This week I delivered a lecture on self actualisation; the concept that if all of our basic needs are satisfied we are able to become more confident, creative and generally the best version of ourselves.
Students were asked to apply this principle to issues within their own practice and use it to explain human behaviour. For example, an elite performer may not pay attention to a nutritionists guidance because they do not feel secure in their job. The financial pressures they feel to perform outweigh their desire to focus on eating the correct diet. This could be applied to much of the work Renee McGregor (www.reneemcgregor.com ) does with elite athletes, as she identifies that many are at risk of developing eating disorders due to the increased focus on performance.
Maslow argued that if an individual is 'stuck' in one of these lower order stages it can be difficult for individuals to achieve their full potential in any given activity, task or scenario.
Whilst there are many criticisms for using this as a model to explain human behaviour and motivation it struck me that this hierarchy does in many ways link with John Hattie's Rope Model of Self Concept and my beliefs about student behaviour.
Whenever students ask me advice on managing behaviour whilst they are teaching I always tell them to think about why the student is not engaging/ answering back/ acting in a defiant manner. If you only treat the behaviour itself you will not fully solve the problem, getting to the root cause of why students are behaving in a negative way will help you to not only build more effective relationships with your students but to also help the student to manage their own emotions and become more self aware.
For example, when I first started working in a school as an unqualified teacher I was given a form group of Year 7 pupils. One of these students would regularly (more than twice a week) get into fights or arguments during lunchtime. He came across as a very calm and quiet student so fighting appeared to be very out of character in my opinion. As it was an independent school staff often sat with pupils to eat lunch and there were a variety of options on offer including two different hot meal choices, soup and salad along with dessert and fruit (I do miss working there!). After a few weeks I noticed that this student very rarely had a lot on his plate and often would leave his food at the end of the meal. Only really eating when there was something relatively plan like boiled potatoes or chips he could eat along with some cold meat from the salad bar. I spoke to his parents and found out that he also rarely ate with them as he did not like many foods and would sit in another room to eat meals (including Christmas dinner!) because he did not like the smell of his parent's food.
I began to wonder if the reason for his deteriorating behaviour throughout the day was due to a dip in his energy levels, after all I definitely get a little hangry when I haven't eaten for a while. This is the first stage in Maslow's hierarchy- if your basic physiological needs aren't being met how could he focus on anything more complex? Over the next half term I sat with him during lunchtimes, encouraging him to try a new food every day. This also meant I had to try different foods, resulting in me discovering that I didn't really mind sweetcorn! By the end of term he has discovered that he liked green beans and sweetcorn and would eat much more at lunchtimes, although he didn't like sauces or gravy (who doesn't like gravy!?!?). His behaviour was markedly better and he no longer got into fights. That Christmas was also the first time since he was a toddler that he had sat and eaten Christmas dinner with his family; I got a emphatic thank-you from his parents at the next parent's evening.
In my years since I have discovered many other reasons for students' behaviour; an ill parent, not having access to the internet at home, not wanting to change in front of others and having to take on parental roles at home so making the most of their freedom whilst at school! These can link to physiological, safety or esteem needs which would prevent pupils from reaching their full potential in school or during lessons. I have encouraged my students to ask their pupils why their behaviour is not as expected, as well as to make sure they communicate with parents and other staff when there are issues to help try to pinpoint the cause so that they can work to solve the underlying problem. This allows us to really support the whole child within our practice rather than resorting to punitive measures to eradicate unwanted behaviour.
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