Full Transcript for Why Some Pupils Avoid Work (And What To Do About It)

00:05:32.189 And I'm not saying that those approaches are automatically wrong, by the way. 00:05:32.509 --> 00:05:38.529 There are times when rewards and encouragement and consequences are perfectly reasonable tools for managing behaviour. 00:05:38.649 --> 00:05:39.529 But here's the problem. 00:05:39.670 --> 00:05:48.329 They all assume to some extent that Jack's difficulty is that he's lacking in motivation, that he could get on with the work, but he simply doesn't want to. 00:05:48.969 --> 00:05:50.649 He's choosing not to. 00:05:50.750 --> 00:05:53.490 But what if that approach misses something? 00:05:53.509 --> 00:05:55.310 And that isn't the case. 00:05:55.310 --> 00:06:00.529 Because avoidance can serve a very useful purpose for the person who's doing it. 00:06:00.969 --> 00:06:07.389 If an activity makes you feel uncomfortable, then finding a way to escape that activity makes you feel better. 00:06:07.730 --> 00:06:09.290 It gives you temporary relief. 00:06:09.670 --> 00:06:10.790 And guess what? 00:06:10.949 --> 00:06:15.689 That relief then reinforces more avoidance in the future. 00:06:15.909 --> 00:06:18.409 Basically, avoiding the discomfort felt good. 00:06:18.469 --> 00:06:23.870 So your brain learns to avoid the discomfort by doing that again in the future. 00:06:23.870 --> 00:06:28.469 Psychologists call this negative reinforcement, which sounds like a punishment, but it isn't. 00:06:28.949 --> 00:06:39.629 What it actually means is that when you remove an unpleasant experience, then you make an avoidance behaviour more likely to happen again. 00:06:39.870 --> 00:06:45.990 In Jack's case, every minute he spends searching for his rubber is another minute he doesn't have to face the writing task. 00:06:46.050 --> 00:06:49.829 So the avoidance is achieving something for him. 00:06:49.829 --> 00:06:54.670 It achieves or reduces his discomfort, at least for now. 00:06:54.730 --> 00:06:56.990 And of course, the writing still has to be done. 00:06:57.110 --> 00:06:59.909 So in the longer term, he's actually making the situation worse. 00:06:59.969 --> 00:07:10.189 But our brains, especially our emotional brains, aren't always particularly good at prioritizing the long term when something feels unpleasant right now. 00:07:10.290 --> 00:07:14.129 Our emotional brains care more about relief in the moment. 00:07:14.250 --> 00:07:19.810 And I want to make a distinction here, because there is a difference between discomfort and distress. 00:07:20.469 --> 00:07:24.290 Discomfort is something we all need to learn to tolerate. 00:07:24.709 --> 00:07:28.949 And actually, without discomfort, we wouldn't grow very much as human beings. 00:07:29.449 --> 00:07:41.009 Think about learning to ride a bike or giving a presentation or sitting an exam or building an exercise routine, having a difficult conversation or trying to master something that you're not naturally good at. 00:07:41.050 --> 00:07:53.409 All of these things involve a degree of discomfort and developing the confidence and the skills to deal with that discomfort is an important part of education and growing up. 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:59.170 Pushing through discomfort helps us grow as human beings, which brings me back to salmon. 00:07:59.509 --> 00:08:02.930 Now, if my wife serves me salmon for dinner, I will eat it. 00:08:03.230 --> 00:08:04.969 I might moan about it. 00:08:05.089 --> 00:08:18.709 I might spend the whole meal thinking about how much happier I'd be with a steak or a burger, but I will eat it because I know it's good for me and because the level of discomfort involved is perfectly manageable. 00:08:19.089 --> 00:08:20.810 I'm not in danger. I'm not overwhelmed. 00:08:21.050 --> 00:08:26.110 I'm just a middle-aged man being unnecessarily dramatic or picky about his dinner. 00:08:26.290 --> 00:08:29.969 I'm not mad about the taste, but it's not making me vomit either. 00:08:30.110 --> 00:08:32.570 And that isn't a comment, by the way, on my wife's cooking. 00:08:32.690 --> 00:08:34.590 It is absolutely not a comment on my wife's cooking. 00:08:34.710 --> 00:08:36.649 It doesn't matter who cooks it. 00:08:36.889 --> 00:08:39.050 Salmon is just not my preference. 00:08:39.090 --> 00:08:46.090 But imagine my wife served me a plate of broken glass or razor blades and told me to eat that instead. 00:08:47.290 --> 00:08:58.129 Suddenly, we're talking about a completely different kind of experience, and it would be ridiculous to suggest that forcing me to eat it would help me develop resilience. 00:08:58.550 --> 00:09:03.389 I'd probably develop a quite strong motivation to avoid coming home for dinner at all. 00:09:03.470 --> 00:09:07.230 Now, obviously, right, that's a that's a deliberately extreme example. 00:09:07.370 --> 00:09:13.529 And discomfort and distress aren't like two neat categories that every experience can be sort of filed into. 00:09:13.850 --> 00:09:15.509 There's a lot of ground between them. 00:09:15.870 --> 00:09:19.809 And what one person can manage might be overwhelming for someone else. 00:09:19.830 --> 00:09:21.389 But the important point is this. 00:09:22.629 --> 00:09:30.889 Sometimes we want children to learn to push through manageable discomfort because that's how they develop confidence and independence and resilience. 00:09:30.990 --> 00:09:41.269 But when the demands we're placing on them are genuinely overwhelming, simply increasing the pressure to engage isn't necessarily going to make them more resilient. 00:09:41.809 --> 00:09:45.529 It might just make them more desperate to escape. 00:09:45.809 --> 00:09:48.230 So let's go back to Jack and ask a different question. 00:09:48.549 --> 00:09:51.570 Instead of asking, how can we motivate him to do his writing? 00:09:51.830 --> 00:09:57.250 Let's ask what's making writing so uncomfortable for him in the first place? 00:09:57.289 --> 00:10:00.789 And to answer that, I'm going to refer back to the PAIN framework. 00:10:01.250 -->

00:10:08.950 And PAIN here, if you've not seen any of the episodes on the PAIN framework, it stands for the Primary Areas of Internal Need. 00:10:08.950 --> 00:10:15.570 PAIN helps us identify different sources of stress that can contribute to emotionally driven behaviour. 00:10:16.029 --> 00:10:20.289 And it's based on the work of Stuart Shanker and his team on self-regulation. 00:10:20.549 --> 00:10:25.250 We've got lots of other episodes on the PAIN framework if you want to deep dive into them, which this isn't. 00:10:25.330 --> 00:10:27.189 But I'm just going to touch on it because it's relevant. 00:10:27.330 --> 00:10:31.210 The idea is that our brains and bodies don't just regulate emotions. 00:10:31.669 --> 00:10:39.769 They're constantly dealing with lots of other demands as well, from sensory information and mental processing to social relationships, changes in the environment. 00:10:39.929 --> 00:10:42.110 And when those demands become too great. 00:10:42.378 --> 00:11:09.077 our ability to cope starts to suffer. Inside the PAIN framework there are seven categories of need which I group under the acronym IMPACTS. Now I'm not going to run through all seven today because we're focusing on avoidance, but I'll show you how we might use a few of them to understand Jack's behaviour and this is important. I'm not trying to diagnose Jack with anything and I'm not assuming that every child who avoids writing has the same difficulties. 00:11:09.077 --> 00:11:22.516 The PAIN framework gives us a way of investigating different possibilities using what we already know about Jack from working with him, what we observe in class and of course what Jack tells us himself. 00:11:22.817 --> 00:11:34.797 The first category for Jack I'd look at is mental processing. Now Jack can explain his ideas perfectly well verbally when he's talking, but perhaps for him writing them down is much harder. 00:11:34.797 --> 00:13:07.398 He has to decide what he wants to say, organise his ideas into coherent sentences, remember what he was going to write, think about spelling and punctuation and then physically with his pen or pencil get those words onto the paper and there is a lot going on there and perhaps some of the processes involved in that are much more effortful for Jack than they are for other pupils in his class. So when the teacher asks everyone to write a paragraph Jack isn't facing the same level of difficulty as his peers. From the outside that write a paragraph sounds like a simple instruction. From Jack's perspective though it might feel like being asked to pull a truck down a road like one of those strongmen competitions and the longer he sits there struggling the more uncomfortable he feels starting the task. Then in the PAIN framework we might look at anxiety and emotions. Imagine Jack's been having difficulty with writing for several years, he's used to being one of the last pupils to finish, he's used to making mistakes, he's used to having to correct his work and watch the other kids complete tasks that seem much easier for them and over time he might begin to associate writing with frustration or embarrassment or failure. So now even before the lesson starts, before the writing starts, he's anticipating how difficult it's going to be. That anticipation, that prediction alone can increase his stress. 