Individual Education Plans (IEPs)

Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties

John Cornwall, Janet Tod

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136610172
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Published in 1998. Ideas and procedures contained in this book have been developed with practitioners in many different settings. The book is based on observations of current practice and recognises that schools will be at different stages of development and may have differing priorities and resources. The proposed review of the Code of Practice, and the response to the Green Paper on SEN, will be an opportunity for schools to reassess the effectiveness of their procedures in meeting the special educational needs of their pupils. The format of the book reflects three key aspects of the development of IEP procedures

Involving the learner:

Principles

Children with emotional and behavioural difficulties cover the range of ability found in mainstream schools but generally behave unusually or in an extreme fashion to a variety of social, personal, emotional or physical circumstances.

(Department for Education 1994)

Summary

• Children with EBD cover the range of ability found in mainstream schools.
• It is necessary to understand some of the underlying reasons for EBD in order to set appropriate targets and monitor progress.
• The whole of the curriculum and organisation of the school must contribute towards the growth of personal responsibilities and good personal relationships.
• The behavioural approach should be seen as a short-term strategy to get access to the learning environment. A rigid adherence to only behavioural approaches is unlikely to promote longer-term personal and social development.
• There is a risk that personal predispositions can influence the way in which the IEP is constructed; it is therefore advisable to institute regular joint reviews.
• Acting on attitudes, beliefs, capabilities and feelings will have a greater impact in the long run than directing attention to specific inappropriate behaviours.
• If targets are not embedded within the context of a curriculum, then medium- and longer-term progress will not be monitored.
• The pupil is a person who needs to experience some personal success - not an educational statistic whose function in the school is to contribute to the school's PICSI (Pre-Inspection Context and School Indicator) profile.
• There is a danger that teachers can damage the feeling of competence and confidence by judging pupils purely on the basis of their behaviour and background.
• The individual pupil can learn how to change if taught appropriately.
• A distinction needs to be made between the management of a pupil (teacher target) and the setting of relevant learning objectives (pupil targets).

In this section, the primary concern is to gain some understanding of the internal factors and circumstances at work within the learner and to do three things with this knowledge:

• to understand and be able to use appropriate language and descriptors of learners' needs to generate both targets and evaluative statements for IEPs;
• to match the learners' needs with appropriate planned action by the teacher and the school, through the IEPs;
• to make certain that the learners' progress is charted in a meaningful way in the context of longer-term curriculum goals and to raise their standard of academic success.

... the whole of the curriculum and organisation of the school must contribute towards the growth of personal responsibilities and good personal relationships . . .

(Warnock 1977)

Becoming competent

This is a complex process, involving many factors within the learner and many in the situation that the learner finds him or herself. When we add to that the interaction between teacher and learner, the whole thing becomes even more complex, dynamic and subject to many, many influences. A lot of the time we have to work intuitively and often we work on implicit assumptions about what is happening with us and with the learner. This is good, up to a point, but as any athlete will tell you, in order to improve our competence, skills and understanding, it is necessary to become aware of areas for further development in ourselves. It is also vital that we recognise and make clear our existing skills and abilities. We can then develop confidence from this knowledge and celebrate our own competence. This is very important, especially in this very demanding area of work.

The school environment demands from all those who function within it a set of acceptable behaviours which are learned through a process of socialisation and are specific to the culture and situation of the school. The process of socialisation is a complex and subtle one, through which a child develops from a demanding and dependent baby into a productive and integrated member of society. This process involves personal, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and cultural development and growth throughout the time at school. It does not come from strictly behavioural interventions, although these may be useful in the short term. A pupil has to extract from rules and guidance how to behave but needs to learn more long-term strategies and beliefs in order to become a mature member of his or her community. Guidance, frameworks, resources, curriculum-based schemes of work and learning targets that support learning and growth in these aspects of a pupil's learning are on the increase. Some examples of these are shown opposite.

In thinking about the complex process of becoming socially skilled, it is worth considering the following points:

• that the skills are acquired either before pupils enter full-time education or during it;
• that the learning of these skills depends upon opportunity, motivation, role modelling and a secure environment to practise in;
• successes and rewards will make experiences that are likely to be different for children from different backgrounds, cultures and family composition.
• some of these social skills are manifested in more suitable ways such as body posture and eye contact; they may be related to cultural expectations with which we are unfamiliar;
• individual pupils may not be armed with sufficient control or skills to be able to resist pressures or attacks to their own integrity, leading to outbursts which may be a 'one-off' but serious.

The process of becoming competent in social skills

When we attempt to become more competent, whether it is in 'adding up' or classroom management skills, there is always a risk involved and surprises. Applying the model to the acquisition of social skills illustrates the fact that a pupil may, at the start, be totally unaware of his incompetence, for example, in handling criticism from others. He may snap back when comments are made. There are skills involved in handling criticism (e.g. taking out some bits but accepting others) and the first step is to raise awareness of this possibility with the pupil and derive targets for learning the skills.

