TA

TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS AND IMPROVING BEHAVIOR 2013/14
LEVEL 4 CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING - OPTIONAL UNIT
Page1
Introduction
Behavior is defined as the way in which an animal or person behaves in
response to a particular situation or stimulus, or the way in which one
acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others. As Human
behavior is believed to be influenced by the endocrine system and the
nervous system, it is most commonly believed that complexity in the
behavior of an organism is correlated to the complexity of its nervous
system. Generally, organisms with more complex nervous systems, such
as human beings, have a greater capacity to learn new responses and
thus adjust their behavior.
Given the varied socio-economic and emotionally challenging
environments that many students have to cope with, it is vital for
teachers to understand the major negative impact these environments
have on the brain's nervous system and the subsequent emotional
reactions that become an automatic response to perceived threats
against their already weakened ego states. (See sidebar). Parents and
teachers play a key role in guiding young peoples' behavior. If our aim is
to minimize the childlike responses in our young people and guide them
to adjust their behavior, teachers need to learn better methods of
managing behavior that enable young people to learn new, more
appropriate ways of responding and adjusting their behavior whilst
maintaining their self-worth and respect.
Educational institutions are under increasing pressure to consider
issues of student behavior especially in light of major policy shifts
towards social inclusion (DfEE 1999). The shift towards inclusion is
questionably undermined by the long-standing student achievement
agenda where the emphasis has been on, among other agendas,
increasing academic standards. With so much conflict within
government guidance and the ever competing legislative priorities the
outcomes of improving behavior are quite limited. Teachers are left
with the situation of either the students are to blame for difficult
behavior or the teachers themselves are somehow to blame - clearly
this is both negative and unsustainable. It all comes down to
perspective. It is very rare that either both teachers and students fail.
What seems to be failing both teachers and students are the methods
used to deal with the challenges of student behavior.
EGO STATES
This paper does not specifically go into detail
about the three ego states but I have briefly
mentioned them here as an overview.
Transactional Analysis became the method of
examining the transaction wherein: 'I do
something to you, and you do something back'.
Berne said that each person is made up of three
alter ego states:
 Parent
 Adult
 Child
These terms have different definitions than in
normal language.
Parent
This is our ingrained voice of authority, absorbed
conditioning, learning and attitudes from when
we were young. We were conditioned by our real
parents, teachers, older people, next door
neighbors, aunts and uncles, Father Christmas
and Jack Frost. Our Parent is made up of a huge
number of hidden and overt recorded playbacks.
Typically embodied by phrases and attitudes
starting with 'how to', 'under no circumstances',
'always' and 'never forget', 'don't lie, cheat, steal',
etc, etc. Our parent is formed by external events
and influences upon us as we grow through early
childhood. We can change it, but this is easier
said than done.
Child
Our internal reaction and feelings to external
events form the 'Child'. This is the seeing,
hearing, feeling, and emotional body of data
within each of us. When anger or despair
dominates reason, the Child is in control. Like our
Parent we can change it, but it is no easier.
Adult
Our 'Adult' is our ability to think and determine
action for ourselves, based on received data. The
adult in us begins to form at around ten months
old, and is the means by which we keep our
Parent and Child under control. If we are to
change our Parent or Child we must do so
through our adult.
In other words:
 Parent is our 'Taught' concept of life
 Adult is our 'Thought' concept of life
 Child is our 'Felt' concept of life

Page2
This is because the general method used to understand and deal with 'problem' students is
based on the cognitive/behavioral theory which is still the standard, default mode for many
educational establishments. (Barrow, Bradford, Newton, P.94) There is therefore an
increasing number of students that are labelled as 'beyond' or for whom the standard
approach of managing behavior simply does not work. This is certainly the case with some of
the students that I teach at DV8, for which I will present examples later in this paper;
techniques for dealing with difficult behaviour that I have successfully used in schools
overseas have, at times, left me frustrated and with the tendency to blame the students. As a
teacher, it became apparent early on in the academic year that I needed to look more
critically at the techniques, theory, and practice that I was using. My personal interest in
Transactional Analysis (TA) in my own life has led me to further research this field in order to
better meet the students' individual needs. This paper will therefore focus on how TA can be
used to improve interactions, particularly between teacher - students, to help improve
overall behavior. Using the analogy of a tree, we will come to understand how the roots of a
person's past has a direct link to their present attitude and behavior. Case studies are
provided and analyzed to provide a clearer understanding of the positive effects of using TA.
Transactional modes and strokes are discussed to highlight the importance of maintaining
positive interactions with students and why some find it challenging to accept praise.
The conventional approaches in working with student behaviour, such as providing warmth
and structure, the use of consequences to discourage unwanted behaviour, continue to be
effective in recognizing the impact of thinking in changing ones behaviour. But as my
experience at Dv8 has highlighted, these conventional methods do at times fall short of
success and we thus need to remind ourselves that relying on a single perspective limits our
effective work with such students. Introducing new concepts drawn from (TA) can create
different insights into challenging behavior. TA can be effective at assisting teachers to
unravel the complex ways that humans communicate and thus helping us move forward. It is
an approach that makes an effective impact on how teachers respond to the complexities of
managing conflict and building students' confidence in responding appropriately to these
challenging behaviors.