00:13:07.477 --> 00:13:30.197 He doesn't need to wait until he's actually struggling with the work to feel uncomfortable just like you don't have to be in the dentist's chair to feel uncomfortable with the drive to the dentist. Just knowing the writing task is coming for Jack can be enough. What we predict will happen, even if our prediction is inaccurate, affects our brain's behaviour choices right now. 00:13:30.277 --> 00:13:54.097 And then there's another impacts category we could consider, integration and belonging. Perhaps Jack worries about what the other pupils will think of him. He might be perfectly comfortable offering answers in a class discussion where he's able to demonstrate what he knows but feel exposed when everyone else is writing confidently in class and he's still staring at a blank page. 00:13:54.597 --> 00:16:16.736 Now that adds another layer of discomfort. Now notice how all these different pressures can stack one on top of the other. The mental effort of writing, the fear of making mistakes and the embarrassment of falling behind aren't necessarily separate experiences and they all contribute to Jack's overall stress together. And this approach, the pain framework, the impacts, stress stacking, this is something I go into in loads of detail in my new book that's coming out soon. It'll be published by Routledge. It's due out March-April time in 2027. I will keep you posted as I have more information about that. But this is why the pain framework is useful. Rather than concentrating exclusively on Jack's behaviour, the apparent work avoidance, it encourages us to investigate what's causing the work avoidance. Because if we understand what makes writing difficult or uncomfortable for Jack, we've got a much better chance of putting in place support that will help him. But if we decide he's simply lazy and keep turning up the pressure, we might accidentally add to the very stress that's causing him to avoid the work in the first place. Meaning, ironically, we end up with more work avoidance, not less. So what would that support actually look like? Well, the first thing I'd do is look for ways to reduce the mental effort involved in the task that Jack, as an individual, specifically finds difficult. Maybe Jack needs some form of scaffolding, a writing frame, or a few bullet points to organise his ideas before he starts. Perhaps we could let him talk through his first sentence with an adult or break the task into smaller steps so he doesn't have to hold so much information in his head at once. We're not removing the expectation that Jack writes. We're changing the conditions and

the scaffolding and the support so he has a better chance of getting started and finishing his work. The second thing I think about is his emotional experience of writing. If he's expecting to fail, we might need to help him experience some genuine success with his writing. So rather than putting the whole task in front of him and saying, come on Jack, you know what to do. We might say, you've got some good ideas about this, let's just pick one of them and work out how we get that down on the paper. So that sounds achievable then. 00:16:16.918 --> 00:16:21.638 And once he's started, we can give him some feedback about what he's done, what he's achieved. 00:16:21.638 --> 00:16:42.177 Not exaggerated over-the-top praise for like writing three words, but genuine recognition of the skills he's used and the progress he's made. And over time, those successful experiences can help change what Jack expects to happen and expects to feel when he's asked to write. 00:16:42.298 --> 00:16:52.777 And the third thing which I think is really important is that we still need Jack to experience some manageable challenge. We're not trying to protect him from ever finding writing difficult. 00:16:52.836 --> 00:17:05.157 If we did that, we'd risk reinforcing the idea that writing is something he can't cope with, that he needs protecting from. And that is the tyranny of low expectations for our learners. 00:17:05.638 --> 00:17:29.478 We're presenting him with writing as if it were a plate of broken glass rather than a plate of Instead, we want to help him develop the skills and the confidence and the tolerance to tackle increasingly difficult tasks. So we might gradually increase the amount he writes independently or ask him to attempt the first sentence before he gets any help. 00:17:29.518 --> 00:17:39.638 But we make those decisions based on how he's actually coping, you know, over the midterm, rather than simply deciding he ought to be able to do more by now at this age. 00:17:39.638 --> 00:18:05.258 And some pupils will continue to need adjustments because of their SEND, their special educational needs and disabilities. Building independence is an ongoing process that requires lots of course corrections along the way. It's not a one and done. Now, I should be clear that this doesn't mean all avoidance is needs led or caused by stress, not by a long shot. 00:18:05.258 --> 00:18:15.057 Sometimes pupils avoid work because something else is more rewarding to them in the moment, like talking to their friend or secretly looking at their phone. It does happen. 