Improving students' behaviour and academic achievement through a counselling intervention programme.

In the cultural context of low achievement in Arab Israeli schools, this work-based study describes and evaluates a successful counselling intervention in one Israeli Arab elementary school. The intervention took place over six months and involved twenty activities. A mixed methods approach was adopted to evaluate the intervention. The use of both qualitative and quantitative methods provided an informative evaluation of the perceptions of students, teachers and parents about the effectiveness of the intervention. Students, parents and teachers reported that from their point of view, student behaviour, student/teacher/parent relationships and learning improved during the intervention. This positive analysis of perceptions was qualified by the possibility that other factors that were not analysed might be influential. The lessons learned from the intervention, such as the need for creating a teacher – parent strategic alliance, renouncing the use of aversive control and the adaptation of teaching styles to student learning styles, may prove to be a transformative approach to the education of Arab Israeli students.