How To Increase Learning For At-Risk Students

Written By Abena Sey

October 11, 2020

In a classroom, the student population can comprise learners of diverse backgrounds, needs, and experiences.  This presents teachers with the unique challenge of ensuring that they are effectively responding to their students’ needs in consideration of these differences.  It is my contention that a teacher will create a positive learning environment when he or she considers his or her students’ various personality traits when planning classroom activities.  This is particularly important for at-risk students.  In a study on the concurrent and predictive relationships between temperament, school adjustment, and academic achievement in children at-risk, Maha Al-Hendawi and Evelyn Reed (2012) contributed to the discussion on personality types in the classroom.  Their study focused on the role a child’s temperament can play in students’ success at school in light of being at-risk.   

A child’s temperament is the behavioural style or tendencies that affect how the child responds to a situation.  According to Al-Hendawi and Reed, temperament influences a teacher’s perception of his or her pupils.  Temperament is also strongly associated with a child’s adjustment at school, especially in a child’s response to changes in plans, or his or her experience of anger or frustration.  Academic achievement was also shown to be influenced by a child’s temperament.  Three categories that are considered to be the most significant for success in school include task orientation, personal-social flexibility, and reactivity.  

Task orientation is a measure of the child’s activity level, distractibility, and persistence.  Personal-social flexibility is a measure of the child’s adaptability, approach/withdrawal, and positive mood.  Reactivity measures a child’s intensity, threshold, and negative mood.   Al-Hendawi and Reed’s study revealed that children with difficult temperaments will experience greater success and adjustment to school so long as they are provided with the appropriate support and an environment compatible with their temperament.  Their advice for teachers is to first be knowledgeable of children’s temperaments.  Next, teachers must understand that their behaviours are biologically-based and have individual differences.  Finally, teachers can better meet the demands of their students when they modify their perceptions of their students’ ability to learn in terms of temperament.  When teachers adjust their practices to consider temperament, this results in positive impacts on the at-risk student’s success.

Reference

Al-Hendawi, M. & Reed, E.  (2012).  Educational Outcomes for Children At-Risk: The Influence of Individual Differences in Children's Temperaments.  International Journal of Special Education, v27 n2 p64-74 2012.