Experienced elementary teachers (N=98) nominated by their principals as either outstanding or average at dealing with problem students described their general strategies for coping with shy/withdrawn students and told how they would handle incidents depicted in two vignettes portraying shyness and withdrawal problems at school. Most of the teachers' intuition- and experience-based responses emphasized bringing shy students along slowly but surely by making them feel comfortable and secure in the classroom, reassuring them of their ability to handle academic challenges, providing special instruction or help if necessary, and applying consistent but gentle and largely indirect pressure for change (in the form of invitations and encouragement rather than demands or direct confrontations). For withdrawn students, the teachers mentioned direct appeals for improved attention; cueing, shaping, environmental engineering, and other support of assistance in sustaining such attention; and attempts to identify and work on the underlying problems that led such students to become withdrawn in the first place. Within these general trends, the higher rated teachers mentioned a greater range of relevant strategies and expressed greater confidence in their ability to respond effectively to shy or withdrawn students than did the lower rated teachers. (Author/JD)