making Connections, and Reflecting on Learning. Students who consistently rated themselves amber or red on a particular behaviour were paired with a peer mentor who had been trained in that specific behaviour. The approach reduced the proportion of students reporting "I don't know how to revise effectively" from 62% to 19% over one academic year.
The transition to university or apprenticeships demands all eight behaviours in combination. A student who can sustain attention during a three-hour lecture (Staying Engaged), take notes that link to prior modules (Making Connections), ask questions that probe assumptions (Thinking It Through), and review their learning independently (Reflecting on Learning) is a student whose school has prepared them for what comes next. These are not "soft skills". They are the cognitive infrastructure that supports all future learning.
Schools that adopt learning behaviours without understanding the underlying principles often fall into predictable traps. The mistakes below are drawn from common implementation patterns. Recognising them early saves time and protects the integrity of the framework.
Confusing compliance with engagement. A silent classroom is not evidence of learning. Coe et al. (2014) identify this as one of the "poor proxies for learning" that mislead teachers and inspectors alike. Genuine engagement involves cognitive effort: learners grappling with ideas, making errors, and refining their thinking. Compliance involves following instructions without necessarily thinking about the content. Both have their place, but only one constitutes a learning behaviour. The teacher who says "I know they're learning because they're all on task" may be observing compliance, not engagement.
Rewarding silence instead of thinking. Reward systems that praise quiet, compliant behaviour can actively discourage the learning behaviours you want to develop. If a learner receives a merit for sitting still but none for asking a challenging question, the message is clear: conformity matters more than curiosity. Consider whether your reward system reinforces the behaviours that actually produce learning.
Generic behaviour policies that ignore learning. Many school behaviour policies focus entirely on conduct: uniform, punctuality, mobile phones, corridor behaviour. These are necessary but insufficient. A behaviour policy that says nothing about how learners should approach challenge, collaborate, or reflect is a conduct policy, not a learning behaviour policy. The DfE's 2024 guidance is explicit: schools need a behaviour curriculum that defines expected learning behaviours, not just prohibited conduct.
Assuming learners should "just know" how to learn. This is the most damaging mistake. Telling a learner to "try harder" or "focus" without teaching them how to sustain attention or recover from difficulty is like telling someone to play the piano without lessons. Differentiation of learning behaviours is just as important as differentiation of content. Some learners arrive at school with well-developed learning behaviours because their home environment has modelled and practised them. Others do not. Explicit teaching closes this gap.
Over-reliance on external motivation. Sticker charts, house points, and prize draws can create short-term compliance, but they do not build the internal habits that sustain learning beyond the classroom. Deci and Ryan (1985) show that intrinsic motivation, driven by autonomy, competence, and relatedness, produces more durable engagement than external rewards. When the stickers stop, so does the behaviour. When the skill is internalised, it persists.
Abandoning the framework too early. Embedding learning behaviours takes time. Schools that expect transformation within a half-term are likely to give up before the approach has taken root. Research on habit formation suggests that new behaviours require consistent practice over 8 to 12 weeks before they become automatic. A school that introduces the eight behaviours in September and abandons them by October has not tested the approach. It has abandoned it before it could work.
Not differentiating the framework for SEND learners. Learners with special educational needs may demonstrate learning behaviours differently. A learner with ADHD may show "Staying Engaged" in bursts rather than sustained blocks. A learner with autism may demonstrate "Learning Together" through written exchange rather than verbal interaction. The framework must be adapted to recognise varied expressions of the same underlying behaviour, not applied rigidly in ways that exclude learners who learn differently.
Individual classroom practice is important, but the greatest impact comes when learning behaviours are embedded across the whole school. A school-wide framework ensures consistency of language, expectation, and observation, so that learners hear the same messages from every adult in the building. This is not about uniformity of teaching style. It is about coherence of purpose. When every classroom uses the same eight behaviour names, learners build a cumulative understanding year on year rather than starting from scratch with each new teacher.
Start with leadership commitment. The senior leadership team must own the framework, not delegate it to a single coordinator. This means headteachers and deputies using the language of the eight behaviours in assemblies, staff meetings, parent communications, and lesson drop-ins. When a head teacher says "Today I saw brilliant examples of Thinking It Through in Year 4 and Learning Together in Year 9," the framework becomes the school's shared vocabulary. When leadership uses behaviour language only in formal documents, staff treat it as bureaucracy.
