Teaching Pupils to Negotiate

There has long been a potential tension between advocates of ‘behavioural approaches’ and advocates of ‘counselling approaches’, particularly in relation to work with pupils with special needs. The appeal of the cognitive behavioural approach described in this paper is that it integrates both the cognitive (counselling) and behavioural strategies. Thus the effectiveness of each approach can be used to enhance the effectiveness of the other. The writer argues that this leads to a more effective intervention than either approach used on its own. It also moves away from an almost total emphasis on the environmental determinants of behaviour towards a model which gives due weight to the feelings and thoughts of the pupils.