Classroom Interventions for Chronic Behavior Problems

Classroom Interventions for Chronic Behavior Problems

YemimaSoraya

Christine

INTRODUCTION

• Majority of discipline problems can be either prevented or redirected to positive behavior

• Students may have problems and they act out their frustrations in class and make life miserable for both their teachers and their peers.

• Teacher often fall into a two-step trap. When scream, punish, and retaliate didn`t work, they will turn the student over to somebody else.

• Chronic behavior problems often can be resolved successfully within the confines of the regular classroom and with a minimum of additional effort by the teacher.

LONG-TERM PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES

• Relationship Building as one of the most effective strategies for helping students.Teacher can only influence a student`s behavior, not control a student`s behavior. 1. Recognize that her role is to help these students learn to control their own behavior2. She must disregard any negative feelings she has toward the student

• Two important insight – Teachers who able to find some positive qualities

in students who exhibit chronic behavior are more successful

– The development of a close and positive relationship with some caring adult

• Teachers who want to build relationship with such students must be persistent, consistent, and predictable in their own behavior toward the student.

• Bob Strachota (1996) : Teachers need to view themselves as allies rather than opponents of the students.1. “Wondering why?”2. Develop a sense of empathy and intimacy with

the student3. Stay alert and for cues and behaviors that reveal

other aspect of the student`s personality4. The teacher needs to monitor carefully her own

behavior in iteracting with the student

Breaking the Cycle of Discouragement

• Students who fail to develop a strong sense of belonging are much more likely to be connected with a whole host of negative outcomes

• To establish a strong sense of belonging on the part of all students, Khon exhorted teachers to practice the unconditional teaching

• To stop misbehavior is like repairing water pouring from underneath the kitchen sink. Shutting off water -> applying punishment. It stops the water (the inappropriate behavior), but it does not fix the leak (the unfulfilled self-esteem needs)

• The appropriate way to solve chronic problems is to break the cycle of discouragement

• Telling students that they are good at things, when they are not good will reduce self-esteem. On the contrary, the route to enhancing self-esteem is twofold:– Helping student to acquire the necessary

knowledge, skills and attitudes– Creating classroom learning situation in which the

knowledge, skills and attitude can be used

• To gain student` sense of significance:– Student teams that work together productively

over time also can help the student to develop a sense of group identity and belonging

– Positive group interaction can be increased greatly by the teacher`s careful selection of the appropriate group of the student

– Place the student in a responsible role (elementary school)

– Finding extracurricular or out-of-school activities according to student` interest and support their participation (middle school and high school)

– Teacher should give the student attention and positive feedback

• To gain student` sense of competence:– The use of encouragement– Setting short-term goals with the student and

then helping the student to keep track of his progress in meeting the goals helps the student to feel more competent

– And also using encouraging communication, stressing effort and improvement, focusing on the positive aspects of student` behavior and performance.

• To gain student` sense of power– Depriving students from the opportunity to be

self-directing and to make responsible choices can make the student dependent on others or bully or even unable control their own lives

– Teacher should provide opportunities for student to make choices and avoiding student to experience the consequences of those choices.

• To gain student` sense of virtue:– “We are givers as well as takers”– Participating food drives, marathons and

walkathons for charities, and other types of community service project

TALKING TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

• Designed to make students to gain their control of behavior.

• Private conversation would be more productive.• Private conversation has several goals: – Make sure that the student know about the problem

to deal with– Building a positive relationship– Help student to take ownership for the problem– Lead to innovative solutions

Receiving Skills

• It is important to be sure about the message that you receive from the student

• Receiving skills:– Use silent and nonverbal attending cues– Probe, ask question to draw out extended

information– Check perception, paraphrase or summarize what

the student said– Check feeling, use nonverbal cues

Sending Skills

• To communicate teacher’s thoughts and ideas clearly to help the student gain insight.

• Guidelines for sending accurate message:– Deal in here and now, communicate about the

present situation and immediate future situation– Make eye contact and use congruent nonverbal

behaviors, maintaining eye contact– Make statement rather than ask questions

Sending Skills

– Use I – take responsibility for your feelings. Students know that teachers have feeling in determining the effect of the student’s behavior

– Be brief, get to point directly– Talk directly to the student, not about her– Give direction to students to correct the problems– Check student understanding of your message

Asking Authentic Questions

• Begin the conversation with brief description then ask question about the situation to the student.

• The question should be something that still unclear to the teacher.

• Open pursuit of the authentic question might provide clear direction for the solution of the problem, making the use of short term problem solving technique unnecessary

SPECIFIC SHORT-TERM PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES

• The number student who exhibiting chronic behavior problem usually are fewer than five.

• Teacher is well prepared for each class.• The expectation for behavior are clearly understood

by the student and enforced on a consistent basis.• Teacher copes with commonplace disruption with a

preplanned hierarchy non verbal an verbal intervention.

