Managing Habitually Disruptive Students: A Psycho-educational Approach

In today's schools, habitually disruptive students are placed almost in every classroom, and the behavioral and emotional issues that students bring to school seem to come in all shades and colors -acting out behaviors, attention deficits, hyperactivity, aggressive behaviors, non-compliance, defiance, and low motivation to name just the most common. For the teacher or staff member dealing with a student with recurrent behavior problems, the theories and methods learned from textbooks rarely give any assistance or help in how to interact with the child to extinguish recurrent disruptive episodes. When we have to deal with a disruptive student, a psycho-educational or therapeutic approach has more to offer to both the teacher and the student than any other form of intervention can offer. Teachers need to know they have multiple options to deal with classroom disruptive behaviors, and the more psycho-educational theories we understand and apply, the broader our understanding of our role in escalating or defusing disruptive events, the less helpless we feel, and the bigger our chances of succeeding in managing disruptive classroom behaviors.

In the school setting, psycho-education, or psychological theory applied to the classroom, is a method of teaching teachers and students about children's behavioral and emotional difficulties. Psycho-education aims at training teachers in helping emotionally troubled and/or behaviorally disordered students gain emotional and behavioral self-control.

A psycho-educational approach acknowledges the fact that, to be effective and therapeutic, any behavior management intervention attempted must respond to the exceedingly complex and multifaceted dimension of the habitually disruptive student. The psycho-educational teacher shows concern for both the student's feelings and observable behavior, recognizing the powerful role of emotions in students' ability to learn, and on their behaviors. Using what is offered from both psychology and education, psycho-education recognizes that a therapeutic relationship with a caring, understanding, and well-trained adult improves the student's social behavior; helping the child develop socio-emotional skills to cope with stressful events, make better behavioral choices (decision-making skills), and solve problems in socially acceptable ways (social problem solving). In psycho-education, therapeutic change happens when the habitually disruptive student understands the role of her emotions in her school difficulties. Ultimately, the student must act upon and take personal responsibility for her own behavior, so that long-term behavioral change can take place. Psycho-education then is therapeutic and insight oriented; the psycho-educational teacher reflects on what the student says and does, and does not give unsolicited advice or dictates what the student must do, but rather tries to bring up the student to a deeper level of understanding of both her feelings and the behaviors that those feelings trigger.

A teacher with psycho-educational skills is able to help students identify, debate, and replace irrational and self-defeating beliefs and thoughts that maintain troubling feelings and negative behaviors. Using child guidance techniques like benign confrontation (pointing out the discrepancies between the student's goals and the student's behaviors) and processing (discussion of the child's feelings) (Meier and Davis, 1997), the teacher helps the child develop insight in:

A. Becoming aware of deep feelings (e.g. "When I cursed Mr. Evans I was really mad at Justin")

B. Learning to be vigilant about specific behaviors (e.g. "I did not realize I demand to be the leader every time we work in cooperative groups"), and

C. Owning denied parts of self (e.g. "Sometimes I can be bossy") (Kottler and Kottler, 2000).

The therapeutic teacher does not blame the child for her feelings or behavior; the focus is on how the student can overcome the obstacles, or negative and self-defeating thoughts and beliefs, to achieve positive classroom behavior and improved relationships. Although the teacher is the expert in the area of content, the student is the expert in knowledge of self and her behavior. The therapeutic teacher knows how to use the student's "expertise" to enhance the child's ability to make better decisions and to cope effectively with troublesome events. The student's own strengths and current coping resources are analyzed, refined, and/or reinforced, so that the child becomes the main contributor on her own improvement. The coping strategies taught or strengthened include cognitive (thoughts), affective (feelings), and behavioral aspects, incorporating perspectives and child guidance techniques from sister disciplines like psychology, social work, and counseling.

Considered a major conceptual model for special education, psycho-education is used in school settings like inclusive classes (team teaching), self-contained classes for behaviorally disordered students, special schools for the emotionally disturbed, residential settings, and juvenile justice systems. A comprehensive psycho-educational approach includes coping skills, self-management of behavior, basic thinking skills, anger and impulse control, social problem solving, choice making, and relationships.

References:
Kottler, J. A., & Kottler, E. (2000). Counseling skills for teachers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Meier, S. T., & Davis, S. R. (1997). The elements of counseling. Third Edition. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.