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Teaching Issues:
An assessment of problem behaviors should include the
following elements.
- Begin with a clear description of the behavior with as
few value descriptors as possible. Then investigate any time
patterns. When is it occurring (at the start, middle or end
of class?) What is occurring before the behavior occurs and
what happens immediately after the behavior that might be
encouraging it? Remember to include your behavior and other
student behavior as possible triggers.
- How intense is the behavior? That is, who is bothered by
it—just you, the student him/herself? Other students?
How upset are you by it? Too upset to intervene appropriately
may be a call for outside mediation.
- How dangerous is the behavior to the student or to yourself
and others? The more concrete the threat, the more immediate
action, and expert intervention, is needed.
- Can you envision how the behavior would be better? If you
don’t know what the target is, you aren’t going
to intervene very successfully. How does that match with what
the student perceives as acceptable behavior? Are you missing
some key variable?
- What are you contributing to the problem behavior? What
assumptions are you making when you set certain behaviors
as ideal? For example, are you assuming your students can
all get into a computer lab before the deadline? When you
rule out eating in class, have you considered the needs of
hypoglycemic students? How clear were your directions to behave
differently? I often find that persons with management difficulties
give ineffective directions—imprecise, too soft, insufficient
repetitions. Give some examples of desired behavior to help
uncover misunderstandings.
- Reflect at points throughout the process: Are my hypotheses
holding up? Where are they not working?
General Principles of Intervention
- Write and rewrite your instructions, learning from each
class cycle. Learn how to deliver instructions verbally that
are clear, direct, and in an authoritative manner.
- Use nonverbals to help you: hold your head up and make
eye contact, turn your body toward the person, keep an open
posture (arms open, not crossed), keep your voice calm but
clear. If you are unsure what to say, arrange for a later
appointment.
- Provide a predictable routine but use variation within
that routine to achieve optimal motivation.
- Model the behavior you desire.
- Respond promptly to behaviors that have the potential of
undermining the entire class.
- Respond with behavioral statements ("I need you to
not speak out of turn") rather than personality statements
("you are rude").
- Recognize when it is more than your skill can handle and
refer to the Dean of Student Life, the Counseling Center or
the police.
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