Many children come to school with behavior problems that impede their learning and disrupt the the learning of other children. As early as preschool as many as twenty-five percent of children demonstrate problematic behaviors which place them at risk for future negative school experiences (Conroy, M., Sutherland, K., Haydon, T., Stormont, M., & Harmon, J, 2009). These children exhibit aggression, defiance, bullying of others, poor work habits, and acting out in class. Overtime these behaviors become chronic for some students and cyclical patterns of poor behavior, reactionary discipline, failed relationships with staff and peers, low self-esteem, and poor academic performance plague these children. Many teachers feel frustrated as they spend the majority of their classroom management time on the same few children each day. This ongoing anger and frustration further isolates these students from their teachers. Attempts to teach expectations and proper school behaviors fail. These student frequently become problem students each year. Over the course of several years these students begin to see themselves as failures and actively begin self-sabotaging behaviors leading to a permanent loss of academic achievement of a lifetime of low self-esteem.
Many children with severe behavior problems have significant emotional trauma, serious emotional losses, and deficits in social skills. These problems never offically diagnosed or professionally treated despite their effects on the children. Children with chronically challenging behavior frequently come with a history of abuse or neglect. They often come from homes with significant instability or a chaotic environment. Often their parents have histories of drug abuse or mental illness. Acco...
... middle of paper ...
...ocial Interactions in Head Start Classrooms and Early Reading, Mathematics, and Approaches to Learning. School Psychology Review, 40(1), 39-56.
Conroy, M., Sutherland, K., Haydon, T., Stormont, M., & Harmon, J. (2009). Preventing and Ameliorating Young Children's Chronic Problem Behaviors: An Ecological Classroom-Based Approach. Psychology In The Schools, 46(1), 3-17.
Gest, S. D., & Gest, J. M. (2005). Reading Tutoring for Students at Academic and Behavioral Risk: Effects on Time-On-Task in the Classroom. Education & Treatment Of Children (ETC), 28(1), 25-47.
Matheson, A., & Shriver, M. D. (2005). Training Teachers to Give Effective Commands: Effects on Student Compliance and Academic Behaviors. School Psychology Review, 34(2), 202-219.
Sitler, H. (2009). Teaching with Awareness: The Hidden Effects of Trauma on Learning. Clearing House, 82(3), 119-123.
Today’s education is very important to nations all around the world. We change in order to perfect the system and try to compete for the perfect education system. Our students and children see more and more traumatic events than in the past and also go through more at a young age. We look at our education system and try to pinpoint the main causes. Many studies have been conducted in order to improve our education. Many have learned that because the ease of information to world wide traumatic events and individual events, trauma is the culprit and is holding back our students causing them to suffer academically and decrease the IQ of our students. While issues of intervention in classrooms and trauma may seem unwanted, Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and much of the critical theory related suggests a deeper link, it shows us that intervention is needed in the classroom setting.
Discipline is important in maintaining a positive classroom environment and influencing a child’s development. During my field experience at S.H. Elementary, I have observed Mrs. Branson using various techniques to reinforce positive behavior in her 3rd grade classroom. Mrs. Branson’s teachers 3rd grade in a charter school located in the south suburbs of Minneapolis. Her class consist of 23 diverse student learners from various racial, ethical, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Each student acquires individual wants and needs, and exhibits a range of behaviors. Mrs. Branson practices operant conditioning techniques to acquire the good behavior she wants and needs from her students.
Intervention needs to be tailored to the child’s needs, and effort needs to be placed on restoring the child to normal or optimal state of mental health or behavior adjustment. Intervention needs to focus on problem-solving and cognitive skills, so that children with behavioral problems learn to adjust to, deal with, or resolve conflicting and traumatic factors. Skill development is an essential ingredient of lifestyle intervention.
McFarlane, J., Groff, J., O’Brien, A. & Watson, K. (2003) Behaviors of children who are
It takes a while to change any behavior. Part of the plan should be effective consequence strategies. Planned consequences reinforce the acquisition and use of alternative skills and reduce the effectiveness of problem behavior should it continue to occur. Having planned consequences should help teach the student that his/her use of alternative skills is a better way to bring about the desired result. Because it does take a while for a behavior intervention plan to change a student 's behavior, it is important that the IEP team decide what will happen when the problem behavior still occurs. If it is a manageable behavior, it is important to come up with responses that discourage the problem behavior and do not provide the function or desired result of the behavior. In some cases the behavior may be extreme. The IEP team should develop a crisis plan to address those situations. First the group needs to define what is a crisis. Then they should describe the intervention procedures to be put into place including who will be involved. They must identify the resources needed to implement the plan and agree on the procedures for documenting the use of the crisis
Wehby, J. H., Lunsford, L. B., & Phy, E. (2004). Comparing the reading profiles of students with concomitant behavior and reading problems to a normally achieving, reading-matched sample. Manuscript in preparation.
