Author: Andre Coleman

Toughest Sport on Dirt

Bull riding is an extreme sport with serious life threatening risks but have little restriction in the safety equipment that is needed to protect these athletes. Hockey, football, and even baseball all have been mandated to wear safety helmet to protect them from injury. For newer extreme sports, like snowboarding and skateboarding, the use of a helmet is rarely debated anymore. “Every time out of the chute, bull riders face danger as real as the horns, hoofs and hard heads of bulls that can weigh a ton or more.”(usatoday) Professional bull riders should meet the same safety gear requirements as any other contact sport. Trying to hold on to the rope and not be tossed like a rag doll on a back of a bull for eight seconds is more dangerous than playing hockey or football, in which these sports require helmets.

When it comes to helmets, this little piece of foam and plastic can save a bull riders life. Just training for this sport can be disastrous The nature of this sport is brutal and is not biased. Any rider can be hurt. Although helmets are fairly new and maybe uncomfortable head and spinal injuries can be prevented with their use. No athlete in any sport can stand repeated concussions. In bull riding there are three major times when head injuries can occur. A bull rider can be jerked tossed forward and slam his head on a bulls horns. If the rider reaches eight second dismounting can be hazardous. They could get their hand tied up in the rope that is around the bull and be stomped while trying to get the rider loose. A rider can be violently thrown in the air and dropped to the hard dirt. It is unpredictable how their head is going to land and absorb the shock of the impact. It is common sense that we use our brain for thinking and day to day body functions, without it we would just be in a vegetative state Since we do all our thinking with our brains and our brains are housed in our heads, we should do everything we can to protect this valuable asset. Wearing a helmet should become mandatory soon. It only makes sense to protect something as delicate and vulnerable as one’s head. “Rodeo, a sport in which the cowboy hat is as much an icon as a bucking bronco, has been reluctant to require its riders to wear helmets.”(Brown) Lee Akin experienced the consequences’ fist hand of not wearing a helmet. “When a bull weighing nearly a ton stepped on Lee Akin’s head one year ago at an Alabama rodeo, doctors didn’t think the four-time PBR finalist would live.” (Godfrey) Another professional bull rider, Jerome Davis, met his fate in the fall of 1997.

He crashed into the bull. Davis was jerked back and hit his head against the animal. He was knocked unconscious and fell to the ground head first. The impact caused a fracture/dislocation of the seventh vertebrae at the base of his neck. The sixth vertebrae exploded and shattered. He was paralyzed from the neck down.( Hollen)

When it comes to injuries…

A study of nearly 2,000 professional rodeo events between 1981 and 2005 found that half of all injuries occurred during bull riding. Knee and shoulder injuries are most common, according to Downey, but “most alarming” are the head injuries. Concussions account for nearly 9 percent of all bull riding injuries, he notes.( Rueters)

Bull riders cannot miss an event even if their injuries are minor but need time to heal. When a bull rider gets injured and cannot compete, he falls down in his rankings, risking his title and income. So knowing that, they continue to compete with concussions and other broken or dislocated body parts. As for the cowboys who do wear a helmet “longevity seems to be a common theme” ( Geupel)

We know the cowboy hat holds great traditions of bull riders. No doubt this symbol is very meaningful to all those who live this life. Before the event ride, after the ride and at all other times, is when the cowboy hat can be worn. Let’s not lose our heads and start our children on the right foot with using a helmet from day one.

Professional Issues: Learning Behavior

Abstract

This essay explores ways in which children can learn to behave appropriately in school, and so in society. The main aim was to critically analyse strategies which schools and individuals (teachers, support staff and children) use to manage behavior and to consider how behavior management might (or might not) lead to children learning generally appropriate behavior. For this purpose, information was gathered through a case-study report and through analysis of materials presented in books, course materials and professional publications.

The results of this study show aspects of value in the many different models of behavior management currently in use. They also reveal several key deficiencies. More importantly, the need for an integrated approach (involving school, home and the wider community) when applying behavioral policy is emphasised; these conclusions were supported by evidence from case-studies and from my own teaching experience.

Reflecting wider concerns in society about the behavior of young people, the DFES has identified behavior management as one of its key policy areas. Each head-teacher is expected to have a system in place which:

Promotes self-discipline and proper regard for authority among students
Encourages good behavior and respect for others
Ensures students’ standard of behavior is acceptable
Regulates students’ conduct

(DFES, 2007)

Such a system, however, is necessarily only “part of the story”. Pupils’ behavior is influenced by a myriad of factors, including their interactions with staff, parents and wider society, their own personalities, their health problems and their learning environment (Fuller et al, 1994). Croll et.al (1985) stated that “the majority of teachers consider ‘home background’ to be the most significant factor in ‘problem behavior”. School policy cannot and does not aim to control all of these factors, rather it aims to provide a framework in which teachers, parents, support staff and students can work to eliminate “problem” behavior and promote positive relationships.

There is great debate in the literature about the methods and final aims of achieving acceptable behavior standards in schools. Initially at least, behavior management is a simple requirement of effective teaching, in that behavior that disrupts the learning process conflicts with the basic aims of the teacher. How far, and how effectively, school discipline affects pupils’ behavior in wider society is unclear – and some researchers have argued that societal discipline is de facto the responsibility of all areas of society, and not just the education system.

This paper critically examines a variety of different behavioral theories and policies, taken from the literature and from my own experience in teaching, and attempts to summarise the evidence supporting and undermining each case. Analysis in each case is based on two main criteria:

Does the policy provide effective behavior control for classroom management?
Does the policy influence extra-curricular behavior?

This work is supported by reference to a case-study and to other relevant classroom experience, and concludes with a summary of the information gained.

Section 1: Behavior in Schools: Theory and Practice

This area of education is extensively referenced in the literature, but there are few summary documents that compare and contrast different approaches. This section provides critical analysis of some current policies and theories, and highlights the general importance of the results of each analysis. For clarity, work is divided in to that which focuses on behavior management, and that which focuses on developing responsibility.

Policies that focus on Behavior Management

-modifying behavior through regulation and discipline.

The Work of B F Skinner (1974, 1976)

The psychologist B F Skinner is credited with creating the first comprehensive theory of educational behavior management, based on the rewarding of positive behavior and the punishment of negative behavior. Skinner based his work on his broader theory that human behavior is determined by “positive reinforcement”, and adopted this idea to account for the more controlled environment of the classroom.

Fundamentally, Skinner’s approach requires a set of clear and agreed classroom rules, and an associated rewards and punishments system. Breaking of a rule is recognised by application of a punishment, and particularly good work is reinforced by a reward. The nature of rewards and punishments varies with school, age group and teacher, but the former can include awarding stickers, merit slips and small prizes and the latter can include the imposition of extra work, detentions and so on. Psychologically, Skinner’s system is a form of ‘operant conditioning’, in which the teacher gives almost constant feedback to students in order to help them modify their behavior step-by-step.

This theory (and derived theories and policies) account for a large proportion of currently operating behavior management systems in schools. Bigge (1976) and others have recorded observations that seem to support the use of Skinner’s system, and in my experience, the rewarding of positive behavior generally encourages subsequent good behavior in the classroom. I observed a classic example of this in a Midland’s secondary school, where a child (B) had difficulty in completing work in his mathematics lessons, and as a result, was frequently disruptive and ill-mannered. The classroom teacher reached an agreement with B that, if he concentrated on his work, asked for assistance when he needed it and did not misbehave, he would be awarded a merit slip for each successful lesson. Because of previous behavioral problems, B had never before been awarded merits, and adopted an enthusiastic approach to managing his behavior in order to achieve this.

It will be noted that in this example, the teacher did not strictly follow Skinner’s formula in that B’s negative behavior was not punished. One problem linked with the negative reinforcement approach is that it can lead pupils to associate negativity with particular classroom situations – especially when misbehavior stems from deeper problems and is not simply malicious. The case study in section 2 provides a clear example of this occurring. The classroom teacher must use their judgement to decide on the appropriate course of action in individual cases.

Particular caution in applying negative feedback is necessary when faced with attention-seeking behavior, where it may feed a child’s desire for attention and therefore be counter-productive. During a recent science lesson, a pupil (C) attempted to interrupt a class discussion that I was leading with irrelevant and attention-seeking remarks. As these remarks were not loud or rude, I decided to simply ignore this behavior, and concentrate on positively reinforcing the cooperative responses of other pupils. Within a very short time, C realised that her behavior was not going to be commented on, and joined in the discussion – allowing me to positively reinforce her contributions. The source material for this paper, “Behavior Management in Primary Classrooms”, comments on the use of ‘planned ignoring’ in primary schools: “This technique works for minimal off-task behavior that is designed to get teacher’s attention, such as rocking, tapping a pencil, annoying hand waving, handling objects, combing hair, etc”.

I believe that positive reinforcement is generally more successful that negative deterrence, as the positive approach rewards a pupil’s own choice to behave, whereas the negative response is often seen as the teacher’s imposition of ‘rules’ on a pupil. This conclusion is reinforced by Wragg (1993), and by “behavior management”, where it is stated “It is important to underline that an over-emphasis on negative behavior destroys constructive atmosphere in the classroom”. That having been said, there are instances where negative reinforcement is necessary: punishment for bullying and direct rudeness and disruption can act as a deterrent to other members of the class, as well as establishing the teacher’s authority. Several authors (Tauber, 1988 and Gunter, 1997) defend the careful use of negative reinforcement, particularly in the case of students with specific learning disabilities.

In terms of classroom management, then, Skinner’s work can be useful and practical if applied intelligently to some situations. But how far does it go towards positively modifying a pupil’s behavior in society?

By encouraging positive behavior (i.e. in response to a prescribed code) and making pupils aware that disobedience will result in punishment, the policy can be said to introduce the idea of community responsibility. Aspects of positive reinforcement can be found in wider society, which strengthens Skinner’s original theory. However, the simplistic system necessitated by classroom needs does not directly compare with anything that children will encounter in wider life: positive actions are not always rewarded, and negative ones sometimes go unpunished. The main problem with adopting this policy is that it makes little or no allowance for pupil input, which makes it seem distant from their everyday lives. The reward and punishment system becomes an integral part of the school routine, but is “left at the school gate” in the same way that uniform rules are not seen as applying outside of the classroom.

b) Developments of Skinner’s work.

Many refinements to the original theory have been suggested in professional literature. Some of the most important are summarised below:

-Butcher (2001) assessed Skinner’s contribution to education, and discussed its integration in to other, more recent work. She states that “some contemporary educators might object to using rewards and punishments to shape behavior”, but asserts that, with the support of teachers who are willing to assess the individual discipline situation, such an approach is still useful.

-Jack (1996) investigated the implementation of a number of different classroom management strategies (including Skinner’s), and found that differences in teachers’ approaches had a defining effect on the success of a strategy.

-Emmer (1980) investigated the importance of the first few weeks of the school year in establishing a positive classroom management stance, and highlighted “the central role of rule setting” in successful teaching: this aspect of Skinner’s theory had not previously been comprehensively reviewed.

-BATPAC (Wheldall et.al, 1985), or the “Behavioral Approach to Teaching Primary Aged Children” is a model developed from Skinner’s work by researchers at Birmingham University.

I have had experience of implementing this scheme, as my LEA (Nottinghamshire) adopted it as a supporting training measure between 2001 and 2004. The guidance leaflet for the course states that BATPAC (and the secondary equivalent, BATSAC) form “a rather behaviorist approach, emphasizing the now-familiar Praise and Reward approach of positive teaching, intended for use by trained tutors only”(NCC, 2004). BATPAC is intended to be a tool for experienced teachers to further their classroom management skills, and not a stand-alone solution. This is probably due to the fact that it does not provide solutions for dealing with anything but mildly bad behavior, although it does provide an updated version of Skinners Behaviorist Approach that makes use of internet an other ICT resources.

