Responses to Aggressive Behavior.

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Learning Goal

I can identify strategies to implement when responding to aggressive behavior.

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Recap: We have been exploring different types of behavior. We now understand students can display passive or attention-seeking characteristics. However, students can also be aggressive. This may be one of the hardest behaviors to navigate. Aggressive behavior comes in many forms. When observing students with this behavior, they tend to have strong personalities in a negative way. They tend to take on positions of power, and dominate, control, or harm others with little regard for anyone´s well-being. Aggressive behavior is broken down into 3 categories: hostile, oppositional, and covert.

These behaviors look like:

Hostile :

rage
intimidation
threats
verbally or physically abusive
threats

Oppositional:

does the opposite of what is asked
demands others to agree or follow
resistance verbally or non-verbally

Covert:

seems to behave innocently, but sets up problems for others
appears to agree, but does the opposite of what is asked

Explain

Identifying a student´s behavior plays an important role in determining how we respond to it. Usually, most educators meet aggression with more aggression in order to assert dominance and control. However, sometimes that reaction is exactly what the child wants. We do not want to negatively reinforce it. Instead, we want to assert dominance in a way that promotes cooperation without matching the student´s tactics.

So how do we do this?

Describe the behavior clearly.

It is important to identify exactly what is wrong when correcting a child´s actions. You do not want to leave room for miscommunication.

Establish rewards for corrected behavior.

Rewards can be a system like a sticker chart, positive notes home, or simply an acknowledgement. Either way, a student should know that their corrected behavior has been seen.

Establish consequences.

The same way we should acknowledge a child´s corrected behavior, we should also acknowledge when that behavior is not corrected. Students should be made well aware of consequences that will be implemented if they continue to misbehave. Consequences are an important life skill they need to learn, and regardless of age, all children should have an age appropriate consequence.

Be a role model.

Model the behavior you expect them to follow.

Provide responsibilities within the classroom.

Providing responsibilities can support a child´s character development. It puts them in positions of accountability while also showing them they play an important role in the classroom climate.

Apply

Check out this video from Polly Bath.

Your task: Answer the following questions on our google form.

What did you take away from Pollyś response to aggressive behavior?
How would you respond to the scenarios provided?

Assess

You just explored a variety of ways to respond to different behaviors.

Your task: Reflect on your experience throughout this unit on typeform.

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References

Epstein, M. H. (2008). Reducing behavior problems in the elementary school classroom. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Dept. of Education.
EAB. (2023). (issue brief). Building A Better Behavior Management Strategy for Students and Teachers. Retrieved 2023
McKinney, A. (2023, July 7). Educator mindsets affect student performance. Teach. Learn. Grow. https://www.nwea.org/blog/2023/educator-mindsets-affect-student-performance/
Vanberbilt University. (2024). How can teachers increase the chances that their students will behave appropriately?. IRIS Center. https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/beh1/cresource/q2/p06/
Manzano, R. J., & Manzano, J. S. (2003, September). (PDF) the key to classroom management. Educational Leadership. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283749466_The_Key_to_Classroom_Management
Bath, P. (2019, May 4). How I respond to escalating behaviors. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f3tAhFWaLE
YouTube. (2012, February 28). Second grade students misbehaving in reading group. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4KLmUdczc8&t=5s
Bath, P. (2014b, June 19). How to meet oppositional defiance with a consistent limit... YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giHErboGZno