00:18:15.518 --> 00:19:10.157 Sometimes they've developed habits of putting things off. Sometimes they simply don't see the point of an activity. And sometimes a pupil is capable of completing the work and needs clear expectations and appropriate boundaries. The PAIN framework isn't intended to explain away every example of reluctance or refusal as if it's a complex condition. It isn't a way of excusing behaviour that comes down to poor choices. And we all make poor choices from time to time. Kids included. Adults included. You. Me. When my wife, by the way, edits this podcast, here's how I've described her summer meal prep. I think we're all going to describe my repeatedly coming back to it and referring to it over and over in this episode as a bad choice. The PAIN framework isn't about making poor choices look like deep emotionally led behaviour. 00:19:10.638 --> 00:20:47.910 It's a way of checking whether underlying needs might be contributing to long term behaviour needs before we decide how to respond. And although we focused on Jack's writing, this applies to other Think about a pupil who always finds a reason to avoid group work because navigating social situations is difficult for them. Or a child who becomes reluctant to move between activities because they struggle with transitions. Or a pupil who regularly asks to miss PE because the noise, the physical demands or the fear of being watched makes the lesson feel uncomfortable for them. At the surface level, we might describe all those three students as avoiding instructions or avoiding work. But the reasons behind that avoidance could be completely different and the support they need might be completely different too. If you'd like some help identifying the needs that might be contributing to the behaviour of the students in your classroom, I've got a free resource you can download that can help called the SEND Behaviour Handbook. It includes practical information about common SEND and SEMH needs together with a behaviour analysis grid to help you start to connect what you're seeing in class with possible underlying difficulties. It's not there to help teachers try and make a diagnosis, that's not our role, we're not diagnostic professionals but it is to help you link what you're seeing in classroom with possible needs. You can download it completely free from beaconschoolsupport.co.uk Visit the website, click on the free resources tab at the top and you'll see the SEND handbook there. 00:20:48.470 --> 00:20:54.850 That's beaconschoolsupport.co.uk. Click on the free resources tab and you'll see the SEND handbook near the top. 00:20:55.270 --> 00:21:01.170 Or I'll put a link in the episode description as well so you can tap straight through. 00:21:01.230 --> 00:21:02.570 So let's bring everything together. 00:21:02.650 --> 00:21:09.470 The next time you work with a pupil who's constantly avoiding a particular task or activity, I want you to think about three things. 00:21:09.470 --> 00:21:11.850 First, what are they avoiding? 00:21:12.250 --> 00:21:18.670 Is it all schoolwork or is there a particular kind of task or situation or demand where the problem keeps appearing? 00:21:19.570 --> 00:21:23.610 Secondly, what might be making that situation feel uncomfortable for them? 00:21:24.030 --> 00:21:30.870 Could there be issues with mental processing, anxiety and emotion, sensory needs, social relationships or something else we're overlooking? 00:21:30.870 --> 00:21:40.190 And thirdly, what could you change to make engagement more achievable without removing an appropriate level of challenge? 00:21:40.290 --> 00:21:45.650 It might be a small adjustment to the task, the environment or even the way you introduce the activity. 00:21:45.870 --> 00:21:50.950 But the point is to match the support to what's actually driving the behaviour. 00:21:51.050 --> 00:21:59.490 Because there's a world of difference between a pupil who finds something difficult but manageable and a pupil who's genuinely overwhelmed by what we're asking them to do. 00:21:59.490 --> 00:22:04.970 We need children to experience challenge, which brings us finally back to the salmon. 00:22:05.570 --> 00:22:17.030 Because while I'm still not convinced it has any business appearing on my dinner plate, I'm prepared to accept that eating it occasionally might be good for me and perhaps over time I could even develop a taste for it. 00:22:17.110 --> 00:22:25.410 Although I think we'd all agree there's a limit to the amount of personal growth a man should be expected to achieve in his early 50s through the consumption of oily fish alone. 00:22:25.970 --> 00:22:38.930 If you've managed to tolerate the discomfort of listening to me complain about salmon throughout this episode, perhaps you could demonstrate your resilience by leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 00:22:39.310 --> 00:22:41.090 I would be very grateful if you did. 00:22:41.450 --> 00:22:44.610 And if you haven't subscribed yet, come on! I've eaten the salmon. 00:22:45.090 --> 00:22:47.430 Surely you can press one little button and subscribe. 00:22:48.090 --> 00:22:51.250 Do it! It'll make you a stronger, more likeable person. 00:22:51.250 --> 00:22:58.430 Anyway, I hope you have a brilliant week and I can't wait to see you on the next episode of School Behaviour Secrets.