-“Building a Better-Behaved School” (Galvin et.al, 1989) is another model that builds on behaviorist beginnings. The authors state that the impact of a good behavior policy “largely comes through being clear, teaching appropriate behavior and giving positive feedback when pupils are behaving appropriately”. It is an extension of Skinner in that it focuses on actually teaching positive behavior, instead of just rewarding it. Galvin’s model is the first that attempts to deal with the pupil’s need to learn about appropriate behavior, and therefore starts to meet the second of the criteria mentioned in this paper’s introduction, “influencing extra-curricula behavior”. However, there is little feedback available as to the reception that this model has received, and further work is necessary before it can be recommended as a positive development.

This small selection of published work is an indicator of the extent and success that Behavior Modification models have met with in recent years. However, there are a number of criticisms that can be made of Skinner’s original work, and therefore of the models derived from it.

The chief criticism is that the behaviorist model assumes that pupils act as “units”; that is, that they will all respond to punishment or praise in the same way. This is obviously not the case, and is an important flaw; hence the earlier comments about teachers needing to adopt the system to meet individual needs.

The problem with this is that individual teachers also vary in how they apply behavior policy, which can lead to inconsistencies within a school environment. There is little else as destructive to a co-ordinated policy as inconsistency, as neither pupils or staff have a firm base mark for determining what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior. During my first year of teaching, I ran a mathematics support class as part of a primary school’s numeracy strategy. After two weeks, I was asked to meet with a class teacher, and on discussing our approaches to behavior management, it transpired that the class teacher insisted on silence during written work, whilst I encouraged on-task talk as a form of peer-led learning. It was obviously unfair to the class in question that the definition of “acceptable behavior” changed between classrooms, but such variation is a simple reality in everyday schooling.

Thus, whilst the work of Skinner and other behaviorists is a useful part of an integrated classroom management strategy, it cannot be considered comprehensive. Because of its limitations, other researchers have developed alternative approaches to behavior policy, with a focus on the broader personal development of the student rather than on responding to behavior ‘as it happens’. The next section discusses some of these alternative approaches.

Policies that focus on Developing Responsibility

-developing a system of behavior through experience and personal growth.

Assertive Management

One of the oldest alternative approaches that developed from the Behavior Management model is the Assertive Management theory advocated by the Canters (1976). Whilst accepting the idea of positive and negative reinforcement as tools for teaching, this theory advocates “teaching pupils to accept the consequences of their actions in a form of rewards and punishments”. In other words, teachers reinforce their use of behavior management by explaining why a particular behavior is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. A school psychology handbook sums up the Canter’s approach as “ based on the findings that effective teachers are assertive teachers who can express their classroom expectations clearly and firmly and take appropriate action should pupils not meet expectations”. (Dosani, 2007).

The major development that assertive management incorporates is the provision of a stated link between a pupil’s behavior and its consequences – a vital step towards encouraging young people to develop a responsible approach to behavior in wider society.

As with previous theories, however, individual teachers will vary in their application of this behavior management tool, which could lead to inconsistencies within a school.

A further development, examined in the next paragraph, attempts to remedy this by proposing an assertive management policy that is school-wide.

Positive Assertive Management

This approach is similar in practice to assertive management, but with the important difference that it involves pupils in the decision-making process: the school behavior policy is discussed, agreed and modified in response to pupil’s ideas.

The benefits of this approach are twofold: firstly, pupils gain a clear understanding of the aims of the school behavior policy by linking rules to reasons. Secondly, and more broadly, Positive Assertive Management imitates wider society’s use of ‘rules’: the people they affect have an input in to their formation and implementation. Tassell (2001) states that, under this system, “Pupils have to learn that when they have freedom to choose what they want to do, they have to accept responsibility for that choice and the ensuing consequences.”

Positive Assertive Management can perhaps best be summed up by stating that, whereas earlier theories taught children how to behave, this theory teaches them why to behave, and thus is more likely to be applicable in their wider lives.

In terms of staff and timetable requirements, this behavior policy is more demanding than alternatives, and it requires a co-ordinated approach on behalf of the school management team. There is also the question of the extent to which pupils should be allowed to influence school policy and discipline: this will obviously vary with the age and maturity of the pupils involved.

This first section has not been an attempt to cover all the many possible models of classroom behavior management in use today. Rather, it has provided an overview of two of the main theoretical approaches, and has investigated developments therein.

The next section looks at the implementation of behavior management policies on a practical level, and again assesses their potential to influence pupils’ wider behavior.

Section 2: Empirical Experience and Evidence

As stated in the introduction, every LEA and each school is expected to maintain a behavior policy, designed to integrate all staff in to a common approach to classroom management. The key aspects of such a policy are:

Decision-making: The head-teacher is ultimately responsible for the policy, and thus will maintain overall control. Heads of subject and the senior management / governing team will also have a prominent role to play. There must also be scope for feedback from staff, pupils and parents.
Rules and Sanctions: These must be defined in advance so that both teachers and pupils know where they stand.
Role delegation: This includes defining the role of teachers and assistants in a learning situation, and also describing the responsibilities of wider staff.

As Rogers (2000) noted: “Effective behavior management is essential to the smooth running of a school and in the creation of an environment where everyone’s rights

and responsibilities are addressed. A balance between fundamental rights and responsibilities is at the heart of behavior management”.

a) Example of a Classroom management policy

In my current school (a large secondary in the Midlands), the head-teacher encourages development and discussion of behavior policy by nominating a different member of the senior management team to lead “classroom management” every year, whilst still maintaining overall control to ensure continuity. New members of staff are given a training session that defines their roles within the policy. Individual classroom teachers are allowed to decide the extent to which teaching assistants and trainees will assist them in this area, and provide a written statement to the head explaining their decision.

On a basic level, behavior in each lesson is monitored by a system of ‘Rewards’ ( R’s) and ‘Consequences’ (C’s). Each student has a diary with a small space for every lesson of the school year. If the lesson has progressed well, they are permitted to write a small ‘R’ in the relevant space. In the case of misbehavior, there is a defined system of consequences, graded for severity, which will be similarly recorded:

C: Recorded in the diary discussed with form teacher later

C1: 5-minute break detention.

C2: 30-minute lunchtime detention

C3: After school detention: parents informed

C4: Withdrawal from lessons, parents informed and invited to school.

Posters detailing the “R’s and C’s” system are prominently displayed in all classrooms.

The school also adopts a “positive reinforcement” system to recognise good behavior, with a school-wide merits system, linked to a reward scheme (e.g. 10 merits in a term = a free school trip).

Although merely a brief introduction, this summary gives an idea of how aspects of many different theories, as well as the ideas of many relevant staff, can be collated in to a school behavior policy.

Example of classroom behavior management

This paper was written with reference to a case-study, involving a Child (A) with behavioral problems.

A shows attention-seeking behavior in the classroom environment, which observation suggests may stem from difficulties with the understanding of written and spoken instructions, and feelings of insecurity owing to these difficulties. The study details the response of the teaching assistant supporting A, who uses a combination of techniques (notably positive reinforcement and planned ignoring) to manage difficult situations.

Of particular interest are the assistant’s comments regarding the general school behavior policy. The negative reinforcement applied by the class teacher in response to A’s behavior is seen as destructive rather than constructive, a conclusion supported by Wragg (1993)

The failure of communication within the school and between the school and parents is also recognised; child A’s behavior problems are reoccurring because of a lack of parental support: in such a situation, school policy does not modify behavior, merely punishes it. The case study is a useful illustration of the point that a management system can achieve no long-term changes in pupil behavior without the support of other staff and parents. The writer concludes that “The majority [of parents in this school] show little responsibility towards developing good behavior and positive attitudes in their children, making the effective management of behavior extremely difficult”.

Summary

It is unlikely that there will ever be a “universal” school behavior management policy, owing to the vast differences that individuals (both staff and students) bring to the system. However, some degree of common theoretical underpinning is necessary in a nationalised education system, and the work of behaviorists and other classroom management researchers provides a number of potentially useful tools for school policy-makers.

The work of Skinner, and of subsequent researchers, has provided useful background information pertinent to classroom management, but practical experience and training are a necessary part of successfully implementing any policy or model.

Conclusions

Given the brevity of this study, any conclusions reached can not be said to be conclusive, rather they are indicative of broad trends. From the research carried out during this paper’s completion, it can be concluded that:

Behavior management is an integrated process, and must involve input from all relevant groups if it is to be successful.
The extent to which schools can influence the wider behavior of their pupils depends on the degree of internal management consistency, the level of pupil involvement and the cooperation of parents.
Theoretical behavior models require intelligent adaptation by practitioners to ensure that behavior management policies produce the best possible results for all concerned.

Fundamentally, successful behavior management relies on the recognition that pupils are individuals, and must be treated as such. It is the responsibility of the classroom teacher and their support staff to intelligently apply their schools’ behavior policy to the benefit of all in their learning environment.

“More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given” – Bertrand Russell.

Bibliography

Bigge, M (1976): “Learning theories for teachers”. Harper & Row. Chapters 1 and 2.

Blandford, S (1998 ): “Managing Discipline in Schools” Routledge Falmer, Chapter 8.

Butcher, K (2001): “Exploring the foundations of middle-school classroom management”. Childhood Education, 78 (2), 84 – 90.

Canter and Canter (1976): “Assertive Discipline”. Canter & Associates (Publisher), 2001.

Cohen, J [et.al] (1993): “Handbook of School-Based Interventions: Resolving Student Problems and Promoting Healthy Educational Environments”. Jossey Bass Wiley, Page 3.

Croll, P [et.al] (1985): “One in Five: The Assessment and Incidence of Special Educational Needs”.

DFES (2007): “Behavior and Discipline in Schools”. Retrieved on 10/07/07 from: www.parentscentre.gov.uk/behaviouranddiscipline/behaviouranddisciplineinschool

Dosani, S (2007): “Managing a Challenging Class”. Buckinghamshire Schools Educational Psychology Service, Vol 5, Page 1.

Emmer, E (1980):“Effective Classroom Management at the Beginning of the School Year”. 80 (5), 219 – 231.

Fuller, B [et.al] (1994): “Raising School Effects whilst ignoring culture?”. Review of Educational Research, 64 (1), 119 – 157.

Galvin, P [et.al] (1990): “Building a Better-Behaved School”.

Logman.

Gunter, P (1997): “Negative Reinforcement in Classrooms”. Teacher Education and Special Education, 20 (3), 249 – 264.

Jack, S (1996): “An analysis of the relationship of teachers’ reported use of classroom management strategies on types of classroom interactions”. Journal of Behavioral Education, 6 (1), 67 – 87.

NCC Course Handout (2004): “Nottinghamshire Behavior Support Plan, 2001 – 2004”. Appendix A-2.

Rathvon, N (2003):“Effective School Interventions: Strategies for Enhancing Academic Achievement and Social Competence”. Brunner-Routledge.

Rockwell, S (2006):“You can’t make me! From Chaos to Cooperation in the Elementary Classroom”. Sage Publications, Chapter 1.

Skinner, B (1974): “About Behaviorism”. Random House.

Tassell, 2001 “Classroom Management”. Retrieved on 10/07/07 from: http://www.brains.org/classroom_management.htm

Tauber, R (1988): “Overcoming Misunderstanding about the Concept of Negative Reinforcement.”. Teaching of Psychology, 15 (3), 152 – 3.