Invest in sustained staff CPD. Teachers need to understand each behaviour, know how to model it, and practise observing it. A single INSET day is not enough. The most effective approach is a sustained programme over one academic year, with each half-term focusing on one or two behaviours. Staff meeting time can include video analysis of lessons, joint observation with a behaviour focus, and shared planning that builds learning behaviour objectives into lesson design. Staff who have discussed, debated, and practised the eight behaviours understand them far better than staff who have been told about them.
Use consistent language across the school. If one teacher calls it "perseverance" and another calls it "Building Resilience" and a third calls it "growth mindset", learners receive mixed messages. Agreeing on the eight behaviour names and using them consistently, in classroom displays, in reports, in parent conversations, and in feedback, creates coherence. Learners should be able to walk from one classroom to another and hear the same vocabulary.
Communicate with parents. Parents who understand learning behaviours can reinforce them at home. A half-termly newsletter explaining the current focus behaviour, with practical suggestions for home, extends the framework beyond the school gates. For example: "This half-term we are focusing on Making Connections. You can support this at home by asking your child 'What does this remind you of?' when they tell you about their learning." Schools that treat parents as partners in developing learning behaviours see faster embedding than those that keep the framework internal.
Monitor and track progress systematically. Use learning walks, pupil voice surveys, and behaviour RAG ratings to track how well the eight behaviours are embedded. Data from learning walks can be aggregated termly to identify whole-school strengths and priorities. This data should drive CPD, not collect dust in a folder. When the data shows that "Communicating Clearly" is strong across the school but "Making Connections" is weak, leaders can direct CPD time accordingly rather than guessing.
A primary school in Devon adopted the eight behaviours across all year groups with a clear implementation plan: one INSET day for launch, fortnightly staff meeting discussions, half-termly learning walks with a behaviour focus, and termly learner surveys. After one year, the proportion of lessons where "Reflecting on Learning" was observed rose from 22% to 67%. Learner survey responses to "I know how to improve my work" rose from 41% to 74%. The school attributed the change not to any new resource or programme but to the consistency of the shared language.
Plan for sustainability. The most common failure point for school-wide initiatives is year two. The launch generates energy, staff engage, and early results are promising. Then priorities shift, new staff arrive without the shared training, and the framework drifts from active practice to passive display. To prevent this, build the eight behaviours into the school's non-negotiable systems: induction for new staff, performance management conversations, lesson observation criteria, and pupil progress meetings. When learning behaviours are embedded in these structures, they survive changes in leadership and staffing.
Schools that have successfully embedded the framework report a shift not just in learner behaviour but in professional dialogue. Teachers discuss lessons in terms of which behaviours learners demonstrated, not which tasks they completed. Subject leaders plan units with behaviour objectives alongside content objectives. The framework becomes the lens through which the school understands learning, and that shift in perspective is harder to undo than any resource or display.
These five texts represent the essential evidence base for behaviours for learning. Each combines rigorous research with practical application for classroom teachers and school leaders.
Behaviour for Learning: Promoting Positive Relationships in the Classroom View study ↗
Ellis, R. and Tod, J. (2018)
The foundational text for the B4L model. Ellis and Tod present their three-relationships framework and show how proactive teaching of learning behaviours reduces disruption while building learner autonomy. Essential reading for any school developing a behaviour curriculum.
Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning: Guidance Report View study ↗
Education Endowment Foundation (2021)
This guidance report synthesises the evidence on teaching learners to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning. The seven-step model for explicitly teaching metacognitive strategies translates directly into the "Reflecting on Learning" behaviour. High impact, low cost.
What Makes Great Teaching? Review of the Underpinning Research View study ↗
Coe, R., Aloisi, C., Higgins, S. and Major, L.E. (2014)
Coe and colleagues identify the six components of great teaching and, critically, warn against "poor proxies for learning" such as busy, compliant learners. This paper provides the evidence base for distinguishing genuine engagement from surface-level compliance.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success View study ↗
Dweck, C.S. (2006)
Dweck's research on fixed and growth mindsets underpins the "Building Resilience" behaviour. The book shows how learners' beliefs about their own ability directly affect their willingness to persist with challenging tasks and their response to setbacks.
Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together View study ↗
Mercer, N. (2000)
Mercer's work on exploratory talk provides the theoretical foundation for "Learning Together" and "Communicating Clearly". He demonstrates that the quality of classroom talk directly determines the quality of collaborative thinking, and that talk skills must be taught, not assumed.
Next lesson, choose one of the eight learning behaviours and name it explicitly with your class. Tell learners what it looks like, model it yourself, and at the end of the lesson ask them: "How well did we do at this behaviour today, and what would we change tomorrow?"
