Title: Educational Psychology, Challenging Behaviour and the Attribution of Blame and Responsibility
1Educational Psychology, Challenging Behaviour and
the Attribution of Blame and Responsibility
- Andy Miller
- School of Psychology
- University of Nottingham
- 12th March 2007
2Learning outcomes
- Knowledge and understanding of
- Possible approaches to causation for
challenging behaviour - Key concepts from systems theory
- The contribution of attribution theory to
professional work in this area
3Key text
- Miller, A (2003) Teachers, Parents and Classroom
Behaviour. A Psychosocial Approach. Maidenhead.
Open University Press. -
4What can psychology offer?
- Applied behavioural analysis
- Systems theory
- Attribution theory
- Interpersonal (consultative) skills
5Types of causation
- Predisposing
- e.g. experiences in early life, uninspiring
curriculum planning - Precipitating
- e.g. a chance remark, a dispute among students
over equipment - Prolonging
- e.g. reaction of other students, having some
temporary need met - Perpetuating
- e.g. change in peer status, change in teachers
class management style
6Some properties of systems
7Some properties of systems
- parts are connected together in an organised
(often very complex) way (e.g.cells in the brain)
8Some properties of systems
- parts are connected together in an organised
(often very complex) way (e.g.cells in the
brain) - parts of the system are affected by being within
the system (eg heart in the body, child in a
family)
9Some properties of systems
- parts are connected together in an organised
(often very complex) way (e.g.cells in the
brain) - parts of the system are affected by being within
the system (eg heart in the body, child in a
family) - causation is usually recursive rather than linear
10Some properties of systems
- parts are connected together in an organised
(often very complex) way (e.g.cells in the
brain) - parts of the system are affected by being within
the system (eg heart in the body, child in a
family) - causation is usually recursive rather than linear
- homeostasis
11Linear causation ?
12.. or?
13Circular (or recursive) causation
14 and so on
- wheels within wheels eg
- other staff at school
- partner at home
- headteacher at school
- sibling at home
- etc. etc
15Homeostasis
- analagous to the maintenance of room temperature
at a constant level in a central heating system
or a biological system. - parts of the system act together in a concerted
way so that over a period of time the system
displays regularity (implicit rules). - over time a system functions so as to maintain a
dynamic equilibrium deviations from equilibrium
are continually corrected (Dallos 1991)
16The school as a psychosocial system (Miller and
Leyden 1999)
17The Nottingham Psychology of Behaviour in School
Project
- Sequence of studies with teachers and students
(primary and secondary) and parents, including - studies of causal attributions for difficult
behaviour in schools - various views of causation
- studies of agents judged to be most likely to
bring about improvement
18 Some studies (1)
- Survey of 428 junior school teachers across 10
LEAs seeking their explanations for difficult
behaviour of any of their pupils - Croll, P. Moses, D. (1985) One in Five. The
Assessment and Incidence of Special Educational
Needs London. Routledge and Kegan Paul. - In-depth interviews with 24 primary teachers
across 8 LEAs (The Successful Strategies Study) - Miller, A. (1995) Teachers Attributions Of
Causality, Control And Responsibility In Respect
Of Difficult Pupil Behaviour And Its Successful
Management. Educational Psychology. 15(4)
457-472.
19 Some studies (2)
- 105 Yr 7 pupils from the same inner city
secondary school. - Miller, A., Ferguson, E. Byrne, I. (2000)
Pupils Causal Attributions For Difficult
Classroom Behaviour. British Journal of
Educational Psychology. 70, 85-96.
- 144 parents (106 mothers and 38 fathers) from the
same inner city primary school. - Miller, A., Ferguson, E. Moore, E. (2002)
Parents and Pupils Causal Attributions For
Difficult Classroom Behaviour . British Journal
of Educational Psychology.72, 27 - 40
20Adverse home circumstances as a cause of
difficult behaviour in schools
High
?
?
teachers parents
?
?
Yr 7 students
Low
21Elton Report
- Our evidence suggests that teachers picture of
parents is generally very negative. Many teachers
feel that parents are to blame for much
misbehaviour in schools. We consider that, while
this picture contains an element of truth, it is
distorted - (Department for Education and Science 1989.
p.133)
22Teacher unfairness as a cause of difficult
behaviour in schools
?
High
?
Yr 7 students parents
?
