Wednesday, April 11, 2007

From Kirstie

Kirstie said...

Hi, I think all the work your doing is great. I myself have not had an easy life. I am now in my 3rd year at university studying design for interactive media. The aim for my personal project is to use technology to teach teens with adhd the consequences of their actions. I plan to creat an interactive dvd. The format will be a video clip and then a multiple choice which will determine which scene gets played next. This process would be iterated until the player reaches one of the endings. The player is constantly making choices which will take them on different paths. drinking, drugs, anger management, youth offenders, expelled from school. I am hoping this will help them to understand it is the choices that they make that leads them into trouble and that there are other options. In the future I would like to do this in a live project working with young offenders and involving them in the production of a game based on their own experiences.

If you or anyone reading this blog has any literature or knowledge that you think may help me with my research project please email me on kustard99@hotmail.com

Could you please send me further details of the work you do and your future plans. Thank you
Kirstie

Friday, 23 March, 2007

Practical Strategies in the classroom to reduce bad behaviour

At long last the idea that reward rather than punishment is the more effective way to reduce disruption in the classroom.

By deploying this approach the Garibaldi School has only excluded two pupils in eight years and has successfully managed to reinstate over 40 youngsters from other schools during the same period. Such success must surely be recognised and the strategies copied elsewhere.

Whilst always acknowledging that inappropriate and antisocial behaviour must involve consequences that include some form of penalty, the key is surely to promote an environment where such behaviour is discouraged in the first place. If the Garibaldi School and many other like minded establishments can demonstrate such positive outcomes, why can we not deploy the same philosophy in the rehabilitation of our young offenders?

Such an approach will always produce a reduction in re-offending rates by young people far more quickly and effectively than simply more punitive punishment and calls for retribution. Reward and success serve to address the underlying causes of bad behaviour, namely a lack of values and sense of self-worth. Until these are taught and promoted, the thinking and the behaviour will remain unchanged with many more young people falling further into a life of serious crime from which there is unlikely to be any positive outcome. Punishment by itself does not teach such values. Rather it reaffirms the negative thinking that caused the behaviour in the first place.