Astrid Boon
As an educational psychologist, Astrid Boon discovered, based on countless conversations with pupils, which measures are most effective for reinforcing positive behaviour. She discovered that pupils generally take an assignment that costs them time seriously, whereas a good conversation, a warning or removing a pupil from the lesson generally does not have the same effect. She wrote two books about this: Straf/Regels (Punishment/Rules) and Te gezellig in de les (Too much fun in class).
Astrid Boon describes how, when dealing with disruptive behaviour, teachers often fall back on two extremes: giving a warning or removing a pupil from the lesson. She emphasises the importance of intermediate steps when reinforcing positive behaviour. She stresses that a measure that costs the pupil time and attention can be more effective than simply giving a warning.
Below you see a video about her approach: The reflective writing assignment. This page ends with an instruction how to make such an assignment.
FFT has translated the intermediate steps she mentiones into its own approach with three steps: Non-verbal, Verbal and an Action to reinforce positive behaviour.
FFT came into contact with Astrid Boon through Stephan Dinkgreve.
In this video, Astrid describes the importance of order. Order is very important for both the pupil and the teacher.
During conversations, pupils who are frequently removed from lessons say that they have only talked to the teacher (a good conversation), but that nothing else happens. This prompted Astrid to start thinking about alternative measures.
In this video, Astrid Boon describes how to put together a reflective writing assignment with a pupil. Below is an instruction for getting started yourself. Such an assignment helps a pupil to adopt a positive attitude in the future.
Here you can watch the video that was available for some time on the Leraar 24 website about Astrid Boon, in which a school’s team applies her approach.
Instructions for drawing up a reflective writing assignment
After the lesson, you write the reflective writing assignment together with the pupil and put a date on it. Once the text has been composed, you ask the pupil to copy this advice ten times and have it signed by their parents. You also specify when and where the pupil should hand in the text.
The reflective writing assignment should focus on the event that preceded it. A reflective writing assignment consists of four components:
Identifying one’s own behaviour (It is not the intention that I …, because …).
Reflecting on one’s own behaviour (If I …, I make sure that …).
Advising the pupil against justifying their behaviour (Even if I …, because this only makes the problems bigger instead of smaller.).
A helpful suggestion (From now on …, so that I …).
Example of a writing assignment
From now on, I will no longer push or pull at other people’s clothes, even if someone has taken my pen, because that only makes the matter worse. It would be better if, the next time I am about to get angry, I go to the teacher and ask for a different place because my neighbour is provoking me. This way I can prevent myself from disturbing the whole class because I cannot keep my hands to myself, and I can also prevent myself from being given such a childish writing assignment.” Boon (2009) Astrid
You tailor a reflective writing assignment to each situation, which means that it also costs you time. The content of such a reflective writing assignment addresses specifically what prompted the assignment. The reflective writing assignment combines characteristics of reflection with those of old-fashioned lines.
