Rudolf
Dreikurs wrote about the need for teachers to have “withit-ness”. By
this he meant having a feel for the many layers of interaction in a
classroom, understanding how students were progressing with set tasks
and ensuring that issues were addressed quickly so that they could not
escalate into a crisis situation.
In order to
develop a sense of “withit-ness” teachers need to have information on a
wide range of issues surrounding student behaviour. This includes:
- Academic strengths and weaknesses of students
- How the students respond to universal classroom strategies
and structures such as the class rules and specific targeted programs
- Difficulties with social skills in terms of knowledge of
the skills, performance of the skills or
fluency of social skill use
- Individual needs such as the student’s sense of belonging,
self-concept and external factors that may impact on interactions in
the classroom such as any specific medical needs, safety or wellbeing
needs
- What functions his/her current behaviour fulfils and what
are alternative behaviours, which could help the students to meet
his/her needs.
As an example
a student who has difficulties with attention may have a specific
diagnosis of ADHD, be in a fluent home environment, see himself/herself
as a poor performer academically and worthless, have difficulties with
literacy and may not have yet developed skills in self-management,
problem-solving etc.
In order to
address such a wide range of needs a range of strategies may need to be
employed:
- Curriculum adaptations
- Instructional modifications
- Environmental accommodations
- Behavioural support
- Peer support, peer mediation, peer tutoring
- Flexible scheduling
- Social skills instruction integrated into the curriculum
- Active communication
- Flexible programming, increase or decrease restrictiveness
- Alternative disciplinary responses
- Concrete and frequent feedback about appropriateness of
behaviour
- Determining the function of misbehaviour and substituting
more appropriate behaviours
- Use techniques that address social isolation - peer
tutoring, co-operative learning groups
- Moving from reactive rule-breaking school discipline to a
proactive teaching model.
- Establishing classroom routine, communicating behavioural
expectations, limiting non-instructional activities, controling student
transitions, identifying the required behaviours and preparing students
to engage in these behaviours.
After
analysing factors which impact on the students’ ability to pay
attention, the workshop will
focus in particular on strategies which help teachers to manage
students with ADHD.
- Keep work periods short
- Reduce delays, externalise time
- Externalise important information
- Externalise motivation (think win/win)
- Externalise problem-solving (play)
- Use immediate feedback
- Increase accountability to others
- Use more salient and artificial rewards
- Change rewards periodically
- Act, don’t yak
- Keep your sense of humour
- Use rewards before punishment
- Anticipate problem settings - make a plan
- Keep a sense of priorities
- Maintain a sense of perspective
- Practice forgiveness – of the student and yourself.
In order to
be effective in working with students with attention problems, remember
to consider all of the factors that are needed to manage complex change:
Vision + |
Skill + |
Incentives + |
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Action Plan = |
Change |
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Skill + |
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Confusion |
Vision + |
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Incentives + |
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Action Plan = |
Anxiety |
Vision + |
Skill + |
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Resistance |
Vision + |
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Incentives + |
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Action Plan = |
Frustration |
Vision + |
Skill + |
Incentives + |
Resources + |
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Treadmill |
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