Health - Environment and Learning

Forum - Classroom Environment: Educator Viewpoints

Our goal at this site is to provide research information (selected articles) and Forums (submitted suggestions/opinions) to help educators improve their classroom environment and teaching methods. We are asking teachers/administrators to share their successful techniques and submit them here so others can benefit. We are particularly interested in hearing about innovative/creative approaches that improve the classroom learning environment. Please fill out our Educators' Form and submit your suggestions/opinions to us. Selected responses will be listed at "Forum - Classroom Environment: Educator Viewpoints".

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Oppositional Defiant Disorders

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Oppositional Defiant Disorder

"Oppositional defiant disorder is a pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures. To fit this diagnosis, the pattern must persist for at least 6 months and must go beyond the bounds of normal childhood misbehavior.

Symptoms: • Arguing with adults • Loss of temper • Angry and resentful of others • Actively defies adults' requests • Spiteful or vindictive behavior • Blames others for own mistakes • Is touchy or easily annoyed • Few or no friends or loss of previous friends • Constant trouble in school ...

Possible Complications: In a significant proportion of cases, the adult condition of conduct disorder can be traced back to the presence of oppositional defiant disorder in childhood ...

Prevention: Consistency in rules and fair consequences should be practiced in the child's home. Punishments should not be overly harsh or inconsistently applied. Appropriate behaviors should be modeled by the adults in the household. Abuse and neglect increase the chances that this condition will occur. "

Highlighted Articles

Oppositional defiant disorder. (Aust Fam Physician. 2008) “DISCUSSION: Many of the behaviours required to meet this diagnosis are not uncommon in the preschool child or adolescent. However, in children with ODD the behaviours are persistent, cause significant distress to the family system, and impact on the child's social and educational functioning. Oppositional defiant disorder usually presents in the preschool years, although it may become evident during adolescence. There is strong evidence that early intervention to increase positive factors in family relationships and to increase both the parents' and child's skill levels can assist in the prevention of more serious disorders and mental health issues.”

Lifetime prevalence, correlates, and persistence of oppositional defiant disorder: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. (J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007) "Results: Lifetime prevalence of ODD is estimated to be 10.2% (males = 11.2%; females = 9.2%). Of those with lifetime ODD, 92.4% meet criteria for at least one other lifetime DSM-IV disorder, including: mood (45.8%), anxiety (62.3%), impulse-control (68.2%), and substance use (47.2%) disorders. ODD is temporally primary in the vast majority of cases for most comorbid disorders. Both active and remitted ODD significantly predict subsequent onset of secondary disorders even after controlling for comorbid conduct disorder (CD). Early onset (before age 8) and comorbidity predict slow speed of recovery of ODD. Conclusions: ODD is a common child- and adolescent-onset disorder associated with substantial risk of secondary mood, anxiety, impulse-control, and substance use disorders. These results support the study of ODD as a distinct disorder."

Conduct Disorders

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Conduct Disorder

"Conduct disorder, a disorder of childhood and adolescence, involves chronic behavior problems, such as defiant, impulsive, or antisocial behavior; drug use; or criminal activity.

Causes: Conduct disorder has been associated with family conflicts, child abuse, poverty, genetic defects, and parental drug addiction or alcoholism. The diagnosis is more common among boys and is estimated to be as high as 10%. However, because many of the qualities necessary to make the diagnosis (such as "defiance" and "rule breaking") can be subjective, it is hard to know how common the disorder really is. For accurate diagnosis, the behavior must be far more extreme than simple adolescent rebellion or boyish exuberance. Conduct disorder is often associated with attention-deficit disorder, and the two together carry a major risk for alcohol and/or other drug dependence. Children with conduct disorder tend to be impulsive, difficult to control, and unconcerned about the feelings of others ...

Symptoms: Cruel or aggressive behavior toward people and animals • Destruction of property, including fire setting • Lying, truancy, running away • Vandalism, theft • Heavy drinking and/or heavy illicit drug use • Breaking rules without apparent reason • Antisocial behaviors, such as bullying and fighting ...

Possible Complications: Children with conduct disorder may go on to develop personality disorders as adults, particularly antisocial personality disorder. As their behaviors worsen, these individuals may also develop significant drug and legal problems.

When to Contact a Medical Professional: See your health care provider if your child seems to be overly aggressive, is bullying others, is being victimized, or continually gets in trouble. Early treatment may help."

Highlighted Articles

A 30-Year Prospective Follow-up Study of Hyperactive Boys With Conduct Problems: Adult Criminality. (J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2007)

"CONCLUSIONS: Hyperactive/ADHD boys with conduct problems are at increased risk for adult criminality. Hyperactive boys without childhood conduct problems are not at increased risk for later criminality. An intensive 3-year MMT treatment of 6- to 12-year-old hyperactive boys is insufficient to prevent later adult criminality."

