A proactive and responsive bio-psychosocial approach to managing challenging behaviour in mainstream primary classrooms

Student-centered teacher responses to student behavior in the classroom: A systematic review

“…One interesting aspect that emerged from the analysis is that most of the student-centered communication strategies gathered can be used directly in response to student behavior. These results support the theory of Madden and Senior (2017) that responsive strategies do not always negatively impact student behavior and can be used in accordance with a student-centered approach to help students with their behavioral issues. For instance, teachers can use I-messages or Hinting to describe student behavior in a non-judgmental, non-directive manner.…”

“…Although reactive strategies are frequently referred to as teachers' negative responses to student behavior, numerous authors suggest that there are communication responses teachers can use directly in response to student behavior, which promote teacher-student relationship, support student autonomy, social and emotional skills, engagement, self-concept, and decreases student misbehavior (Gordon and Burch, 2003;Larrivee, 2005;Porter, 2014;Talvio et al, 2014). Madden and Senior (2017) label these strategies as responsive rather than reactive and emphasize that these strategies do not always have a negative impact on students; they can be used in accordance with the student-centered approach and can be effective in helping students with their behavior issues and providing the students with space to self-regulate. Gordon and Burch (2003), for instance, include among these I-messages or Active listening.…”

The role of teaching assistants in managing behaviour in inclusive Catalan schools

“…Although TAs and teachers in our study reported that challenging behaviours could not always be de-escalated, in such cases, they removed students from the class and worked with them outside the room in order to facilitate a safe return. As a last resort, some participants described having to use physical restraint, which is a widely-debated responsive strategy requiring caution, consent and specific training (Madden and Senior 2017). Beyond the negative impact of reactive strategies (Clunies-Ross, Little, and Kienhuis 2008), our participants agreed on the usefulness of sharing systematic intervention procedures whether they are proactive or reactive, always maintaining inclusion as the goal.…”

“…This suggests that teachers use strategies to prevent misbehaviours, perhaps handling them in a more inclusive way. Madden and Senior (2017) mixedmethod study showed that training has a positive impact on the use of more effective proactive strategies among teachers. However, Clunies-Ross, Little, and Kienhuis (2008) observe that the use of proactive strategies is not significantly associated with increased ontask behaviour.…”