Study aims and context

The purpose of this independent practice project is to complete a small scale investigation on an area of interest. Various different areas of interest were looked at by the researcher before deciding upon the area that is to be focused on. It was felt that the other areas of interest to be researched would not have sufficient time to carry them out and therefore reduce the validity of the research.

The area of interest that has been studied is challenging behaviour within the early years. Challenging behaviour has been an issue for a long time. It dates back to before the fifties with the well know psychologists such as Pavlov, Bandura and Skinner. The psychologist that the researcher is going to look at is Skinner. He has done lots of work on the area of behaviour. Challenging behaviour has always been an issue in schools. However, many years ago it did not seem to be as much of an issue as it is today in our schools. The extent of challenging behaviour varies from school to school. Each school has their own procedures to follow with regards to challenging behaviour. There are vast amounts of data out there to help us understand what it is and how we can support the children who exhibit signs of challenging behaviour and how we can support the teacher, other pupils, parents and other people who come into contact with children with challenging behaviour.

The research question is ‘Does using rewards and positive reinforcement reduce the incidents of challenging behaviour within the early years setting?’ This question was decided after reading literature on challenging behaviour and a discussion with the researcher’s Head teacher. Careful consideration was given as to how the research was to be carried out. Which paradigm, methodology and who the respondents were going to be were discussed at length. It was decided that the area that the school would benefit from was from researching the children’s challenging behaviour. Challenging behaviour was chosen because the school has several children in various classes who show signs of challenging behaviour. The signs of challenging behaviour will be discussed in the literature review.

 The reason for choosing challenging behaviour is that it is hoped that this research project will provide the researcher with information regarding challenging behaviour that is identified in the school. The rewards systems and positive reinforcement strategies used within the identified school will also provide the researcher with valuable information. It is hoped that from carrying out the research the school, other practitioners and the researcher will be able to implement the rewards and positive reinforcements across the whole school to reduce the amount incidents the children who have challenging behaviour and also other children within the school.

For the purpose of this small scale investigation ‘Early Years’ has been defined as a group of children between three and seven years old, and the information that is gathered has been limited to these age groups. The small scale investigation is carried out in the North East of England in a town called Hartlepool. The local authority has 30 primary schools and 6 secondary schools. The researcher has chosen one particular primary school within the local authority as the sample of all primary schools. The school that the researcher has chosen for the research has 320 children on their roll. This number is both key stage one and key stage two as well as nursery and reception. The amount of children within the early years is 140. Teacher questionnaires and observations of the children are used as methods of data collection. Twenty practitioners from the foundation stage and key stage one (early years setting) were given questionnaires to answer. The practitioners within the early years team included a selection of teachers, nursery nurses and teaching assistants. Three children were also observed from a variety of classrooms. The classrooms within the early years setting are the nursery classroom, the reception classroom and the mixed year one and year two classrooms.

Questionnaires have been used as a method of data collection because the researcher viewed this as the best way to gather information about reward systems and positive reinforcement strategies that are used within the early years environment as well as gaining the respondents own personal views and experiences of challenging behaviour. The observations were carried in the hope that they would show the researcher the rewards and reinforcements used to help reduce incidents of challenging behaviour and see the challenging behaviour of the children identified.

The overall aim of this small scale study is to explore the reward systems and the positive reinforcement strategies that are used by the practitioners within the early years setting. The impact of the rewards and positive reinforcements on the children will be looked at. The overall aim of this small scale study has been split into three smaller aims.

The three aims of the planned small scale investigation were devised to carefully to enable the research to be productive. The aims are to:

  • Identify the rewards and positive reinforcement used to reduce children’s challenging behaviour.
  • Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of using rewards and positive reinforcement.
  • Critically assess the effect of using rewards and positive reinforcement to reduce the amount of incidents of challenging behaviour.

It is envisaged that by identifying the rewards and positive reinforcements that are used by the practitioners and seeing them used in practice will help to understand if they do actually reduce the incidences of challenging behaviour.