A quiet classroom is not necessarily a learning classroom. A learner can sit still, answer when asked, and complete every task, yet still not develop the learning behaviours that make independent progress possible. Ellis and Tod (2018) make this distinction the foundation of their model: behaviours for learning describe how learners approach the act of learning itself, through three relationships: with themselves, with others, and with the curriculum. These behaviours are teachable skills, not personality traits.
The Department for Education's 2024 guidance now expects every school to teach a "behaviour curriculum", one that explicitly names and teaches the behaviours learners need in order to learn. The challenge for most schools is practical: what exactly should that curriculum contain? The eight learning behaviours framework provides a ready-made answer. It translates the theory from Ellis and Tod, the evidence from the EEF, and the policy expectations from the DfE into eight specific, observable, teachable behaviours that work across every key stage.
Ellis and Tod gave us the theory. The EEF gave us the evidence. The DfE told us to build a behaviour curriculum. The eight learning behaviours provide the ready-made framework that schools need to put all three together. This article sets out the complete framework: what behaviours for learning are, why they must be explicitly taught, how to observe them systematically, how to teach them at every key stage, the mistakes schools commonly make, and how to build a whole-school approach that satisfies both Ofsted and the DfE.
Behaviours for learning (B4L) describe how learners approach the act of learning itself. Ellis and Tod (2018) built their model around three relationships. The relationship with self covers confidence, motivation, and emotional readiness. The relationship with others involves collaboration, communication, and the ability to learn alongside peers. The relationship with the curriculum concerns a learner's willingness and capacity to access what is being taught.
Understanding these three relationships is important because it reveals where the difficulty lies for individual learners. A learner who has strong relationships with peers and curriculum but poor self-confidence (relationship with self) needs a different intervention from a learner who is confident and motivated but cannot collaborate (relationship with others). The three-relationships model prevents schools from applying a one-size-fits-all approach to what is, by definition, a varied set of challenges.
This model marks a clear departure from traditional behaviour management, which is largely reactive. Behaviour management responds to disruption after it occurs. Behaviours for learning are proactive: they name the specific dispositions learners need and teach those dispositions directly. The distinction matters because a school can have excellent behaviour management, with silent corridors and orderly classrooms, while still having learners who avoid challenge, copy rather than think, and disengage the moment supervision drops.
The DfE's 2024 "Behaviour in Schools" guidance formalises this shift. It introduces the concept of a "behaviour curriculum" in which schools define the behaviours they expect, teach them explicitly, and practise them routinely. This is not an optional add-on. The guidance positions a behaviour curriculum alongside the academic curriculum as a core responsibility of school leadership. Schools are expected to identify what successful behaviour looks like, not simply list what is prohibited.
Ofsted's 2025 framework reinforces this by evaluating how well schools establish a culture where learning behaviours are part of daily practice, not simply rules on a wall. The framework uses "Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines" as one of its evaluation areas, and inspectors look for evidence that behaviours are taught, modelled, and practised rather than merely expected and punished when absent.
A Year 5 teacher in a Birmingham primary school stopped using her behaviour chart entirely. Instead, she introduced a weekly focus on one learning behaviour, beginning with "Staying Engaged". She taught learners what sustained attention looks like during independent work: eyes on the task, re-reading when stuck, raising a hand only after trying two strategies. Within half a term, the time learners spent on-task during independent writing rose from 12 minutes to 22 minutes per session. She did not manage behaviour differently. She taught it.
The eight learning behaviours provide a structured framework that covers the cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions of learning. Each behaviour is observable, teachable, and relevant across subjects and key stages. Together, they form a practical behaviour curriculum that schools can adopt, adapt, and assess. Ellis and Tod (2018) argue that behaviours for learning sit at the intersection of their three relationships. The eight behaviours below map across all three, giving teachers a granular tool for both teaching and observation.
1. Learning Together. Learners work with others to build understanding. They listen actively, share ideas, challenge each other's thinking, and build on contributions rather than simply taking turns. Mercer (2000) identifies this kind of interaction as "exploratory talk", where reasoning happens collaboratively. This is distinct from group work where learners divide tasks and work in parallel. Observable indicator: learners ask each other "Why do you think that?" rather than waiting for the teacher to validate answers. In a Year 6 history lesson, Learning Together looks like two learners debating whether the evidence supports one interpretation or another, not one learner reading aloud while others copy.
2. Staying Engaged. Learners sustain their attention and persist with tasks even when the work is demanding. This is not the same as sitting quietly. A learner staring out of the window in silence is compliant, not engaged. Staying Engaged involves active cognitive investment: re-reading a paragraph that did not make sense, returning to a problem after a wrong answer, or choosing to extend a task rather than declaring it "done". Observable indicator: learners return to a task after a distraction without prompting. A learner who drops their pencil, picks it up, and immediately re-engages with their writing is demonstrating this behaviour. A learner who drops their pencil and starts talking to a neighbour is not.
