Increase the level of the response
If a problem behaviour continues after a teacher has tried one or two low-key
responses, an increased level of response may be required.
The following steps can be used to intervene when a student is misbehaving,
with minimal disruption to the class.
- Pause.
- Slowly turn towards the student. Stand close, make eye contact and use
a quiet voice.
- Make a verbal request to stop. Use statements rather than questions. Frame
the request positively; for example, “Back to work, please.” Use
a neutral tone and avoid lecturing. Generally use less than 10 words, but
provide clear direction, kindly and firmly.
- Make one detailed request at a time.
- Asking twice is sufficient.
- Remain unemotional.
- Give the student time to respond. Counting to 10 is a good wait time.
- Say “thank you” to verbally reinforce cooperation.
Making an agreement
Judah’s habit of tapping his pencil on his desk while working is annoying
both the teacher and the students who sit around him. Rather than lecture him
about his behaviour, Judah’s teacher talks with him one day before school
and they agree on a single word, “pencil,” and a silent signal
that the teacher will use when Judah begins to tap his pencil. When he sees
the signal, or his teacher walks by and quietly says “pencil,” Judah
is reminded to stop tapping his pencil.
Offer limited choices
Providing reasonable and positive choices puts the responsibility for positive
behaviour back on the student. For example, “You can work quietly as
a group or you can choose to work independently at your desks.”
Good choices:
- are related to the problem behaviour
- are not seen as punishment
- are not delivered as ultimatums
- are offered in a positive or neutral tone
- allow for consistent follow-through.
Providing limited choices:
- can make difficult problems easier for students to solve
- respects students’ abilities to make decisions and gives them a sense
of ownership
- helps students learn what appropriate choices are.
When offering choices:
- Stop, pause and turn to or approach the student.
- If possible, move to a private area where other students cannot hear the
conversation.
- Provide the student with a choice or ask him or her to make a choice. “Decide,
please.”
- Wait for a verbal or nonverbal answer. It may be a response that allows
the student to save face.
- Say “thank you.”
For example, “You must complete this math assignment, but you can choose
to do the even-numbered questions or the odd-numbered ones.” Or, “You
cannot push people down and take away their toys. But you can choose to apologize
now or sit out until you cool off and then apologize.”
Make the choices reasonable, appropriate and acceptable. For example, young
students might have a choice between only two alternatives. “You can
visit the math centre or the writing centre. Which would you prefer?” Older
students can handle a broader array of choices and are better able to deal
with the consequences of their decisions. For example, “Your research
project is due in two weeks. What format would you like to use for it?”
Appropriate choices make sense in the context of the problem and do not cause
harm.
Don’t offer an option that is not viable. For example, “You can
do your writing assignment now or you can do it at recess,” is only acceptable
if a staff member is available to supervise the student who chooses to stay
in at recess.
Some students may require thinking time before deciding which choice to make.
How much time is appropriate depends on the situation and the choices offered.
Implied choices come into play if a negative behaviour occurs again, either
by the same student or group, or by another student or group of students who
are aware of the choices. For example, a pair of students is asked to choose
whether to work quietly together or independently at their desks. They work
quietly for a period of time and then become noisy. They are in effect choosing
to work quietly at their desks. Similarly, another pair of students is aware
of the available choices, so they know they are choosing to work independently
if they become noisy while working together.
Ask questions
Behaviour is more effectively changed when an adult intervenes by asking questions
rather than lecturing. Sometimes asking questions encourages students to make
judgements, consider consequences, and be accountable for their actions and
words. Ultimately, question asking teaches students to think for themselves
and to turn mistakes into learning opportunities.
For example, ask:
- “What do you think the problem is?”
- “Is what you are doing working? Why or why not?”
- “What would happen if …?”
- “How will you remember to …?”
Take time to talk
An informal chat outside of instructional time can lead to an informal agreement.
Like a number of other strategies, the informal chat shifts responsibility
for the problem behaviour to the student. The adult and student discuss and
develop a positive plan of action; both individuals share in the responsibility
for implementing the plan. The chat can also help the adult and student to
re‑establish a positive relationship.
To conduct an informal chat:6
- greet the student and create a positive atmosphere. Sit somewhere other
than at the teacher’s desk, which can be seen as having positional power
- define the problem to ensure a shared understanding
- work with the student to generate alternatives
- jointly agree on an alternative to try and when to begin
- review what has been agreed upon. Ask the student to restate the agreement
in his or her own words
- end the chat with a comment or gesture that communicates a positive tone.
Create a thinking space
Sports teams ask for time out to bring players off the field and allow them
to catch their breath, discuss a new strategy or plan and regroup. Some students
who misbehave need a time out, that is, a short break from class activities
before rejoining the group. The goal is for the student to regain emotional
control.
Consider setting up a safe space in the room where individual students can
go to calm down, think about their choices and, if needed, make a plan before
rejoining the group. The thinking space can be a desk and chair in a private
corner that is out of the direct view of other students but that the teacher
can see. When possible, avoid using screens and other barriers that isolate
students, as they not only interfere with supervision but also may be humiliating
and/or distressful for some students.
