School Refusal

June 2, 2014

744

By Mr Abdellah Sallou :

One of the most eminent problem behaviors today is school refusal. Many adolescents are consistently reluctant to dwell patiently in their seats in the classroom. They wish school would be closed, and some of them skip courses all the time. This is a very serious problem in our community, isn’t it? The answer usually takes the form of the following :

- The student keeps in mind that so many graduate students go on the dole and are jobless.

- The student may go in fear of a particular member of staff or of punishment and bad treatment.

- There may be problems at home keeping the individual student away. S/he might have to look after a young brother or sister, or help the family.

- The child was just lagging behind his peers in primary school, meaning his weakness and low level shouldn’t have allowed him/her to pass the exams. Now they are suffering in secondary and high school. So they find skipping school a kind of escapism to fulfill other social skill.

- Some adolescents may be sniffing glue, or taking drugs and alcohol and be in no fit state to attend school, in their classes they do nothing just following their mind that wonders away.

- Some youngsters might be involved in some sort of delinquency activity.

- The student might be bored by the curriculum and looking for something more exciting to do.

Most students are tempted by various factors that hinder their access to schooling, such factors can be seen in means of technology like mobiles, internet, TV channels at home, football watches; moreover, some emigrants who return from foreign countries to spend their vacation affect them in negative way; the effect of these make them dream to leave their country to join Spain or Italy.

School refusal is not exclusively the student’s own making, other peers, parents, teachers, school staff; relatives living abroad stir their desire to let their school. Once children start staying away and absenting themselves, especially if their home discipline and control are weak, they fall further and further behind in their work, making school less attractive, and become involved In a web of lies, cheating, and deceit.

In view of these bad behaviors we find it difficult to identify the probable cause of school refusal. Punishing students is usually unjustified, for the problem is not often of their making. What is worse punishing can be actually counter-productive in that children come to associate school with unpleasant experiences. Getting children to attend school shouldn’t be seen as a battle between them and school, rather they should be prompted to see that the school is there to understand and sympathize with the fears and anxieties that they may be feeling over the problems in their own lives.

A more appropriate strategy is to try to work out with children why school bores them to such an extent and seems irrelevant to their needs. It might be tempting to believe that if we ignore children’s absence they will realize they have failed to draw attention to themselves and will start attending again. They sometimes want to stay away because they want to be noticed, and the school must take vigorous and resourceful action, long before things get too bad, to find.

Problem behavior:

The question of class control is linked with that of problem behavior. If students have never showed problem behavior then the need for class control would never arise. As a definition, a problem behavior is a behavior that proves unacceptable to the teacher. This definition is in fact a value because it appears relatively unacceptable for the teacher. Since we are individual teachers so what may appear a problem for one teacher may not appear to another. A teacher may tolerate a certain amount of conversation between pupils while s/he is working, but another may demand complete silence. One teacher may put up with children shouting and calling out in class while another may insist they wait quietly with their hands up until they are asked. One teacher may allow familiarity in any relationship with children and certain humor in class, while another may prefer formality and serious approach. So things differ and vary from teacher to teacher. One must ask why a problem behavior is a problem. Why does s/he worry about it? Does it diminish the teacher authority? Do the students who create a problem behavior break the rule and the system of work in the classroom? Do they spoil the teacher’s efforts to make his / her lesson successful? So many questions may come to our mind about our behavior.

After reviewing one’s own behavior, the teacher may comes the conclusion that it is this behavior that has been at the root of all problems. By taking offense where it was not meant, by tending to nag at students, by being over-serious or apparently unfair, by being pompous, by being inconsistent, by expecting too much from students one may create a resentment or a confusion in the classroom. The alternative is to shift and change one’s own behavior in a more appropriate pattern.

Behavior Modification Technique:

There may be some students in class who cause problems throughout the school. Other students may take a decision not to like the subject or the teacher or the rules set by the staff in school, others show a refusal simply because of their failure to get a good mark. With such students a useful technique known as a behavior modification can be applied. This modification technique has been operated in successfully with some students .The behavior modification has the advantages of allowing the teacher to analyze the student’s behavior carefully, to identify the various factors that seem to be responsible for sustaining this behavior, to formulate strategies for changing it in desired directions. Behavior modification technique are based essentially on the operant conditioning model of learning; that is they work on the assumption that behavior is reinforced or rewarded is likely to be repeated, while behavior which is not reinforced will tend to disappear. At the classroom level this means that the particular items of problem behavior identified by the teacher and seen to operate persistently are being reinforced in some way by the environment; without this reinforcement, they will disappear. When operating a behavior modification technique, the teacher first strategy is to compile a list of the items of behaviors which pose problems in particular student. Against each of these items, which are known as target behaviors, the teacher writes his/ her response. The list can be like this:

Target behavior Teacher’s response

- Students come noisily to the classroom : T : “I’ve told you before not to make noise”

- Student doesn’t get out books when they’re told : Why can’t you do as you’re asked like everyone else?

- A student doesn’t bring his book to the classroom : T: “students who have got books they will get a mark “

- Students yawn loudly and show obvious boredom : T:”comment sarcastically without pointing to anyone”

- Student calls out silly answers to a general question : T “ tells them to raise their hand before speaking”

Students are busy working on another subject matter : T:”omits the material concerning that subject”

And so the list goes on. So we put down in the left hand column each behavior occurred in the classroom; we analyze why the student behaves and shows such a disruptive behavior.