Page3
The Tree of TA
A simple analogy that helps to describe TA is a tree.
Like any tree it has roots which go deep into the
ground: in this case the ground of psychodynamic
theory (see sidebar), linking a person's current
attitudes and behavior to the effects of childhood
experiences and interactions with others, whether
positive or negative. Eric Berne, the originator of
TA, preferred to describe TA as a 'social
psychology' and/or 'social psychiatry'; a method of
observing a person's behavior to understand their
thinking and feelings, and insight into, 'what makes
people tick'. (Berne 1950)
A tree also has a trunk. This gives a tree its shape and structure, and through which nutrients
pass from the ground to the leaves, flowers, and fruits. The products of photosynthesis in the
leaves return to nourish all parts of the tree enabling it to grow healthy, strong, and vigorous.
The trunk of the tree in TA is a humanistic viewpoint that upholds that every individual is
fundamentally valuable, important, and worthy of respect. This has become known as 'I'm
OK, you're OK' or that 'I respect and accept myself and you, and trust that you will do the
same to me'. If teachers understand the subtext of this belief, then we will behave in a
manner that communicates to our students 'as if' we and they are OK, we then invite a more
positive element to our interactions. We send the message that given the opportunity and
appropriate support, our students can think for themselves, make decisions, solve problems,
grow, and most importantly rise above the negative impact of their upbringing. Students
may, and often do, behave in 'not-OK' ways, as the case studies starting on page 4 will
evidence; this behavior is the direct result of using ineffective strategies of communication
and interaction, which, with an OK-OK approach and the right information, can be changed.
The hope and optimism of this approach is manifested in its accessibility. The language Berne
demanded had to be understandable to an...8 year old child (Karpman 2006 - Lost in
Translation Vol. 36, No. 4). He opposed professional elitism and the use of complex language.
*Psychodynamics
Also known as dynamic psychology, in its broadest
sense, is an approach to psychology that
emphasizes systematic study of the psychological
forces that underlie human behavior, feelings, and
emotions and how they might relate to early
experience. It is especially interested in the
dynamic relations between conscious motivation
and unconscious motivation. - Wikipedia

Page4
The life and health of a tree can be
seen in what it produces - its foliage,
flowers, and fruit. The saying that 'a
good tree cannot produce bad fruit
and a bad tree cannot produce good
fruit' points to the connection
between our inward condition and
our outward behavior. The roots and
the tree are there to make these
possible. Products of the TA tree
include observable change in thinking,
feeling, and behavior. It is important
to understand what happens when we
get drawn into conflict in order to
examine how conflict can be avoided.
Case Study
As a recent (May 2014) example** highlights: two students arrived late at DV8 and classes
had already commenced. Entry to the building is normally gained by ringing the intercom
and a member of staff pressing the door release button from the office. On this particular
afternoon there was no one in the office. The students rang the bell constantly and banged
and pulled on the door disturbing a class that was near the front door. This went on for a few
minutes as no one came and answered the door. The teacher in the downstairs class had by
now reached her limit and went to the front door in a highly agitated frame of mind. On
opening the door, the students were confronted with a teacher that was hostile and
confrontational. One of the students told the teacher to 'f*%* off'. Both individuals were
clearly in a not OK - not OK mode of communication.
The teacher reported the situation to the office. The student went up to his class in a highly
emotional and aggressive state for which the class teacher had to manage to prevent him
disrupting the rest of the class and before settling him down to his exam practise. At the end
of the session, the teacher from downstairs went up to the student's class and asked him to
come down and speak with her. The student, refusing to even turn around and look at her,
said that he wasn't going to have a discussion with her. The teacher tried to explain that she
wanted to apologize and rectify the situation. This had no impact on the student and the
teacher went and reported this to the office. In the meantime, the student left the college.
** Examples used in this paper are solely for analytical purposes.

Page5
This situation created disruption for two classes and its teachers and a lot of time and energy
was expended in making a number of phone calls to the student with no response and
contacting the father, resulting in the father becoming involved and being informed that his
son could not return to college until he apologized to the teacher whom he swore at. In the
end the student did call back and apologize but was that because he wanted to or was
cajoled by his father? And at what cost to his self-esteem and self-
worth?
Transactional Modes
Avoiding conflict saves time in the end, even if initially time needs to
be invested to find more effective ways of dealing with difficulties.
When we don't take the time, we can create even more stressful
situations. As the example mentioned above clearly shows, if we don't
take the time to communicate effectively with students we will end up
in conflict and the consequence is that we have to spend more time
sorting it out. It is often the teacher that ends up feeling the victim
whilst thinking the student is being unreasonable or aggressive.
It is important to identify which transactional mode* (See sidebar) we
use with students and which ones they are operating in. In the
example above the teacher is coming from Parent mode and quite an
aggressive or critical one. The student's response is coming from the
Child, and a rebel one at that - the other student did not respond in
such a verbal manner and went straight to class without further
incident and thus was operating in Adapted Child, you either do as you
are asked or you rebel. So in the situation above the first student is
very much rebelling.
As the teacher had already allowed herself to get agitated at the
student because of his behavior, she was drawn into the conflict by
reacting in a negative Critical Parent mode. The transaction was
started by the student in Rebel Child who then hooked the teacher's
Critical Parent. One has to ask who was in control after all?
*Transactional Modes
Parent - Parent is commonly
represented as a circle with four
quadrants:
Nurturing - Nurturing (positive) and
Spoiling (negative).
Controlling - Structuring (positive)
and Critical (negative).
Adult - Adult remains as a single
entity, representing an
'accounting' function or mode,
which can draw on the resources
of both Parent and Child.
Child - Child is commonly
represented as circle with four
quadrants:
Adapted - Co-operative (positive)
and Compliant/Resistant
(negative).
Free - Spontaneous (positive) and
Immature (negative).

Page6
As the teacher was in the classroom closest to the door, she could have briefly interrupted
her lesson sooner to let the students in when it was obvious that there was no one in the
office to do this. This would have put an immediate stop to the inappropriate consistent
ringing and pulling on the door. The teacher could have reasoned that they are late and that
there may be a valid reason for this, let them in, and approach the offending student later to
deal with his inappropriate behaviour.
The teacher could also have let them in and chosen to ignore the behavior perceiving that
the student may have been attempting to draw someone into a conflict. This response
would have come from Logical Adult using thinking in the here and now. It must be
mentioned that when a decision is made to ignore certain behavior it is not the case of
letting the student off the hook, but of taking the decision to tackle that particular unwanted
behavior at a different time or in a more appropriate way. The consequence of completely
ignoring unwanted behavior could possibly result in even more disruptive behavior in the
future.
As shown, the negative outcome of the situation could have been prevented by using a more
effective communication approach, one that maintained the student's value, importance,
and that, despite the unwanted behavior, he was still worthy of respect. The student was
clearly in Rebel Child mode as was evidenced by the constant bell ringing and pulling the
door. To be met by a confrontational teacher in Critical Adult mode, the student in Rebel
Child responded accordingly - was he also experiencing this type of communication at home
to respond as quickly and instinctually as this? By using a less antagonistic method of
communication - from Parent mode, for example by simply letting the student in but asking
him to report to her class after session, she would have minimized the disruption to classes
and the amount of time and number of staff members needed to deal with this incident. At a
more appropriate time and location, the teacher could have been able to speak to the
student, i.e. 'Are you OK?' and explain, or better still, get the student himself to analyze why
his behaviour was unacceptable - Natural Child. In this way, the student would have been
given the opportunity to think about the situation, learn how to regulate his behavior in the
future, and his self-worth as a developing young adult would have been strengthened.
Involving the parent sent the message that the student did not have the capacity to think for
himself, make the correct decision, solve the problem, and grow from the experience.

Page7
Case Study
Another example that happened at DV8 earlier in the year was when a student arrived late to
class in a highly aggressive and agitated state. As the lesson had already started, and given
the fact that most of the other students can be quite reactive to negative stimuli, this had the
potential of totally disrupting the learning environment. The teacher simply said 'It's good to
see you. As I have already started the class please sit down quietly and I will come over and
see you in a little while'. The teacher continued to get the other students set up so that they
could get on with their tasks. The late student made a critical comment using swear words.
The teacher asked him to regulate his language and that if something was seriously bothering
him it would be best for him to take some time out or speak to someone in the office. Before
the teacher had the opportunity to speak with the student face to face, he became even
more disruptive to the point of swearing at the teacher. The Teacher, in a matter-of-fact
manner, tells the student that he has crossed the line and needs to leave the classroom and
report to the manager's office. The teacher stands quite still all the while looking at the
student until the student stands up and leaves the classroom without further incident.
A well-functioning Adult will consistently integrate relevant information from their Parent
and Child with that from the environment and respond appropriately in the here and now,
not based on emotional reactions linked to previous events, by choosing and using a positive
mode that has a good chance of being effective in the circumstances - The teacher in this
situation quickly took into the account the students emotional state and switched
appropriately to Nurturing Parent. Even though the student remained in Rebellious Child, he
complied and sat down. Had this situation been approached from a negative, Critical Parent
and his lateness questioned or some critical comment made such as 'you're always late,
what's your excuse this time, or 'nice that you've finally made it to class' (which in reality
would have been factual), the situation would have quickly deteriorated, the student's
response in Rebellious Child a lot more hostile leading to uncomplimentary transactions of
verbal attacks by the student and teacher, and the very real possibility of the teacher being
harmed physically.

Page8
The teacher had to switch to Structuring Adult when the student began to use inappropriate
language in his classroom including toward the teacher. The student was unable to switch to
Natural Child, given the extenuating personal circumstances that he was dealing with, and
therefore not able to change his unwanted behavior at that time. The response of the
teacher was not about giving in to the student's unwanted behavior but instead of offering
an alternative response that enables the teacher to continue pursuing the core task of
teaching the class. It is also a response that will be seen by the rest of the class as the
teacher dealing with that student. It is important not to be seen as giving in. Boundaries are
essential for all of us, especially the established class rules, and there needs to be identified
consequences for actions. The teacher was simply following through on the consequences of
behavior that crossed those boundaries. And this was done in a non-confrontational way,
which is generally more effective because over time it is less stressful and quicker.
The Game of TA
In a lot of classrooms, conflicts can be likened to a game of tennis with the verbal ball being
bounced between Critical Parent and Rebel Child. The words and gestures may change and
the stakes continue, but the type of transaction remains constant. In the situation above, the
teacher quickly stopped the communication by using a different type of transaction, that
known as crossed transaction - (Steiner - Scripts People Live P.34) this results in stopping the
communication in some way, and something different will happen. In this case the teacher
asked the student to leave the classroom and report to the office. Because the teacher
remained non-confrontational and non-critical (in Adult mode) the student thankfully
switches to Natural Child, is able to make a decision based on available evidence of the
teacher's words and body language, realizes his behaviour is unacceptable and leaves the
classroom. The student even switched to Adult mode within the hour after the incident and
apologized to the teacher. The ensuing conversation again saw a change of modes: Teacher
in Nurturing Parent speaking to Student in Natural Child by empathizing with his situation. All
because teachers are in a position or responsibility it does not mean that they have to
operate only from Parent as my experience above shows. Responsibility and well-being is
often confused with control and power.

Page9
* Name has been changed.
Negative Invitations
Another way of avoiding conflict is by not being drawn into a negative invitation. This year
has been challenging in dealing with disaffected students but it has greatly improved my skills
in dealing with conflict. As a case study, Elliot* is a student who comes from a very
challenging background and is used to being in Child and therefore tends to communicate to
others from there, and most usually from Rebel or Critical Child. The automatic reaction he
attracts is Critical Parent from other teachers. In this way they possibly reinforce the ways of
communication that he has become accustomed to. He is very good at being critical and finds
it hard to communicate from Adult as he has had little practice at using Adult: nor has he
seen it in the people closest to him. Even though I only have Elliot once a week for eighty
minutes, there have been times when, given the help to practise it and develop it, he has
been able to operate in Adult with some very encouraging results: the excellent presentation
that he prepared and conducted which resulted in him passing the Speaking and Listening
section of the Functional Skills English examination is just one example. Elliot needs to be
provided with more opportunities to develop his Adult skills, but is, unfortunately, often
denied these as he has often been seen as 'not able' or teachers, myself included, are drawn
into his negative invitations. He needs a great deal of practice in using his Adult and this
needs to become part of the College culture if Elliott, and other students, is to learn to use
and develop it.
Ways in which a TA culture would give Elliot, and other students, the help he requires I would
identify as follows:
 Give him choices about consequences related to his actions.
 Target the behavior not the student - I have made it a point to let students like Elliott
know that they are 'OK' for example by simple wishing them a good morning and by
not holding unwanted behavior or situations against him. Deal with them and move
on.
 Use of effective questioning - it takes a great deal of effort but engaging Elliot such as
after we watched a video presentation saw a completely different side to his ability
to think critically and offer insightful comments.
 Develop leadership roles.
 Give him responsibility.
 Listen to him.
 Use time to reflect and then repair - having time out to think about how he is going
to resolve a situation can be effective after a confrontation.
 Mentoring or life coaching - show him what it means to operate from Adult - he may
find it hard when he is not reacted to in a critical way for his behavior difficulties, but
it will give him the opportunity to talk about this and learn more appropriate
responses.

Page10
A healthy educational establishment demonstrates all egostates and positive modes at a
personal and organizational level and thus gives students time to safely explore and develop
and revise each for themselves. If we want to resolve conflict, we need to change what we
do. This is either by crossing the transaction and thus inviting a different response and to
deal with students from a positive and not a negative position.
Strokes and Life Positions
The TA term for recognition is 'strokes'; one stroke is a unit of recognition which can be
either positive or negative, and either verbal - 'How are you today?' 'Don't talk to me'; non-
verbal - a smile, a frown; or written - a report, a letter of complaint. Strokes can also be
about what we do - 'this is good work, this is useless, do it again!
As a teacher, it is important for me to understand that my students' behavior is a direct result
of the people with whom they adapted to when they were younger. They gain information
about who they are and their worth from information that is constantly received and
processed through multiple modalities; parents, media, films, care-givers, and the like.
Children though create an image of themselves based on inadequate knowledge and
immature thinking. If the only strokes they received were mainly critical and negative -
negative injunctions, they can mistakenly come to the conclusion that 'I'm unlovable', 'I need
to be tough to survive', 'people like me never amount to anything', 'I'm useless', and so
decide that there 'is no point trying', 'I need to do everything perfect so that I don't get
criticized', or that 'I need to work hard so that people praise me'. These are 'life scripts' that
they have accepted as fact. As they grow up and act out their beliefs and decisions, their
behavior directly correlates to whatever 'life script' they have adopted. They think that this is
just the way the world is; yet they remain unaware that they have constructed this 'story'
themselves - it's not real.
Many of my students' dominant attitude or 'life position' is I'm OK, you're not OK', 'I'm not
OK, you're OK, or 'I'm not OK and you're not OK either'. A few of the student's life position is
'I'm OK, you're OK. One of these life positions will be the main theme of their script, and
strokes, or the recognition and attention they receive, both help to form their script and
determine what sort of strokes they will aim to get. Julie Hay (1993) describes these four
positions as 'windows on the world'; each one giving students a unique perspective as they
look out of that 'window', and thus they interpret everything that happens to fit that
perspective.

Page11
Initial assessments could take on a much deeper perspective in aiming to understanding
each student's life position; depending on what 'window' they are looking out of will
determine how they respond to praise, criticism, or their level of participation in class or
college activities. This could be achieved by conducting a personality profile test specifically
designed to gauge their responses in various situations. This level of understanding would
have proven useful during the third observation (See Teacher File) in that even though the
lesson in theory was, for the most part, sound, the students were each interpreting the
lesson and the challenging environment from their different, albeit critical and negative,
perspectives. This would have prevented my frustration and internal emotional reaction of
'why do I bother putting all this effort into teaching students who can't be bothered anyway?'
I thus slipped into a 'I'm not OK and their not OK either' position.
That said, there has been encouraging results from researching this information in helping
me improve the teacher-student relationship, especially with one of the students who can be
rather critical and objectionable at the slightest thing. For example: students were working
on creating a CV. We had just completed research on three different types of CVs. Three
groups had created separate posters with information and a sample CV of their particular CV
type. These were presented and displayed, I asked the students to write down what CV type
would best suit their current needs and to refer to the posters to help make their decision.
Afterwards, we would discuss their decision before gathering the required information to
create their individual CV. The student in question began to raise objections in regards to the
content of the CV depends on the type of job he was applying for and to counter question
what I was saying - in short, what seemed liked making a mountain out of a molehill from a
simple request of just choosing a CV style. A transactional 'tennis match' was in play. Having
realized that I had been drawn into a negative invitation, I chose to switch to Logical Adult
and cross-transaction by acknowledging his questions as valid and appreciating the fact that
he is clearly a person that likes to have all the facts before proceeding with a task (you're OK)
but at this particular moment, having the basic information such as skills, work history,
qualifications, etc with a professional format would suffice for the purpose of achieving the
task. Any changes that needed to be made, depending on the type of work he was going for,
could be done on a needs basis or addressed in the cover letter. The game therefore stopped
(I'm OK and you're OK from both perspectives) and he proceeded with the task. This change
of transaction had a much more positive outcome. Instead of challenging and discrediting the
student's point of view (I'm OK and you're not OK), it was a clear example of maintaining the
student's value, importance, and that he was still worthy of respect.

Page12
Understanding my student's life position is also important in recognizing that not all students
respond well to rewards. Some students who have had a history of experiencing mostly
negative strokes are made very uncomfortable by an overdose of positives and often react in
a way that will restore the internal balance. This is one area from my research that I will
improve on in the future. 'OK' or 'good' - in comparison to 'brilliant' or 'fantastic' in regards to
a student's piece of work would suffice with some of my students until they can learn to
accept higher strokes without the need to restore their internal balance of receiving negative
strokes through unwanted behavior.
Our need for strokes is so great that some people will do anything to attain them. If it's not
acceptance then they will go for approval. If approval cannot be obtained then a person will
settle for disapproval or even outright rejection rather than being ignored. This would explain
the objectionable attitude that I received from the student in the example above, or why
students frequently arrive late and then receive comments from teachers in Critical Parent.
These familiar strokes are easy to get and from the student's perspective, at least they are
being noticed even if it is negative.
Research by Angela Devin in Criminal Classes (1997) asks the question: What was it about
those young people who had the same socio-economic backgrounds, negative home
circumstances and environment and yet one ended up in prison the other did not? What
made the difference? The answer is - a significant adult, often a teacher. This enforces the
fact for me to never underestimate the effect and influence that I can have on my students
and to work hard at understanding more fully how strokes work, and the varied needs and
reactions of each student. Why is this important? Recent research shows that young people
who are attributed with positive and desirable characteristics develop them! (Dieser 1997) In
my setting for example: 'you are working quietly and on target, thank you' will have much
more effect than 'be quiet, you should be working on your own'.

Page13
The evidence from the examples above show that Critical
Parent instructions and negative stokes are not effective.
Structuring and Nurturing Parent and Adult positives work
better. The expression, 'you reap what you sow' fits
equally well here - (See Figure 1.) If I want my students to
receive positive stokes I need to give more attention to
cooperative behavior, authentic feelings, and individual
thinking rather than attention to resistance, rule breaking,
and mistakes.
Understanding how strokes work, and the varied needs and reaction of students is an area
that I wish to develop more. Especially in dealing with challenging students - Rebel Child. I
think back to the times when, one student in particular, frequently commented on when
something was not to his liking and made sure, by using foul language, that everyone knew
about it: his attempt at being heard, and yet I didn't fully acknowledge the energy and the
need to invite a shift into cooperation.
Finally, data from a massive thirteen year survey of teachers and parents that ended in 1989
(Journal of Psychiatry) show that on average, children are growing more lonely and
depressed, more angry and unruly, more nervous and prone to worry, more impulsive and
aggressive. The situation has not improved in the past twenty five years! Based on this
evidence, I do not believe that a teacher's sole responsibility is to raise student's academic
achievement. Academic abilities are largely irrelevant if students do not have the ability to
regulate their emotions and reactions to the events and people in their lives. We therefore
also need to provide them with more hopeful opportunities for the future, to help them learn
new skills and personal qualities, such as initiative and empathy, adaptability and
persuasiveness, learn from their mistakes in a nurturing environment, and decide to be 'good
enough'!
Michael Edwards
Figure 1.

TA

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (11)

Ähnlich wie TA

Ähnlich wie TA (19)

TA