How’s School Going For You?
A Set Of Questions To Deepen The Discussion.
During an early part of my psychological services provider career, I was hired as a school psychologist in Rochester, New York. There, students were regularly referred to me because a teacher or parent had become concerned about how a student was doing at school.
When I met individually with these students, I first introduced myself, and then I’d say something like, “I was asked to meet with you to see if we can figure out how to make school better for you.” Then I’d spend a little time trying to see if we had some common interest, such as some music stars, baseball players, TV shows, etc. By connecting with students in this pleasant way, it lightened up our exchange. Next, I got down more directly to the business at hand, seeking to find out, from the student’s perspective, how school was going.
Early in my tenure in this job, this meant that I would just ask the question, “Say, by the way, how’s school going for you this year?” Typically, I would get just a very brief answer, such as, “OK,” or, “I hate school.” Naturally, I wanted to explore more deeply this issue, so I would clumsily begin to ask followup questions and too often I wouldn’t get much that was helpful. However, in time, I developed a psychological interview that really managed to be insightful in figuring out ways to improve a student’s school experience. So, today I thought I would share it with you, for I think it would be helpful, not only for other school psychologists, but for teachers and parents as well.
Psychological Interview
- How are things going for you this school year? (After each question, leave a few lines for you to write out the student’s answers.)
- Tell me how things are going for you this year by putting a circle around one of these numbers. If you circle the 1 it means you think things are going very bad for you. If you circle a 2, it means you think things are going bad, but not quite very bad. If you circle a 3, it means you think things are going well for you, and if you circle a 4, it means you think things are going great!
Very bad 1 2 3 4 Great
- Thanks for doing that. Now, tell me, things you enjoy doing are…
- Do you have any problems this year that are getting in the way of doing your best at school?
- Tell me about your school work, what’s hard for you, and what’s easy?
- Your favorite subject is…
- Subjects you don’t like are…
- Your grades are…
- Tell me some things you are good at.
- Tell me some things you wish you were better at.
- Do you have friends at school?
- Name some of your friends.
- Now, when I ask you about friends, I’m not just talking about kids you like doing things with, though it’s great to have some of them to do things with. To me, a real friend is somebody who, if something good happens to you that person feels good for you, and if something goes bad for you, that person cares about what you are going through, and tries to help you out in some way. Any of the kids you mentioned as friends this kind of friend?
- Do you have friends where you live?
- Name some of your friends where you live.
- How have you been getting along with the other students at school?
- Rate yourself on the following: I like the way I get along with the other students at school.
Agree 5 4 3 2 1 Disagree
- I like the way I get along with the teachers at school.
Agree 5 4 3 2 1 Disagree
- I like myself.
Agree 5 4 3 2 1 Disagree
- I like the way I get along with other people in my neighborhood.
Agree 5 4 3 2 1 Disagree
- Tell me about you and your teachers.
- Tell me about how you get along with your teachers.
- Tell me about your all time favorite teacher, and why you liked her or him so much.
- Tell me about a teacher you had a hard time getting along with.
- Are there any grown-ups that really care about you, and think you’re special?
- Do you like school?
- Rate how much you like or dislike school by circling one of these numbers:
I love school 5 4 3 2 1 I hate school
- What can we do to make school a better place for you?
- Do you feel you get enough help in school?
- Tell me about how much exercise you get.
Discussion
Well, there you have it, an outline for a psychological interview that will help to draw out important information regarding a student’s school experience. Why might this be a useful thing to do? I found, when using this approach, that students very much appreciate an adult really taking the time to see how they are doing. Moreover, discussing the results of the interview with people I respect and the parents and the educators working with the student often led to some helpful ideas for improving the student’s school experience
To take one example, I once interviewed a student we will call Bobby. He indicated that this school year was going very bad for him by circling a 1 on that question. On further questioning, Bobby indicated he found school had him sitting way too much, he had no friends, and he enjoyed and thought he was good at playing chess.
Bobby had learned to play chess when he was younger. His older brother had taught him, and they had enjoyed playing against one another, but in recent years his brother preferred playing with some guys his own age. With no one to play with, Bobby would read some books on chess, and he also watched a lot of TV. On the questionnaire, it became clear that he got no exercise other than two times per week when he had his physical education class.
As I discussed this information with Bobby’s parents, they found it insightful, and decided to take some steps to improve Bobby’s life. They signed him up for an after school chess club suitable for Bobby’s age and he loved it. Moreover, several students in Bobby’s grade at his school also attended the after school program, and as they got to know one another, they began meeting before school to discuss common interests, ate lunch together in the school cafeteria, and on the weekend they got together to play chess and to do other fun stuff.
To address the issue of a lack of exercise and that Bobby felt uncomfortable sitting so long at school, he and his whole family began to take an hour walk after supper twice a week, and on the weekend they would take an even longer hike. This added walking each week made it much easier for Bobby to sit for long periods during school hours, and it no doubt is supportive of a healthier lifestyle.
After these changes had been implemented for a few months, I again had Bobby fill out several of the rating scales from the psychological interview to get a sense of how helpful the changes had been. He now indicated the school year was going much better than when I first interviewed him. On the question he had originally circled a 1 indicating things were going very bad for him, now he circled a 3, indicating things were going pretty good. Sitting for such long periods at school was now not as aversive, and he also indicated he had made some real friends. The changes on several of the rating scales that appear on the interview outline helped to confirm to the parents that real progress had been achieved. So, if you will, give the interview a try and let us know if you found it helpful.
My Best,
Jeff
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Some people will enjoy reading this blog by beginning with the first post and then moving forward to the next more recent one; then to the next one; and so on. This permits readers to catch up on some ideas that were presented earlier and to move through all of the ideas in a systematic fashion to develop their emotional intelligence. To begin at the very first post you can click HERE.
Education? Child rearing? Learning? Schools? Studying? I’m in. Here’s one of my stories (also once posted on FB) from that area 😈
Years ago a rather desperate director of some high school came to me for help. There was this class preparing for their final exams and, much to his, his teachers, and parents’ chagrin, not one of the students showed any interest in any subject to be tested soon. Goofing off was in, studying was out. When I entered that class I was met with a bunch of bored and angry faces, telling me to take a hike and refrain from bothering them with my creepy wisdom. I was simply seen as another “one of those”, nothing great to expected from, only more useless crap.
Then I told them, I had come to teach them how to get great final exam results without studying. Within a nanosecond no one was hanging in their chairs anymore, and their facial expression had changed to intense, albeit still doubtful, expectation. Everybody was on board, including me.
Since this exam was only of the “multiple choice” kind, and I’m an expert on how to analyze these questions even if one knows not much about the subject itself, I shared with them all the tricks I had up my sleeve. And you know what? It only took them one (1) session of four (4) hours with me to master all of them. Yes, I had a great time, and so had they.
The exam came, and all were successful. Yes, all of them.
Um……come to think of this, weren’t these bored to death students actually not sublime critical thinkers, ferociously standing their ground, and totally dismissing nonsense from their lives?
Hi Roald,
I can well understand why a great deal of what is taught from 7th grade through high school appears to lack relevancy to teenagers. As a teenager, even when I saw some relevancy to what was being taught, I found myself awfully bored. So, I am always very sympathetic to reluctant school learners.
What I loved to do in school, later in the military, and then in all sorts of fields where so-called professionals set themselves up as the ones who had the wisdom, was to ask them questions until they got completely bogged down with their expertise and had to admit “I don’t know”. It was fun. It still is 😈
I’m glad to hear you found a great source for amusement.