Claire Pass, MA Education, Leadership and Management; Co-Founder and Director, Dragonfly: Impact Education, UK Creating an effective learning environment means paying attention to both the macro-culture – across the whole school – and the micro-culture(s) of the individual classroom (Moore et al., 2017). This article will consider how both the macro- and micro-cultures of the school impact pupils with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the implications of this for the learning environment. It will begin from the standpoint that to be effective, the learning environment must be inclusive and meet the needs of all learners. This is problematic when many of the characteristics of ADHD manifest as behavioural problems, which can hinder the learning of a class (Moore et al., 2017). While positive relationships are central to effectively supporting these pupils, teaching pupils with ADHD is associated with high levels of stress in teachers, which may adversely affect
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As a trainee teacher with ADHD, I even find myself thinking “How would I liked to have been taught?” because I can barely think of a way I could’ve been taught that wouldn’t disrupt a lessons flow or add more work for the teacher. Which is why this article shines a great light on the difficulties of adapting your teaching for ADHD students, what you can do and how ADHD is viewed and works.
I also have to agree that understanding, and even respect for ADHD is poor, I can’t say for many teachers as I haven’t discussed it with them, but as a society in the UK, views are not great. It’s deeply, deeply misunderstood, labelling the students as hyperactive, uncontrollable, unfocused. Yes, they are at times, and even the name “ADHD” is outdated and insulting, we’re not “hyperactive” which is a terrible connotation and is viewed as a very childish way of being. We have energy when we’re enjoying something or deeply enthused about a topic, class or anything and when it shows, most of the time, we end up masking our enthusiasm out of anxiety of being seen and misunderstood for our physical tell of enthusiasm.
I believe sensitivity is best when approaching ADHD students, they are highly passionate, strong-willed people with a deep sense of justice. They could find you telling them to stop calling out, or not picking them when their hand is up (for the 100th time, which isn’t bad, it’s jus their enthusiasm) to be disrespectful, I find, and know it’s because they care, and they need to know you know that, but they have to respect that others need to be involved in classes, getting the knowledge to them sooner than later could potentially help.
To briefly explain how hard it is with ADHD, I cannot choose when I can and can’t focus and when I’m able to hyper-focus. For me, it’s like blipping forward in time, realising I’ve zoned out for a minute. It’s also the poor retaining of memories and verbal instructions and the shame from forgetting something or losing focus. With ADHD comes heaps of shame and self-hate because we’re not tolerated, respected or understood enough for people to go “oh, they struggle with memory, let me make sure I write down instructions for them or that they are writing it down.” or “They might losing focus now and then it isn’t personal, it isn’t an attack on me. They feel worse than I do about this.” Some simple inward thinking can make a big difference. There’s also the fatigue and anxiety built in like extra packages for TV subscription, the constant fatigue from masking or focusing for too long, the anxiety about showing symptoms when you have something important or social to do. And even other general anxiety. It’s not all doom and gloom, but I don’t want people thinking it’s a super power. It’s draining.
Either way, I’m a trainee, I can’t offer much in the way of wisdoms, but I can try and give as much of an insight into ADHD as I can.
Thank you for such a sensitive, intuitive article, I had no idea my Grey matter was different I knew the could have been wired differently, but not have actual changes in the thickness of parts of it. Very interesting.