Functionality of behaviour

Last Thursday, during my Behaviour Management class, my lecturer talked about functionality of behaviour. In simple explanation, it is like this. Human behaviour, especially children (in our learning context), is driven by specific goals. So, teachers need to understand what the specific goals are behind children behaviour because only by understanding it that teachers could manage behaviour effectively in their classrooms. Generally, there are four mistaken goals that children seek for, i.e attention, power/control, revenge and nurture.

I tried to relate this to my own experience as a child. Have I ever seeks for attention? Well, maybe… During my History lesson years ago, whenever the teacher asked me to read a passage, I’d asked for 20 cents before I read them. The teacher then get irritated and asked my other friends to read them. I guess as a teacher, he should find a way to make me to read the passage so I learned something, instead of just ignoring me. For attention seeking, the possible strategies teachers could use are ask for help or contributions, personal and specific praise, teach or reward appropriate behaviour and others .

Other behaviour problems I can think of?.. Well...The boys in my secondary 4 class always escaped from class especially during chemistry, biology, physics and history. Later, after we finished our secondary schools and when everybody have a career of their own, we organised a reunion party. I had a chat with one of the boy. He told me the reason for them leaving the class was because they felt uneasy, it’s not because they’re doing it on purpose and lazy. They’re not used to having girls in their class because it’s always been boys since their preparatory class up to secondary 3. And he said what worse was, they sat infront of the class with the girls sat behind them and they felt like their every move are being observed and judged. They really felt awkward. Maybe if the teachers had been aware of this problem, they could do something to help the boys. In this scenario, I could say that the boys are seeking for power or control. So, the strategies that teachers could use are acknowledged their strength, give responsibilities, give leadership opportunities, teach self control and etc.

So, whether you’re a teacher or parent or friends, you could only help and manage your students, children and peer’s behaviour problem, if you could understand what the specific goals are behind their action. Maybe, by doing so, you could make some change somehow. As Hellen Keller said, "No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit."