Learning Diversity in the Chinese Classroom: Contexts and Practice for Students with Special Needs

10 - Understanding and Teaching Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

10 Understanding and Teaching Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Sivanes PHILLIPSON Perspectives of Chinese students with emotional and behavioral disorders, and the challenges associated with teaching them are discussed in this chapter, including answers to the following questions: • What are emotional and behavioral disorders? • What is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? • What is autistic spectrum disorder? • What is the Chinese context of emotional and behavioral disorders? • What challenges do you face in the classroom? • What strategies are there to overcome these challenges? • What strategies are available to teach particular academic subjects? Introduction Emotional disturbance (ED) was mentioned as one of the twelve varieties of education disabilities in the USA’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1990 (IDEA). The IDEA, formerly known as Education for All Handicapped Children (1975), and amended in 2004, advocated the need for students with ED to have equal access to education (US Department of Education, 2004). This line of advocacy has been adopted by many countries around the world including those with a Confucian-heritage culture such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and Korea. In these countries, the term “emotional and behavioral disorder” (EBD) is commonly employed instead of ED (Poon-McBrayer & Lian, 2002) and will be used in this chapter. 308 Sivanes PHILLIPSON This chapter focuses on understanding and teaching students with emotional and behavioral disorders in a Chinese classroom. While the existing educational frameworks in many countries are based on those of the West, in the Chinese classroom teaching and learning are approached from the Confucian-heritage philosophy and culture. The Chinese Confucian-heritage (CHC) is a coin with two faces. On one face, its cultural values of promoting education for all, which includes basic knowledge and moral values, are seen as positive and valuable attributes for students’ high achievement (Tsui, 2005; Wang, 2004; Wu, 1996). On the other face of the coin, the Chinese culture has sanctions that elevate guilt and shame in its people for not belonging to the collective norm (Belford & Hwang, 2003; Kang, Lovett, & Haring, 2002; Lau & Takeuchi, 2001). This latter side of the Chinese culture presents difficulties for students with EBD because they do not fit easily within the boundaries of accepted behavior and, as a result, are either misunderstood, ignored or hidden. In this chapter, the term “Chinese classrooms” refers to school classrooms within the CHC. Although it is recognized that there is still a great deal of variability between classrooms, the cultural influences remain very similar. In Hong Kong, for example, students with EBD are not easily detected and, as a result, are usually found in mainstream classrooms by default, not by deliberate inclusion. Teachers’ and schools’ lack of ability in recognizing and identifying the characteristics of EBD, and parents’ refusal to admit to the possibility of EBD are amongst the reasons for this situation (Pearson et al., 2003). Consequently, teachers find themselves illequipped to deal with such students, especially when the students are chronically disadvantaged by their emotional and behavioral disorders. Recent educational reform in Hong Kong has seen a shift in the educational paradigm, with deliberate inclusion or integration of students into mainstream classes being actively engineered (Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau, 2002; Hong Kong Education Commission, 2004). Two publications worthy of mention that have been prepared to assist special education teachers in Hong Kong are the Guide to Curriculum for Maladjusted Children (Curriculum Development Council, 1998) and Integrated Education: Helping students with autistic disorders (Education Department, 2001). This chapter is divided into four main sections. The first section describes in broad terms the scope of special education in the area of EBD in CHC countries and the theoretical basis of EBD from an educational psychology perspective, with a specific focus on autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In the second section, classroom perspectives are described from three overlapping angles: emotional, behavioral and academic challenges. The third section addresses these areas by offering some practical strategies, which include both conventionally-used methods and progressive use of information technology. The last section then provides instructional bases for Understanding and Teaching Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 309 teaching a number of important key learning subjects in the Confucian-heritage classroom. Descriptions of Chinese students who suffer from specific forms of EBD are given in order to illustrate the demands facing the teacher. Two main cases, students CW and BB, are used to elaborate important points made throughout this chapter...