?
teachers
Low
23The contribution of Bernard Weiner
-
- Weiner (1986, 2000) identified 3 dimensions
along which most attributions were found to lie - Locus (whether the cause was internal or external
to the person) - Stability (whether the cause is fixed or can
vary) - Controllability (whether the person is able to
control the cause)
24Relationship between attribution, blaming and
help giving
- .when teachers assume that student failure is
attributable to forces beyond the students
control, they tend to respond with sympathy and
avoid giving punishments. If, however, the
failures are attributed to a controllable factor,
such as lack of effort, the teachers response is
more likely to be anger retribution and
punishments may follow (p203) -
- (Woolfolk Hoy and Weinstein (2006) summarising
Weiners studies)
25Attribution of controllability
- Direction of high controllability attributions
for cause of challenging behaviour made by 24
teachers (from Miller 2003)
Attributions made to No of teachers
Parents 17
Teachers 12
Pupils 9
26Changing attributions?
- by explicit programmes - attribution retraining?
- by more implicit means - consultative skills,
modelling?
27Attribution retraining
- usually an attempt to help somebody move away
from external and uncontrollable attributions and
towards internal and controllable ones (an
explicit component of cognitive behavioral
therapy) - teaching students to attribute failure to their
use of an ineffective strategy transfers their
focus from themselves as failures to their
specific actions and assures them that a change
in strategy will produce better results (Porter
2007) - National Institute for Clinical Excellence
recommends CBT as treatment of choice for
childhood depression (NICE 2005)
28Attribution retraining (an example)
-
- Attribution retraining to reduce peer directed
aggression among 384 male 3rd - 6th grade
students (Hudley et al. 1998) - moderate to strong effects for many students
- no effects for some students
- treatment effects generally diminished over time
29Consultative skills
- accessible reasoning
- positive reframing
- (e.g. hostile vs protective parent)
- (in the context of full range of consultant
skills - Miller 2003)
30Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
31Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
32Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
John himself 27.8 6.7
33Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
John himself 27.8 6.7
teacher 11.7 43.3
34Who is most able to help make an improvement?
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
John himself 27.8 6.7
teacher 11.7 43.3
someone else 11.2 23.3
35Who is most able to help make an improvement?
(Miller Black 2001)
Yr 5 6 pupils choices (N206) primary teachers choices (N30)
parents 38.5 26.7
John himself 27.8 6.7
teacher 11.7 43.3
someone else 11.2 23.3
other pupils 10.7 0
36Home-school tensions (getting uncaught in the
middle)
-
- Sometimes, before meeting, parents or teachers
proposed angry confrontations with each other ..
Sometimes the teacher thought the school social
worker was siding with the parents, while the
parents thought the opposite - Kolvin et al 1981
37References
- Dallos, R. (1991) Family Belief Systems, Therapy
and Change. Buckingham. Open Univerisy Press. - Dowling, E. Osborne, E. (1995) The Family and
the School. A Joint Systems Approach to Problems
with Children (2nd edition) London. Routledge. - Department of Education and Science (1989)
Discipline in Schools (The Elton Report). London
HMSO. - Hudley, C., Britsch, B., Wakefield, W. D., Smith,
T., Demorat, M. Cho, S.-J. (1998) An
attribution retraining program to reduce
aggression in elementary school students
Psychology in the Schools, 35, 3, 271-82 - Miller, A. (2003) Teachers, Parents and Classroom
Behaviour. A Psychosocial Approach. Milton
Keynes. Open University Press. - Miller, A. Leyden, G. (1999) A Coherent
Framework For The Application Of Psychology In
Schools. British Educational Research Journal.
25, 3, 389-400. - Miller, A., Ferguson, E. Byrne, I. (2000)
Pupils Causal Attributions For Difficult
Classroom Behaviour. British Journal of
Educational Psychology. 70, 85-96.
38References (contd)
- Miller, A Black, L. (2001) Classroom Beliefs
and Successful Behaviour Plans A Vignette Study
of Primary School Pupils and Teachers.
Educational Psychology in Practice. 17, 3, 245-62 - Miller, A., Ferguson, E. Moore, E. (2002)
Parents and Pupils Causal Attributions For
Difficult Classroom Behaviour . British Journal
of Educational Psychology.72, 27 - 40 - Porter, L. (2007) Behaviour in Schools. Theory
and Practice for Teachers. Open University Press.
- Woolfolk Hoy, A. Weinstein, C. S. (2006).
Student and teacher perspectives on classroom
management. In Evertson, C. M. Weinstein, C. S.
(Eds.) Handbook of classroom management
research, practice and contemporary issues.
London. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates - Also, Learning Behaviour. The Report of The
Practitioners Group on School Behaviour and
Discipline (2005). Led by Sir Alan Steer.
www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications (Search using
the ref 1950-2005DOC-EN)