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If school personnel hope to implement programs to prevent or treat student aggression and violence, they must first seek to understand these behaviors. Typically, students do not engage in aggressive acts simply to inconvenience school personnel. Research suggests a diminished repertoire of cognitive, social, language, and/or discrimination skills in many of the children who engage in aggressive behavior (Arllen, Gable, Kauffman, & Lloyd, 1992; Dodge & Frame, 1982). These children have difficulty viewing a situation from any perspective other than their own, They attribute hostile intent to many benign actions of others and lack the communication and/or social problem-solving skills necessary to navigate common conflict situations, such as sharing adult attention and classroom materials. These needed skills must be identified and targeted for systematic skill instruction. Once taught, the student will need opportunities to practice these newly acquired skills throughout the school day with teacher feedback on performance. Because these new skills must often be learned as a replacement for existing undesirable behaviors, the need for careful instruction and repeated practice is imperative for student success. Like most student behaviors, aggressive acts typically occur for a reason. Violence can function as a means to achieve or maintain high status, to obtain material gain, to escape from highly aversive social situations or academic demands, to defy authority, to display power and control as a form of rough justice or retribution, and to promote self-defense (Fagan & Wilkinson, 1998). Educational personnel must be able to identify early warning signs of student aggression and devise interventions that halt the growth of antisocial and aggressive behavior. Teachers must be prepared to examine and alter practices that may influence the occurrence of aggressive behavior. For example, there is evidence that some educational practices exacerbate student aggression. Research suggests that some student behavioral problems arise from inappropriate curricular placement, irrelevant academic instruction, and/or inconsistent classroom management within a climate wrought with rigid behavioral demands and insensitivity to student diversity (Gable, Quinn, Rutherford, Howell, & Hoffman, 1998; Gunter, Denny, Jack, Shores, & Nelson, 1993; Miller, 1994; Soriano, Soriano, & Geminis, 1994; VanAcker, Grant, & Henry, 1996). Not surprisingly, for many youths, behavior problems and academic problems go hand in hand (Kauffmann, 1997). |
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