• Teacher attempt to build positive relationship with student who exhibit chronic behavior problems.

SPECIFIC SHORT-TERM PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES

• Student who exhibit the chronic behavior problem usually fall into two categories

• Those who have the greatest potential for improving their behavior quickly

• Those whose behavior causes greatest disruption• Those with the greatest odds for quick improvement are

the students with least severe behavioral problems• Even the teacher can handle them, the general disruptive

level in the classroom may still remain high• Student who have most severe disruptive behavior usually

have the longest period time to improve but bring the dramatic impact on the classroom

4 Techniques

• Self-monitoring• Anecdotal Record Keeping• Functional Behavior Assessment• Behavior Contracting

SELF-MONITORING

• The challenge is to design the congruent technique with the belief that the students must given the opportunities to monitor their own behavior.

• It is student-directed.• Appropriate most for elementary students.

SELF-MONITORING

• At the beginning, students may need teacher cues to indicate when is the time to check and record their behavior on the instrument.

• Cues can be private, nonverbal signal that agreed between the students and teachers.

• It could be effective enough if the self-monitoring relies heavily on how the use of the instrument that has to be explained to the students.

SELF-MONITORING• self-monitoring can not be done for only one

day, it needs more time to improve and replaced the chronic behavior with the new good behavior.

• Once the student’s behavior has improve, teacher has to stop co-monitoring and convinced in student’s report.

• Then if the student has improve more, give some lengthen time between self-check.

• At the end, teacher can remove student from self-monitoring.

Part of the day Rating Comments

Morning work

Math

Language arts

Social Studies/science

End of the day jobs

ANECDOTAL RECORD KEEPING

• Successfully used to handle a variety of chronic discipline problems at a variety of grade levels (Levin, Nolan, and Hoffman, 1985)

• Most appropriate for middle and secondary students

Student’s Name _____________Home Phone _______________

Date Student Behavior Teacher Action Student Signature

9 Guidelines for Anecdotal Record Keeping. The teacher should ... :

• Begin on positibe note• Help the student to recognize the past

behavior and its negative impact• Explain that this behavior is unacceptable and

must change• Tell the students that she will keep a record of

the student’s positive and negative behavior and sign at the end of class each day

9 Guidelines for Anecdotal Record Keeping. The teacher should ... :

• Record the student’s home phone number (not suitable for senior high students)

• Be positive and emphasize expectations of improvement

• Record the conference on the anectodal record

• Note a verbal commitment from the student• Make the student sign the anecdotal record

ANECDOTAL RECORD KEEPING

• Make teacher’s log to view on the effectiveness of the procedure

• Stop the record after the student’s behavior improved to an acceptable level

FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT

• “A functional behavior assessment simply means that someone skilled at observing behavior tries to determine the function (motive) for the student’s behavior”

~Hall and Hall, 2003, p. 149

Student Name : Date :

Use this section of the worksheet to descrie the problem

Trigger/Antecedent Problem Behavior Maintaining Consequences

Use this section of the worksheet to brainstrom positive behavior support strategies

Antecedent strategies New skills needed Consequence strategies

Pre-observation

• Interview of individuals who have observed the student’s behavior over time

• The interview or questionnaire results should be measurable (where, when, how often, and who will collect data)

Direct Observations

4 common strategies to collect data :– Event Recording : documenting every behavior,

the result is exactly how many times the behavior occurs

– Duration Recording : record the beginning and the ending time of the behavior so that the duration of the behavior can be calculated

Direct Observations

– Latency Recording : record the interval between the time when the student is asked to initiate a behavior and when she actually starts the behavior

– Interval Recording or Time Sampling : record the preset intervals, both the inappropriate and appropriate behavior over a designated time period.

Summary

• Analyze and summarize from the data collected and develop positive behavior support strategy to replace the inappropriate behavior

• The general categories of positive support include : – Antecedent strategies : adjust the environment

(reduce the likelihood of problem behavior occuring and allow the student to be more successful and independent)

Summary

– Educative strategies : teaching replacement academic and social skills

– Consequence strategies : managing consequences to reinforce desired behaviors

BEHAVIOR CONTRACTING

• Principle : a behavior that is reinforced is likely to be repeated and the one that is not reinforced will disappear

• The teacher should keep these principles :– Design the contracts to require specific, gradual

improvements in behavior– Gradually lengthen the time period during which

the contract must be observed to gain the reward– Move from more tangible, extrinsic rewards to

less tangible, more instrinsic rewards

1. Expected Behavior2. Time Period3. Reward : a. ...

b. ...Evaluation : a. ...

b. ...Student __________________Teacher __________________Date ____________________

Behavior Contract Checklist1. ____ Yes ____ No2. ____ Yes ____ No3. ____ Yes ____ No4. ____ Yes ____ No5. ____ Yes ____ No6. ____ Yes ____ No