Over the past decades, poverty has adversely affected some schools’ performance. For example, in my workplace, some students cannot afford the basic requirements to support their learning. In addition, they do not get adequate parental support because the parents are spending most of their time looking for resources. Behavioral learning theory posits that people learn how to behave by interacting with their surroundings (Clark, 2018). Furthermore, it shows that behaviors are acquired from their surroundings, and that intrinsic or hereditary characteristics have limited influence on behavior. This means that a social worker and the agency must ensure that the learning environment is conducive for all the students. Therefore, poverty in schools is a major challenge that should be mitigated to enhance learning.
Poverty in Schools
Poverty is a social problem found in some schools in the US and across the globe. According to Murakami and Kearney (2019), poor individuals and households does not have enough money to pay for food, clothes, and a place to live. However, there is more to it than insufficient money or other resources to live a good life. It manifests as hunger and malnutrition, limited access to health care and other essentials, social isolation and prejudice, and not having a say in making decisions. In addition, low-income individuals become socially isolated because they do not have resources that support modern lifestyles, such as a social network. For example, students lack computers to support online learning. Therefore, people living in poverty cannot afford the tools that can be used to support learning.
The Causes of Poverty
There are different causes of poverty among individuals and families in a society. Conflict theory suggests that stratification helps the wealthy and powerful and hurts the poor (Brady, 2019). People with high status tend to keep more money, making the gap between them and those with low status wider. For example, most rich families pay their employees low wages to watch their children, work on their farms, and clean their homes. Conflict theorists think this system of competition makes and keeps categorization systems (Brady, 2019). The theory reveals that competition and unfairness are not natural parts of life. Instead, they are made up to protect the wealthy.
Poor education is a social factor that contributes to poverty in society. Behavioral learning theory is among the personality theories that examine how people learn (Clark, 2018). The theory is based on the idea that people learn how to act by interacting with their surroundings. Furthermore, it demonstrates that behaviors are learned from the environment and that innate or inherited factors have little effect on behavior. People who are being followed by others serve as models for behaviors that will be imitated or avoided based on the conclusions reached by the observer (Clark, 2018). Therefore, since poor education deprives children of the opportunity to learn and develop the skills they need to succeed, the students observe and acquire behaviors that negatively impact their academic and personal development.
The lack of adequate support from guidance is among the main reasons for poverty. Erikson’s theory of human development has a second phase that happens during early childhood and is all about children getting a better sense of control over their own lives (Vondracek et al., 2019). At this age, children are beginning to do things independently. They start to do simple things on their own and make simple choices about what they like and do not like. Based on this, parents and other adults can help students develop a sense of independence by letting them make choices and take charge. For example, in the school where I work, we play an integral role in the development of the students. Therefore, inadequate support during childhood results in a poor mindset, affecting school performance.
The Impacts of Poverty on Individuals
Poverty in schools has become a significant issue because it negatively affects students’ learning. Students who live in poverty often have few resources at home to help them do their homework, study or do other things that will enable them to perform well at school. Many low-income households do not have access to computers, high-speed internet and other things that can help a student outside school. In my current workplace as an intern, I noticed that impoverished parents often work longer hours or more than one job, which means they may not be around to assist their children with schoolwork. As a result, students lack adequate parental support to enhance their learning.
Moreover, poverty is more likely to worsen students’ learning and coping capability with attention deficit. There is evidence that child does not get the right guidance, medicine, and attention for their mental problems, their education will suffer (Brady, 2019). In addition, a child who fails to get the right treatment for their condition their behavior problems will distract the teacher from teaching other kids. For example, when students experience poor nutrition and diminished health practices, it becomes a challenge for them to listen, concentrate, and learn. As a result, the inability to provide adequate nutritional and medical support due to poverty makes it hard for students with special needs to perform effectively and excel in learning.
Interventions to Help a Client with The Problem
Cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) is an important intervention that can be used to help clients experiencing the impacts caused by poverty. It is considered a first-line treatment for mental health and personal stressor needs (Stallard, 2019). The practice helps build rapport and learn micro-skills to facilitate counselling session conversations to the parts that work best for different mental health needs. Understanding these precision-targeted parts allows counsellors to streamline intervention, saving valuable time and resources to ensure that clients are well served, and institutions can meet the needs of each person (Stallard, 2019). Therefore, CBT greatly affects how well people work and how good their lives are in society.
Using CBT, the role of a social worker would be to build a stronger relationship with the students and alleviate stress. It involves reducing the impact of stress on students’ life by incorporating more classroom fun into academics (Stallard, 2019). For example, most students in the school where I work lack adequate parental support because their parents spend most of their time to provide basic needs. A social worker provides cognitive assistance, which includes assisting kids with sensory motor tasks such as the children’s game where they touch different areas of their bodies in rapid succession. This will offer kids a brief cognitive boost of the energy they require. As a result, these activities can aid in behavioral management, which is critical for early academic achievement.
A social worker should strive to teach students effective coping skills to better deal with their stressors. They should strive to offer the children greater control over the running of their own life while they are at school (Stallard, 2019). Encourage students to take on responsibilities and assume leadership roles by providing them with various options, getting them involved in class projects, and fostering collaborative problem-solving and decision-making. Whether the stress is acute or chronic, having the ability to feel as though one has some control over one’s environment is one of the most critical variables in minimizing the harmful effects of stress. This is true whether the stress is short-term or long-term. As a result, students will develop healthy coping mechanisms that will help them concentrate on their schooling.
