Dealing with adolescents exhibiting externalising behaviour

The TALIS 2018 results showed that teachers in primary education spend 14.4% of their teaching time on keeping order in the classroom; in the first grade of secondary education, this is 15.3% (Van Droogenbroeck et al., 2019). This is teaching time that teachers cannot devote to the learning process of their students. From the field, teachers indicate that it is becoming increasingly challenging to teach young people who display disruptive behaviour, and in particular externalising behaviour, in the classroom and at school. By externalising behaviour, we mean challenging, explosive, busy or aggressive behaviour couples. We see schools, in certain cases, using exclusion to deal with this. In the 2021-2022 school year, there were 22,601 temporary suspensions of primary and secondary students, 10,000 more than the 2020-2021 school year. There were also 3,516 permanent exclusions, double in ten years. Research shows that rather than suspension and exclusion, investing in the individual teacher-pupil relationship, committing to a warm school and classroom climate and working with (external) partners are important factors in ensuring that young people feel engaged at school. However, there is little research on how these factors are relevant for young people who exhibit externalising behaviour, especially in secondary education. With this preliminary study, we aim to develop an SBO application in which we explore what initiatives teachers and school teams can undertake for young people exhibiting externalising behaviour. In addition, we want to explore how these factors interact with each other and how schools can support young people exhibiting externalising behaviour at the policy level. We already conducted a literature review so that we could define and scientifically substantiate the central concepts for an SBO application. Based on initial reading of the literature, the following themes were delineated for further investigation from the literature: - Attention to the dyadic relationship between teacher and pupil including teacher sensitivity (a teacher's ability to detect signals and needs of a pupil, interpret these signals correctly and respond to them appropriately and quickly) and the teacher's ability to mentalise (a teacher's ability to interpret behaviour and reflect on it in terms of underlying mental states such as thoughts, feelings, intentions,...) - Attention to the interactions that take place in the class group in view of how peers respond to an individual pupil's externalising behaviour and how the class group relates to the teacher. - Attention to how the school has policies on dealing with externalising behaviour of young people. This involves questions such as: is dealing with young people seen as a shared responsibility of the school team? To what extent is there sufficient focus in mutual consultation on positive interactions in the school (between pupils, between pupils and teachers and between teachers themselves)? To what extent has a network outside the school been developed to follow up young people who exhibit externalising behaviour in the classroom or school? From March 2025, the second phase of this preliminary research will start, during which we will conduct several stakeholder meetings so that we can capture relevant valorisation activities in consultation with the field.