3. Being Creative. Learners generate original ideas, make unusual connections, and approach problems from multiple angles. Creativity here means cognitive flexibility, not arts and crafts. It involves the willingness to take intellectual risks, to propose ideas that might be wrong, and to combine knowledge from different domains. Observable indicator: learners suggest an alternative method or solution that was not modelled by the teacher. In a Year 4 maths lesson, Being Creative might look like a learner who, rather than following the standard algorithm, draws a diagram to represent the problem and arrives at the same answer through a different route.
4. Thinking It Through. Learners analyse, evaluate, and reason carefully before responding. They consider evidence, weigh options, and avoid impulsive answers. This behaviour underpins higher-order thinking and prevents the surface-level responses that dominate classrooms where speed is rewarded over depth. Observable indicator: learners can explain why they rejected an alternative answer. When a Year 8 learner says "I thought about saying X, but the evidence in paragraph three suggests Y is more accurate," they are Thinking It Through.
5. Building Resilience. Learners respond to difficulty with persistence rather than avoidance. Dweck (2006) frames this as a growth mindset orientation, where challenge is seen as an opportunity to improve rather than as evidence of failure. Building Resilience does not mean ignoring frustration or pretending that difficult work is easy. It means developing strategies for managing difficulty: taking a breath, re-reading the question, trying a different approach, or asking a specific question rather than a general "I don't get it." In a Year 4 maths lesson, a teacher sets a multi-step problem designed so the first attempt produces an incorrect answer. When learners hit the wall, she teaches them to say "I haven't got this yet" rather than "I can't do it." Observable indicator: when stuck, learners try a different strategy rather than stopping or asking for help immediately.
6. Communicating Clearly. Learners express their thinking with precision, using subject-specific vocabulary and complete explanations. Alexander (2020) argues that oracy and classroom dialogue are not soft skills but cognitive tools that shape how learners think. When a learner is required to articulate their reasoning aloud, the act of speaking forces them to organise their thinking. Observable indicator: learners use sentence stems like "I think this because..." and "The evidence suggests..." without prompting. In a Year 2 science lesson, a learner who says "The plant grew taller because it got more light" is communicating more clearly than one who says "It got bigger."
7. Making Connections. Learners link new learning to prior knowledge and transfer understanding across contexts. This is what schema theory describes as integration: new information is attached to existing mental structures rather than stored in isolation. Making Connections transforms isolated facts into networked understanding. Observable indicator: a learner says "This is like when we..." and identifies a genuine conceptual link to a previous topic. A Year 9 learner studying the causes of World War One who says "This reminds me of the alliance system we studied in the Cold War unit" is making a meaningful connection. Without this behaviour, learning remains fragmented: each lesson is an island, disconnected from what came before and what comes next.
8. Reflecting on Learning. Learners think about their own thinking. Flavell (1979) calls this metacognition, the ability to monitor, evaluate, and regulate one's own learning processes. Reflecting on Learning goes beyond "What did you learn today?" It involves learners identifying what strategies worked, what they found difficult, and what they would do differently next time. Observable indicator: at the end of a lesson, learners identify not just what they learned but how they learned it and what they would change. This behaviour is the engine of self-improvement. Without it, learners repeat the same mistakes and remain dependent on the teacher for direction.
A common assumption is that learning behaviours develop naturally as learners mature. They do not. Ellis and Tod (2018) are clear on this point: behaviours for learning are skills, and like all skills, they require instruction, modelling, practice, and feedback. A learner who has never been taught how to sustain attention during a 20-minute task will not learn to do so simply by being told to concentrate.
Consider what happens when behaviours are not taught. A Year 7 learner arrives at secondary school unable to sustain independent work for more than five minutes. Their primary school may have managed this through constant teacher proximity and short tasks. At secondary, where lesson lengths increase and teacher ratios decrease, the learner's lack of "Staying Engaged" as an internalised behaviour becomes a barrier to every subject. The content is accessible. The behaviour is not.
The evidence supports this. The EEF's 2021 metacognition and self-regulation guidance report identifies explicit teaching of learning behaviours as one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost strategies available to schools. When learners are taught to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning, the average impact is seven additional months of progress. This is not a marginal gain. It is one of the largest effect sizes in education research, comparable to or exceeding the impact of one-to-one tutoring.
