Engagement - and I am not talking marriage!

What gets pupils engaged?

This question is really addressed to challenging behaviour in pupils. Often called "disruptive pupils." because they are out to cause trouble where do we think this comes from?

There is a wide range of behaviour to consider. For some it may not be challenging at all. For others of us it might be extremely challenging. The extreme form is the pupil who stabbed a teacher in the back recently and killed her. His comment was " that was great!" or words to that effect. Clearly, this is a serious distrubance and the reasons are pyschological,  emotional and social but unexplainable.  I do believe that most people who have challenging behaviour have a reason behind what they are doing.

 There are behaviours that can be explained with a bit of emotional intelligence. Looking dispassionately at what is actually happening is a key. Also analysing what your behaviour is and how that is impacting the other person or pupil? This is also a key in my experience of teaching. I have found just changing one small element in the way I approach a pupil can make a huge difference. Your tone of voice communicates loudly to an autistic person. Also, modifying your language - making it clear and less ambiguous can help pupils with concrete thinking patterns cope better.

As an adviser I found myself giving advice. Especially where the school thought that by giving a child a computer or laptop the problem might improve. Certainly, if the problem is recording then having your own tool might help. But the message is it is not just the technology but the individual learning style ( or lack of!)  of the pupil coupled with the teaching and learning culture of the teacher or school.

If the school is inflexible in its approach to individual needs because that is " not what we expect our pupils to do," there is a high chance that pupils with complex needs will struggle or fail to survive. This becomes more difficult at secondary school where the scale is much bigger in terms of the amounts of pupils involved. To meet individual needs successfully there needs to be a joint problem solving approach. A team who are dedicated to meeting those needs head-on and provide the underpinning of a 360 approach to meeting a challenging behaviour or situation.

None of this would have helped that teacher we mentioned earlier on as the inexpicable, unexplainable frustratingly happens without warning.