Wheldall, K [et.al] (1985): “The Behavioral approach to teaching package (BATPACK)”. Positive Products.

Wolfgang, C (2001):“Solving discipline and classroom management problems”. John Wiley & Sons.

Wragg, E (1993): “Primary Teaching Skills”. Pages 18 – 37 and 58 – 88. Routledge.

In this assignment, I will be examining the ways that teachers manage the behaviour of their classes in a manner that encourages motivation. I will look at how difficulties in class are dealt with by observing lessons in low attaining sets. By observing lessons in low attaining sets I hope to see a range of different difficulties being dealt with such as the levels of confidence, resilience of the students and what techniques teachers use to engage their pupils which I may not find as easy to observe in the higher attaining sets. As well as this, by limiting myself to observing similarly attaining sets I hope to be able to compare the lesson observations more easily.

I will be reviewing existing literature around this topic before observing several lessons to find out whether my findings are congruent with the existing literature or not and attempt to draw conclusions from what I find that might benefit my own practice.

In my literature review I will look at the areas of motivation and behaviour management separately before drawing the ideas together with the use of pertinent sources to apply to low attaining sets and the ways in which a teacher might best motivate and encourage their class to learn. Then, using an existing observation form focusing on classroom management I will make notes on both teacher and student actions, dispositions and other classroom events.

Behaviour management
Teacher Strategies

Methods of managing classroom behaviour has been moving away from punitive in recent years and more towards positive behavioural strategies (Mitchell & Bradshaw, 2013). Mitchell and Bradshaw (2013) found that the positive reinforcement from the teacher fostered a constructive and supportive classroom environment for the students which Oxley (2015) adds to when she talks about building relationships between students and staff which she posits is highly important to have in regards to behaviour management with more challenging students.

Whilst Department for Education. (2016) advises that it is within the rights of a teacher to impose sanctions on students for misbehaving in school, Oxley (2015) suggests that the most effective strategies are those that include the student in decisions made about behaviour management as opposed to a decision imposed purely by the teacher on the student. Oxley (2015) believes that subsequent punishments may in fact cause more problems than they solve leading to a never-ending cycle of misbehaving and punishment. Oxley (2015) argues that sanctions are a form of extrinsic motivation to change student behaviour yet it is intrinsic motivation which is far more likely to lead to long term benefit which is a point that Murayama, Pekrun & Lichtenfield (2013) also agree with, going on to saying that while extrinsic motivation, which could be sanctions or rewards for the students, may have an initial impact but it is intrinsic motivation that leads to long term benefit. Along a similar vein, Reeve et al. (2004) found that extrinsic incentives may essentially circumvent students’ inner motives, potentially acting detrimentally to existing intrinsic motivation, when coupled with pressuring language.

Setting

Hallum and Ireson (2007) found in their study of teachers’ opinions that there was strong agreement with the idea that setting groups made behaviour management easier. Furthermore, when compared with another strong agreement with the opinion that a different approach is necessary when teaching the less able pupils compared to the more able. Some potential reasons for this could be that the level that these lessons are being pitched at is suitable to more students in turn keeping them engaged. According to Reeve et al. (2004) engagement is a predictor of achievement which also matches with the results of a study run on 15-year-old students using eye tracking software (Sajka & Rosiek, 2015). An argument that they put forward was that part of the reason that the lower attaining students scored lower was due to them not being engaged with the work, based on their eye positions and movements throughout.

All together this implies that there could be difficulty with engaging the whole class of students in a mixed ability group which, as stated by Hallum and Ireson (2007), heavily relies on teacher skill in order to be a successful lesson. It is also worth being aware that in the study run by Hallum and Ireson (2007) it was teacher responses that were tallied and as such is entirely self-reported opinion based which means that it may not be the most reliable source or appropriate to use beyond inferring teacher opinions.

Lower attaining groups

Some teachers report that behaviour for engagement can be more of an issue in low attaining groups (Hallam & Ireson, 2005). By looking at the findings of Reeve et al. (2004) which states that student engagement is directly relatable to consequent achievement. Seifert (2004) discusses the self-worth theory of achievement which states that some students may be attempting to protect their own self-worth and suggests that some students may be failure avoidant which can inhibit the willingness to attempt work and can result in negative statements about themselves as well as less sophisticated strategy usage (Dweck, 1986).

The statistical analysis performed by Sund (2009) on a group of more than 80000 Swedish high school students found that lower attaining students performed better when placed with higher achieving students whereas the higher achieving students were observed to have had no significant difference.

Motivation in the classroom

Murayama et al. (2013) defines motivation as a process which instigates and sustains a goal directed activity. Murayama et al. (2013) goes on to conclude that motivation is key when looking at pupils’ academic growth.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Reeve et al. (2004) performed a study where teachers were encouraged to try to support student independence in learning as a method to building motivation. Extrinsic motivation was to be minimised and instead the students were encouraged to seek out the answer more independently relying on more intrinsic motivation which led to more engagement by the students. Seifert (2004) believes that students who are efficacious – such as they were being encouraged to be in the study by Reeve et al. (2004) – are more likely to have positive attributes such as being strategic, self-regulating as well as being more metacognitive which he argues may increase confidence in their own work. Additionally, Seifert (2004) when referencing Dweck (1986) mentions that some students who are not displaying self-efficacy may display failure avoidance which can act to sap motivation to try and is indicative of low levels of resilience.

The effect of confidence on motivation

Dweck (1986) found that the level of student expectation of good future results and attainment were not always correlated. This means that just because a student is confident it does not mean that they will necessarily achieve higher results in fact when directly comparing high and low confidence students Dweck found that the lower confidence students performed better than the high confidence ones. In opposition to this, Sheldrake, Mujtaba and Reiss (2015) posit that overconfidence may still be a positive trait as this may indicate a greater level of resilience in students. Sheldrake et al. (2015) go on to explain that in their findings the level of student confidence was significantly associated with student GCSE maths grades as well as how likely they were to take Mathematics at A level.

In a test on motivation using eye tracking equipment, Sajka and Rosiek (2015) found that those who underperformed versus those classed as “gifted” (Sajka & Rosiek, 2015) spent significantly less time looking at the questions which they took as meaning that the underperforming students were less motivated which could mean that some may have been less confident and were acting in a failure avoidance fashion.

Observed motivation across subsections

Several obvious factors exist that can affect levels of motivation from one group to another. Oyserman (2013) informs us that in their studies they found that for some students from lower income backgrounds education can be affected by identity based motivation. Oyserman (2013) goes on to explain this as students from low income backgrounds can stereotype their own academic ability based on the achievements of others in their peer groups which may lead to a situation where succeeding at school is not congruent with the self-identities that they are forming as they go through adolescence, looking at their future adult selves (Oyserman, 2013). Elmore and Oyserman (2012) discusses when activities feel identity congruent. They argue that when an activity feels identity congruent to a student then any difficulties engaging in the task lead to said task appearing more important making any effort invested valuable, the task is not pointless or impossible. This was demonstrated in studies run by Destin and Oyserman (2010) on secondary students, of whom all participants were aged between 11 and 13, when they found that students with aspirations for future careers that were education dependent as opposed to education independent put more effort into their schoolwork which overall resulted in better results for them.

In a different study that aimed to affect the identity based motivation of a group of 12-13-year-old girls and boys Elmore and Oyserman (2012) showed boys’ and girls’ graphs showing graduation success for either their own gender or no gender identified at all. This study resulted in the students expressing more academic goals which Elmore and Oyserman (2012) postulate is down to a more school focused self-identity which, if correct and representative, shows the malleability of pupils’ self-identity at this age. This showed the students displaying some identity congruence (Elmore & Oyserman, 2012). Despite this the study conducted by Sheldrake et al. (2015) showed that in general girls had less confidence than their male counterparts which was not displayed in results at GCSE or A Level.

Conclusions

I believe that the main point to take from this literature review is that the link between behaviour management and motivation is all about engagement. That through positive reinforcement for decent behaviour, developing positive relationships with the students in the class and encouraging student autonomy in lessons to encourage intrinsic motivation as methods of behaviour management the teacher is well on their way to establishing engagement and motivation from their class. Moreover, having a motivated and engaged class leads to better results in the long run.

As well as this, low levels of motivation and engagement can lead to behaviour issues. Identity based motivation can be very detrimental to students in lower attaining sets and perhaps is the reason why, when placed with higher attaining students, the lower attaining performs better. The presence of higher attaining students in that set and thus presence in that peer group may alter the lower attaining students’ self-view. Alternatively, it could also be very beneficial when looking to progress students and help them to become more aspirational. When students do not see a good reason to do the work then it can seem pointless which can demotivate them which is why it is so important to frame work in a way that lets them see that time spent attempting the work is time is productive and beneficial to them and will be so for them again later in life.

While extrinsic motivation does have a place in the classroom it is most effective when used positively, for instance in praise and to boost student confidence. When it comes to confidence it seems that higher confidence is a positive trait as it can imply greater resilience in students but at the same time does not always indicate that a student is attaining higher.

Introduction

The observations that I will be assessing and comparing to the literature review took place in a Hampshire 11-16 mixed comprehensive school. It has a lower than National average number of pupil premium students but a higher than average number of students from service families, owing to the adjacency of an RAF airbase. The number of maths grades A*-C was 86% (The Robert Mays School, 2015) which is significantly higher than the National average of 63% (The Guardian, 2015). All mathematics classes in this school are setted from the time they arrive.

In this section I will attempt to synthesise and assess these observations along with the findings of the literature review with the aim of improving my practice. Observation One was taken by Teacher A for Class A; Observation Two was taken by Teacher B for Class B and Observation 3 was taken by Teacher C for Class C.

Assessment

The presence of a behaviour policy such that is recommended by the government (Department for Education, 2016) was evident across these observations in details such as classroom organisation in the availability of equipment should students be unprepared as well as the use of both praise and sanctions in all lessons observed.

Since all of the classes that I observed were setted the benefit found by Sund (2009) of having a mix of higher attaining students in the class along with lower attaining students to increase performance of the lower attaining was not possible to observe. However, the teachers may have profited from finding these classes easier to teach as opposed to mixed ability groups (Hallum & Ireson, 2005) potentially allowing them to put more time during lessons into teaching and engaging more students on an individual basis. Hallum and Ireson (2005) also found that in mixed classes a lot of time had to be spent in advance in preparing more differentiated resources meaning that time was potentially being saved both in and out of the classroom. Alternatively, as Hallum and Ireson (2005) took in teacher opinions this may be subject to some level of inaccuracy.

Additionally, while identity based motivation (Destin & Oyserman, 2010) could be beneficial in assessing these classes and would certainly have an impact on motivation in these lessons, without having taken this information before the lessons I observed and using it to inform my observation, it has limited value. It could be argued that a broad overview of the class demographics could be made based on the pupil premium information for the school (The Robert Mays School, 2015) but this may not have been representative of the individual classes that I observed.

In Observation 3 there was a student who volunteered an answer in front of the class. Whereupon he got the answer wrong he began behaving in a negative manner eventually receiving sanctions for his now disruptive behaviour. I think that it is possible that in getting the answer wrong the student’s confidence dropped, demotivating the student leading him to become disengaged with the lesson. When compared with what Sheldrake et al. (2015) says about how a high level of confidence can be indicative of greater resilience, I posit that in this case the opposite was in effect here and it was this student’s low level of resilience that led to his disengagement and ultimately his behaviour.

