Staff in special education settings and behaviour problems: towards a framework for research and practice

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in the role of teacher and other staff behaviour in the development and maintenance of problem behaviours in individuals with special needs. Research and theoretical developments have tended to focus on one of three domains: staff as assessment and behavioural change agents, staff wellbeing as determined by exposure to problem behaviours, and staff beliefs and attitudes about problem behaviours. In the present paper, I integrate these somewhat disparate research areas into a single framework. The proposed framework helps to identify future research questions, and has applications to our understanding of the impact of staff training and support interventions for children with behaviour problems. Overall, the argument is made that problem behaviours will be more fully understood if we identify the variables affecting the reinforcing behaviour of staff in education settings.