Bo Hejlskov Elvén
Hegðun, hugarfar og herfileg mistök: Listin að velja réttu nálgunina
“Nobody does wrong on purpose”
— Socrates
Um fyrirlesturinn
Í fyrirlestri sínum styðst Bo við eigin rannsóknir og sýnir hvernig grunnviðhorf starfsfólks til nemenda móta ómeðvitað nálgun þeirra á hegðunarvanda og afhjúpar hversu auðvelt er að grípa í röngu verkfærin. Fyrirlesturinn er rannsóknardrifinn, hugsunavekjandi og allt að því óþægileg speglun fyrir kennara en býður um leið upp á annað og betra hugarfar í vinnu með krefjandi hegðun.
Hver er Bo Hejlskov Elvén
Bo Hejlskov Elvén er danskur sálfræðingur og rithöfundur sem sérhæfir sig í krefjandi hegðun barna og ungmenna. Hann hefur starfað í áratugi með skólum, meðferðarheimilum og öðrum stofnunum í Danmörku og Svíþjóð og er einn þekktasti sérfræðingur Norðurlanda á sínu sviði. Bo hefur skrifað fjölda bóka um sjálfsstjórn, öryggi og hegðun barna og hefur þjálfað þúsundir starfsmanna í nálgun sem byggir á virðingu, ró og vísindalegri þekkingu á taugakerfinu.
Spurningar og svör frá Sli.Do
Where is the line between motivating someone and controlling their behavior?
This is a great question. It is easier to think about if we think of adults. We work with informed consent in the health system, meaning that the patient gets all necessary information in order to choose treatment or not treatment. But sometimes we tell the patient that he or she needs to stop smoking. Most patients do not Think that this is a breach of the doctor-patient contract, because doctors are supposed to ask people to stop smoking.
If we apply the same logic to teacher-student interaction it is of course not controlling to motivate a student if he or she wants to be motivated. And i would say it isn’t if the student expects you to motivate them. It is part of the student-teacher contract.
But sneaky methods like nudging is closer to crossing the limit into controlling. A way to navigate is that if you think that the student will feel offended if he or she finds out what you are doing you are probably on the wrong side of the line.
I can often see what an individual student needs in order to thrive, but with a class full of students who all need different things, how do you prioritise between those needs?
There are different ways to look at this problem. In the best of worlds every student’s needs are met. In the real world it might not be possible. Then we need to discuss priorities with both peers and leaders. A big part of being a leader or boss is to take on responsibility for guiding staff in prioritising.
If you don’t have a working leadership you have to find a way by yourself. I would say that it is important to choose which academic level you aim for, and support every student to reach that level. That way a disability does not mean that you are destined to fail. In ethics we work with the concept of justice, which does not mean that every student gets the same attention, but that every student get the needed support to reach the level you as a teacher has chosen.
What are the most common mistakes we make once a student is already upset, and what should we be doing instead?
The most common mistake is to try to dominate your way out of the situation, raising your voice and maybe even demanding eye contact. That can backfire. An upset student should feel listened to and validated, and given space. When we aim to control the situation and the student, the situation might escalate. Our goal should be that the student gains self control as fast as possible.
How do we learn to choose the right approach rather than simply use the approach we are most familiar with?
In my opinion it is a matter of professionalism. Hopefully teachers use teaching methods with scientific background instead of amateur methods, and the same should apply to behaviour management methods. The problem is that behaviour management seldom is taught as part of teacher’s education, opening to random experience and so called common sense. It is most important when students have disabilities. Most experience is in managing students without autism or adhd, experience that is not of any use when the student have autism or adhd.
My trick is to remind myself that the student does his or her best.
What is the best way to put a stop to repeated challenging behaviour when the parents, unfortunately, are not willing to work with the teacher?
It is important that we formulate questions that we can answer. This question is based on the assumption that the student can behave differently, and that the parents are in some way responsible. If that assumption is true, the teacher is powerless, and we cannot answer the question. We need to ask other question questions: How can we manage the repeated challenging behaviour when it happens? In what situations does it happen? Which abilities do we expect the student to possess? How can we change those situations so that the behaviour does not occur?
In my opinion staff only talk about the parents when they are failing themselves. Talking about the parents not cooperating is in my opinion and experience a symptom of lack of skills or methods. We need to talk about what we can do to succeed, not what other people should do.