A point might be made here that the students intrinsic motivation to find the answer had diminished leading to disengagement. The student became continuously more and more disruptive to the lesson whereupon the teacher began to apply extrinsic motivation in the form of sanctions. This concurs with what was posited by Oxley (2015) in that students can end up in negative cycles of punishments and further behaviour issues as well as what Murayama et al. (2013) says about how extrinsic motivation can be short lived which again was what was observed in the lesson. The use of sanctions in this case did not result in the student re-engaging for any length of time before becoming disruptive again. Although, it could have been that the student was being influenced by other stimuli that I was not aware of.

What Reeve et al. (2004) states about how engagement leads to more positive behaviour can be seen by comparing Observations 1 and 2 to Observation 3 where the two former lessons had greater engagement throughout resulting in the better behaviour of these classes. One way in which they were different to the third observed lesson was in the questioning. Both teachers A and B would engage with students through questioning more, expecting longer answers and staying with the students when they were incorrect whereas Teacher C would move on to another student when an incorrect answer was given which I have previously postulated was linked to the disengagement of that student.

In viewing each class only once, judging the level of intrinsic motivation in the students was difficult to quantify. But, from the questioning displayed by teachers A and B in their lessons it seems that the phrasing they used was encouraging students to think about the problems and the solutions as opposed to being told how to find it.

The engagement of classes A and B was certainly higher than in Class C which I believe is partly down to the transitions. Class C had a more continuous task through the whole lesson allowing a more leisurely pace whereas in Class B the teacher had very quick transitions keeping momentum and maintaining engagement. This higher pace of work could have been keeping students engaged by giving them a feeling of progression through the lesson which Sheldrake et al. (2015) says can be the case but adds that it requires teachers to know the current attainment of their classes well. That being said Sheldrake et al. (2015) also sees benefit in a slower pace of lesson like the lesson taken by Teacher C stating that it is more of a mastery approach.

Oxley (2015) relates that choice and autonomy are key in building motivation which I believe I observed in Observation 3 when the teacher made the class aware that there was another sheet available. This availability of new work sparked the class into either going up to get more work or going back to the sheet they were already working on. I suggest that a potential explanation for this is that the students were given autonomy over whether to continue on what they were doing or collect the new sheet resulting in them feeling more motivated to continue with the task.

The research suggests that knowing the reason why they are learning something, understanding how it might be a useful skill to have in their future lives is of benefit to many students (Elmore & Oyserman, 2012). This is seen in interactions between Teacher C when a disengaged student who was challenged on not working asked the teacher when they would ever use this in the future to which the teacher responded with a real-world example. This appeared to resonate with the student re-engaging them. I believe that after this was said the topic gained value in the students eyes and as such would be intrinsic motivation guiding this student rather than extrinsic. Yet, it is possible that the student simply saw that the teacher was not backing down to the challenging and so simply opted to continue working to remove himself from the conversation. If this were the case then it would have been extrinsic motivation which Murayama et al. (2013) describes as being the more fickle of the two.

I observed very little self-efficacy being displayed by the students in these observed lessons which may or may not be indicative of the types of lessons that lower attaining sets generally receive. However, further study would be required to find out whether this was representative in any way.

While intrinsic motivation did seem to be more influential over student motivation it was, at times, difficult to differentiate between whether it was intrinsic or extrinsic motivation that was motivating a student’s actions. A different form of study would likely be necessary in order to observe this.

From this assignment, there are several implications that I will take into my own practice. When planning lessons in the future I will strive to allow students more freedom in lessons encouraging their autonomy. By doing this, I hope to increase their engagement in lessons and the learning process as I am now far more aware of the effect low engagement can have on the outcome of a lesson.

As well as this I now have a greater appreciation for how my students need to understand why they are learning something and not see the learning process as pointless. I had previously been unaware of how influential identity based motivation could be on students and can see previous lessons I have taken where some students had stopped seeing learning in that lesson as congruent with what they will need to know.

When it comes to behaviour management I have come to reconsider some of my views. I can see that when a student misbehaves they need to be corrected on that behaviour to progress from it. That it is very easy for the student to enter into a cycle of punishment and reaction that simply will not benefit them and instead need help to correct the behaviour.

References

Department for Education. (2016). Behaviour and discipline in schools: Advice for headteachers and

school staff. Retrieved 25 November, 2016, from

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488034/Behaviour_and_Discipline_in_Schools_-_A_guide_for_headteachers_and_School_Staff.pdf

Destin, M., & Oyserman, D. (2010). Incentivizing education: Seeing schoolwork as an[JH1] investment, not

a chore. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(5), 846-849.

Dweck, C S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41(10), 1040-

1048.

Elmore, K C., & Oyserman, D. (2012). If ‘we’ can succeed, ‘I’ can too: Identity-based motivation and

gender in the classroom. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 37(3), 176-185.

Hallam, S., & Ireson, J. (2005). Secondary school teachers’ pedagogic practices when teaching mixed

and structured ability classes. Research Papers in Education, 20(1), 3-24.

Mitchell, M., & Bradshaw, C. (2009). Examining classroom influences on student perceptions of

school climate: The role of classroom management and exclusionary discipline strategies.

Journal of School Psychology, 51(5), 599-610.

Murayama, K., Pekrun, R., & Lichtenfield, S. (2013). Predicting long-term growth in students’

mathematics achievement: The unique contributions of motivation and cognitive strategies.

Child Development, 84(4), 1475-1490.

Niemi, R., Kumpulainen, K., Lipponen, L., & Hilppo, J. (2015). Pupils’ perspectives on the lived

pedagogy of the classroom. Education 313, 43(6), 681-697.

Oxley, L. (2015). Do schools need lessons in motivation?. The Psychologist, 28(19), 722-723.

Oyserman, D. (2013). Not just any path: Implications of identity-based motivation for disparities in

school outcomes. Economics of Education Review, 33(4), 179-190.

Reeve, J., Jang, H., Carrell, D., Jeon, S., & Barch, J. (2004). Enhancing students’ engagement by

increasing teachers’ autonomy support. Motivation and Emotion, 28(2), 147-170.

Sajka, M., & Rosiek, R. (2015, March). Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the European Society for

Research in Mathematics Education. Solving a problem by different students with different mathematical abilities: A comparative study using eye-tracking, Prague, Czech Republic. Retrieved from https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01288030/document

Seifert, T. (2004). Understanding student motivation. Educational Research, 46(2), 137-149.

Sheldrake, R., Mujtaba, T., & Reiss, M. (2015). Students’ intentions to study non-compulsory

mathematics: the importance of how good you think you are. British Educational Research Journal, 41(3), 462-488.

Sund, K. (2009). Estimating peer effects in Swedish high school using school, teacher, and student

fixed effects. Economics of Education Review, 28(3), 329-336.

The Guardian. (2015). The Guardian. Retrieved 12 December, 2016, from

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/20/gcses-results-2015-english-pass-rate-rises-jump-a-c-grades

The Robert Mays School. (2015). Pupil premium report – September 2015. Retrieved December 12,

2016, from The Robert Mays School, http://www.rmays.org/wp-

content/uploads/2015/10/PupilPremiumReport2015.pdf

Observation 1

Y8Set 4Period 6/616/11/16Class ATeacher A

What happens when…

Your comment(s)

Pupils enter the classroom? What are the established procedures?

Teacher greeting by the door. Students sit and take their book out and attempt starter on the board.

A lesson begins? How does the teacher establish attention?

Calling to attention not raising voice. Several keep talking but are individually called to attention by teacher still not raising voice.

The teacher leads a discussion from the front? How does he/she ensure attention and participation?

Leading discussion from the front. Asking students to explain why on their answers. Some struggling to put thoughts into full sentences.

The teacher gives out instructions?

Asks “I need you to..” when giving instructions.

Pupils carry out a task – how does the teacher ensure that they remain on task?

By asking questions to students every few minutes ensuring they stay on task.

The teacher provides an important explanation – how do they ensure that pupils have listened and understood?

A lot of AfL with whiteboards.

The teacher manage the transitions between different parts of the lessons?

Quickly throwing a new question to the class before asking someone to answer it.

Pupils are asked to work in small groups/pairs? How does the teacher ensure they talk about the work?

Working in silence as were disruptive earlier.

When a pupil doesn’t stay on task?

Asks student “please” first time.

Speaks to student and explains what they should be doing in work and behaviour.

Pupils are asked to write things down when some do not have a pen/book/paper?

Get equipment from neighbour.

A pupil behaves inappropriately?

Class warning. Individual students names on board.

There is an interruption from someone at the door?

Student being moved into this class (x2). Teacher waits for quiet after some laughter.

A pupil doesn’t understand?

Scaffolding, leading questions.

A pupil makes a mistake/answers a question incorrectly?

Talks through it with student until they get it and asked why to ensure understanding.

The lesson ends? How does the teacher ensure an orderly dismissal?

Tidying away before the bell with students collecting MWB and pens.”Not leaving until silence”

(adapted from Richard Johnstone: Communicative Interaction : A Guide for Teachers, CILT, 1989)

Note down examples of:

Teacher using verbal praise and encouragement (note down the actual words)

“Good”

Teacher using positive body language (smiling, leaning forward etc)

Smiling at correct answers when shown on MWB during AfL.

Teacher using tone/volume of voice

Level tone throughout.

Quiet voice when talking one on one.

Teacher moving round the classroom or standing still. When do they do this, what are they doing whilst doing this, is there any purpose to the movement?

Students started arguing loudly across centre table when teacher left room to deal with student from another class. When they came back in they walked into the middle of the argument and went from one to the other calmly asking each to be quiet which was successful. One claimed not to have done anything, teacher said “I haven’t accused you of anything, I’m asking you to be quiet now”.

Teacher giving out tangible rewards e.g. merit points or equivalent

Names in board (positive as well as negative). Far more positive.

Teacher writing positive and encouraging comments in pupils’ exercise books

Observation 2

Y10Set 3Period 5/617/11/16 Class BTeacher B

What happens when aˆ¦

Your comment(s)

Pupils enter the classroom? What are the established procedures?

Greet at door. Individually told to copy down the starter.

A lesson begins? How does the teacher establish attention?

Stood and waited. Class was expecting it so a class routine.

The teacher leads a discussion from the front? How does he/she ensure attention and participation?

Asking questions expecting an answer and engagement in the lesson. Sometimes students wrong, given choice to move on or try again.

The teacher gives out instructions?

Starter and examples. All tasks on board as well as said out loud.

Pupils carry out a task – how does the teacher ensure that they remain on task?

Circulating.

The teacher provides an important explanation – how do they ensure that pupil shave listened and understood?

Asks if students need the help then goes through on whiteboard. Leaves worked answer there.

The teacher manage the transitions between different parts of the lessons?

The means and style by which material is delivered to a learner depends upon a number of factors, not least of which are the traditions of the environment in which they are being presented. The aim of this essay is to explore both behaviourist and humanist approaches to learning and whether there is a place for the latter in a military environment.

The behaviourist approach to learning is traditionally used in both military and school environments: it was the main theory from the 1940s to the 1970s. The ideas that give it its foundation are the experiments that were conducted by Ivan Pavlov; these experiments enabled him to influence the behaviour of dogs with the use of external stimuli – an example of this is salivation at the sound of a bell in anticipation of the arrival of food. This was labelled ‘Classical Conditioning’. It was argued that this sort of conditioning plays a big part in human learning, particularly with regard to physiological functioning (i.e. salivation at the sound of a bell) or emotion (i.e. fears and phobias).

James Watson embraced these ideas and was the first to use the term ‘behaviourism’. He believed that it was vital, in order to understand human behaviour and therefore learning, for one to adopt a scientifically measurable approach. He argued that all human behaviour is governed by conditioned responses and as such can be controlled and modified to suit any given purpose. He even went as far as to say that he could train any child to fulfil any job in society as long as he was healthy, as he believed that “ there is nothing from within to develop” (1928).

