Chapter 1: Defining Behavior

Behavior in education can have so many meanings. Typically behaviors can have a few characteristics that define them and create a picture of these behaviors. Some types of behavior are, unexpected behaviors, expected behaviors, desirable behaviors and undesirable behaviors. They can be defined as follows:

Undesired behavior: This is a behavior that is not wanted; an example would be a student skipping class

Desired behavior: An acceptable or "good" behavior; an example would be a student participating in a discussion appropriately.

Unexpected behavior: A behavior that would not be a social norm; an example would be a student singing loudly during seat work time.

Expected behavior: A behavior that is within the social norms; an example would be a student raising their hand before talking.

Buddy the Elf showing unexpected behaviors:

Some expected behaviors:



Maybe not totally expected, but hopefully you get the point...

The last form of behaviors I will touch on is severe behavior, these can be violent or negative behaviors that could effect people in negative ways; an example of this would be a student getting upset in class and cussing or punching a fellow student. These behaviors generally involve many more supports in a classroom. These students will also generally face more interventions and could tend to lose more seat time and lose opportunities in some cases to be along side their peers.