The EEF's six recommendations for improving behaviour in schools reinforce this further. Recommendation two states explicitly: "Teach learning behaviours alongside managing misbehaviour." Schools that focus only on sanctions and rewards for conduct are addressing half the picture. The other half, the proactive teaching of how to learn, is where the largest gains lie.
Ofsted's 2025 framework now evaluates whether schools create a culture where learning behaviours are explicitly taught, not merely expected. Inspectors look for evidence that staff model these behaviours, that learners can articulate what good learning looks like, and that the school's approach goes beyond reward and sanction systems. A school where teachers can name the learning behaviours they are developing, and where learners can describe what those behaviours look like in practice, is a school that will meet this standard.
The practical implication is clear. Schools already invest significant time in teaching academic content: phonics, times tables, essay structure. They rarely invest equivalent time in teaching the behaviours that make academic learning possible. A learner who cannot sustain attention, work collaboratively, or recover from mistakes will struggle with every subject regardless of how well the content is taught. Cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988) tells us that when learners lack the behavioural skills to manage a task, their working memory is consumed by managing themselves rather than processing the content. Teaching the behaviour frees up cognitive capacity for the learning.
In a Reception class in Leeds, the teacher introduced "Learning Together" through structured pair talk. Each morning, learners practised sitting knee-to-knee, making eye contact, and taking turns. The teacher used a puppet called "Listening Leo" to model the behaviour. She did not assume that four-year-olds would naturally know how to listen to a partner. She broke the skill into components, taught each one, and provided daily practice. Within six weeks, the proportion of learners who could sustain a paired conversation for 30 seconds rose from 35% to 78%. The teacher had not waited for social maturity. She taught the behaviour explicitly, and the learners learned it.
If behaviours for learning are to be taught, they must also be observed and assessed. This requires moving beyond surface-level judgements. Coe et al. (2014) warn that many common proxies for learning, such as learners being busy, being compliant, or appearing engaged, are unreliable indicators of whether learning is actually taking place. Observation of learning behaviours must focus on what learners do when they encounter difficulty, not what they do when the work is easy.
Systematic observation uses the eight behaviours as a rubric. For each behaviour, teachers identify what it looks like at four levels: emerging (red), developing (amber), secure (yellow), and embedded (green). This provides a shared language for assessment that is specific enough to be useful but simple enough to deploy during a lesson or learning walk. The table below illustrates how two of the behaviours can be assessed at each level. Schools can develop similar rubrics for all eight behaviours, tailored to their context and age range.
| Level | Building Resilience | Reflecting on Learning |
|---|---|---|
| Emerging (Red) | Stops working when stuck. Waits for help. | Cannot describe what they learned or how. |
| Developing (Amber) | Asks for help with a specific question rather than "I'm stuck." | Can say what they learned but not how. |
| Secure (Yellow) | Tries one alternative strategy before asking for help. | Identifies what worked and what was difficult. |
| Embedded (Green) | Selects from multiple strategies independently and explains reasoning. | Explains what they would do differently and why. |
The learning walk is the most effective tool for observing behaviours across the school. A senior leader conducting a learning walk focused on "Staying Engaged" would look for specific indicators: Are learners returning to task after interruption? Are they using resources independently? Are they re-reading their work without being told? The observation is focused on a single behaviour, with clear indicators, rather than a general sweep for "good behaviour". This specificity is what makes the data actionable.
A deputy head in a Manchester secondary school conducted fortnightly learning walks focused on a different behaviour each time. She used a simple tally sheet divided by the eight behaviours and RAG-rated each classroom. Over one term, the data revealed that "Reflecting on Learning" was consistently the weakest behaviour across the school, scoring red or amber in 74% of classrooms observed. This led to a targeted CPD programme on formative assessment strategies that embedded reflection into every lesson exit. By the following term, the proportion of classrooms rated green for reflection had risen from 26% to 58%.
pupil voice is an underused tool for assessing learning behaviours. Asking learners directly, "Which of the eight behaviours do you find easiest? Which do you find hardest? What helps you with the hard ones?" generates insights that observation alone cannot capture. Year 6 learners at a Coventry primary school identified "Thinking It Through" as their most difficult behaviour, explaining that "it's hard to think for a long time when you just want to write the answer." This honest feedback led the school to introduce structured thinking time, using silence and whiteboards, before all class discussions.
The eight behaviours apply from Early Years to post-16, but the strategies for teaching them shift with age and cognitive development. What matters is that at every stage, the behaviours are named, taught, practised, and assessed rather than simply hoped for.
