On the final day of the conference, I attended a workshop called A Notch Down: Reducing Behavioural Challenges by Asad Choudhary. I was looking forward to this workshop, as challenging behaviour is something that is so inevitable and prevalent in the modern-day classroom, and found it to have a variety of insights on strategies on how best to approach difficult behaviour. One of the strategies that were introduced was called the "Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach" as outlined below in the schematic and following 4 steps:
Step 1) Identify the issue, observation or behaviour in question
Step 2) Understand the students' concern
Step 3) Specify your concern as a teacher
Step 4) Collaborate and come up with solutions to the issue
This approach fosters a more collaborative and inclusive classroom environment, as it opens the door to the conversation with the student to help them feel empowered, heard and respected when arriving at a solution to a problem they may be facing. It highlighted the importance of identifying the underlying nuanced element of a behaviour, because there will always be a reason that the student is behaving a certain way rather than simply choosing to be disruptive in the day. The anecdote of a pencil-throwing Grade 7 student was extremely meaningful and significant, as it emphasized the impactful difference it makes to give a student the chance to explain their side of their challenging behaviour through a collaborative approach rather than simply delivering a disciplinary consequence to that student, when the teacher took the time to understand why that student was experiencing the daily frustration and subsequent pencil throwing each and every morning. As a teacher, I want to keep this in mind when faced with these kinds of scenarios, and aim to approach misbehaviour with greater compassion, empathy and patience with a collaborative and student-centered approach.
VeronikaL@NU
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