There is another group of students who have the capacity to learn using traditional methods, but are hampered by academic, emotional and behavioural problems.

This is the view of lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, Dr Rosemarie Johnson. Concerned about the increasing under achievement in people, their behavioural problems and unidentified learning challenges, Dr Johnson and a team of researchers decided to go beyond describing the problems and their causes and instead embarked upon finding solutions.

academic performance

Funded in part by the Grace Kennedy Foundation with support from the Ministry of Education, the project sought to improve the academic performance and reduce the behavioural and emotional problems of a group of 'at-risk' children by using the behavioural strategies of a technique called neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which explores the relationships between how people think and communicate with themselves and other people, and how this communication affects the way they behave. By studying and learning from these relationships, people can effectively transform the way they traditionally think and act, adopting new and more successful models of behaviour.

The researchers also used another technique in combination with the NLP. It's called Time Empowerment that allows the individual to use the imagination to revisit his or her past in order to let go of negative emotions and to journey into the future to imagine events that support his or her goals. The aim is to allow people to release negative emotions rapidly and permanently and bring about rapid positive change in patterns of learning and behaviour of children.

emotional and behavioural problems

The children to receive help were chosen from the ministry's Student Empowerment Programme. These children had the academic, emotional and behavioural problems the researcher wanted to address. The researchers collected information on each child including age, gender, grades, GSAT scores and their behaviour and emotional functioning in a variety of situations. The children were then divided into two groups. One group, the experimental group, received techniques for releasing anger, sadness, fear, guilt, shame, changing learning, studying and test-taking strategies and setting goals for the future. The other group, the control group, was placed on a waiting list to receive the intervention later.

The parents of students in the experimental group received the same treatments as did their children, except that they received parenting support instead of the learning, studying and test-taking strategies. The teachers participated in workshops for the release of negative emotions and for the modification of teaching and classroom management strategies.

The project is in its pilot phase. Nevertheless, the techniques have shown very promising results outside of the specific school with many students from similar demographic backgrounds who have seen significant increases in their academic achievement as well as significant reduction in anger, fear, sadness and guilt as well as an improved sense of well-being.