In EYFS, learning behaviours align directly with the Characteristics of Effective Learning: playing and exploring, active learning, and creating and thinking critically. These are not separate concepts. The Characteristics describe the same dispositions as the eight behaviours, using different language. A Reception teacher might focus on "Being Creative" by providing open-ended resources, such as loose parts or construction materials, and asking "What else could you try?" rather than "Can you make a house?" The emphasis is on process, not product.
"Learning Together" at this stage looks different from KS2 collaboration. It might be two children sharing a construction task, negotiating who holds the base while the other stacks blocks. The teacher's role is to narrate the behaviour: "Look, you're taking turns. You're listening to each other's ideas. That's Learning Together." Naming the behaviour as it happens is more effective than explaining it in abstract terms beforehand.
One Nottingham nursery uses "learning behaviour bears": soft toys that represent each behaviour. When a child demonstrates sustained attention, the teacher says "You're being just like Staying Engaged Bear. You kept going even when it was tricky." The concrete, physical representation makes abstract dispositions tangible for three- and four-year-olds. Parents report that children use the bear names at home, asking siblings to be more like "Learning Together Bear" during play.
At KS1 and KS2, teachers can name the behaviours explicitly and build classroom routines around them. Visual displays showing the eight behaviours with learner-friendly language serve as constant reference points. Weekly "behaviour spotlight" sessions, where the class discusses and practises one behaviour, build a shared vocabulary that learners carry between lessons and subjects.
A Year 3 teacher in Bristol uses "questioning strategies" before every discussion. She poses a question, sets a 30-second timer, and says "This is your Thinking It Through time. Your job is to consider at least two possible answers before you share." Learners use mini whiteboards to jot ideas during the wait. The result: contributions to class discussion tripled, and the quality of reasoning improved measurably, with more learners offering justifications rather than single-word answers. The teacher did not add content. She taught a behaviour.
At KS2, teachers can introduce self-assessment against the eight behaviours. A simple weekly reflection sheet where learners rate themselves on two or three behaviours, with evidence from the week, builds the habit of Reflecting on Learning while also generating useful data for the class teacher. Learners who consistently struggle with "Making Connections" can be supported with explicit pre-teaching of prior knowledge at the start of new topics.
"Building Resilience" at KS1 and KS2 benefits from explicit "stuck strategies" that are taught, displayed, and practised. A classroom poster listing three options: (1) re-read the question, (2) look at the working wall, (3) ask a partner before asking the teacher, gives learners a concrete protocol for when they feel stuck. The teacher models each strategy during whole-class teaching, thinking aloud: "I'm not sure about this. Let me re-read... that helps, but I still need more. Let me check the working wall." Learners learn that feeling stuck is normal and temporary, not a sign of inability.
Reward systems at this stage should reinforce the behaviours that matter. Rather than rewarding task completion (which reinforces speed), reward the process: "I'm giving this table a Thinking It Through token because they discussed three possible answers before choosing one." This shifts the classroom culture from valuing productivity to valuing cognition. Over time, learners internalise the message: thinking well matters more than finishing first.
Secondary learners benefit from explicit teaching of self-regulation. This means showing learners how to plan their approach to a task, monitor their understanding as they work, and evaluate their performance afterwards. Scaffolding these processes with structured prompts, such as "Before you start: what do you already know about this topic? What is the examiner looking for?", bridges the gap between dependent and independent learning.
A Year 10 science teacher in Sheffield introduced "Making Connections" by starting every topic with a concept map. Learners identified what they already knew and drew links to previous units. When studying respiration, one learner connected it to the Year 9 unit on enzymes and the Year 7 unit on cells. The teacher photographed these maps and displayed them as "thinking maps" that tracked the growth of understanding over time. By the end of the year, learners were spontaneously creating connection maps without being asked, and their extended writing showed stronger use of cross-topic references.
Subject-specific application is particularly important at secondary level. "Communicating Clearly" looks different in English (precise analysis using literary terminology) compared to PE (coaching language and peer feedback during performance). Teachers can co-create subject-specific definitions of each behaviour with their classes, which deepens understanding and gives learners ownership of the framework.
At KS4, where exam pressure can narrow the focus to content coverage, learning behaviours become the mechanism for effective revision. A learner who has practised retrieval practice as part of "Staying Engaged", who can monitor their own understanding through "Reflecting on Learning", and who connects topics through "Making Connections" is a learner who revises effectively without being micromanaged.
At post-16, the focus shifts to independent learning behaviours. Learners preparing for A-levels and beyond need "Reflecting on Learning" and "Staying Engaged" as daily habits, not occasional teacher-led activities. Study skills programmes that teach retrieval practice, cognitive load management, and executive function strategies give learners ownership of their own learning behaviours.
