Behavioral Interventions Used with Diverse Students.

Gunter and Denny (1996) noted a dearth of research examining teacher strategies for managing classroom behaviors and the effects of such strategies. Studies of teachers of students with severe behavior problems have indicated deficiencies related to behavior management techniques learned in teacher preparation programs (George, George, Gersten, & Grosenick, 1995; Leyser & Abrams, 1986). Teacher effectiveness is hampered by limited proficiency in behavior management techniques and may be further eroded when students bring diverse cultural variables to the classroom. Indeed, many classroom management techniques may be ineffective with or harmful to students who are not Euro American or middle class (Grossman, 1991). As the student population becomes increasingly more culturally diverse (Grossman, 1995; Hodgkinson, 1991), educators must recognize how the selected behavior management interventions can be influenced by the students' cultural backgrounds. These same interventions can also affect the students. Prospective teachers must be sensitive toward students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to meet their needs most appropriately (Grossman, 1991). Artiles and Trent (1994) argued that encouraging prospective teachers to examine diversity issues and their personal beliefs would lead teachers to increased crosscultural competence and improved decision making. Investigating how teachers intervene with behaviors exhibited by students with cultural and/or linguistic differences may provide insight into the assumptions that teachers have about both students from culturally diverse backgrounds and curriculum content needed in teacher preparation programs. Factors Affecting Teachers' Selection of Behavioral Interventions The selection of interventions to manage student behavior appears to be influenced by a complex set of variables. Brophy and Rohrkemper (1981) found that teachers' attributions about the types of behaviors that students demonstrate influenced their selection of interventions for behavior management. Teachers selected more punitive interventions (e.g., punishment, threats) for students with behaviors perceived as teacher-owned problems (i.e., behaviors that interfered with or threatened the teacher's needs or led the teacher to feel angry or frustrated). Researchers who have examined general behavioral typologies exhibited by members of cultural groups have tended to associate internalized behaviors (e.g., emotional restraint) with Asian Americans and more externalized behaviors (e.g., disruptive) with African Americans. (For more in-depth information, see Peterson & Ishii-Jordan, 1994; Sue & Sue, 1990.) Teachers' beliefs and backgrounds also appear to impact the interventions they use for problem behaviors. For example, if teachers believed that a behavior was too difficult for them to handle (Brophy & Rohrkemper, 1981), they selected more punitive behavioral interventions (Wood & Dorsey, 1989). The difference between teacher preparation programs (i.e., special education or regular education) is another aspect of a teacher's background that may influence types of behavioral interventions used. Studies by Ritter (1989) and Safran and Safran (1984, 1987) have shown that regular educators rated student behaviors as more problematic and less tolerable than did special educators. With such different perceptions of behaviors, different responses to student behaviors seem inevitable. A third variable that influences teachers' selection of behavioral interventions is their students' backgrounds. Students of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to receive punishment in the form of class exclusion (Lufler, 1979) and physical or verbal punishment (Moore & Cooper, 1984), and students from minority racial and ethnic groups experience more physical or verbal punishment than Caucasian students (McFadden, Marsh, Price, & Huang, 1992; Moore & Cooper, 1984). …