No ifs ands or buts… Semantic Prosody Eliminates In-School Suspensions in Middle School: A Case Study in Behavioral Conduct

Abstract

This study describes a before school program (90 minutes) in the US. It focuses on two brothers who had challenges with social and emotional engagement that included episodes of fighting, running away, extreme profanity, resentment, egocentric selfishness, bullying, and aggressive competition. The program was led by 7 para-leads (mean age 24.1) who had no training in teacher education. The children disliked (did not trust) school and arrived daily armed with retroactive inhibitions aimed at adult caregivers, school equipment, and personnel. In the current study, we test the hypothesis that a cognitive neuroscience approach to engagement inspired by para-leads who share a nuanced mental model about how school functions and how children learn, would exert an appreciable change to the brothers’ behavioral upsurges. The study was an opportunistic quasi-experimental design that served a population in daily need, with a solution that involved caring for children. This study was grounded in neuroscience teacher education literature involving mental models that illuminate classroom management techniques. Findings highlight that para-lead acquired mental models launched long-lasting change to the brothers’ singular and shared behavioral patterns. Future studies are suggested to clarify affect and effect about semantic prosody and learning systems.