A sixth form college in Kent introduced a weekly "study behaviour audit" where students RAG-rated themselves against four of the eight behaviours: Staying Engaged, Thinking It Through, Making Connections, and Reflecting on Learning. Students who consistently rated themselves amber or red on a particular behaviour were paired with a peer mentor who had been trained in that specific behaviour. The approach reduced the proportion of students reporting "I don't know how to revise effectively" from 62% to 19% over one academic year.
The transition to university or apprenticeships demands all eight behaviours in combination. A student who can sustain attention during a three-hour lecture (Staying Engaged), take notes that link to prior modules (Making Connections), ask questions that probe assumptions (Thinking It Through), and review their learning independently (Reflecting on Learning) is a student whose school has prepared them for what comes next. These are not "soft skills". They are the cognitive infrastructure that supports all future learning.
Schools that adopt learning behaviours without understanding the underlying principles often fall into predictable traps. The mistakes below are drawn from common implementation patterns. Recognising them early saves time and protects the integrity of the framework.
Confusing compliance with engagement. A silent classroom is not evidence of learning. Coe et al. (2014) identify this as one of the "poor proxies for learning" that mislead teachers and inspectors alike. Genuine engagement involves cognitive effort: learners grappling with ideas, making errors, and refining their thinking. Compliance involves following instructions without necessarily thinking about the content. Both have their place, but only one constitutes a learning behaviour. The teacher who says "I know they're learning because they're all on task" may be observing compliance, not engagement.
Rewarding silence instead of thinking. Reward systems that praise quiet, compliant behaviour can actively discourage the learning behaviours you want to develop. If a learner receives a merit for sitting still but none for asking a challenging question, the message is clear: conformity matters more than curiosity. Consider whether your reward system reinforces the behaviours that actually produce learning.
Generic behaviour policies that ignore learning. Many school behaviour policies focus entirely on conduct: uniform, punctuality, mobile phones, corridor behaviour. These are necessary but insufficient. A behaviour policy that says nothing about how learners should approach challenge, collaborate, or reflect is a conduct policy, not a learning behaviour policy. The DfE's 2024 guidance is explicit: schools need a behaviour curriculum that defines expected learning behaviours, not just prohibited conduct.
Assuming learners should "just know" how to learn. This is the most damaging mistake. Telling a learner to "try harder" or "focus" without teaching them how to sustain attention or recover from difficulty is like telling someone to play the piano without lessons. Differentiation of learning behaviours is just as important as differentiation of content. Some learners arrive at school with well-developed learning behaviours because their home environment has modelled and practised them. Others do not. Explicit teaching closes this gap.
Over-reliance on external motivation. Sticker charts, house points, and prize draws can create short-term compliance, but they do not build the internal habits that sustain learning beyond the classroom. Deci and Ryan (1985) show that intrinsic motivation, driven by autonomy, competence, and relatedness, produces more durable engagement than external rewards. When the stickers stop, so does the behaviour. When the skill is internalised, it persists.
Abandoning the framework too early. Embedding learning behaviours takes time. Schools that expect transformation within a half-term are likely to give up before the approach has taken root. Research on habit formation suggests that new behaviours require consistent practice over 8 to 12 weeks before they become automatic. A school that introduces the eight behaviours in September and abandons them by October has not tested the approach. It has abandoned it before it could work.
Not differentiating the framework for SEND learners. Learners with special educational needs may demonstrate learning behaviours differently. A learner with ADHD may show "Staying Engaged" in bursts rather than sustained blocks. A learner with autism may demonstrate "Learning Together" through written exchange rather than verbal interaction. The framework must be adapted to recognise varied expressions of the same underlying behaviour, not applied rigidly in ways that exclude learners who learn differently.
Individual classroom practice is important, but the greatest impact comes when learning behaviours are embedded across the whole school. A school-wide framework ensures consistency of language, expectation, and observation, so that learners hear the same messages from every adult in the building. This is not about uniformity of teaching style. It is about coherence of purpose. When every classroom uses the same eight behaviour names, learners build a cumulative understanding year on year rather than starting from scratch with each new teacher.
Start with leadership commitment. The senior leadership team must own the framework, not delegate it to a single coordinator. This means headteachers and deputies using the language of the eight behaviours in assemblies, staff meetings, parent communications, and lesson drop-ins. When a head teacher says "Today I saw brilliant examples of Thinking It Through in Year 4 and Learning Together in Year 9," the framework becomes the school's shared vocabulary. When leadership uses behaviour language only in formal documents, staff treat it as bureaucracy.
