Functional Contextual Thinking
And It’s Application for School Mental Health
About This Series
These three modules review the Functional Contextual Thinking (FCT) framework which is designed to help school professionals hypothesize the function of the student’s behavior as part of their regular practice. Specifically, FCT is a user friendly, brief and informal method to problem-solve student internalized and externalized challenging behaviors in order to select effective strategies and supports. FCT helps school professionals respond based on the scientific understanding of behavior rather than pre-existing assumptions leading to better outcomes for students. Each module introduces new content and builds skills in a step by step fashion, along with opportunities for practice and helpful resources.
Throughout the modules, application examples and case scenarios help learners practice the use of the FCT framework. Module 1 reviews common school-related social, emotional, and behavioral challenges our students experience and describes the FCT framework used to understand the root cause of such challenges, focusing on externalizing challenges. Module 2 reviews the FCT framework and focuses on how it can be applied to internalizing challenges. Module 3 presents how to use the Prevent-Teach-Respond approach to select interventions based on the information gained using FCT.
This course uses an audio narrative, along with the use of multimedia. It was written by Dr. Talida State and Dr. Imad Zaheer, two experts in this area. Outside talent was used for the narration.
Introductory Video
Watch this welcome video of Dr. Talida State and Dr. Imad Zaheer, the authors of these modules, first. A transcript of the video is included in this section if needed.
Modules in the Series
Module 1: The Framework and It’s Application for School Mental Health
Module 2: Internalizing Challenges
Module 3: Function Based Strategies