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Special ed teachers cite effective behavior management strategies
Sending a student to the principal's office for bad behavior, giving detention,
having a class meeting to discuss problem behaviors or rewarding students with a
point system for good behavior are some of the least effective behavior
management strategies, according to the results of a survey of special educators
recently reported in Preventing School Failure.
The most effective strategies cited by special educators include:
- establishing classroom rules and routines;
- accommodating individual instructional needs by individualizing tasks and
instruction;
- praising or encouraging appropriate behavior;
- using verbal cues and prompts;
- modeling appropriate behavior; and
- communicating regularly with students through conversations, notes or
journals.
Researchers and policy makers have developed elaborate interventions for
managing student behavior," write the authors. "However, they may have failed to
consult direct service providers--special education and general education
teachers--about their actual use of these interventions."
"The information provided by special education teachers in our study suggests
that some interventions commonly taught in teacher preparation programs are
viewed by teachers as too complex to implement and, in some instances,
ineffective. When the costs of employing intensive interventions outweigh their
benefits, teachers are unlikely to use those approaches."
In this study, 211 Kansas special education teachers completed surveys
(surveys were mailed to 400 teachers) on the use, effectiveness and intensity of
24 communication and 33 behavior management strategies. An equal number of
teachers were sent surveys from the following four largest classifications:
emotional and behavior disorders (EBD), learning disabilities (LD), mental
retardation (MR) and interrelated (IR).
Participants indicated they were more likely to use communication than
behavior strategies. Of the eight most-used strategies, six are in the
communication category.
"High-use behavior management strategies were using gestures or signal alerts
and proximity control and contacting parents to discuss student behavior," the
authors write. |
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Of the 12 least-used approaches, 10 are behavior management strategies and
two are communication strategies. The most frequently used strategies also
tended to be the strategies the teachers found most effective.
Least effective strategies
"The least effective communication
strategies were permitting problem behavior to occur with the idea that the
student will soon return to appropriate behavior, organizing and administering a
group-contingent reward system, and threatening students with loss of
privileges," the authors write.
"One clear finding is that all of the most used management strategies are
intended to prevent or interfere with problem behavior at an early stage," write
the authors. "The least used approaches, however, address problems after they
occur (e.g., conducting class meetings to discuss problem behavior, threatening
students with loss of privileges, assigning detention or school suspension, call
parents to come and take a student home).
"Revisiting Cost-Benefit Relationships of Behavior Management Strategies:
What Special Educators Say About Usefulness, Intensity, and Effectiveness," by
Marilyn Kaff, Robert Zabel and Morgan Milham, Preventing School Failure, 2007,
Volume 51, Number 2, pp. 35-45.
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