attention seeking: observation in class
N.B. The main website covers the published books and articles etc. about attention seeking. If you want these, please go back to the home page of this subsidiary website and follow the link to the main site www.nmellor.com
This particular chapter is really a supplement to the manual: Mellor and Harvey “Helping parents deal with attention seeking behaviour” whichis available at www.lulu.com
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(1) PROBLEMS
There are a number of common difficulties which regularly spoil attempts to obtain reliable observation. Two in particular are worthy of note:
i. The tiny ‘give-away’ clues which ruin the observation
Observing children who display attention seeking behaviour in class is an art in itself. The children will often be very sensitive to the fact that they are being observed and may alter their behaviour unpredictably, for the worse or the better. Without implying any disrespect to teacher colleagues, when you first enter the class the teacher will often, supposedly surreptitiously, point the child out with a nod of the head or a discreet finger point. Children who seek attention “home-in” on these cues, and instantly know that they are the one being discussed.
The children seem to know you’re looking at them! In one class the targeted child came straight up to me and said “Hello Mr Mellon” – I’ve no idea how he knew I was there to observe him. In another class, where I had arranged to observe James, a different child came up, pointed at my folder and said “Is that for James?”
It is good to find out first what the teacher feels needs to be observed, then, what is most useful is to get the teacher to indicate which child needs observing without giving any clues. The message below shows the kind of information it might be useful to give to the teacher before the observation time. Again, without implying any disrespect to colleagues, sometimes for example a “helpful” head teacher makes matters worse by accompanying you to the class and whispering to the class teacher: “The psychologist is here to observe David” or, supposedly, discreetly, pointing to the child through the window of the classroom door. Children who are hungry for attention pick up these signals very quickly. Sometimes adults are not so subtle. One head inadvertently said, when a colleague entered a class to carry out some observation on Darren: “That’s Darren … sit up straight Darren, someone’s here to observe you”. Of course, that was mainly the psychologist's fault for not setting the observation up carefully enough in the first place!
Message to hand to class teacher
*PLEASE DO NOT POINT OUT the child that I am here to observe. No matter how subtle you try to be, the child may notice.
*GIVE ME A MINUTE OR TWO TO SETTLE and make myself uninteresting to the class.
* THEN CALL THE CHILD’S NAME a couple of times, in the normal course of the lesson, so that I can spot him or her.
ii. The ‘disappearing act’
One of the strangest phenomena of observing children in class is that they rarely “perform” attention seeking behaviours when observed (see Harrop 1983 p.20). Teachers are often upset about this and confused. It is often wise to make a joke of this, saying : “Don’t they let you down!”. This is not meant as criticism of the child, but rather to maintain a bond with the teacher, who now may be feeling embarrassed and frustrated, on top of feeling stressed from all the other times when the pupil did misbehave. Obviously, if the child’s behaviour is in fact very settled over a number of observations, it is important to address the teacher’s inaccurate perception.
As a wild guess, the explanation for this strange happening, of the child who is normally grossly attention seeking being fairly settled when observed, may lie in the interactional nature of the problem. Again, without implying any disrespect for colleagues, one possibility is that, as the teacher knows someone is coming in to observe, they subtly change their behaviour in response to a stranger being in the classroom. This may involve being more relaxed (perhaps feeling that the problem is going to be ‘dealt with’). Or perhaps, feeling guilty about having been trapped into responding somewhat negatively towards the child in the past, this leads the teacher to being more positive during the observation.
Whatever is actually happening, the end result is that the child may perceive a change in response from the teacher, and react to this change; in this case by settling down. The child who needs attention can be very sensitive to even very subtle changes in adult behaviour. Thus, the upshot is the child and the teacher both change, and the attention seeking interaction collapses.
(2) THE OBSERVATION ITSELF
i. Making yourself invisible
Once in the class try to make yourself ‘invisible’ by not responding to any of the children. Look at your notes for a few minutes so that they lose interest in you. It may be useful to observe another child to begin with, as children who need attention know immediately if they are the centre of interest.
ii. An observation schedule
The observation schedule below can be very informative:
The first column of the schedule is just time, in one minute intervals.
The second column is an indication of whether or not the child is on task (this can be difficult to decide, but judgement can be fairly lenient).
The third column is an indication of what they are doing when off task.
The fourth column is a record of verbal comments, either from the child to the teacher or the teacher to the child.
The last column is just a rough record of how many times the teacher praises the class as a whole, to get some idea of the rate of rewards generally available in class.
EXAMPLE OF OBSERVATION - Lucy Davidson Year 4
On Task : 11 observations ... This led to 0 Comments from teacher
Off Task : 9 observations. ... This led to 7 Comments from teacher
The class teacher, Mrs Hall, was very experienced but at our first meeting seemed very reserved. On this occasion, I did not discuss the observation results with her in detail initially other than to sympathise with the difficulties she was having generally (this observation actually occurred on a relatively “good” day), and to indicate there were some positive behaviours we could build on. Again this is not intended to be direspectul or demeaning but simply good manners and trying to be sensitive to the personal feelings of a good teacher caught up in a very difficult situation.
