Suggested Strategies for Coping with Shy or Withdrawn Students
Strategies for coping with shy or withdrawn students include peer involvement, teacher interventions, and other kinds of psychological interventions.
Peer involvement
Several authors have suggested treating shyness and withdrawal through peer involvement (see Rosenberg et al., 1992, for a review). Such efforts might include involving shy students in cross-age tutoring programs, creating opportunities for them to play in pairs with younger children, enlisting peers as confederates to draw out withdrawn children, and involving them in small group, cooperative classroom activities.
Teacher interventions
Brophy (1995) surveyed effective teachers to find out how they responded to shy students. The most commonly mentioned responses included
changing the social environment (e.g., seating them among friendly classmates or assigning them to a partner or small group),
encouraging or shaping increased responsiveness,
minimizing stress or embarrassment,
engaging shy students in special activities, and
involving them in frequent private talks.
Conspicuously absent from these teachers' responses was emphasis on threat or punishment.