'Behaviour' targets for IEPs

Most of the practical support literature for teachers seems to revolve around a behavioural approach with its characteristic language of rewards, sanctions, contingent praise, observable behaviours, timed and frequency observations of behaviour. So, it is not surprising that short-term targets and even medium-term (IEP) targets are often phrased in the language of the behavioural approach.

IEPs are not meant to be short-term (although they are refined by short-term assessment of progress) and they need to be able to reflect progress, not only in curriculum or learning terms, but to be embedded in a continuum of progress. The problem with 'behavioural targets' is that they are short-term and leave teachers with the problem of 'what next?' Does the programme just grind to a halt or do we cut it off when the pupil has satisfied us that he has achieved these short-term goals for a 'reward'? Or do we have to invent a whole curriculum for each pupil who is disaffected or disruptive or challenging?

This approach has been used because it is quick and shows some immediate (but rarely embedded) results. No matter which way you slice it, a strict and limited behavioural approach is more fitted to dog training than to an educational environment, being based upon reaction and dependence (being a reactive learner). The more educational concepts of action, anticipation, reason, example, discussion, discovery, and independent learning (that fully involves the learner) are more appropriate in the classroom. Behaviour will then be led by the skills, beliefs and the educational environment itself. The behavioural approach-should be seen as short-term strategies to get access to the learning environment. When this is achieved, there is still more work to be done in providing equal opportunities to learn in the personal, social, spiritual, moral and cultural domain (just as with the subject-based curriculum).

In the list below, there is only one aspect of 'behavioural approaches' that does not involve the person's internal construction of the world around him or her or the effect of behaviour on the environment. We are not reactive beings, we are curious, adaptive and anticipatory in our make-up. Behaviour has become a much used term in education and covers a multitude of assumptions and value judgements. The word behaviour is nearly always preceded by a qualifying description (strange, characteristic) or a value judgement (bad, good) or by a qualifying adjective (funny, sad).

Behaviour and access to learning

Behaviour

• is what is observable
• is active
• affects others
• causes reactions
• alters the situation
• changes the circumstances
• is based on predictions
• is shaped by anticipation
• is driven by internal and external events

Behavioural targets represent nothing more than initial strategies to give access to learning for pupils who find it hard to conform or to function in a group or to take part in the lessons and educational activities that a school provides. The behavioural approach may be suitable for immediate classroom management in a limited way, but not for the longer-term growth and development of children. IEPs and their targets for the learner should be established within a longer-term framework that enables children to develop from early years to teenage years.

The way we think about behaviour and describe it will change the language and kinds of targets we are likely to set for short-term and IEP planning:

• A person's behaviour does not make that person. We are more than the sum total of observable behaviours.
• Behaviour is the outward manifestation (in action or words) of our inner drives (or motivations), our understanding (or construction) of the world around us, our longer-term emotions and immediate feelings, and our general personality characteristics.
• Personal beliefs or more enduring characteristics of our personality that are learnt may change slowly or gradually but behaviour can change rapidly in response to both internal and external factors.

It is important to keep these characteristics in mind when formulating and implementing targets, whether they are short-term or more medium-term IEP targets. The short-term targets for the learner should serve the purposes of the longer-term targets and hence give some idea of progression - answering the 'What next?' question.

It is important, at this stage, to be aware that 'managing' behaviour and setting targets is more that just observing and analysing. Teachers' and other adults' actions, beliefs and attitudes also play an important part in the whole process. Decisions have to be made and careful discrimination is necessary to separate 'teacher targets' (in managing the behaviour) from 'learner targets' (in learning new behaviours, beliefs, knowledge, understanding or skills, for example). To get these muddled could lead to an adult equating their need to 'manage' a behaviour with an appropriate target for the pupil - they are not the same. For example, a teacher may 'give praise for specific achievements' whereas the pupil is 'learning to recognise his own successes (self-review)' on the path to becoming a more independent learner.

A broader organic and dynamic model

Dilts's Unified Field (adapted from O'Connor and Seymour 1990) is a useful model with which to look at behaviour, both our own and that of the pupils we work with. The Unified Field model is elegant in that it proposes that personal change, learning and communication are organic. They do not take place in a fragmentary or fragmented way. Learning and change can take place at different levels. This model is also useful in helping to make decisions about what level it is best to intervene at.

1. Spiritual (not necessarily religious). This is the deepest level, where we consider and act out the great metaphysical questions. Why are we here? What is our purpose? The spiritual level guides and shapes our lives, and underpins our existence. Any change at this level has profound repercussions on all other levels.
2. Identity. This is my basic sense of self, my core values and mission in life. Children develop this gradually as they go through school. In schools, self-esteem, self-concept and self-image are the important areas for consideration.
3. Beliefs or constructs. The various ideas we think are true, and use as a basis for daily action. Beliefs can be both permissions and limitations. Everyone has beliefs or constructs. They form the ba...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• How to use this book
• Introduction: So what's so difficult about 'behavioural' IEPs?
• IEPs and EBD
• Assessment and identification
• Target setting and strategies
• Coordination and monitoring
• Involving the learner
• Parental involvement
• Training and continuing professional development
• Bibliography