Set up a classroom exchange
Sending a student to a thinking space in a nearby classroom can be particularly
effective when a peer audience in the student’s classroom is reinforcing the
problem behaviour.
Look for logical consequences
Consequences should be logically connected to the problem behaviour. For example,
if students argue over a book, the book is removed and neither student gets
to use it for that day. If the connection between the problem behaviour and
the consequence isn’t obvious, the consequence probably isn’t logical or appropriate.
Note, however, that every behaviour does not have a logical consequence, and
consequences cannot solve every problem.
The following guidelines can help to ensure that students understand the consequences
and that consequences are not actually “disguised punishment.”
- Plan consequences in advance.
- Choose consequences that are helpful, not hurtful.
- Focus on the future, not the past.
- Involve students in identifying and choosing logical consequences, and
let them decide what consequences will be most helpful.
- Help students make the opportunity–responsibility–consequence connection
by asking “what“ and “how” questions.
Defuse power struggles
Some students who engage in power struggles are intelligent and have well-developed
language skills but tend to act in their own interest and have a capacity to
manipulate others and generate anger easily. Other students engage in power
struggles because they have limited skills for getting what they want or handling
frustration. Power struggles can also be triggered by a lack of sleep, hunger
or tensions at home.
Power struggles often involve distracting the person in power by raising irrelevant
side issues or asking why. Respond to such tactics not by arguing but rather
by focusing on a solution to the problem, or by giving a firm direction or
choice.
Recognize a power struggle for what it is and then, if possible, ignore the
student’s attempt to engage in one. If this approach does not work:
- Stop teaching and pause.
- Turn slowly to face the student.
- Make eye contact.
- Take one or more slow deep breaths.
- Do or say something to shift the locus of control to the student. For example:
- Describe the situation to the student and explain that you are not going
to engage in an argument. For example, “We have only fifteen minutes
left for groups to complete their plan. I need to help the last two groups
now. I can’t spend the time arguing with you.”
- Give the student a choice. For example, “You can go back and work
with your group or finish the plan on your own at that table. Please choose
one now.”
- Pause and allow the student to save face—perhaps by making a comment or
taking an action.
- Bring closure by saying “Thank you” or “I appreciate
it.”
A conflict requires at least two people—school staff can avoid power struggles
with students by choosing not to take part in that struggle. Staff need to
develop disengaging tactics for handling conflict situations in a calm, professional
manner.
Sample strategies for disengaging from power struggles
- Use a stress-reduction technique before responding to a remark or behaviour.
Take a deep breath and release slowly. This technique can not only ground
you but gives you an additional moment to plan an appropriate response.
- Use a neutral, business-like voice.
Since people tend to interpret their emotional states from their own behavioural
cues, people who speak calmly (no matter how they feel) are more likely to
believe that they are calm, even in stressful situations.
- Keep responses brief.
Short responses prevent inadvertently rewarding defiant behaviour with too
much adult attention.
Some power struggles are a result of students not being able to control their
own frustration and/or anger. In some situations, it may be helpful to use
well-timed, supportive techniques that “interrupt” the escalation
of student anger and redirect students to activities that will create opportunities
to calm down, such as reading a book or working on the computer.
Occasionally, it may be necessary to briefly remove a student from the classroom
if he or she is becoming argumentative or defiant. For example, asking a student
to work at a table outside the classroom for a few minutes could prevent a
student’s behaviour from escalating into a full-fledged confrontation.
Use office referrals
It is sometimes appropriate to ask a student to leave the classroom and go
to the office. For this strategy to be effective, all staff in the school must
understand the school-wide agreement on:
- reasons for sending students to the office
- how this will be done (e.g., teachers phone the office to let the secretary
know)
- what will happen when a student arrives at the office (e.g., the student
is asked to sit quietly and wait for the teacher to come within 15–20 minutes
to help resolve the problem, or the student is asked to complete a problem‑solving
sheet in a quiet, supervised area)
- the roles and responsibilities of school staff (including classroom teacher,
school secretary, administrator)
- follow-up procedures (e.g., the student completes behaviour reflection
sheet or the administrator phones the parents).
Use contracts
A formal contract can be used to require a student to either demonstrate positive
behaviour or face a negative consequence such as the loss of privileges (e.g.,
participating in lunchroom programs or extracurricular activities).
A formal contract includes a statement of the acceptable behaviours (and if
necessary, an explicit statement of what is unacceptable) and outlines the
rewards (e.g., retaining privileges, being allowed to stay in school) and consequences
for engaging in negative behaviours. All parties review the contract and sign
it. The “parties” may include (but are not limited to) the administrator,
the teacher, the student, parents and any other members of the student’s
learning team such as school counsellors or family liaison workers.
Ideally, a formal contract:
- is easy for all those involved to understand
- clearly and concisely identifies acceptable behaviours, unacceptable behaviours,
the cueing signals the teacher will use to indicate unacceptable behaviour
and the consequences if the student chooses to engage in unacceptable behaviour
- is sensitive to the needs of the student
- identifies positive reinforcement and negative consequences
- clearly identifies who will monitor whether the contract is being followed
and who will implement rewards and consequences
- is clearly communicated to parents (when possible, parents are also involved
in structuring and implementing the contract terms).
