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April 2010
Students who misbehave at school could be on the road to lifelong problems — at least that's what some experts say. British researchers at the Medical Research Council, in their National Survey of Health and Development, found that severe behavior problems in adolescence more than double the likelihood that an adult will have poor mental health, difficulties in family life and relationships and financial hardships. With so much at stake, educators are mobilizing to develop best practices, policies and procedures to deal with the rising tide of severe behavior issues in students. Take, for example, the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education's recently launched behavior academies. These trainings aim to give campus and district teams practical solutions for challenging behavior in the classroom, and the best practices apply to both the general and special education populations. "We are serving more kids with diagnosed or undiagnosed mental health disorders in schools, and those kids generally don't receive help outside of the school," says Dr. Brenda Scheuermann, a professor at Texas State University and a nationally known advocate for students with behavioral disorders. "Teachers are also challenged with general day-to-day classroom management with minor, but chronic, behavior problems (among students)."
"The primary treatment location for the child's mental health ends up being the school, but the average school nurse or school counselor is not a mental health provider," Booth says. "Most of these kids are probably not being medicated or managed by a child psychiatrist. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the run-of-the-mill delinquent and oppositional students who don’t have mental health issues but are belligerent."
"Unfortunately, many teachers aren't exposed to the knowledge of how to prevent behavioral problems in the classroom," Scheuermann says. "We know that children will take advantage of opportunities to misbehave if they are given the opportunity. There are some simple, yet effective, techniques we can use to deal with these challenges." In the behavior academies, participants learn that you can't just "nice" a kid into a behavioral change. The instructors offer best practices for dealing with challenging behavior through interventions designed to breed lasting behavioral changes. Defining the countermeasure on disruptive behavior Correcting severe student behavior begins by setting crystal clear expectations, says Scheuermann. That means defining classroom rules and specific behaviors that are allowed and not allowed — and not just defining them once, but throughout the course of the school year.
"With younger children, you can actually have students practice role playing to illustrate what the rules look like when followed or when broken," Scheuermann continues. "Teaching the rules this way can prevent a lot of behavior concerns." Another tactic is to acknowledge students for rule-following behavior. Scheuermann says students tend to get far more attention for inappropriate behavior than they do for good behavior. Changing the formula for how students get attention in class can make a dramatic difference. Teachers may feel that they shouldn't have to acknowledge kids for simply doing what is expected, Scheuermann says. But if students aren’t cooperating, a different approach might be required to get the desired results. Murphy's approach in Amarillo ISD is similar and he takes it one step further. He educates teachers on the communication styles and cultural nuances of younger generations so they can better understand the motivations of their students. Teachers shouldn't expect students to step back in time to an earlier societal culture, Murphy says, but rather they should engage kids within the context of their culture. "If we tell kids stop, don't and quit all the time, we get more of that behavior," Murphy says. "The old way of discipline was to take away what kids want and give them what they don't, but that doesn't work anymore. We have to teach them how to get what they want and that requires a change in the way we discipline kids. We want to reinforce the good behaviors."
Order is the baseline of success, says Booth. "We have more difficulty when we try to include students (with disabilities) in a mainstream environment where classroom management is difficult," she says. "The more orderly the class is in general, the better able the teacher is to manage and structure the classroom for all students." Calling in backup Booth says districts should be able to point the way to a continuum of support services for teachers, as well as for students. Support may include ongoing classroom management trainings, a school-based mental health clinic, or access to social workers and other professionals who can address student needs in multiple settings. "For some of our youngsters with behavior problems, the earlier we get in there and assist, the better. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the earlier we intervene, the more successful the outcome," Booth says. "The child still may have problems, but [those problems] may be lessened to such an extent that they're more manageable and require less support later." Murphy sees hope when educators collaborate and share best practices. "I believe we can see change when we teach expectations the way we would teach academics and then reinforce the positive behaviors," Murphy says. "I wish every teacher would think about those concepts and apply them. It will make a difference." JENNIFER LECLAIRE has written for The New York Times, the Associated Press and The Christian Science Monitor. |
Bullies. School violence. Horseplay. Disrespectful language. Today's educators face a whole new world of bad behavior among students. And the consequences of these classroom disruptions can reach well beyond detentions and suspensions.
Before educators can weed out — or at least mitigate — behavior issues in the classroom, they need to understand the root of the problem. Sometimes the root is a mental health concern. Over the past five years, Galena Park ISD Director of Special Education Carol Booth has witnessed among her students an increase in diagnoses of depression, bipolar disorders, AD/HD and psychotic disorders.
According to Darrin Murphy, a behavioral specialist in Amarillo ISD, many students these days seem to be dealing with intense stress on the home front and outside of school, and they aren't as prepared to learn when they come to class. That, he says, puts the onus on educators to not only teach kids the curricula, but also teach them how to properly behave and interact in public.
"When I say teach, I mean actively teach," she says. "That means more than posting the rules on the wall. It means an active demonstration of what those rules look like, what they don't look like, and what behaviors students can do that are reflective of the rule or violate the rule.
One significant generational difference is the way kids see teachers. Murphy says today's students are growing up in a world where everyone is to be treated equally. The idea is well intended, but it can backfire when a fifth grader feels he should be on equal ground with his teacher.