Using CBT, the clients who are students in the school must be given the responsibility to participate in the process. CBT place the burden for problem-solving on the shoulders of the clients while providing them with the necessary resources (Stallard, 2019). People who participate in CBT acquire specific skills that can be utilized to solve the difficulties they face regularly. In addition, the capabilities can be used to accomplish legitimate goals and objectives they have set for themselves. Previously, CBT focused on the development of abilities to notice distorted or unrealistic thinking when it occurs and then shifted its attention to modifying that thinking or belief to reduce or eliminate harmful behavior (Stallard, 2019). Therefore, the students must be willing to change and foster engagement.
Apart from a social worker and clients, the agency has a role to play in helping alleviate the situation. The Elementary School can combat poverty among students by providing equal academic opportunities and covertly supplying school equipment, snacks, clothes, and other essential items. They should provide students living in poverty with access to the same high-level curricular and pedagogical possibilities as their counterparts from wealthy families, along with the exact high expectations for those students. In addition, create educational programs that are pertinent and important to students’ lives and that draw on their experiences and the environment in which they live. Finally, the agency must ensure that the students have adequate resources to enhance their learning and development.
CBT has a strong relationship between person-centered and participant-directed approaches. The fundamental aim of the three approaches would lead to change in the client by building trust and rapport (Stallard, 2019). The main role is to ensure that an individual is engaged in the process to enhance performance. In CBT, this change process happens through education; by making people aware of their thought patterns, they will change their behavior. On the contrary, in the person-centered and participant-centered approaches, change happens when empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard are present (Stallard, 2019). Therefore, the main difference between CBT and person-centered and participant-centered approaches is the change process during the intervention.
A Summary of Whether the Literature Supports the Ideas
Behavioral theory is based on the idea that people learn how to act by interacting with their surroundings. This learning theory posits that behaviors are learned from the environment and that innate or inherited factors have little effect on behavior (Clark, 2018). This indicates that the poor are economically disadvantaged because they do things or take risks that make them poorer, such as not having a job. Poverty is high in a place because people engage in behaviors that do not create wealth. This supports my idea of focusing on improving children’s conduct and enabling them to acquire appropriate traits to enhance their performance in school (Clark, 2018). To alleviate poverty and its influence on students in school, it is important to major in behavior development.
Self-image is a concept that plays an integral role in students’ cognitive development. According to Parker et al. (2019), self-image is a crucial part of a person’s personality that can affect how well they get along with others and how well they feel. Self-abuse or self-destructive behavior can all lead to a bad view of oneself. Self-image comes from how someone thinks, shaped by the people around them from a young age. In addition, students from low-income families are susceptible to self-abuse due to a lack of adequate support from parents and other members of society. Based on this, the idea generated by this theory aligns with the intervention of building a positive and active relationship with the students (Parker et al., 2019). Therefore, the appropriate intervention majors on improving the learners’ self-image.
The provisions of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) relate to creating a support system for students living in poverty. SCT maintains that individuals’ health behaviors are influenced by their personal experiences, the behaviors of others, and the natural landscape (Parker et al., 2019). The theory can help people obtain social support by training them to have aspirations, believe in their talents, and change their behavior through conditioning and reinforcement. The practices proposed by this theory align with the idea that a school must ensure that students living in poverty are exposed to adequate resources to support their learning. As a result, the provision of these learning tools and other support services are considered reinforcers for developing good behavior.
The root cause of poverty is an exploitation of the poor by the rich and unfavorable conditions in society. The proponents of conflict theory think that competitive systems generate and sustain various forms of social stratification (Parker et al., 2019). This demonstrates that competition and inequality are not natural features of the world; instead, they are artificial constructs designed to safeguard the interests of the wealthy. On the other hand, structural functionalists contend that humans do not always act solely out of economic self-interest when they make decisions. Therefore, to alleviate poverty and reduce its impact on students, there is a need for the school to ensure that there are adequate resources to support learning.
Poverty in schools is a significant barrier to education that needs to be overcome to improve teaching and learning. Some schools’ academic outcomes have remained negatively impacted by the prevalence of poverty. Furthermore, some do not receive sufficient help from their parents because their parents spend most of their time searching for various resources. The behavioral learning theory demonstrates that behaviors are learned from their environments and that innate or inherited features have only a limited impact on behavior. This indicates that a social worker and the agency must guarantee that the classroom atmosphere is favorable to learning for all of the children.
References
Brady, D. (2019). Theories of the Causes of Poverty. Annual Review of Sociology, 45, 155-175. Web.
Clark, K. R. (2018). Learning theories: behaviorism. Radiologic technology, 90(2), 172-175. Web.
Murakami, E., & Kearney, W. K. (2019). Principals in high-performing, high poverty, minority-serving schools in Texas. In R. Notman, D. Gurr & E. Murakami (Eds.), Educational leadership, culture, and success in high-need schools, (3-24), Information Age Publishing.
Parke, R. D., Roisman, G. I., & Rose, A. J. (2019). Social development. John Wiley & Sons.
Stallard, P. (2019). Think good, feel good: A cognitive behavioral therapy workbook for children and young people. John Wiley & Sons.
Vondracek, F. W., Lerner, R. M., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2019). Career development: A life-span developmental approach. Routledge.