This aims of this study is to rationalise the researcher’s experiences of challenging behaviour through a comprehensive study of relevant and recent literature. The extent of this study is extended by ascertaining the views of Early Years Staff working within a school on a range of issues concerning challenging behaviour. The impact on recent research projects will also be considered, as well as a way forward on a local level. The impact of the work of Skinner (1967) to government initiatives such as the Elton Report (1993) to the more recent studies and reports conducted by OFSTED and the DfES (2005) will be discussed. The findings from the literature review have been selected because, although they may represent a general empirical theory on behaviour, they are also relevant to young children’s behaviour in school.

Behaviour has become a political issue, not only with the education system, but in the wider context of an apparent breakdown of values in society generally. It would appear that blame has been apportioned and the fault is often put firmly on the doorstep of educators.

The researcher has were possible used appropriate reference through out the individual practice project. However, this has not always been possible as some of the views are of the researcher opinion and some of the views can not be supported by the views of experts in the field.

Literature Review

Gray (2004), states that the critical review of the literature provides the foundations of your research. He goes on to say that a comprehensive review of the literature is essential because it:

  • Provides an up-to-date understanding of the subject and its significance and structure.
  • Identifies the kinds of research methods that have been used.
  • Is informed by the views and research of experts in the field.
  • Assists in the formulation of research topics, questions and direction.
  • Provides a basis on which the subsequent research findings can be compared. (Gray 2004)

With the above points in mind the research carried out the literature review. This literature review endeavours to look at the vast amount of literature on the chosen subject of challenging behaviour. As mentioned in the study aims and context the researcher has used the information from the literature search to carry out this investigation. Behaviour problems have always existed in schools to varying degrees but recent relevant research material is limited and this could be due to the fact that schools and local governments have been preoccupied with curricular changes that were imposed by the Educational Reform Act of 1988.

There are vast amounts of literature (mainly books) on the topic of challenging behaviour. With so much literature it is impossible for the researcher to review it all; therefore, the researcher will focus on some of the literature on the topic of challenging behaviour.  Before the researcher can discuss challenging behaviour problems in young children she must first ascertain what behaviour is. Behaviour is described as ‘everything that we do and say that someone else can see’ (Mukherji, 2001). Behaviour therefore covers a wide range of things from physical activity, talking and using body language, reading and writing, playing, sharing and communicating, fighting and quarrelling, eating and sleeping (Mukherji, 2001).

The researcher has tried to define challenging behaviour but has discovered it is impossible to define challenging behaviour clearly because it is difficult to decontextualise the subjective experiences of our own deeply held values, and the circumstances in which we encounter them. The opinion that challenging behaviour can be reasonable depends on a personal point of view.  Even within one school it is possible that a wide range of values regarding challenging behaviour will be obvious, and difficult pupils will use this lack of consistency to their advantage. Everyone has their own views and opinions on what they perceive challenging behaviour to be.

Various texts and reports have been consulted. Some of the literature dates back to the eighties which suggest that behaviour is not a new problem, but, that it has been an issue for a very long time. In fact some of the literature that the researcher has come across dates back before the eighties. The following texts indicate the topic of challenging behaviour has been significant for a number of years. It is thought that stress, family problems and bullying could be some of the cause of challenging behaviour in children. Although these may be prime reasons for challenging behaviour the researcher is not looking at the aspects mentioned above as a cause of challenging behaviour purely because of the time limitation and the overall word limit of this research project.

Although the researcher has noted these areas as factors which can cause challenging behaviour she is focusing the literature review on the findings from the Elton Report (1989), Skinner’s ideas on behaviourism (1953) and token economy. The findings from these will be supported or denied by other author’s who are experts in the field.

 

In 1989 the Government ordered a Committee of Enquiry into Discipline in Schools. The report of the Committee of Enquiry, Headed by Lord Elton resulted in the Elton Report (1989). This report contained many recommendations for securing and maintaining an orderly atmosphere necessary for teaching and learning. It found that teachers were most concerned with “the wearing effects of a continual stream of relatively ‘minor’ disruption to classroom teaching”.