Invest in sustained staff CPD. Teachers need to understand each behaviour, know how to model it, and practise observing it. A single INSET day is not enough. The most effective approach is a sustained programme over one academic year, with each half-term focusing on one or two behaviours. Staff meeting time can include video analysis of lessons, joint observation with a behaviour focus, and shared planning that builds learning behaviour objectives into lesson design. Staff who have discussed, debated, and practised the eight behaviours understand them far better than staff who have been told about them.
Use consistent language across the school. If one teacher calls it "perseverance" and another calls it "Building Resilience" and a third calls it "growth mindset", learners receive mixed messages. Agreeing on the eight behaviour names and using them consistently, in classroom displays, in reports, in parent conversations, and in feedback, creates coherence. Learners should be able to walk from one classroom to another and hear the same vocabulary.
Communicate with parents. Parents who understand learning behaviours can reinforce them at home. A half-termly newsletter explaining the current focus behaviour, with practical suggestions for home, extends the framework beyond the school gates. For example: "This half-term we are focusing on Making Connections. You can support this at home by asking your child 'What does this remind you of?' when they tell you about their learning." Schools that treat parents as partners in developing learning behaviours see faster embedding than those that keep the framework internal.
Monitor and track progress systematically. Use learning walks, pupil voice surveys, and behaviour RAG ratings to track how well the eight behaviours are embedded. Data from learning walks can be aggregated termly to identify whole-school strengths and priorities. This data should drive CPD, not collect dust in a folder. When the data shows that "Communicating Clearly" is strong across the school but "Making Connections" is weak, leaders can direct CPD time accordingly rather than guessing.
A primary school in Devon adopted the eight behaviours across all year groups with a clear implementation plan: one INSET day for launch, fortnightly staff meeting discussions, half-termly learning walks with a behaviour focus, and termly learner surveys. After one year, the proportion of lessons where "Reflecting on Learning" was observed rose from 22% to 67%. Learner survey responses to "I know how to improve my work" rose from 41% to 74%. The school attributed the change not to any new resource or programme but to the consistency of the shared language.
Plan for sustainability. The most common failure point for school-wide initiatives is year two. The launch generates energy, staff engage, and early results are promising. Then priorities shift, new staff arrive without the shared training, and the framework drifts from active practice to passive display. To prevent this, build the eight behaviours into the school's non-negotiable systems: induction for new staff, performance management conversations, lesson observation criteria, and pupil progress meetings. When learning behaviours are embedded in these structures, they survive changes in leadership and staffing.
Schools that have successfully embedded the framework report a shift not just in learner behaviour but in professional dialogue. Teachers discuss lessons in terms of which behaviours learners demonstrated, not which tasks they completed. Subject leaders plan units with behaviour objectives alongside content objectives. The framework becomes the lens through which the school understands learning, and that shift in perspective is harder to undo than any resource or display.
These five texts represent the essential evidence base for behaviours for learning. Each combines rigorous research with practical application for classroom teachers and school leaders.
Behaviour for Learning: Promoting Positive Relationships in the Classroom View study ↗
Ellis, R. and Tod, J. (2018)
The foundational text for the B4L model. Ellis and Tod present their three-relationships framework and show how proactive teaching of learning behaviours reduces disruption while building learner autonomy. Essential reading for any school developing a behaviour curriculum.
Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning: Guidance Report View study ↗
Education Endowment Foundation (2021)
This guidance report synthesises the evidence on teaching learners to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning. The seven-step model for explicitly teaching metacognitive strategies translates directly into the "Reflecting on Learning" behaviour. High impact, low cost.
What Makes Great Teaching? Review of the Underpinning Research View study ↗
Coe, R., Aloisi, C., Higgins, S. and Major, L.E. (2014)
Coe and colleagues identify the six components of great teaching and, critically, warn against "poor proxies for learning" such as busy, compliant learners. This paper provides the evidence base for distinguishing genuine engagement from surface-level compliance.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success View study ↗
Dweck, C.S. (2006)
Dweck's research on fixed and growth mindsets underpins the "Building Resilience" behaviour. The book shows how learners' beliefs about their own ability directly affect their willingness to persist with challenging tasks and their response to setbacks.
Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together View study ↗
Mercer, N. (2000)
Mercer's work on exploratory talk provides the theoretical foundation for "Learning Together" and "Communicating Clearly". He demonstrates that the quality of classroom talk directly determines the quality of collaborative thinking, and that talk skills must be taught, not assumed.
Next lesson, choose one of the eight learning behaviours and name it explicitly with your class. Tell learners what it looks like, model it yourself, and at the end of the lesson ask them: "How well did we do at this behaviour today, and what would we change tomorrow?"
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