The Truth About Student Behaviour and how to Manage it

Australian schools are in crisis, and if things don’t change we’re at risk of losing teachers who are burning out or overwhelmed by the reality of their work.

Student behaviour is increasingly linked to teacher stress, job satisfaction and intentions to leave the profession.

2024 data from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) via the Australian Teacher Workforce Data (ATWD) found that 47% of Australian teachers who were planning to leave the profession cited student behaviour as a reason, up from 25% in 2020. Worryingly, student behaviour was cited almost as frequently as insufficient pay. Meanwhile, 34% of Australian lower-secondary teachers reported experiencing stress “a lot” at work, compared with 19% across the OECD (TALIS 2024).

In his new book, The Truth About Student Behaviour, education leader and founder of Real Schools Adam Voigt cuts through the noise, guilt and fear surrounding behaviour in schools to offer teachers and school leaders a more practical and hopeful way forward.

Things have got to change. But Voigt argues that simply demanding better behaviour, tougher consequences or better classroom management misses the point.

The book teachers shift away from control for control’s sake, and towards the relationships, structures and conditions that make better behaviour possible.

“Teachers don’t need another person telling them they should be managing behaviour better. Most are already working incredibly hard in increasingly complex classrooms. What they need are approaches that actually work.

“This book is about helping teachers understand what sits underneath student behaviour, what they can influence and what they can do differently tomorrow. When we get this right, we don’t just improve behaviour. We create schools where teachers can teach, students can learn and both can feel like they belong.”

The Truth About Student Behaviour is ultimately not a book about fixing “bad kids” or blaming exhausted teachers. It’s a book about creating the conditions in which both can succeed.

Adam Voigt is author of Restoring Teaching and The Truth About Student Behaviour, and creator of the RP2.0 methodology.