I decided for this ILM to look at a narrow range of highly relevant literature. This is not an attempt at a comprehensive review of the literature in this field. The field of behaviour management of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties is huge. The range of approaches available means that it is hard to give a comprehensive overview in such a small study.
Most of these books and web sites were chosen because these are the ones currently being looked at in my school. We are involved in the DFES Behaviour Improvement Programme (Primary) and some of the funding for TAs in school has come from this source.
BIP schools and authorities are using the additional resources to target schools with acute behaviour and attendance problems. Local programmes are piloting different ways of supporting children most at risk of exclusion, truancy or criminal behaviour. BIP also underlines the importance of addressing whole school behaviour and attendance issues to the benefit of the wider school community.
(DFES Behaviour Improvement Programme Web Site 2005)
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/behaviourimprovement/about/index.cfm
All staff in the school have trained using the Team Teach method and have current certification for handling pupils. Many pupils have 'handling policies' which form part of their Statement of Educational Needs. Parents and pupils with these are aware of the policies and have agreed to their use as part of a home school contract.
I have written about the training and occasions when I have used this method in an earlier report. (Hartley, 2004 unpublished)
I chose the book Behaviour Recovery (Rogers, 2004) to focus on because it was suggested to us by the Educational Psychologist as an approach that might be useful with a child in one of the classes I work in. I decided that as I needed to look at the book in some depth for my work with this child it might form a useful starting point for my Independent Learning Module.
Rogers seems to be applying the principals of cognitive behavioural therapy to the classroom setting. In particular his use of self talk and the structure of the 1-1 sessions, as described in Chapter 3, echoes the work of Beck (Beck 1995).
The basic elements of a cognitive therapy session are a brief update (including rating of mood and a check on medication compliance, if applicable), a bridge from the previous session, setting the agenda, a review of homework, discussion of issue(s), setting new homework, and summary and feedback.
However, Beck is describing a therapy session with an adult who is actively seeking help not a child in a power-based relationship with an adult.
I then went on to look at the ideas and techniques recommended in the book The Co-operative Classroom (Gilmore and Dymond and 2005) (Notes on the Co-operative Classroom.) This has been purchased by my school and is currently being assessed for its usefulness in some particularly challenging classes. Circle time was introduced throughout the school about five years ago but mainly as a speaking and listening activity. Two years ago it was taken over by the learning mentors and the emphasis seems to have changed.
The general feeling amongst the staff at the school at the moment is that we are seeing more examples of extreme behavioural issues. We seem to have a rising number of children with emotional and behavioural issues in the school - some with statements, many without. Problems are arising as early as the Reception class and there seems to be at least two or more children in every class in the school with extreme behaviours, up to, and including, physical attacks on members of staff. I began to look for something that might help to address this issue in practical terms. It seemed that everything I'd read up until now had been aimed at modifying the children's behaviour. I looked for something that might give staff some guidance on how to respond to children with emotional and behavioural difficulties and not just when they are exhibiting unacceptable behaviour.
I found a book written by two people (Howarth andFisher 2005) with many years experience of running a school for emotional and behavioural issues and also of advising mainstream schools on how to cope. (Areas covered). This seemed highly relevant, in particular the sections on assessing one's practice and the whole school approach.
I decided that I would use the expertise available in the degree community so I re-visited a discussion which I held in year 1 on my personal pages in Jelly OS (our previous community software). I had already moved a version of the discussion onto the Ultraversity wiki so it would be easy for readers to access. "Managing Challenging Behaviour
Finally I went back to someone whose work I was influenced by in the past. Herbert Kolb wrote a book called 36 Children about his experiences of teaching in the Bronx in the 1960s. His book of essays "I Won't Learn from You" (Kolb 2005) provided a different perspective on the situation and challenged some of my assumptions about children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
Notes on essays
index