PATHS Curriculum
The PATHS curriculum addresses the following goals in the area of social and emotional development:
1. Increased self-control, i.e., the ability to stop and think before acting when upset or confronted with a conflict situation. Lessons in this area also teach identification of problem situations through recognition of "upset" feelings.
2. Attributional processes that lead to an appropriate sense of self-responsibility.
3. Increased understanding and use of the vocabulary of logical reasoning andproblem-solving, e.g., "if...then" and "why...because."
4. Increased understanding and use of the vocabulary of emotions and emotional states;e.g., excited, disappointed, confused, guilty, etc. Increased use of verbal mediation.
5. Increased ability to recognize and interpret similarities and differences in the feelings, reactions, and points of view of self and others.
6. Increased recognition and understanding of how one's behavior affects others.
7. Increased knowledge of, and skill in, the steps of social problem-solving: stopping and thinking; identifying problems and feelings; setting goals; generating alternativesolutions; anticipating and evaluating consequences; planning, executing and evaluatinga course of action; trying again if the first solution fails.
8. Increased ability to apply social problem-solving skills to prevent and/or resolve problemsand conflicts in social interactions.
THE PATHS CURRICULUM MODEL
PATHS contains three major units, which will be briefly reviewed here:
Unit 1: The Self-Control Unit (Turtle)
Unit 1 focuses on introducing PATHS and on helping children gain better self control. This Unit is not necessary for all children, but for those who need it, it is often a prerequisite for being able to attend to the remainder of the curriculum. Teachers or staff would use this Unit with children who show significant language and/or cognitive delays or in small classes of children with severe behavior problems. In Unit 1, students learn self-control through the use of the Turtle Technique.
The Turtle Technique (Schneider & Robin, 1978) consists of a series of structured lessons accompanied by a reinforcement program that is individually tailored by each classroom teacher. This technique is unique both because it teaches self-control in interpersonal, rather than in academic/cognitive domains, and because it includes a system for generalization throughout the day. Through a series of lessons, children are told a metaphorical story about a young turtle who has both interpersonal and academic difficulties that arise because s/he does "not stop to think." These problems are manifest in the young turtle's aggressive behaviors (which are related to numerous uncomfortable feelings). With the assistance of a "wise old turtle," the young turtle learns to develop better self-control (which involves going into his/her shell). The script for the Turtle Story is accompanied by 8 drawings which illustrate each section of the story. The original Turtle Technique model has been extensively redesigned within the PATHS Curriculum.
Unit 2: Feelings and Relationships
The second section, Feelings and Relationships, consists of lessons related to emotional and interpersonal understanding. The lessons cover approximately 50 different affective states and are taught in a developmental hierarchy beginning with basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, etc.) and later introducing more complex emotional states (jealousy, guilt, pride). As the ability to label emotional states is a central focus of the ABCD Model, major emphasis is placed on encouraging such labeling as a precursor for effective self-control and optimal problem resolution. Further, the children are also taught cues for the self-recognition of their own feelings and the recognition of emotions in others, affective self-monitoring techniques, training in attributions that link causes and emotions, perspective-taking skills in how and why to consider another's point of view, empathic realization of how one's behavior can affect other people, and information regarding how the behavior of others can affect oneself. These lessons include group discussions, role-playing skits, art activities, stories, and educational games.
An important sub-unit of the Feelings Section is concerned with Anger Management. In this section, affects such as anger and frustration are discussed, differentiations are made between feelings (all feelings are OK to have) and behaviors (some are OK and some are NOT OK), and modeling and role-play are utilized to teach children new ways to recognize and control anger. Another method for helping children to calm down and learn better self-control is also introduced in this sub-unit, which is called the Control Signals Poster (CSP). The CSP is modeled on the notion of a traffic signal and is a revised version of the Stop Light used in the Yale-New Haven Middle School Social Problem Solving Program (Weissberg, Caplan, & Bennetto, 1988).
Unit 3: Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving
The third section of the curriculum teaches interpersonal problem-solving. The skills in the preceding domains are all prerequisites for learning competent interpersonal problem-solving, so lessons on this topic do not begin until the groundwork has been covered by previous instruction. Following the conceptual model developed by D'Zurilla and Goldfried (1971), Shure and Spivak (1978), and Weissberg et al. (1981), this content area has been expanded to sequentially cover the following:
STOP - WHAT IS HAPPENING?
1. Stopping and thinking
2. Problem identification
3. Feeling identification
GET READY - WHAT COULD I DO?
4. Deciding on a goal
5. Generating alternative solutions
6. Evaluating the possible consequences of these solutions
7. Selecting the best solution
8. Planning the best solution
GO! - TRY MY BEST PLAN
9. Trying the formulated plan
EVALUATE - HOW DID I DO?
10. Evaluating the outcome
11. Trying another solution and/or plan, or alternatively reevaluating the goal, if an obstacle results in failure to reach the intended goal
Supplemental Lessons:
Supplementary lessons are also included in the PATHS Curriculum. These include optional lessons such as a sub-unit on teasing, review and extensions lessons that can be used to teach PATHS during subsequent years, and advanced lessons such as a sub-unit on fair/unfair.
Summary
We believe that there are four major factors that we are trying to effect by focusing on self-control, emotional understanding, problem-solving skills, and creative self-expression. First, we teach children to "Stop and Think", a response that facilitates the development and use of verbal thought. Second, we provide children with enriched linguistic experiences which will help mediate understanding of self and others. Third, we teach the children to integrate emotional understanding with cognitive and linguistic skills to analyze and solve problems. Fourth, and very critically, we encourage the development of verbally mediated self-control over behaviors.
The PATHS curriculum provides teachers with a systematic and developmental procedure for reducing adverse factors which can negatively affect a child's adaptive behavior and ability to profit from his/her educational experiences. PATHS is designed to help children (1) develop specific strategies that promote reflective responses and mature thinking skills; (2) become more self-motivated and enthusiastic about learning ; (3) obtain information necessary for social understanding and prosocial behavior; (4) increase their ability to generate creative alternative solutions to problems; and (5) learn to anticipate and evaluate situations, behaviors, and consequences. These skills, in turn, increase the child's access to positive social interactions, thus reducing isolation, and provide opportunities for a greater variety of learning experiences. Increasing self-control and reflective thinking skills also contribute to the amelioration of significant underachievement and promote skills which will be beneficial in preventing the genesis of other types of problem behaviors in the future (e.g., alcohol and drug abuse).
In addition, as PATHS activities become a regular part of the school day, less instructional time is apt to be used for correcting child behavior problems; in this way, classroom climate can be improved and teacher frustration and "burnout" are reduced.