Quality Circle Time Model Provides Positive Impact on Children’s Social and Emotional Development
Jenny Mosley has a track record for providing innovative solutions to behaviour management issues in the classroom. The key to her approach, Quality Circle Time (QCT), has been shown again and again to positively impact the social and emotional development of school children throughout the United Kingdom.
What is QCT?
Quality Circle Time is designed to provide a democratic basis for the promotion of better interaction between all members within any given learning community. The importance of good behaviour is bolstered, through positive reinforcement, by providing QCT as a mechanism for both good communication and rewards.
The framework of QCT allows children an opportunity to sit and take part in a discussion as equals – not just with one another but with the authority figures in their lives. Quality Circle Time is increasingly popular at all levels of education in the UK, spreading beyond the primary years, on through the secondary years and back into nursery schools as well.
How does QCT Work?
Essentially, anyone can establish Quality Circle Time – whether in the classroom, workplace or even at home. Everyone simply sits in a circle, without tables or other obstacles separating them. Once comfortably seated, participants take turns expressing their views, sharing key events from their day or discussing an important issue.
Some QCT organisers opt to have a special object that is passed between participants to indicate whose turn it is to speak. Other Circles operate based on a directional basis. The main thing that keeps all QCT together is the sense of safe, respectful communication between all participants – everyone is allowed a turn, and everyone else must respect that.
What is the Benefit of Quality Circle Time?
QCT provides a number of benefits, predominantly linked to an overall sense of community that comes from sharing experiences and respecting one another. When it comes to childhood development, much of what we see on a day-to-day basis is negative. However, QCT provides a positive impact on the social and emotional development of our children.
This is the case because participating in QCT gives children:
- An increased respect for one another – as they learn to wait their turn and listen to one another speak
- An improved sense of self esteem – as they gain confidence speaking in front of others and sharing their views
- An understanding of the importance of shared experiences
It is these key tenants that QCT provides children a genuine boost to both their individual emotional development, and their wider social understanding. In doing so, Circle Time provides teachers and other authority figures with an invaluable resource – students ready, and willing, to learn.
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