For this small scale study it was important that the types of challenging/disruptive behaviour were looked at. In his report Elton (1989) provided a comprehensive list that stated the types of challenging/disruptive behaviour. The following behaviours were included in his comprehensive list:

 

Talking out of turn (chatting, calling out)

        Hindering other pupils (distracting, interfering with)

        Unnecessary non-verbal noises (banging, tapping, scraping chairs)

        Physical aggression to pupils (punching, pushing)

        Leaving seat without permission

        Idleness/work avoidance

        Rowdiness

        Verbal abuse to other pupils (insulting remarks)

        Persistently infringing class rules

        Cheeky remarks/responses

        Physical destructiveness (damaging furniture)

        Verbal insults to teachers (insults, threats)

        Physical aggression to teachers.

Colleagues of the researcher also commented on the behaviours that they had encountered. These were:

        Destructive behaviour (damaging furniture/resources)

        Physical aggression

        Shouting out / not listening

        Fidgeting / non-verbal noises

        Work avoidance/refusal

        Insolence

        Distracting/disturbing others

        Failing to follow instructions.

It is possible to see how similar the lists are. This tells us that it is a national problem and not just confined to a specific area or a specific school. Another author Rogers (1998) supports this. He suggests that the student’s pouting, sulking; tut-tut ting and huffing behaviours and their procrastination and argumentative stance are secondary to the primary issue that teachers address. An Ofsted report (2005) echoes these findings. It states that ‘the most common form of poor behaviour is persistent, low-level disruption of lessons that wear down staff and interrupts learning’. These behaviours are evident in the questionnaire that was used for the data collection of the researchers study (appendix 4).

Sylvia Phillips’ case study, (1994), also supports these findings. She described behaviours that staff in a Nursery school felt disrupted learning. These behaviours were defiance, fighting, running inside, interfering with others work, swearing, hitting, biting, kicking, and shouting, interrupting and hiding others’ property (cited in Abbott 1994). This, points to the validity of the choice of the researcher research topic. In other words there is an enormous degree of concern over challenging behaviour.

Although some of these behaviours seem trivial, colleagues have suggested that it is the frequency that the behaviour occurred that causes the most disruption. The researcher has experienced this first hand as a practitioner and would agree with her colleagues.

Appendix D of the Elton Report revealed that 74% of primary teachers surveyed had, had to deal with physical aggression towards other pupils in their classrooms or around the school at least once during the previous week. 71% had encountered verbal abuse towards other pupils, 59% experienced pupils disobeying school rules, and 49% encountered cheeky or insolent behaviour. Although the percentage of physical aggression is quite high, the researcher who is also a practitioner disagrees that the percentage should be that high. The researcher works in a primary school and feels that physical aggression is not really a big issue. However the area that the school is located could be a factor in the percentage being high. Wheldall and Merrett (1988) support the findings of the Elton Report (1989) by stating that ‘the most frequent and disruptive behaviours in British schools are: - talking out of turn, hindering other children, making unnecessary noise and disobedience in addition to verbal and physical aggression’. These can be seen in the questionnaires that the practitioners answered as part of the researchers small scale study (appendix 4). According to the findings from the Elton Report (1989) pupils that are most likely to be involved in disruptive behaviours are from poor quality housing and low-income families. They are most likely to be boys that are rated as below average ability with a history of low achievement in schools. The researcher disagrees with this because from her own experiences as a practitioner it is both girls and boys from poor quality housing and low income families as well as families with good incomes and from good quality housing who are likely to be involved in disruptive behaviours. Again these finding could be from an area which has a high percentage of low-income and poor housing.

The Department for Education Circular (9/1994) summarises research that there is no automatic link between emotional and behavioural difficulties and any one social factor. Delayed language development will have an adverse effect on a child’s social and emotional growth. This is confirmed in the Department for Education Circular (9/1994). This also suggests that the rate of problems will be higher in boys than girls, in children with learning, health or developmental difficulties, and in children with language delays.

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Children who show signs of challenging behaviour may experience stress. These children may have a low self esteem; they do not value themselves and therefore do not care about anything. Docking (2002) suggests that high self esteem appears to be a consequence of successfully meeting challenges. This can originate from unrealistic expectations, pressure to live up to a reputation, or from difficult home circumstances. This small scale study endeavours to identify what behaviour goes beyond the ‘normal’ range and addresses the effect of behaviour problems on the Early Years staff within the school. The children targeted within this small ...

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