Both Watson and Pavlov thought “that the simultaneous occurrence of events is sufficient to bring about learning” and is “ordinarily referred to as the contiguity explanation” (Lefrancois 1994). In other words, the sound of a bell will induce salivation in dogs in anticipation of receiving food, once one is associated with the other; the salivation will occur at the sound of a bell after a while, even if there is no food given to the animal. Thorndike saw this in a different way believing that the effect of the response led learning to occur (termed the Law of Effect). He argued that a learner would repeat responses that brought positive results and that behaviour would be modified through a process of trial and error. This idea is what is known as the reinforcement approach which was further developed by B.F.Skinner. He stated that when reinforcement of any response occurs, it will be repeated and that this can enable control to be gained over people. These reinforcements can either be positive or negative – reward or punishment. He fully explored the relationship between responses and reinforcement and concluded that reinforcement brought about learning. This view is referred to as operant conditioning. Skinner contended that for learning to be effective it needed to be tackled in small stages, it needed to be logical/sequential, it needed to be based on prior knowledge, that the desired behaviour needed to be rewarded regularly in the initial stages and that reinforcement of the required or desired behaviour should happen immediately that it occurs. “…Skinner urges educators to focus on reinforcing student success rather than punishing student failure” and that “…reinforcement for appropriate responses is consistent and immediate, and learned behaviours are maintained by intermittent reinforcement schedules” (Ormrod 2004).

As we can see, there is no place for feelings and individual thoughts in behaviourist theory. It is only concerned with what can be observed and it contends that evidence gathered through experiments indicates that there are a number of principles which can be applied to learning and that if these were adopted, the process would be made easier. They are the Law of Effect, the Law of Contiguity, the Law of Exercise (repeating an action or behaviour) and the Law of Reinforcement.

The problem with this is that behaviourism provides only a very limited and mechanistic or mechanical way of looking at the process of learning, which is far too simple. It takes little to no account of the learner as an individual and assumes that the learner is passive and has no exercise of free will; it does not allow for differences in individuals and it can be manipulative if the provider wishes to use it in this way.

By contrast, humanist thinkers such as Maslow and Rogers asked themselves what is it that makes us human. They approached their studies from a completely different angle and looked upon humanity as innately positive, as opposed to previous ideas which apparently painted life in a very dower and pessimistic manner. Rather than concentrating their studies on those who are suffering form illness, they looked at the behaviour of healthy people –“when you select out for careful study very fine and healthy people…you get a very different view of mankind” (Maslow 1971). The humanist approach encourages people to exercise free will in their lives, allowing them to be individuals in their own right and to highlight everything that is positive about them. This enables any given individual to have the opportunity to achieve their maximum possible potential in whatever they choose to do. They contend that purely scientific methods of studying behaviour are inadequate in assessing any human being (Chapter 6 The Humanistic Approach).

Maslow presented his studies in the form of a ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ which indicates that all humans work towards satisfying or attaining their perceived needs “as a ladder of human achievement that must be climbed” (Trigg 2004). This is laid out in the form of a pyramid with each type of need building from the other while being closely interwoven with each other. At the base is the Physiological type which includes basic needs like air, food, water, shelter and sleep; the next type is Safety or Security which is concerned with stability and a feeling of being protected from harm; this leads on to the type which encompasses Belonging and Love which covers relationships with our family and our peers; the fourth level is that of Esteem which deals with issues of achievement, recognition and respect. Maslow separated these and grouped them together and termed them ‘deficiency needs’ or ‘D-motives’ stressing that a lack of fulfilment in an area will cause a person to act to remedy the problem. He felt that the pyramid was the best way to represent this system as people seemed to challenge themselves to achieve and work their way through the types to achieve their full potential; their motivation was to get better and reach their needs leading onto the next level, similar to the way in which a person who is learning a musical instrument will strive hard to achieve the next grade or a computer gamer will keep trying until he achieves the next level.

The final type of needs are called ‘growth needs’, ‘being needs’ or ‘B-motives’ by Maslow. Once the initial needs described above are met, the need for the development within the individual becomes the prime driving force. This is described as Self Actualisation within the pyramid: subsequent versions of the hierarchy included more complex subdivisions within this type of need which serve to break down the areas of personal achievement into smaller categories. Maslow (1968) describes this growth as “…a rewarding and exciting process…” which continues to increase as the person develops throughout their life.

Rogers holds similar views to Maslow when looking at the concept of self actualisation. He believes that humans are able to push themselves to achieve their full potential and that each and every person is unique in their ideas about themselves. They hold their own image of themselves in their minds in terms of how they see themselves, how much value they perceive themselves as having and how they would like to develop in the future. “Whether one calls it a growth tendency, a drive towards self-actualisation, or a forward-moving directional tendency, it is the mainspring of life… it is the urge to expand, extend, become autonomous, develop, mature…” (Rogers 1961). He believed that every individual has the ability to solve their own problems and that his role as a therapist was one of being some kind of ‘facilitator’ to aid the individuals thought processes and progress towards resolving their issues. Each ‘facilitator’ needs to display honesty, empathy and respect towards those whom he is trying to help. This environment is controlled by the individual who is being helped and Rogers believed that this was the only environment in which genuine learning could take place.

Rogers went on to apply these principles to education. ‘Student centred learning’ enables individuals to take responsibility for their learning; the way that the teacher interacts with their class is crucial in the development of an environment that will encourage learning to take place: “…the facilitation of learning rests upon certain attitudinal qualities which exist in the personal relationship between the facilitator and learner” (Rogers 1969). They need to ensure that there are sufficient resources in place to aid the students, that they themselves are prepared to be a living resource and that they are prepared to act as a learner themselves within the classroom. As an idea, this is an alien concept to many teachers, even today. The idea of not being at the head of the class, dictating the direction that the learning is taking is frightening to a good number of educators. The traditional approach to teaching is being firmly challenged here with members of the profession being asked to look at their methods, critically appraise them and react accordingly. The focus in this environment is the student not the teacher and it is “a system of providing learning which has the student at its heart” (Brandes and Ginnis 1986). Rogers (1984) sums this supportive environment up by commenting that “person centred education is much like my rose garden – it needs a caring environment to sustain its beauty.”

This sort of approach in the classroom can be very effective as long as both the staff and the pupils enter into the process wholeheartedly. There are many different activities that can focus on the student as an individual in order to allow them to develop and grow as individuals and learn from each other. Initially it is important for the group to set out ground rules so that every individual is aware of how the process works and to ensure that all of the group feel comfortable with the approach that is being taken. These ground rules can include things like not interrupting or talking over the top of someone when they are speaking, thus encouraging every individual to have respect for the others. Once the group have agreed to these ground rules, every activity can be approached with individuals having the same expectations of each other. It is important to note that if there are any new arrivals to the group, these need revisiting to ensure that the newcomer also feels a sense of ownership for them.

Group activities where everyone has the opportunity to learn are extremely valuable; examples that I have used are mind mapping (brainstorming), problem solving, open discussion and the circle. The great strength of the circle is that everyone can see and hear everyone else; each person, including the facilitator is on the same level and can physically be regarded as being the same – a listener and a learner. The topic of discussion or the theme that is being addressed can then be opened up to the group; each person has the opportunity to speak if they wish to, with the way that this is organised being decided prior to the circle forming. Sometimes hands up can be used, at other times one person in the group can be placed as a chairperson or even a pencil case or ruler could be passed from the person who is speaking to the next person to speak. This way of organising the group allows each person to feel that they can contribute if they wish to and quieter people can also be involved by the facilitator in order to broaden their horizons. It also encourages students to listen to and take notice of the views of others even if they ultimately reject them as not being for them. It encourages people to be open with each other without fear of being laughed at, shouted down or humiliated because of what they think or say. It does take a while to get used to this system of learning but it has huge benefits for all those who are open to it. It allows the student to appreciate and develop their own views through consideration of others, broadening their outlook in the process. I have heard the expression ‘Oh, I hadn’t thought of it like that’ during circle time on many occasions.

Circle time can also be used to feedback from small group discussions and research that has been undertaken outside the classroom. Role plays are another excellent way of finding out what a small group have understood about a particular topic, through the content of their offering to the rest of the class. Not only does this allow the students to express themselves in their own way but it also encourages different styles of learners to flourish in the classroom and further encourages students to learn from one another.

Clearly the teacher or facilitator needs to be comfortable with this process as it is taking place and retain their authority within the classroom. This is a difficult balance to find and is one which some people find it almost impossible to do. Within the traditional school environment this sort of approach is unheard of due to the seemingly unstructured and undisciplined way of tackling any work. Military establishments may have the same views due to the highly disciplined nature of what the soldiers are trained to do. However, the question remains as to whether this sort of humanistic approach can work in that environment.

It would seem that whether the approach would work would depend upon the nature of what the learner was attempting to learn and where he is attempting to learn it. The military have traditionally relied upon the behaviourist model as it best suits their purpose. The instructors can employ both positive and negative reinforcement to train the soldiers to do what they have to in the field of battle or ‘theatre of war’. Soldiers do not have time to think about how to reload a weapon or whether it is right to fire when they are in the middle of a battle zone. The way that they are taught reflects the arena in which they will have to perform their set tasks; reloading a weapon today is far easier than it was in the days of muskets, but soldiers still have to be disciplined and keep their heads in difficult pressurised situations. Being taught in a mechanised fashion will help them as tasks will become second nature due to the consistent repetition that has taken place on the training ground. My father could still tell me how to strip down, clean, oil and rebuild his weapon in every detail some 20 years after having left the armed forces. This can also be said of manoeuvres that are vital to the survival of a unit of men. They are ‘drummed’ into the minds of the soldiers so that they are become an automatic reaction to a given stimulus. This could ultimately save their lives and the lives of those around them. An example of this is the reaction to a very loud bang in a public house one day while I was enjoying a drink with my two brothers in law, both then in the Army; they had just returned from Northern Ireland when this incident happened. The loud bang went off and I looked around to find them both on the floor tight up against the skirting boards on opposite sides of the room. This was a conditioned response to the loud bang and was as a result of their extensive survival and battle training. Much of military training cannot afford to concern itself with the individual needs of each of the soldiers – it must simplify the learning so that the whole reacts (as far as possible) in a predicable way. In short, when an order is given it is obeyed immediately, without fail.

There would however seem to be a place for the humanistic approach within the modern military environment too. Within the confines of a classroom, when conducting classes which are concerned with basic skills such as literacy, numeracy and IT there may well be an opportunity to utilise this type of learning strategy. Everyone likes their opinion to be taken notice of, to feel that they are contributing and to be listened to. Those who are undertaking officer training are required to problem solve – this can be done using this different approach and will allow the learner to express themselves as they are doing so. Individuals need to be given the opportunity to develop themselves to the best of their ability and this needs to be facilitated in all environments of learning, including the military. There is a place for freedom of expression, in the right place at the right time. It would seem that there would need to be strong leadership in order that these sorts of methods could be introduced and continue to be used in a military environment, as their implementation would involve a change in long held and established practises. There also needs to be an acknowledgement “that traditional training approaches, which place an emphasis on replication or imitative learning, are unsuited to fostering the longer term individual and organisational development outcomes required by a significantly changed operational environment” (Thomas 2006). Catering for the individual strengths and needs of individual soldiers can foster a greater sense of loyalty in them and an even greater motivation to succeed not only for themselves but their fellow men. This is particularly important in this rapidly changing modern technological world.

