Bailey Rebecca, Meland Emily A, Brion-Meisels Gretchen, Jones Stephanie M
Prevention Science and Practice, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2019 Aug 21;10:1885. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01885. eCollection 2019.
Research from education, psychology, and human development indicates that social and emotional skills are essential to success in school, work, and life, and that high-quality social and emotional learning (SEL) programs can benefit students' mental health, academic achievement, and behavioral outcomes. While many schools are adopting an SEL approach, there remains a concerning gap between SEL research and policies and practices related to discipline and behavior management. Following the No Child Left Behind Act and education reform driven by a culture of high-stakes standardized testing and accountability benchmarks, there has been an increase in elementary schools adopting a "no excuses" model of education. This model is characterized by extended time in school, highly structured in-service teacher training, frequent assessments, and "zero tolerance" policies to strictly manage and control children's behavior. These behavior policies are problematic as they run counter to what research tells us about children's social and emotional development. Reactive and exclusionary discipline policies inhibit children's abilities to build and practice self-regulation skills and jeopardize the relationships between students and teachers. The developmental science perspective on children's regulatory skills suggests that the early years of school are a central context for developing and practicing self-regulation with the support of educators and peers. Research also indicates that warm, caring, reciprocal relationships based on trust are critical to learning and development. Yet, this research base is often overshadowed by pressures to improve standardized achievement scores or misinterpreted in the form of hyper-vigilance about children's behavior in the classroom. Finally, the "no excuses" approach to behavior management is used disproportionally in schools serving low-income students of color and thus may contribute to unequal rates of suspensions and expulsions, both of which are linked to negative developmental outcomes later in life. This is particularly true for students who have experienced trauma, in part because the act of social exclusion is often re-traumatizing. This article summarizes research on self-regulation, trauma, and developmental relationships, highlights potential consequences of "no excuses" policies and practices in schools, and presents an alternative view of learning environments which promote effective self-regulation skills in young children.
来自教育、心理学和人类发展领域的研究表明，社交和情感技能对于学业、工作及生活的成功至关重要，高质量的社交和情感学习（SEL）项目能够有益于学生的心理健康、学业成绩及行为表现。虽然许多学校都在采用SEL方法，但SEL研究与纪律及行为管理相关的政策和实践之间仍存在令人担忧的差距。在《不让一个孩子掉队法案》以及由高风险标准化测试文化和问责基准驱动的教育改革之后，小学采用“零借口”教育模式的情况有所增加。这种模式的特点包括在校时间延长、教师在职培训高度结构化、频繁评估以及严格管理和控制儿童行为的“零容忍”政策。这些行为政策存在问题，因为它们与研究中关于儿童社交和情感发展的结果相悖。反应性和排他性的纪律政策抑制了儿童建立和实践自我调节技能的能力，并危及学生与教师之间的关系。从发展科学角度看待儿童的调节技能表明，入学初期是在教育工作者和同伴的支持下发展和实践自我调节的核心阶段。研究还表明，基于信任的温暖、关怀、互惠的关系对于学习和发展至关重要。然而，这一研究基础常常被提高标准化成绩分数的压力所掩盖，或者以对课堂上儿童行为过度警惕的形式被误解。最后，“零借口”行为管理方法在为有色人种低收入学生服务的学校中使用比例过高，因此可能导致停学和开除率不平等，这两者都与日后生活中的负面发展结果相关。对于经历过创伤的学生来说尤其如此，部分原因是社会排斥行为往往会再次造成创伤。本文总结了关于自我调节、创伤和发展关系的研究，强调了学校中“零借口”政策和实践的潜在后果，并提出了一种促进幼儿有效自我调节技能的学习环境的替代观点。
