• Make sure the learner is seated for group work with peers you know to be positive and supportive.


• Build confidence through the staged use of differentiated tasks and outcomes, particularly those that will build on the learner’s existing strengths.


• Find opportunities to give the learner praise if at all possible, rewarding effort, for example, if not achievement; or praising them for remaining on task even if not completing on time. On the other hand, your


professional assessment of the learner’s mindset and abilities might lead you to conclude that their disengagement or non-compliance is conveying a quite different message; that their goal seems not to avoid exposure but appears rather to be a bid for attention. In this case, again, there are a number of well-tried strategies you can draw on in order to bring them back on board. These are largely about managing the situation so that the learner discovers that they can gain the attention they crave more readily by joining in and engaging with the lesson. • Asking them to act as an observer in group work and feed back to you.


• Asking them to look up online a key piece of information necessary for the task with which the class is engaged.


• Appointing them to act as scribe and write up group ideas on the whiteboard.


• Ignoring, as far as possible, the disengaged behaviour, taking special care not to openly challenge it, which would allow it to draw the focus of the entire class.


While it might be objected that this looks a bit too much like rewarding poor behaviour, I would say that a pragmatic approach is often necessary if we are to achieve our prime purpose: supporting the development and progression of our learners. Once an attention-seeker finds that engagement


pays off, but that disengagement will be (as far as possible) ignored, you already have them halfway on board.


Greater good


What, though, of the learner whose persistent disengagement spills over into disruptive behaviour which threatens the motivation and progress of the rest of the class? This is where we may need to change our philosophical allegiance and adopt the Benthamite approach of putting the greater good of the many before the good of the one or the few. This may mean invoking disciplinary procedures


and/or asking for the learner to be removed. Or it might mean referring the disruptive learner on for professional help, particularly if: • Their behaviour becomes confrontational or violent. • You suspect the underlying cause of disengagement may be drug or alcohol abuse.


• You have reason to suspect serious problems in the home environment.


• You suspect there may be psychological issues which are beyond your remit to deal with. Whether we judge it best to prioritise the individual or the group, the bottom line is that we must make a decision and act on it appropriately. Failing to do so would be to the detriment of everyone, teacher included. To be seen letting a learner disengage without consequences will set the rest wondering why anyone should bother. Simply having a confrontation with the learner


is more likely to distract or entertain the rest than motivate them to remain on task. And if all else fails and you can’t get the learner engaged with the lesson, get them engaged in conversation with you instead. That way, you may gain more clues as to the best way forward.


I suggested at the beginning of this piece that


we are all philosophers, whether we know it or not. But that’s the very least of it. To interpret learners’ behaviour – to work out what it’s telling us about how we can best help them – calls for us to apply some psychological insight. And to decide where to draw the line, and whether to refer the problem on to other professionals, often requires us to put on our social worker hats. Philosophers, psychologists, social workers: no wonder ours is such a demanding – and above all rewarding – profession.


inTUITION ISSUE 34 • WINTER 2018 33


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