In the modern military environment, there would seem to be a place for both the traditional behaviourist and the humanist approaches to learning. Given that all those involved understand that certain situations require different methods of teaching to be employed and accept that from the outset, there is no reason why both cannot be employed. All soldiers understand the need to obey orders and that certain tasks will need to be done like an automaton in order for them to be successful in what they do. It is essential that there is also an acknowledgement that there is a place for people to want to achieve the best that they can within their environment as an individual, as well as for the collective. As Rogers (1980) explains “the actualising tendency can be thwarted or warped, but cannot be destroyed without destroying the organism.” It is also important to note that “…with this self-actualisation, individuals can engender life long learning…” (Kiel 1999).

There are many differing ways that people learn and it is up to different organisations to adopt the method or methods that are best suited to bring them success in their field. That does not negate the need however, for all providers to reflect upon and modify their methods to best effect from time to time. The military have hundreds of years to tradition to fall back on, but need to ‘move with the times’ and accept that the humanist approach in certain areas of their educational provision can be of benefit to both individuals and the military as a whole.

Bibliography

Chapter 6 The Humanistic Approach

Brandes, D. & Ginnis, P. 1986 A Guide to Student-Centred Learning Oxford: Basil Blackwood

Lefrancois, G.R. 1994 from Tutor notes Behaviourist Theories of Learning

Maslow, A. 1971 The Farther Reaches of Human Nature New York: Viking

Maslow, A. 1968 Towards a Psychology of Being (2^nd Ed) New York: Van Nostrand-Reinhold

Ormrod, J.E. 2004 Human Learning (4^th Ed) from Tutor notes Behaviourist Theories of Learning

Rogers, C.R.R. 1961 On Becoming a Person Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Rogers, C.R.R. 1969 Freedom to Learn Columbus, Ohio: Charles E Merrill Publishing

Rogers, C.R.R. 1980 A Way of Being Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Watson, J.B. 1928 The Psychological Care of Infant and Child from Tutor notes Behaviourist Theories of Learning

Rogers, C.R.R. 1984 from Frieberg, H.J. 1999 Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming: Lessons Learned Alexandria Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Kiel, J.M. 1999 Reshaping Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to Reflect Todays Educational and Managerial Philosophies Journal of Instructional Psychology, Vol. 26

Thomas, K 2006 Leadership Development in the Military: Bridging Theory and Practice International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 6(2-4)

Trigg, A.B. 2004 Deriving the Engel Curve: Pierre Bordieu and the Social Critique of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Review of Social Economy, Vol.62

Behaviour Children Mainstream

Exploring Difference and Diversity

As a Teacher of Additional Support Needs in a secondary school in North East Scotland I intend to investigate Difference and Diversity and the move from Special Educational Needs to Additional Support Needs and Inclusion. How it affects my own practice and that of my school.

Having been a mainstream secondary school teacher for 14 years before becoming an Additional Support Needs teacher, I have learnt from experience and listening to colleagues, that behaviour seems to play a major part in the inclusive classroom. Colleagues have commented in the past that they don’t mind those children with ‘Special Needs’, it is those with behavioural difficulties which cause the problems. This train of thought is corroborated by Paul Croll and Moses (2000). They interviewed Head Teachers from both Special Schools and Mainstream, and LEA Officers.

‘The view that children whose behaviour challenged the mainstream should be in separate provision was a widespread one:

“We cannot cope with EBD [emotional and behavioural difficulties] children in the mainstream.” (Primary Head)

“I am very committed to integration in principle, but it is very difficult to have disturbed children in mainstream schools.” (Primary Head)

“Some emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children make too great demands on staff. It’s not fair on other children.” (Primary Head) (Croll and Moses 2000, p6)

Also, cited by J Allan (1999, p10), Armstrong and Galloway have noted a tendency of teachers to reconstruct children with emotional or behavioural difficulties as ‘disturbed’ (1994:179), with the implication that these are outside the responsibilities of mainstream classroom teachers.

It is for this reason I intend to look at the behaviour of a small group of first year pupils in my classroom, and try to put into place some strategies to help reduce the frequency of unwanted behaviours, which hopefully, will go some way in promoting inclusion within my classroom practice and thus enabling them to access more mainstream classes in the future.

The unwanted behaviour could stem from a number of factors including their home life, environmental influences, peer pressure, personality, self confidence and self esteem, to name but a few; which will be discussed later.

When considering difference and diversity, many people think of stereotypes, such as, cultural diversity, gender differences etc. The problem with a stereotype however, is that no one individual conforms to it exactly, and yet, in the educational institute it is individuals that we are dealing with therefore, we place the emphasis on exploration of individual differences, and not stereotypes.

Do these differences really mean that some children and young people are uneducable and have to be segregated and placed in special schools? Previous trains of thought were that those with ‘special needs’ would be better off in special schools. By placing them in such institutes, the education of the rest would not be hindered.

According to Thomas and Loxley (2007) one of the first Special Schools in the UK was The School of Instruction for the Blind, in Liverpool 1791, also mentioned in The Warnock Report (p8). During the Nineteenth Century Special Schools were established for the blind, deaf and dumb children. During the 20^th Century Special Schools grew in number until they catered for around 2% of the school population.

In the early part of the century people with learning difficulties were referred to as feebleminded, imbeciles and idiots.

Many of the special schools were started by voluntary organizations for pupils with specific disabilities. They were seen as more helpful and less intimidating to students with disabilities.

‘The term special educational needs began to come into use in the late 1960s as a result of increasing dissatisfaction with the terminology used in the Handicapped Pupils and School Health Service Regulations (1945), which classified handicapped children into ten categories according to their main handicap. There was, moreover, an increasing awareness of the frequency of learning and other difficulties affecting children’s progress and adjustment in ordinary schools’. (Ronald Gulliford, (Ed) 1992 p1)

Before the Warnock Report it was commonly believed that special educational needs stressed that the deficits were from within the child. This came from a medical or psychological point of view which implied that the individual was in some way ‘in deficit’. The requirement for special educational provision was related to the concept of disability of mind or body. The 1944 Education Act defined 11 forms of disability but did not include groups of children who were considered to be uneducable due to the extent of their handicap. Disabilities were described in medical terms except for educational sub-normality and maladjustment which were more difficult to clarify, suggesting that there was a cut-off point between normal and abnormal. In 1970 legislation was introduced which stated that local education authorities had to make special educational provision for all types of disability, but this did not specify whether it should be in separate schools or classes. This resulted in special education being considered as that which only took place in special schools. (Sally Beveridge 1999)

The Warnock committee was set up to review the provision for children with mental and physical disabilities and produced the report in 1978. It promoted a wide range of special needs, rather than discrete categories and helped to form the basis of the 1981 Education Act’s policies on special educational needs (SEN), which introduced a different approach to the definition of children with SEN:

‘A child will have a special educational need if s/he has a learning difficulty requiring special educational provision. The ‘learning difficulty’ includes not only physical and mental disabilities, but also any kind of learning difficulty experienced by a child, provided that it is significantly greater than that of the majority of children of the same age’. (1981 Education Act, p1)

The Act stated that the education of children with SEN should be carried out in ordinary schools where possible. The Act emphasized an approach that is in favour of inclusion and integration, rather than separation and isolation. This approach recommended that children with special needs should be treated as individuals, and that the child should have a learning support teacher with them in the classroom, rather than being taken out of the class.

Since the Warnock report and the 1981 Education Act, legislation has been gradually catching up with the recommendations.

The most recent legislation is The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, in which the term ‘Special Educational Needs’ has been replaced with ‘Additional Support for Learning’.

The Act states that ‘A child or young person has additional support needs for whatever reason, the child or young person is, or is likely to be, unable without the provision of additional support to benefit from school education provided or to be provided for the child or young person. In relation to a prescribed pre-school child, a child of school age or a young person receiving school education, provision which is additional to, or otherwise different from, the educational provision made generally for children or, as the case may be, young persons of the same age in schools (other than special schools) under the management of the education authority for the area to which the child or young person belongs.’ (Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, p1)

This definition seems to be similar as in the 1981 Education Act previously mentioned, although the Education (Scotland) Act 1981 did not mention that the ‘learning difficulty’ included physical and mental disabilities, as did the Act in England.

Does this mean there are no real changes in policy? Is everything exactly the same as before but with a different name?

The Additional Support for Learning Act introduced a new framework for supporting children and young people. The Education (Scotland) Act 1981 required education authorities to make a generalprovision in their areas to meet such needs. The 2004 Act requires education authorities to make adequate and well-organized provision for additional support as is required by the child or young person with additional support needs’.

This goes further than making a general provision, such as special schools. The education authority has a duty to provide the necessary additional support to every individual child or young person who needs it to benefit from education. It also has to identify children and young people with additional support needs and to review their continuing needs and the sufficiency of steps taken to meet them. Staff and resources from within the particular schools attended by these children or young people have a role in enabling an education authority to fulfill these duties, as do staff and resources from its own services and from other agencies. (Focusing on Inclusion, p7)

Children may need additional support for a wide variety of reasons. A child’s education could be affected by issues resulting from:

learning environment
inflexible curricular arrangements
inappropriate approaches to learning and teaching
more able children
children with English as an additional language
family circumstances
homelessness
parental drug or alcohol misuse
children who are parents
children who are carers
children looked after by the local authority
disability or health need
motor or sensory impairment
specific language impairment
autistic spectrum disorder
learning difficulties
ADHD
depression or other mental health problems
social and emotional factors
children who are being bullied
children who are suffering racial discrimination
children who are bullying
children with behavioural difficulties (Govan Law Centre, internet source)

This is far from being a complete list and does not mean that every child fitting one of the above categories necessarily has additional support needs. This will depend on the amount and type of support required by the individual child.

There are many more factors that are now considered under The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 compared with the previous Act. Children with English as an additional language are now included whereas previously they were not, they were not viewed as having special needs, but they are now recognized as needing support to access the curriculum.

Also, parents now have the right to:

Ask their child’s education authority to find out whether your child has additional support needs.
Request a specific type of assessment and/or examination for your child when their education authority is proposing to formally identify whether they have additional support needs.
Receive information or advice about a child’s additional support needs. (Enquire 2006)

All local authorities should have policies in place to ensure they are abiding by the act. The authority in which I work has various policies and guidelines in place, including:

Policies

Access to Education for Pupils with Disabilities/Additional Support Needs Strategy 2005-08
Race Equality Policy and Strategy 2005-08
Sensory Support Service Quality Assurance Policy
Additional Support Needs Policy Framework.

Policies – Under Development

Disability Equality Scheme

Guidelines

Guidance on the Education of Looked After Children and Young People
Improving Access to the School Environment & to Communication for Parents and Visitors.
How good is our Educational Psychology Service – Draft Snapshot.
Improving Physical Access to Education.
Riding for Pupils with Additional Support Needs.
Safety and Good Practice on Education Excursions.
Supporting Pupil’s access to the curriculum using ICT (ASPECTS).
Swimming for Pupils with Additional Support Needs.

Guidelines – Under Development

Autism Support.
English as an Additional Language.
Integrated Assessment Framework – Draft Operational Guidelines
Motor Coordination Difficulties.
Sensory Support Service Guidelines.

The Additional Support Needs Policy Framework was produced in January 2007 as 6

Pathways to Policy booklets and the principles behind the policy are printed in each booklet:

‘The Additional Support Needs Policy Framework and the Pathways to Policy Pack for Supporting Children’s and Young People’s learning ensure that all children and young people are provided with the necessary support to help them work towards achieving their full potential with respect to their personality, talents and mental and physical abilities. It promotes collaborative working among all those supporting children and young people’.

In September 2005 HM Inspectorate of Education was asked by Scottish Ministers to monitor and evaluate the consistency, effectiveness and efficiency of education authorities in implementing the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and to ensure that procedures for implementation were in line with the duties of the Act 2004 and the associated Code of Practice.

In 2007 HMIE produced the Report on the implementation of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.

The report states that most authorities were effective in ensuring that their procedures for implementing the Act were in line with the duties of the Act and the associated Code of Practice. The most effective had built on existing good practice and developed joint strategic approaches with other agencies to meet the needs of children and young people with additional support needs. However, authorities varied in their effectiveness in implementing the key requirements of the Act. (HMIE 2007)

The report provided guidelines for improvement and was made available to schools in February 2008, to enable them to evaluate their implementation and effectiveness of current legislation; the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and Inclusion.

Following this report some schools including the school, in which I work, are holding CPD sessions for staff on the implementation of the Act and Inclusion, and ways forward.

Inclusion is not a new phenomenon, it has been recommended in educational legislation since the Warnock Report in 1978. In fact it has been spoke about during the 1960’s,

As cited by Josephine Jenkinson, Dunn’s (1968) argument against segregated special education and in favour of integration was that advances in the development of individualized, self-paced curricula in regular education would allow students with disabilities to be accommodated in the regular class, if they were provided with a programme designed by a specialist teacher to meet their needs and in which they could progress at their own pace. Integration could be made possible by radical departures in school organization, involving a greater emphasis on team teaching, ungraded classes and flexible groupings. (Jenkinson, 1996. p 15-16)

This implies that there should be a change in the curriculum and how it is delivered, to meet the needs of all pupils, and that specialist teachers should be working with classroom teachers to plan and deliver the curriculum.

Historically “integration” was the term used in the 1980s, but this came to be seen as placing disabled children in a mainstream setting, without providing the support they required and allowing them to be there as long as they were able to fit into the existing systems and cultures. It is now acknowledged that the inclusion of disabled, and children with additional needs, involves going much further, and changing the policies, practices and attitudes within the school.

The Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education provides the following definitions of inclusion in education, from the Index for Inclusion in education (Booth and Ainscow 2002), also cited by Thomas and Vaughan 2004 (p183):

Valuing all students and staff equally.
Increasing the participation of students in, and reducing their exclusion from, the cultures, curricula and communities of local schools.
Restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in schools so that they respond to the diversity of students in the locality.
Reducing barriers to learning and participation for all students, not only those with impairments or those who are categorized as `having special educational needs’.
Learning from attempts to overcome barriers to the access and participation of particular students to make changes for the benefit of students more widely.
Viewing the difference between students as resources to support learning, rather than as problems to be overcome.
Acknowledging the right of students to an education in their locality.
Improving schools for staff as well as for students.
Emphasizing the role of schools in building community and developing values, as well as in increasing achievement.
Fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools and communities.
Recognizing that inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society. (Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, internet source)

Why do we need inclusion?

Whatever their disability or learning difficulty children have a part to play in society after school. An early start in mainstream playgroups or nursery schools, followed by education in ordinary schools and colleges, is the best preparation for an integrated life. Education is part of, not separate from, the rest of children’s lives. Disabled children can be educated in mainstream schools with appropriate support.

As discussed by Ainscow (1999), Inclusion is a feature of the Salamanca Statement which was agreed by 92 governments and 25 international organizations in 1994.

‘The statement argues that regular schools with an inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all’.( Ainscow 1999, p74)

Cited by Thomas and Vaughan (2007), Rustemier argues that segregated schooling breaches all four principles underpinning the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These principles are:

Non-discrimination (Article 2) – all children should enjoy all rights without discrimination and on the basis of equality of opportunity;
The best interests of the child (Article3);
The right to life, survival and development (Article 6) – development is meant in its broadest sense, including physical health but also mental, emotional, cognitive, social and cultural, and ‘to the maximum extent possible’; and
The views of the child (Article 12) – children have the right to be heard and to have their views taken seriously in matters affecting them.

Rustemier goes on to argue that inclusion has come to mean almost everything but the elimination of exclusion. And that the current education system excludes and segregates large numbers of children from mainstream education because of learning difficulty, disability, and behaviour, despite claiming to have inclusion as its goal. (Thomas and Vaughan, 2004, p 23-24).

Joe Whittaker discusses, in an article which appeared in the Greater Manchester of Disabled People’s Magazine ‘Coalition’, the damage he believes is inflicted on disabled children and their local communities by a system of special schooling and segregation. He further argues that inclusive education will be prevented from being implemented in any meaningful way whilst this system continues.

‘Over the last 50 years different governments have told us that we are moving towards “integration”, where disabled children and non-disabled children work together in the same school and where everyone has equal opportunities. However, simultaneously the same governments have stated that there will always be a need for some children to go to segregated special schools, and legislation was introduced to ensure this would happen’. (Joe Whittaker 2001: pp. 12-16) [See appendix1]

Despite the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the growing number of people in favour of Inclusive mainstream schools and the closure of Special Schools, Government statistics show that there has been an increase in the number of Independent Special Schools in Scotland over the past few years. The number of publicly funded special schools in individual areas of Scotland has also changed. Some areas such as east Ayrshire show an increase while others show a decrease in the number of special schools. There has been a significant increase in pupils with Additional Support Needs attending both Primary and Secondary mainstream schools. There has also been an increase in the number of pupils with IEP’S attending mainstream secondary schools. [See tables1, 2: appendix 2]

There are many reasons why secondary pupils are deemed to need additional support in school. According to the statistics there are 1,816 pupils with Social, emotional and behavioural difficulty; 1,403 of these being boys and only 413 girls. The statistics show that there are significantly more boys with additional support needs than girls. [See table4, appendix 2]

A Scottish Executive National Statistics Publication gives the following information, along with the statistic tables in appendix 2:

Special schools

There were 34 independent special schools in 2004, compared to 33 schools in 2003, and 32 in 2002.
There were 1,132 pupils in independent special schools in 2004, an increase of eight per cent over 2003.
There were 334 teachers (FTE) in independent special schools in 2004, a 17 per cent increase from 2003. There were 3.4 pupils per teacher in 2004, a decrease from 3.7 in 2003.

Special Educational Needs

There were 1,349 pupils with a Record of Needs and/or an Individualised Educational Programme. This is an increase of 105 (eight per cent) from 2003. The largest categories of main difficulty of learning were social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (22.6 per 1,000 pupils) and specific learning difficulties in language and/or mathematics – including dyslexia (6.7 per 1,000 pupils). (Scottish Executive, Internet Source)

Why is it that there seems to be more boys than girls identified as requiring Additional Needs?

One reason could be that boys are seen as more boisterous than girls, thus reported as having behaviour problems, another reason could be that more assessments of boys have been carried out, compared to girls; resulting in an increase of incidences and prevalence. There is also the general assumption that girls mature more quickly than boys.

Cited in ‘A study of children and young people who present challenging behaviour’ – literature review, Cole et al (1998) (1999) established that there were ten to twelve times more boys than girls in English EBD schools and over three times as many boys as girls in PRUs (Pupil Referral Units). This creates very real difficulties in ensuring that girls have a suitable peer group if they attend a ‘mixed’ EBD school (see also Cruddas and Haddock, 2001). Egelund and Hansen (2000) noted a 5:1 boy:girl ratio in segregated provision in Denmark. In Scotland, Lloyd and O’Regan (1999) report that over 80% of the pupils in specialist provision for SEBD are boys. Fortin and Bigras (1997), note that boys heavily outnumber girls in Canadian literature on EBD. (Ofsted 2005)

This literature review was commissioned by Ofsted as part of a large-scale survey to inform the report ‘Managing challenging behaviour’. Ofsted commissioned the University of Birmingham to carry out this research to inform subsequent fieldwork, and gives the assumption that the Gender imbalance is International, and Social Emotional and Behaviour difficulties is one of the categories that creates the most problems. In November 2002 BBC News Online reported Schools in England were identifying more boys than girls as needing special help with their education.

‘New statistics on the gender of those with special needs reveal for the first time that 64% are boys and 36% girls. The gender gap is even wider in the most severe cases – those with formal “statements” of need: 72% are boys and 28% girls. Experts say the reasons are unclear but that – controversially – a large factor might be teachers’ perceptions of what constitutes problematic behaviour’.

It was also reported that children with special educational needs are being turned away from schools because of fears that they could affect their position in exam league tables. Children with’ special needs’ account for almost nine-tenths of permanent exclusions from primary schools, and six-tenths of those from secondary schools. Almost five times as many boys as girls are excluded from school. This corroborates Rustemier’s argument that the education system excludes large numbers of children, especially those deemed to have ‘special needs’.

The report stated that girls and boys are more or less equally likely to have physical disabilities, but boys are far more likely than girls to have specific learning difficulties, autistic disorders or emotional or behavioural problems.

Medical reasons were discussed, and Richard Byers, an SEN expert in Cambridge University’s faculty of education, was quoted as saying that some forms of special need – notably autism – were diagnosed much more often in boys than in girls. More and more cases of autism were being identified, so more boys were said to have SEN. But there was a bigger, “greyer” aspect to the issue, especially where children in mainstream schools were identified as having social, emotional or behavioural difficulties – again, many more of them boys.

Florid felt that we identify one kind of social, emotional or behavioural difficulty which tends to be in boys more often than girls.” This might be that for all kinds of social and cultural reasons teachers perceived boys to be more problematic than girls. So there was an over-identification of boys with SEN – and probably an under-identification of girls’ needs. The Department for Education was quoted as saying that there appears to be some evidence that professionals, including teachers, are likely to identify boys as having SEN particularly in relation to behaviour.”

The BBC also reported that the editor of The Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, Lani Florian, said the gender gap might be as high as 10 to one in the case of emotional and behavioural problems. People had put forward various theories, to do with genes and hormones, for instance – but none had been conclusive. “It has been said that the classroom is just a friendlier environment for girls – but that’s just a theory too,” Dr Florian said. “We really don’t know.” (Gary Eason, BBC News online 2002)

This report has been discussed by various people on a GTC forum as summarized by Allan Witherington – (efacilitator)

Many of the contributors have offered observations from their own experiences in the classroom that confirm the often described differences in attitude, learning style and attainment between boys and girls. Boys were said to be noisier and to lose interest more quickly, whereas girls were quieter, more reflective and better able to deal with written tasks. No-one contested the fact that the gender gap is real. A persistent theme was the need for teachers to deliver lessons offering a variety of learning experiences to cater for the different learning styles of all those in the class’. This was said to be ‘a tall order’. When discussing the quote from a DfES spokesperson as saying, “There appears to be some evidence that professionals, including teachers, are likely to identify boys as having SEN particularly in relation to behaviour.” The question was asked “are they suggesting that the perceptions of the professionals are incorrect? Are we just missing the special needs of girls because they are less obvious”? There seemed to be no answer to this! (GTC forum, internet source) As well as the gender issue, and it being reported that boys are more likely to be identified with Autism and EBD, according to the previously mentioned statistics table 4 (appendix 2), in 2006 there were 19 reasons for support for secondary pupils with Additional support needs compared with The 1944 Education Act which defined eleven categories of disability.

Perhaps the more recent Government Policies and initiatives have contributed to the increase! With the concept of Inclusion there are now more children and young people identified with additional needs attending mainstream schools whereas in previous years they would have been segregated into special schools, the additional rights of the parents could mean that more parents are requesting assessments for their children if they think there is a problem, resulting in more children needing additional support. There are many other reasons which were not previously recognized as Special Educational Needs such as some family circumstances, bullying etc.

Individual Essay

Like most of my peers, I joined the teaching profession with some preconceived notions, to a certain extent based on observations of my teachers, both good and bad, and partly on my opinion of how things should be like in a perfect world.

