Discipline Workshop: Helpless Handraisers Counseling 810: Sasha Albrecht
Classroom Discipline Workshop: Helpless
HandraisersCounseling 810: Sasha Albrecht
What is “helpless handraising?”
•Pattern of handraising for extra help during classroom instruction time• Not all handraising is “helpless” handraising- defined as helpless
when repetitive & not simply clarification or verification •Average number of helpless handraisers per class: 5-6•Average amount of time devoted to each handraiser: 4.23 minutes• While the rest of the class remains unsupervised and potentially off
task• Amount of time effective to tutor?
•Behavior positively reinforced with attention from teacher• Generally the students who were “clingy” in lower grades, need to
adapt methods to not look like a “baby”• Clingy behavior can refer to any behaviors in which the child is
overly dependent on the teacher. For this workshop, we will focus specifically on asking for teacher assistance on classroom tasks or projects.
•Learned helplessness: no need to pay attention to lesson if they can have one on one help from teacher
Target Population
•Kindergarteners•Reverse “clinginess” in younger years to disrupt development of chronic pattern of learned helplessness•Build independence!
“Common Sense” Corrective Feedback
•Show the child how to do it, check for understanding•Reinforces helplessness•Produces cognitive overload• Multi-step tasks require
long-term memory• A lot of work
compared to short-term memory (total recall)
Simplifying Corrective Feedback
•One step at a time• Brief and clear prompts
•Examples of common openers:• “Show me where you are
having difficulty,” “You did a good job with the colors, but now let’s look at the shapes,” “(sigh) Okay let’s see here…” “Okay let’s go over this one more time,”
• All error based! Why focus on something you don’t want the student to repeat?
Steps for Corrective Feedback
1. Take a relaxing breath2. Take another relaxing breath: this time looking at the task – what has
the student done right so far?3. Evaluate: what do I want the student to do next?
Feedback:
Praise (Only use the first time you help a student): Describe what the student has done right with simple, declarative sentences (focus & review)
Prompt: Safety phrase “The next thing to do is…” (simple & avoids error focus)
Leave: Before student carries out prompt – feedback is for learning, not attention
Additional Tips
• If lesson plan includes graphics, follow the same ideas: simple, step-based• Reduce the duration of the
prompt (more time for the rest of the class!)
• For younger students: omit words from diagram (reduces confusion)
• Teach to all modalities the first time around• Say (“Let me explain…”)• See (“Watch as I…”)• Do (“Now you do it.”)
Assessing Effectiveness
Immediate:•Student performance on task (accomplished with or without teacher help?, what kind of teacher help?)•Number of “clingy” or “helpless” behavior incidences • May be helpful to record number of incidences prior to
implementing intervention – as a class total and per each individual student• This is a time consuming and distracting process… may use
a short time interval (e.g. one week of observation)
Long-term:•Number of incidences of helpless handraising in higher elementary school grades (e.g. 3rd grade +)• Compare to previous years• Analyze on a year to year basis for trends in overall school
behavioral changes
Summary•Clingy behaviors in early elementary school grades leads to helpless handraising in later grades•Eliminate needy behaviors early on before they become established patterns•Can combat helpless behaviors by building independent learning skills (Praise, Prompt, Leave)•If effective, will reduce amount of time spent one-on-one tutoring, while optimizing the time that is spent tutoring• Will also increase the amount of time available for
classroom instruction & monitoring