Positive Behaviour for Learning:  
                       Investigating the transfer of a  
                       United States system into the  
                                    New South Wales  
              Department of Education and Training 
                    Western Sydney Region schools 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                      
                                                        
                                                        
                                     REPORT 
                                                        
                                                        
                                                Mary Mooney 
                                               Brenda Dobia 
                                               Katrina Barker 
                                                Anne Power 
                                               Kevin Watson 
                                              School of Education 
                                       The University of Western Sydney 
                                                        
                                            Alexander S. Yeung 
                                        Centre for Educational Research 
                                       The University of Western Sydney 
          
                                                 March 2008 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
         Positive Behaviour for Learning:   
         Investigating the transfer of a United States system into the Department of Education  
         Western Sydney Region schools 
          
         ISBN 978-1-74108-164-0 
          
         Mary Mooney, Brenda Dobia, Alex S. Yeung, Katrina Barker, Anne Power, Kevin Watson 
          
         © 2008 University of Western Sydney  
         Published and printed by the University of Western Sydney, Penrith NSW Australia 
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                       Executive Summary 
          
         Positive  Behaviour  for  Learning  (PBL)  is  an  initiative  of  the  NSW  Department  of 
         Education and Training Western Sydney Region (DET WSR) that has been progressively 
         introduced into schools across the region from 2005. As PBL has been derived from the 
         Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program developed in the United 
         States, the central questions for the present investigation were how the cultural transfer of 
         the United States model has resulted in implementations with local features and the extent 
         to  which the  Australian  PBL  model  has  been  successful  in  promoting  positive  student 
         behaviour and in facilitating learning outcomes. 
         As the name of PBL in the Australian model suggests, there was an extension in the 
         Australian approach to an emphasis on positive learning outcomes as a result of positive 
         behaviour enhancement. There was therefore a need to examine the extent to which the 
         PBL model has been successful in promoting positive student learning outcomes. The 
         investigation involved the collaboration between the University of Western Sydney (UWS) 
         and DET WSR. The value of this research partnership project is that it responds to the PBL 
         initiative of the DET WSR which began in 2005 and is part of their Strategic Plan until 
         2009.  Findings  will  not  only  inform  better  practice  in  translating  school-wide 
         improvements  in  student  behaviour  into  sustainable  educational  outcomes  through  a 
         systemic approach in and beyond WSR, but will also contribute to the literature of positive 
         behaviour intervention and supports internationally. 
         The research project applied a mixed-methods approach that involved the analysis of data 
         collected by DET WSR at regular intervals using the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET), 
         fieldwork  data  obtained  from  observations  together  with  focus  group  discussions  and 
         individual interviews of students, parents, teachers, coaches and various levels of personnel 
         involved  in  the  PBL  implementation  together  with  research  artefacts  such  as  regional 
         documents  and  conference  presentations,  and  survey  data  from  students,  parents,  and 
         teachers. Parallel data were also obtained from schools that had not implemented PBL.  
         The research questions of the investigation were: 
         RQ 1.  How  have  schools  implemented  PBL?  Which  processes  have  schools  found 
             effective for their different contexts? 
         RQ 2.  What effects are evident from students’ behaviour, motivation, self-concept, and 
             learning? 
         RQ 3.  How  does  the  implementation  of  PBL  impact  on  the  attitudes  of  school  staff, 
             students, and parents to learning and behaviour? 
         RQ 4.  What changes are made to the PBIS model at a school and regional level as part of 
             implementing PBL? For what reasons and to what effect?  
         Findings of the research are as follows:  
         For  RQ  1,  there  were  three  common  features  and  three  differences  across  the  three 
         fieldwork schools as they implemented PBL. The common features were (a) consistency, 
         (b) local examples in the training, and (c) the critical interaction of coaches and PBL teams. 
         The  differences  were  (a)  involvement  of  students  in  decision  making,  (b)  clustering 
         between primary and high schools, and (c) staff ownership of the process. These findings 
         suggest that for success of implementation and sustainability of outcomes, PBL should  
          
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         continue to maintain the established consistency, especially with regard to language and 
         expectations,  rely  on  collaborative  leadership  models,  include  local  examples  in  the 
         training,  and  maximise  the  interaction  of  coaches  and  school  PBL  teams  especially  in 
         collecting and maintaining data that provide an evidence base for monitoring behavioural 
         changes. For better results in various schools with different contexts, the PBL school teams 
         could consider involving students in some decision making processes, and continuing the 
         strategic clustering between primary and high schools for efficiency, and encouraging a 
         sense of school staff ownership of the PBL process. 
         For RQ 2, the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET) data found significant improvement in 
         school-wide implementation of PBL measured by seven indicators. Noteworthy increases 
         in overall scores over time were found in the primary schools from 59.77% to 91.26%. For 
         the high schools, the overall SET score improved from 67.66% to 84.41%.  
         Survey  data  obtained  from  teachers  did  not  find  significant  differences  between 
         experimental  (PBL  Schools)  and  control  groups  (Non-PBL  Schools).  Both  groups  of 
         teachers had high self-esteem and high emotional stability (Ms > 4.5 on a 6-point scale), 
         and  very  high  instruction  and  management  efficacy  (Ms  >  5).  Future  research  might 
         consider the use of more contextually specific instruments to measure teacher self-concept 
         and self-efficacy in relation to PBL implementation over time. 
         Students’ satisfaction ratings were clearly higher for Phase 1 schools (> 70%) than for the 
         other phases (< 45%). This suggests a relationship between time in implementation and 
         impact,  indicating  room  for  improvement  for  those  schools  at  the  initial  stages  of 
         implementation. There was some evidence of success in the cultural transfer of the PBIS to 
         the PBL model that attempts to further translate positive behaviours to positive learning 
         outcomes such as self-concept and achievement motivation. These findings suggest that 
         further research would continue to assess the effects of PBL on student learning. 
         Student survey data showed that the experimental group tended to have higher scores for 
         all 5 self-concepts measured: school competency, school affect, mathematics, English, and 
         parent  self-concepts,  although  statistically  significant  differences  were  found  only  in 
         school competency, mathematics self-concept, and parent self-concept. The experimental 
         group  also  had  significantly  higher  motivation  orientations  including:  Belief,  Value, 
         Planning, Management and Persistence and significantly lower scores for Disengagement. 
         Using  satisfaction  ratings  as  a  general  indicator  of  the  output  quality  of  PBL,  the  
         analysis showed high satisfaction rates for both parents and teachers (both > the 70% target 
         for all phases). 
         For RQ 3, fieldwork data and surveys found that the implementation of PBL tended to 
         change the attitudes of some teachers from individual efforts of behavioural management 
         to  a  systemic,  school-wide  approach.  The  staff  in  the  school  and  some  parents  have 
         changed to a more positive attitude towards the strategies of promoting students’ desirable 
         behaviours.  To  a  certain  extent,  there  were  also  perceptions  of  improved  academic 
         behaviours in the students. PBL was shown to influence student attitudes in relations to the 
         school’s expectations. 
         For RQ 4, it was found that the renaming of PBIS as PBL and its attendant emphasis on 
         students’  academic  learning  was  more  significant  than  was  initially  thought. 
         Contextualising PBL in DET WSR schools was found to be important for success whilst 
         maintaining the integrity of the PBIS model. Some schools were integrating the learning 
         characteristic  of  the  NSW Quality Teaching model with the behaviour characteristic of 
         PBIS. This was important for coherence with existing initiatives and for maintaining a 
         student-centred focus. Accordingly, there seems to be evidence that Quality Teaching and 
         PBL work together well to achieve both positive behaviour and academic outcomes. 
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