What should be the primary concern of teachers of students with emotional or behavioral disorders: teaching ap

Question

In your opinion, what should be the primary concern of teachers of students with emotional or behavioral disorders: teaching appropriate behavior or academics?

Answer 1

Appropriate behaviour comes before academics. Without proper behaviour, how will the student learn?

Answer 2

The teaching of appropriate behaviour should be taught in conjunction with academics. Appropriate behaviour should include social skills, matching appropriate behaviour to a particular setting, recognition of emotions and self regulation of the same and improving self esteem. There needs to be an emphasis on behaviour in all things we do whether we be playing in a park or studying in the English class.

There is a vast array of research to show that when an individual is not coping (especially socially & emotionally) - their ability to learn is impeded - the ability to learn in all areas of life is impacted (life skills, academic skills etc). The academics will be learned far more readily when social and emotional needs of an individual are met.

Academics should be taught from the level that the individual is at - as opposed to you are in the 8th grade so we are going to teach you 8th grade literacy - the individual may only be at 6th grade level - but could be at 10th grade level in another area of the curriculumn.  

Parent of a child with high functioning autism

Answer 3

Both of the previous persons answering this question are right.  I just wanted to add my two cents.

SAFETY is primary.

Second, unfortunately a lot of students with emotional or behavioral disorders are on grade level or have mild learning disabilities and need help with social skills and adapting to the environment around them.  Transitioning is difficult and demanding them to adapt readily will not aid.  The behavior and academics must go hand in hand and hopefully more of the behavioral skills will be taught in natural settings as they learn academics, but of course that's not always possible.

Answer 4

I agree with the other answers. Unfortunately, what is prevalent today in EBD classes is a focus on academics. Very little time is spent on teaching social skills. In theory, the main goal of the class is to get kids back into regular classes.

I just spent a day in a classroom that is completely out of control. In looking at the teacher's schedule, I saw 45 minutes for math, 90 minutes for reading and 45 minutes for language arts. He had only 15 minutes a day for social skills and because the behaviors are so bad, he never gets to this!

However, in my experience, teachers who do teach social skills, teach them out of context. I have had the experience of teaching anger management and having all the kids get a great score on their tests, only to have them fight just outside my classroom door.

Obviously these children knew the skills of managing their anger, but their performance was lacking. I started a peer mediator group in my EBD classroom so that the skills were more relevant to their lives. We ended up being the peer mediators for our whole school and my own students reduced their misbehavior.

We also did role plays, which is extremely important, but I no longer did this in isolation.I used an actual incident that had happened recently and wrote a lesson, including role plays. Then I made it the goal for the week and all of the kids worked on it or coached the other kids when they were having a problem.

Finally, academics play a huge role in misbehavior. Lessons that are too hard, too long or too boring will cause behavior problems, so it is important to teach at the correct level.

Answer 5

Behaviour!

Refer back to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Without the correct state of mind, learning can not be accomplished. All behaviour has a reason. Why is the student acting this way? What are they trying to obtain / tell you / escape? Sort out this behaviour first then they will be ready to learn.

Academics are important though. After all you are teaching, but it is pointless teaching and expecting them to learn if they are not behaving appropriately enough to learn effectively.

It is wonderful when a student is able to leave school with good grades, but even better when they leave a good citizen!

After all what use are grades if a person is impossible to work with, or lands in prison for their inappropriate and / or illegal behaviour???

Answer 6

Without any doubt it should be teaching appropriate behaviours ...

Many of these children can not access education as their behaviours are preventing them from doing so...

These children need support and guidance on what is acceptable behaviours and need to have their behaviours stablised so they can access education