The schedule clearly indicates the low level of positive comments to both Lucy and the class as a whole; and the high number of comments Lucy was receiving when “off task”. For a child who needed attention, these could be very effective “rewards” for being off-task. My instinct was, however, that the teacher was not yet ready to “hear” this and would probably see it is some implied criticism. I decided to leave matters for a while and build up a better relationship with her.
Over two or three sessions, Mrs Hall gradually became more relaxed and trusting and at one point she volunteered, “I don’t know if she does it for attention - I find it terribly annoying”. The teacher went on to admit, “The problem is she’s not an easy child to like”.
I eventually sent her some notes on attention seeking to read at leisure in her own time (the book, Mellor 2008, is a good vehicle here for putting across the ideas in a non threatening way). At a later review Mrs Hall announced, “This is attention seeking behaviour, she needs to be noticed”. We were able to build a much more positive programme for Lucy by leaving matters for a while, rather than diving straight in with bright ideas.
iii. The analysis of the schedule
It may be useful to keep analysis of the observation very simple. Try to match up what the teacher says to what the child is actually doing. One simple routine is to code the teacher’s comments as:
o neutral comments such as instructions
- criticisms or comments about negative behaviour
+ comments which show obvious praise or a smile etc.
The general pattern for the child seeking attention is that when they are on task, the teacher will make very few, if any, positive comments. When they are off task, the teacher tends to make many negative comments. Often, simply counting the comments makes the difference very clear.
iv. Further examples of observations
(a) A simplified observation is shown below (taken from Mellor 2008 p. 17). This emphasises the way that the teacher is sucked into making comments on Suzie’s negative behaviours. On the two occasions while she is working quietly, the teacher directs his energies elsewhere. Again, it is important to emphasise, this was a very hard-working, experienced and dedicated teacher.
(b) When observed, Derek Newton (Yr 2) was working with a very experienced teacher in a small group. It was clear that the teacher was, in fact, being very positive towards the group and towards Derek. It was some time before the pattern became clear. Her positive comments were only directed towards his academic behaviour, almost none were directed towards his social behaviour.
EXAMPLE OF OBSERVATION - Derek Newton year 2
This was a “good” day for Derek according to the teacher.
The teacher was very committed to her work, which was teaching children with BESD in a unit. Note the high rate of praise directed towards Derek and the group as a whole, for work done. Derek’s problem, however, was not with work as such but with aggressive behaviour. After brief discussions the teacher agreed her positive comments were usually about “work” rather than about “social behaviour” e.g. “sitting on seat”, “working next to Darren nicely”, “talking nicely to Sharon”, "helping Sammi", "sharing with Sanjay" etc.
While it was obviously important to reward episodes of work, the teacher and I agreed that there was sense also in commenting on these other aspects of Derek’s (social) behaviour. In this case, the teacher was very responsive to suggestions and actively invited constructive criticism.
(3) THE FEEDBACK
WARNING – POTENTIAL DISASTER AREA
(There is more on this on the web page attention seeking: working with teachers )
The basic problem is, how do you put such findings across to a teacher who may be very experienced yet may still be having serious difficulties with one very attention seeking child (they seem to have the ability to “get under the skin”)? The teacher may be under a great deal of stress or feeling very threatened. One teacher said, with regard to a boy in year 5, “It was embarrassing to say I couldn’t cope”. It seems sensible (and only polite) to begin discussions with positive comments about the lesson and some sympathetic words about the difficulties the teacher is having. It may be helpful to volunteer that “The class would drive me crazy”. This is not a manipulative ploy, or a cynical trick. The best teachers are the ones most vulnerable to attention seeking tactics. Also, my feeling is that most teachers only come across a psychologist once in a blue moon. Psychologists are like strange beings that beam down from another planet, appear in class and, sometimes, with no relationship established, start to try tell the teacher what to do. It’s not surprising that psychologists occasionally have a bad reputation. I can imagine a psychologist’s response to an inspector suddenly appearing, and on the strength of a half-hour observation, trying to tell them what to do.
One solution is to avoid lengthy discussion and simply hand out some notes or a book and say, “Have a think about this, see if it fits the bill” which allows the teacher to take in the information at their leisure, without feeling under pressure or feeling criticised. In Derek Newton’s case above, the teacher was actually very receptive to suggestions. She readily took in comments from the article by Merret and Wheldall (1987) showing that the ratio of positive to negative comments for academic behaviour tends to be about 3 to 1 across many primary classroom settings; whereas for social behaviour, the ratio positive to negative, is about 1 to 5 i.e. we tend to over-emphasise the negative aspects of social behaviour!
Harrop, A. (1983) Behaviour Modification in the Classroom. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Mellor, N. (2008) Attention seeking: A complete guide for teachers. London: Sage.
Merrett,F. and Wheldall, K. (1987) British teachers and the behavioural approach to teaching. In: K.Wheldall (Ed) The Behaviourist in the Classroom. London: Allen and Unwin.