Post 2: Supporting Classroom Teachers in Implementing Behaviour Supports

 

In my past 15 years of teaching, supporting students with exceptional needs has been prominent for me both as a general classroom teacher and as a Learning Assistance Resource Teacher supporting students and teachers with plans and resources.

Typically in my school district, we work under the framework of a Three Tier Model for
behavioural support: 

• Tier 1 addresses the entire school population. Clear expectations and rules are taught and procedures are outlined and supervised. There are consequences in place when students do not follow these outlines and school or class-wide expectations are revisited often. 

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  Image from pbis.org

  Tier 2 applies to a smaller school population and will involve some reteaching and supports. This may involve a small group reviewing lunchtime rules during a lunch hour or a points system within the school or classroom that has items or activities that specifically motivate students exhibiting problem behaviours. Thi
  s level of support will likely involve more school staff involvement including support teachers, educational assistants, and administration.
  
• Tier 3 students require more individualized planning with safety plans or detailed behaviour contracts. This group would apply to a still smaller school population and would likely involve district personnel for planning and support, as well as school staff members.

What I am finding in my practice is that Tier 3 and, in certain school populations, Tier 2 students can overwhelm the school and school district resources. This in turn can leave classroom teachers feeling very overwhelmed and left to manage some very complicated and sometimes aggressive or violent behaviours throughout the day. Anderson, McKenna, and Mitchell (2019) identify these tiers and offer ideas for support at each level for the classroom teacher. They identify very specifically the components of what Tier 1 supports, like setting up procedures and explicitly teaching expectations, identifying that classroom management is not a skill that most teachers are masters at prior to entering the teaching profession. A Tier 2 strategy that is proposed is a Good Behaviour Game that involves groups of students collecting points and earning rewards. I have been a part of many school based team meetings where suggestions like these are brought forward to the classroom teacher. These suggestions or recommendations are often met with resistence or defensiveness, and I would love to learn how to better work with this in my daily practice. I am currently again in the general classroom but am hoping to return to supporting and planning for students with exceptional behavioural needs.

In the article, "The Bias Against Creativity" (Mueller, Melwani, Goncalo, 2012) helped me to think about this in another way.  Their research showed that "regardless of the degree to which people are open minded, when they feel motivated to reduce uncertainty (either because they have an immediate goal of reducing uncertainty or they feel uncertain generally), they may experience more negative associations with creativity, which results in lower evaluations of a creative idea" (p. 16). I think that when teachers are dealing with Tier 3 behaviours ,and outside perspectives and recommendations become necessary, it can be very uncomfortable to have your practice examined.  It would seem ineffiecient to look at a points system when chairs are being thrown, for example; and yet, some of the suggestions could be quite helpful to avoid the chair being picked up. My focus has typically been on student needs and student backgrounds. I am interested to learn more about how to support colleagues in exploring new or innovative behaviour supports in their classroom, as that is a big part of the puzzle in the end.

References

Adamson, R. M., McKenna, J. W., & Mitchell, B. (2019). Supporting all students: Creating a tiered continuum of behavior support at the classroom level to enhance schoolwide multi-tiered systems of support. Preventing School Failure, 63(1), 62–67.

Mueller, Melwani, S., & Goncalo, J. A. (2012). The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire but Reject Creative Ideas. Psychological Science, 23(1), 13–17.