From conduct disorder to severe mental illness: associations with aggressive behaviour, crime and victimization. (Psychol Med. 2007)

"CONCLUSIONS: Men and women with severe mental illness who have a history of CD by mid-adolescence are at increased risk for aggressive behaviour and violent crime. These patients are easily identifiable and may benefit from learning-based treatments aimed at reducing antisocial behaviour. Longitudinal, prospective investigations are needed to understand why CD is more common among people with than without schizophrenia."

CONTINUE YOUR INFOMEDSEARCH RESEARCH with our previous InfoMedLinks. Start with InfoMedLinks 2007.

Health - Environment and Learning

Online and Electronic Environment

NEWS:

Keeping Teens Safe Online

ARTICLES:

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Cyber Bullying and Our Middle School Girls (Childhood Education 2007) “Cyberbullying has emerged as a new, insidious, and harmful way of getting back at an individual girl who may be "different" or disliked for a physical or social trait. Cyberbullying has been described as "willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text" (Burgess-Proctor et al., 2006). It is carried out through a wide variety of methods, using cell phones, E-mail, and Internet instant messaging in such locations as MySpace and other Web-based sites. School personnel and parents have been largely uninformed about the seriousness of these threats and the damage to fragile, pre-teen egos. Fortunately, the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use has compiled a comprehensive guide to help with these problems.”

Cyberbullying: its nature and impact in secondary school pupils. (J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2008) “RESULTS: Both studies found cyberbullying less frequent than traditional bullying, but appreciable, and reported more outside of school than inside. Phone call and text message bullying were most prevalent, with instant messaging bullying in the second study; their impact was perceived as comparable to traditional bullying. Mobile phone/video clip bullying, while rarer, was perceived to have more negative impact. Age and gender differences varied between the two studies. Study 1 found that most cyberbullying was done by one or a few students, usually from the same year group. It often just lasted about a week, but sometimes much longer. The second study found that being a cybervictim, but not a cyberbully, correlated with internet use; many cybervictims were traditional 'bully-victims'. Pupils recommended blocking/avoiding messages, and telling someone, as the best coping strategies; but many cybervictims had told nobody about it. CONCLUSIONS: Cyberbullying is an important new kind of bullying, with some different characteristics from traditional bullying. Much happens outside school. Implications for research and practical action are discussed.”

Cyberbullying: What School Administrators (and Parents) Can Do (Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas 2007) “Variously referred to as electronic bullying, online bullying, or cyberbullying, this new method of bullying involves the use of e-mail, instant messaging, Web sites, voting booths, and chat or bash rooms to deliberately pick on and torment others. To combat cyberbullying, educators need to better understand the nature of it and be aware of actions that they can undertake to prevent cyberbullying in the schools.”

Does Online Harassment Constitute Bullying? An Exploration of Online Harassment by Known Peers and Online-Only Contacts (Journal of Adolescent Health 2007) “The Internet provides opportunities for the extension of conventional school bullying to new venues. Those who study conventional school bullying should include online forms of the behavior in research, prevention, and intervention paradigms.”

Examining the Overlap in Internet Harassment and School Bullying: Implications for School Intervention (Journal of Adolescent Health 2007) “Although the data do not support the assumption that many youth who are harassed online are bullied by the same (or even different) peers at school, findings support the need for professionals working with children and adolescents, especially those working in the schools, to be aware of the possible linkages between school behavior and online harassment for some youth. “

Internet suicide in Japan: implications for child and adolescent mental health. (Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007)

Involvement in traditional and electronic bullying among adolescents. (Developmental Psychology. 2007) “The increasing availability of Internet and cell phones has provided new avenues through which adolescents can bully. Electronic bullying is a new form of bullying that may threaten adolescent social and emotional development. … Results show that students' roles in traditional bullying predicted the same role in electronic bullying. Also, being a victim of bullying on the Internet or via text messages was related to being a bully at school.”

The Online Bully in Higher Education (ERIC 2007) “The purpose of the research was to define online bullying, determine its incidence in higher education, and survey methods instructors used to respond to those students who use the online forum to intimidate or offend their classmates or instructors. The study extended Tattum and Tattum's (1992) definition of bullying to define the term "online bully" as a socially aggressive student who makes posts to the Discussion Forum or Cyber Cafe that are designed to intimidate or personally offend another student or the instructor. … Of the responding instructors, 44.9% reported frequent or relatively frequent encounters with students who posted personal, racial, or political opinions that were designed to incite a negative reaction in other students or the instructor. Almost a third of the respondents reported that they have had students purposely post lewd or vulgar responses to either Discussion Forum or Cyber Cafe locations. Instructors used various approaches to dealing with posts they considered unacceptable. Most respondents (86.1%) reported that their institutions do not have policy manuals that define the term "online bully" or outline appropriate action to be taken when students post offensive messages. Results indicate that the online bully exists without prejudice toward institution, instructor degree level, or time teaching, and that there is little administrative policy to guide instructors who encounter inappropriate posts. It is important that instructors develop an online organizational culture and work with school administration to define the term online bully, identify the behavioral issues associated with this type of student, a course of action for instructors who must deal with students who bully others in online classrooms.”

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