Schools are in great need of systems, processes, and personnel who are able to support the needs of students with problem behavior. Research indicates, however, that (while I am a big, fat cheater) information has not been made available to teachers and other professionals in a format that allows these strategies to become common practice. Many teachers choose isolated behavioral strategies that are not applied immediately after the problem behavior has occurred.
Noncompliance has several negative impacts on an individual. Firstly, noncompliance to requests or instructions can hinder a child from learning. This is especially so for children who engages in noncompliance behaviours maintained by escape. A child’s learning will be affected if he is often out of the class, taking away opportunities for him to learn new skills. Thus, compliance with teacher instructions in classroom settings is critical for effective learning (Martens & Kelly, 1993). In addition, noncompliance affects social skills development as the child may learn to engage in inappropriate behaviours to gain attention or escape from demand. These inappropriate behaviours may in turn affect positive social interactions with his peers and teachers. Secondly, noncompliance also limits access to potential job opportunities, especially for growing individuals with learning and developmental disabilities. Ability to comply to instructions and requests from supervisor is a necessary skill required of an employee. In addition, noncompliance are often made worse when individuals engage in aggression or self-injurious behaviours to escape from demands. Noncompliance, coupled with inappropriate behaviours, ...
There are different ways that a teacher can deal with a student’s undesirable behavior. Some of these strategies are: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment or extinction. The type of r...
Dreikurs’ model relies on the idea that “a misbehaving child is only a discouraged child trying to find his place” (Jones & Jones, 2013, p. 33). When a student is feeling inadequate, they will filter through some or all of the four attention-getting behaviors. These disruptive behaviors are: attention getting, power, revenge, and displays of inadequacy. Dreikurs believed that when a child fails to feel as though he or she belongs, they will “act out” in various ways in order to gain acceptable. Sometimes these behaviors work, and other times, students are left feeling more frustrated. For example, a student who may fall behind in class may use inappropriate jokes or commentary to solicit respect from classmates. The student may then try exhibiting power over the administrator in the classroom further trying to increase their status in the social climate. If the student does not receive the attention they seek, they may try to seek revenge on the teacher or even other students in the classroom. In many cases, the disgruntled student gives up entirely and will revert to using phrases such as, “I don’t care anyway,” or “I meant to do that.” Instead of being instructed on how to cope effectively with their emotions, students default into primitive fight or flight strategies. Because of a student’s inability to feel socially equa...
Those who support children in starting school at an early age, claim early childhood education is of critical importance during a child’s early developmental period. They believe it is important for early social interactions, play, and learning among peers to be best ingrained early on in a child’s youth. Gunilla Dahlberg, a psychologist specializing in childhood education, wrote a book on the success and factors that play into success a child will have in their education. In Dahlberg’s chapter, “Constructing Early Childhood”, he talks about factors
Classroom management is an important component of successful teaching. It is that teachers create and maintain appropriate behavior of students in classroom settings. (1…) Kessler (2012) mentions that “[s]tudies suggest that up to 51% of children may have a diagnosable mental health disorder, many of which involve severe impairment at home or school” (Kessler et al., 2012). Classroom management is defined as “ [c]lassroom management is the term educators use to describe methods of preventing misbehavior and dealing with it if it arises. In other words, it is the techniques teachers use to maintain control
As a teacher managing problem behavior in your classroom can be one of the most challenging tasks. Behavior problems can range from disruption of lessons to acts of violence against fellow students and teachers. Children’s emotional setbacks and life challenges can also contribute to behavior issues at school. A study done by the Justice Center and the Public Policy Research Institute found that six out of ten students suffered from an “emotional disturbance” and were expelled or suspended between seventh and twelfth grade (Firke, 2011). This same study showed that discipline varied greatly between schools. This report also revealed the urgent need for a more thoughtful technique in school discipline policies. In many cases teachers have exhausted their classroom management strategies without success. Behavior Modification is aimed at improving school and classroom behavior, and can give teachers additional tools to help them to deal proactively and effectively with behaviors that are disruptive to students and teachers in the classroom. When children are disruptive in the classroom it can cause a lot of problems for their classmates and their teacher. Yet, in the long run, it's the disruptive child themselves who is most impacted, on both a social and educational level (Epstein, Atkins, Cullinan, Kutash, & Weaver, 2008). Behavior modification techniques should be used in school, to change the negative behaviors, and increase the positive behaviors seen in these children.
My goal as an educator is to continually learn, reflect and change my practices in order to ensure all students learn at high levels. As I stated earlier, my initial educational philosophy was behavioral. I was somewhat surprised to find that I still scored the highest in this category on my self-assessment. However, after further reflection and reading B.F. Skinner, I believe that behavioral aspects still have an important role in education today. As an educator I have a moral responsibility to help students learn how to function as members of a classroom community. Skinner believes that the environment of a classroom and school should be as “conducive as possible to students’ learning”. Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports is a model I truly believe in and have used with success with children. Through PBIS, expected behaviors...
Blackham, G.J., & Silberman, A. (1971). Modification of Child Behaviour. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc.