Emotional/Behavioral Disorder Article Review

            This week I read an article entitled, "A Corrective Teaching Approach to Replace Undesired Behaviors in Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.  The article first identified a students with EBD is someone who "exhibits significant behavioral excesses or deficits that interfere with their learning and sometimes that of their peers in the classroom" (Cortez & Malin, 2013).  Some behaviors can be noticed that may indicate an EBD but some may go unnoticed, either way the result is the lack of external/internal motivation.  Furthermore, students who are not intervened with may suffer from low grades, school dropout and even going to jail.

             An intervention team is described as a team made of teachers, administration personnel, parents and other student supports that may offer appropriate behavioral and academic interactions.  One strategy that is offered is called "Corrective Teaching".  This is a school-based intervention model used with individuals, with a group, or treatment programs.  Basically, the corrective strategy uses an interaction to address an inappropriate social behavior and teach more appropriate behavior.  Another name for Corrective Teaching is called Remedial Teaching.  In order for this strategy to be successful and changes to be long lasting, in the end, it needs the teacher to be calm and pleasant when speaking.  The teacher must show a true concern for the student and believe that a change can be made.  Still, the teacher must also be able to enforce the rules in his/her classroom and his/her expectations.

            The Corrective Teaching is presented in an eight step procedure:

1. Offer initial praise or empathy,

2. describe the inappropriate behavior,

3. provide a negative consequence, followed by a positive correction statement,

4. Describe an appropriate replacement skill,

5. Give a logical reason they'd understand,

6. Practice, the sooner the better,

7. Provide feedback and a positive consequence and

8. Give general praise.  

           Two examples are provided implementing the eight step procedures: one on a ten year old boy who speaks out of turn and a group of 10 seventh and eighth graders who were getting out of seats and not following directions..  Charts are provided to show how the use of corrective teaching helped decrease the undesired behavior and replaced it with a more appropriate behavior.  In both instances, it was suggested to the students that they need to make eye contact with teacher and stay in a calm manner. 

             I liked the article because it provided a clear definition of what EBD is and direct way to help students.  Although, the implementation might so logical we must remember these are students who have been struggling with an EBD.  The article reminds the reader, that simple redirections don't work with these students because they don't KNOW the appropriate way to behave.  They must be shown step by step the expected behavior, in a way that is not demeaning of themselves and always with praise.  This reminds me of a saying, that says "it's easier to bring a bee closer with honey than with vinegar".  If a desired change is truly expected it must first come from the teacher.  I'm not saying it is easy, because it is not.  It is so easy for a student for an EBD student to get under our skin, to disrupt our class and get us off track.  But we need to be the first to show cautiousness of how we react.  We must be their models.  It reminds me of another saying, "You can't change how others act, you can only change yourself."  A question I also have is how lasting were the changes in the two examples provided.  It would have been nice to know how the students were acting in their classroom months or maybe even year later.  I also wonder, why were the only boys used in the examples, what about the girls?  I wonder if girls with EBD would be positively impacted by Corrective Teaching?

Cortez, E. G., & Malin, I. M. (2013). A corrective teaching approach to replace undesired             behaviors in students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Beyond Behaviors vol. 22 (03), 54-59. http://ezproxy.trnty.edu:3062/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=242bb2f3-3d5f-4638-819d-835d803c8ada%40sessionmgr4005&vid=7&hid=4106