Challenging Behaviour in Schools: The Psychological Contribution

1
Challenging Behaviour in Schools The
Psychological Contribution

• Andy Miller
• 18th February 2008

2
Key texts

• Miller, A (2003) Teachers, Parents and Classroom
  Behaviour. A Psychosocial Approach. Maidenhead.
  Open University Press.
• Frederickson, N. Miller, A. Cline, T. (2008)
  Educational Psychology (Topics in Advanced
  Psychology). London. Hodder Arnold. (available
  28/3/08)

3
What can psychology offer?

• Applied behavioural analysis
• Systems theory
• Attribution theory
• Interpersonal (consultative) skills

4
What is challenging behaviour (in schools)? (then
)

• Few teachers in our survey reported physical
  aggression towards themselves. Most of these did
  not rate it as the most difficult behaviour with
  which they had to deal. Teachers in our survey
  were most concerned about the cumulative effects
  of disruption to their lessons caused by
  relatively trivial but persistent misbehaviour
• The Elton Report
  (1989)

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What is challenging behaviour (in schools)? (
and now)

• The most common forms of misbehaviour are
  incessant chatter, calling out, inattention and
  other forms of nuisance that irritate staff and
  interrupt learning.
• Ofsted, The Annual Report of HMs Chief
  Inspector of Schools 2003/2004, (February
  2005)

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Forms of challenging behaviour

• These large scale studies regularly identify
  talking out of turn (TOOT) and hindering other
  children (HOC) as the major concern of teachers.
• But, of course, there are other lower incidence
  types of challenging behaviour
• bullying, violence, self injury, mental health
  problems, some autistic behaviour etc.

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Rationale for Applied Behavioural Analysis in
educational settings

• First published study was carried out by Madsen
  et al in 1968 in the USA sought to demonstrate
  that
• behaviour is learned
• thus pupils can learn acceptable and productive
  classroom behaviour
• changing the environment can create the
  conditions for new behaviour to be learned
• Studied the effects of praise ignoring clear
  statements of rules on inappropriate behaviour

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Inappropriate behaviour of one problem child as a
function of experimental conditions (from Madsen
et al 1968)
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Distinctive features of ABA approaches

• concern with demonstrating the effects of
  alterations to antecedents and consequences upon
  behaviour
• precise descriptions of behaviour
• careful records in graphical form
• record taken during baseline period

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Problems with generalisation

• improved behaviour of child to other settings?
• improved behaviour of child influences other
  children?
• changed teacher behaviour extends beyond the
  intervention?
• changed teacher behaviour extends to other
  pupils?
• teacher influences the behaviour of teacher
  colleagues?

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A word about reinforcers

• The dangers of behavioural overkill (Wheldall
  1981) - the use of very powerful reinforcers
  where a more natural reinforcer would suffice
• intrinsic
• social
• activity
• token
• material
• (Goodwin
  Coates 1976)

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A word about punishment..

• Research has shown ABA strategies can be
  successful without the inclusion of punishments
• People usually react badly to punishments (e.g.
  traffic warden) - can lead to punishment-elicited
  aggression
• Societys tolerance for the punishment of
  children is steadily decreasing (with some
  exceptions)
• In an increasingly litigious society where there
  is research evidence that non-aversive approaches
  work, staff will become increasingly vulnerable
  if they advocate the use of punishments

13
A word about punishment..

• Research has shown ABA strategies can be
  successful without the inclusion of punishments
• People usually react badly to punishments (e.g.
  traffic warden) - can lead to punishment-elicited
  aggression
• Societys tolerance for the punishment of
  children is steadily decreasing (with some
  exceptions)
• In an increasingly litigious society where there
  is research evidence that non-aversive approaches
  work, staff will become increasingly vulnerable
  if they advocate the use of punishments

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From consequences to antecedents

• although Madsen et al (1968) gave prominence to
  classroom rules, many early subsequent
  studies(and popular perceptions) became bound up
  with rewards and punishments
• dont forget the curriculum (Harrop McNamara
  1979)
• rows or tables- rows had the greatest effect on
  the children with low initial on-task behaviour (
  Wheldall et al 1981 Hastings and Wood 2002)

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From on-task behaviour to socially useful
outcomes

• Be still, be quiet, be docile (Winnet Winkler
  1972)
• the need to teach skills instead - pupils who
  were likely to succeed academically more likely
  to receive naturally occurring praise and
  encouragement
• juggling and unicycles (Burland 1979)

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From primary-, to secondary-level applications

• Despite published account of successful work in
  primary and special schools, much harder in
  secondary schools
• McNamara and Harrop (1979), after attempting to
  repeat workshops that were successful at primary
  level with secondary teachers concluded that lack
  of transfer might be due to either features of
  adolescence and-or secondary schools

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From external control to self control

• self-recording studies (e.g. Merrett Blundell
  1982) attempted to overcome coordination of a
  large number of teachers and to improve students
  self regulation
• time sampling by teacher and student, later with
  rewarded tallies that agreed (only) increased
  on-task behaviour from 30 to more than 60

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From a focus solely on behaviour to the inclusion
of cognition and affect

• early clinical applications of ABA with adults
  soon extended into considerations of the thoughts
  and feelings of clients
• cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) developed by
  Beck in 1976.
• slower take up but recently Greig (2007) has
  provided a detailed analysis of challenges in
  applying CBT to contexts and problems particular
  to EPs

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From individual pupils to whole-class approaches

• first British whole class strategy by Tsoi Yule
  (1976) used extra break time as a reinforcer and
  found two types of strategy to be effective
• behaviour of a single child formed the basis for
  reinforcement
• behaviour of whole class required to change

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From reactive strategies to preventative
approaches

• becoming concerned with preventative measures,
  various educational psychologists developed
  teacher training materials
• for example, Galvin et al (1990), in Building A
  Better Behaved School addressed
• individual pupil management techniques
• whole class strategies
• school-wide behaviour policies
• all incorporating rules, praise and sanctions

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The Staffordshire Pindown Experience

• The existence of the regime that eventually
  became known as Pindown first became known to
  the outside world in 1989, when an adolescent
  girl was found to have been confined to a barely
  furnished room for long periods required to wear
  night clothes during the day deprived of
  contact, education and sensory stimulus and
  prevented from communicating with other children
  or going out. It eventually emerged that 132
  children aged from 9 to 17 had been subjected to
  Pindown between 1983 and 1989
• from Abuse of Children and Young People
  in Residential Care Scottish Parliament
  Information Centre Briefing. November 26th, 2004,
  page 9.

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The official inquiry into Pindown

• concluded that Pindown
• is likely to have stemmed initially from an
  ill-digested understanding of behavioural
  psychology. The regime had no theoretical
  framework and no safeguards
• Levy, A and Kahan, B (1991), The Pindown
  Experience and the Protection of Children.
  Staffordshire County Council.

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Ethics

• British Psychological Society Code of Ethics and
  Conduct
• 3.1 Standard of General Responsibility
• Psychologists should
• (i) Avoid harming clients, but take into account
  that the interests of different clients may
  conflict. The psychologist will need to weigh
  these interests and the potential harm caused by
  alternative courses of action or inaction.

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Educational Legislation and Guidance

• Special Educational Needs Code of Practice
• Pastoral Support Programmes
• Home-School Agreements
• Employ terms such as plans, targets,
  rewards, sanctions, clear explicit rules
  etc
• Also SMART (specific, measurable,
  achievable/attainable, realistic and
  time-related) targets

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Current status of ABA?

• Is it common sense (carrots and sticks etc) made
  overly complicated by psychologists?
• Is it theoretically barren and ethically
  questionable?
• Is it an it (i.e. one set of commonly agreed
  techniques or a general term covering important
  variations?)
• Have education professionals abandoned ABA and,
  if so, why?
• Has ABA seeped into the very fabric of
  government thinking about education?

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References

• Evertson, C.M. Weinstein, C.S. (Eds) (2006) 
  Handbook of Classroom Management. London.
  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Frederickson, N. Miller, A. Cline, T. (2008)
  Educational Psychology (Topics in Advanced
  Psychology). London. Hodder Arnold. (available
  28/3/08)
• Greig, A. (2007) A framework for the delivery of
  cognitive behaviour therapy in the educational
  psychology context. Educational and Child
  Psychology 24, 1, 19-35
• Lavigna, G (2000) Alternatives to Punishment.
  Irvington Publishers Inc.,U.S.
• Miller, A (1996) Pupil Behaviour and Teacher
  Culture. London. Cassell.
• Miller, A (2003) Teachers, Parents and Classroom
  Behaviour. A Psychosocial Approach. Maidenhead.
  Open Univeristy Press.
• Porter, L (2007) Behaviour in Schools. Theory and
  Practice for Teachers. Maidenhead. Open
  University Press.