Personal Philosophy

Every child having a sense of belonging

As a child, I have good memories of my experience and education in primary school. I studies at an all-girls school where corporal punishment was still used to punish disobedient pupils. I remember that my language teacher who was also the discipline teacher was very strict, but I also remember that I respected her to a great deal and so do most of my peers. I felt that in a way this had formed my initial notion about teaching where teachers are respected and should maintain a level of control in the classroom. However, I am glad that we have progressed from corporal punishment as a way to maintain order in our classrooms. There are many other ways in which the teachers can gain their students’ respect and keep their classrooms orderly. I believe that it is important for me to show genuine care for my pupils through the way I teach and in the time I devote to my pupils. I believe this kind of caring nature is bound to positively affect the pupils. I believe it is also important for me to create a positive atmosphere where pupils are encouraged to discuss questions. Pupils should not be afraid of making mistakes as they are treated as opportunities to explore misconceptions and not reflection of their abilities. School being their second home, it is important that my classroom is a place where it is safe for them to make mistakes, a place where differences are tolerated and compromised on.

Common sense and research tell us that students are more likely to cooperate with teachers whom they see as caring, trustworthy, and respectful (Weinstein, 2006 as cited in Weinstein, Romano, & Mignano, 2011). It is important to develop a supportive and respectful relationship with pupils not only to gain cooperation but also for them to be seriously engaged in learning, to share their thoughts and feelings, to take risks and to develop a sense of social responsibility. Thus, I need organise my classroom in such a way that my pupils will feel safe and cared for emotionally, intellectually and physically. I remembered conducting the ‘Heart-to-heart’ session with my pupils during my contract teaching and I find this very useful in getting to know the pupils better. Also, pupils were tasked to write at least one journal entry every week on something special. These activities has helped me to know my pupils better and are a great stepping stone to improve the teacher-student relationship. Thus, I hope to continue to implement them in my class in the future.

Focus on Students’ Strengths

What really triggers me to join the teaching profession was the weekly tuition session I volunteered for during my university days and continued to this day. Working for a non-profit community organisation gave me the best experience in social interaction and interpersonal skills that I would have not learnt of. I hoped my experiences and encouragement would help them find a clearer path to their interests in life and work, but I found that I learned so much from them about bravery, tolerance and ambition to succeed. It is really heart-warming to know that the boys are grateful for the help and support of volunteers and love to engage in learning and games. This gave me a completely new view of life, communities and education. There’s no doubt that I found great satisfaction in sharing and encouraging the boys but I was surprised by how enlightening and fulfilling the whole experience was. Thus, I believe that it is important for me to develop their full potential by guiding them in their route of discovery. As children are our future, it is crucial for me to allow them to express their opinions and nurture their own ideas. These reasons confirmed my decision that teaching was what I want to do in life.

At times, we need to tap into the life experiences of our pupils to discover what they can do beyond their academic achievements. As a teacher, I used to focus on what my pupils do not know or cannot do, and try to fix the problems. However, after going through the teaching experience and courses in NIE, I learned that responsible teaching also involves searching for strengths. This is important to develop the confidence and self-competency of my pupils (Lim, Thaver, & Slee, 2008). I will need to create opportunities for pupils to succeed while challenging them. I was told that we need to scaffold for pupils to understand the concept better but little did I know that these small successes will also lead to increased pupils’ confidence.

Engaged and Active Learning

During my contract teaching stint, I learnt that each and every individual student in the class had a different background and there is a great diversity in there. Each student had their unique learning style and abilities. Their family backgrounds ranged from lower to the top tier of society. I learnt that different stakeholders, i.e. parents, school, child and teacher, all play a part in nurturing students. The socio-economic class of students affected their abilities and academic success, and different family structures gave different levels of support. All these differences made me understand that when conducting lessons, I cannot expect all students to have the same experiences. Learning is superficial unless the pupils are actively engaged. Therefore, I will need to use different teaching strategies in my class such as questioning, collaborative learning, hands-on activities and experiential learning events that will encourage active and constructive learning.

However, conducting a class that actively engages the pupils require a lot of planning. Therefore, I need to ensure that I am well prepared by not only knowing the content knowledge but also the teaching objectives and strategies. The activities planned will also need to match the concepts, skills and goals of the lesson. When pupils are actively engaged, they focus on what is being taught and better process new information (Lorain, 2010). As pointed out by Tom Good and Jere Brophy (2008), when students must wait with nothing to do, there is a higher probability to result in undesirable behavior and a loss of valuable learning opportunities (Weinstein, Romano, & Mignano, 2011). Through the various courses in NIE, I have learned how to better prepare myself for lesson and designing activities that are able to develop pupils’ relational understanding. This course also discusses various cooperative learning strategies such as think-pair-share, round table, and jigsaw which I could apply in my classroom to promote active learning. Also, to ensure that the group activities are carried out successfully, I need to ensure that there are certain classroom rules and routines to keep the classroom running smoothly.

My Evolution as a Teacher-in-Training

Establishing Productive Learning Environment

One concept taught in this course that struck me most was the model for creating an inclusive learning environment which was adapted from Stice’s problem-solving model. This model helps me to understand and reaffirm some of the teaching practices which I have observed and learned during my teaching internship, relief teaching or contract teaching. The model aims to aid classroom learning environment that are not only academically inclusive but also socially.

Creating a conducive physical environment can influence the way teachers and students feel, think and behave (Weinstein, Romano, & Mignano, 2011).Thus, it is important for me to ensure that the physical furniture in my class are strategically arranged to suit the needs of the pupils. During my contract teaching, my teacher mentor created a reading corner at the back of her class with carpets and cushions for the pupils. I find this arrangement useful in managing the class. Once the pupils have completed the assigned work, they will proceed to the reading corner with a book and read silently. I felt that this has helped to inculcate in the pupils the love for reading. This also helps her manage the class and reduce unnecessary disruption when the pupils have completed their work. Occasionally on a rotationally basis, pupils are given 10 minutes break time where they are allowed to use the educational board games created. This encourages pupils’ self-directed learning as they explore different concepts in a fun and interactive manner. I have also learned that it is important to ensure that the notice boards are up-to-date with information and pupils work. Environment psychologists point out that the effects of the classroom environment can be both direct and indirect (Proshansky & Wolfe, 1974 as cited in Weinstein, Romano, & Mignano, 2011). For example, if pupils seated in straight rows are unable to carry on a class discussion because they can’t hear one another, the environment is directly hindering their participation. Students may also be affected indirectly if they infer from the seating arrangement that the teacher does not really want them to interact. Therefore, I need to be mindful on how my pupils are arranged in the class as it will send a message to them about how they are supposed to behave due to the link between classroom environment and student behaviour.

Through this course, I also learned that it is important to create a sense of belonging for the pupils by providing them opportunities to make decision on how they want the classroom to be such as giving them the responsibility to decorate the class or as simple as putting up pupils work.

Behaviour Management

Another aspect which I find very useful is the various behavior management models which teachers could employ. I understand there is no one size fit all solution to various issues a teacher might face in school and each model has its own pros and cons. It is therefore up to the teachers’ discretion to choose the model that best suit their teaching style and the class profile. Personally, the concept of taking ownership under inner discipline resonates with me. I believe that it is important for students to accept ownership of their problem. Students need to learn that they are capable of taking ownership of their problems regardless of age. As teacher, I must trust that they also are capable of taking full responsibility for the problems their behaviours can create, not because of fear but because it is the right thing to do.

Assertive Discipline is a direct and positive approach to make it possible for the teacher to teach and the students to learn. During my contract teaching, there were times when I felt I was unable to deliver the lesson properly due to poor class control and denied pupils the opportunity to learn. However, after seeking advice from the senior teachers, I made certain changes such as implementing the rewards and punishment system. As a result, I was able to deliver most of the lessons without much interruption. Students should be rewarded for good behaviour and punished fairly for bad behaviour. I think that having a short list of classroom rules posted in the class is beneficial. That way, from day one, they are aware of what is expected from them. However, it is necessary to exercise punishments with cautions to make sure students would not be more rebellious. I have also learned the various teaching style and I would prefer to adopt the democratic teaching style which the teacher provide firm guidance and leadership by establishing rules (Edwards, 2008). Pupils will then be taught how to establish an inner control that permits them to choose behavior compatible with their best interest.

I realized that teaching was indeed a calling. One needed a passion to teach and to make a difference in people’s lives. One had to follow their heart and not their brain to appreciate the true difference made by being a teacher because being a teacher was hard work with many untold roles. One had to be unafraid to admit that mistakes have been committed and constantly reflect on lessons conducted so as to continually improve.

Bibliography

Edwards, C. (2008). Classroom discipline and management (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Lim, L., Thaver, T., & Slee, R. (2008). Exploring Disability in Singapore. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Education (Asia).

Lorain, P. (2010). Teaching That Emphasizes Active Engagement. Retrieved May 1, 2014, from National Education Association: http://www.nea.org/tools/16708.htm

Weinstein, C. S., Romano, M. E., & Mignano, J. A. (2011). Elementary Classroom Management – Lessons from research and practice. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Presentation of the Issue

Banks are not being prepared for their client’s online bank accounts to under come frauds. Not all banks have good security systems and blame their clients with the benefit for thief.

An opportunistic thief who stole ? 14,000 from a woman’s bank account after she failed to log out of a public computer has avoided a jail term.? When the woman complained to the bank, they refused to reimburse her because of her “negligence” in failing to log off.?

The negative impact of this issue shows that, online banking fraud increased 55 percent to ?39 million in the first six months of the year compared to the same period a year ago, said Financial Fraud Action U.K.(FFA).? The main issue consumers have with online banking is security.? The head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has stopped banking online after nearly falling for a phishing attempt.4

Positive impacts of using online banking are; elimination of paper?, cheaper than traditional methods, available 24/7 without the need of going out from home, fast payment for delivery services.

Technology Background of the Issue

E-banking includes the systems that enable financial institution customers, individuals or businesses, to access accounts, transact business, or obtain information on financial products and services through a public or private network, including the Internet.5 Hundreds of financial institutions offer online banking services, making it possible to pay bills, check account balances, and transfer funds using software.6

Customers access e-banking services using an intelligent electronic device, such as a personal computer (PC), personal digital assistant (PDA), automated teller machine (ATM), kiosk, or Touch Tone telephone.5 While the risks and controls are similar for the various e-banking access channels, this booklet focuses specifically on Internet-based services due to the Internet’s widely accessible public network.5 Failing to log off in public places, leads to online banking fraud. Only with the help of the court people can get their money back. The court heard that the woman had used the internet banking computer to transfer ? 1,000 from her account, then left believing she had logged out correctly.?

A widely know online banking fraud is phishing. In phishing scams, criminals send spam e-mails to their victims, hoping to track them into entering sensitive information such as usernames and passwords at fake Web sites.4 Phishing has evolved into a big problem, not just for banks, but for online retailers and even providers of consumer Web applications such as Facebook and Yahoo.4 Nonetheless, most bank security measures are defeatable if a person fails victim to a phishing scam and sends a fraudster their authentication credentials.?

Impact of the Issue

Online fraud increased very much over the last year. The rise in banking fraud comes as U.K. banks have taken more rigorous measures to combat online fraud.? While U.S. banks have often only require a log-in and password to get access to online banking, U.K. banks often have several more steps.?

The most known fraud is phishing. It has become widely popular not only present in online banking. People lose a great amount of money with this fraud, due to the fact that they are not aware there are the victims of phishing. If the fraud is small usually clients to do not recognize it, and it is harder to get their money back from the bank. Only if the phishing is done for a big scale of consumers, it can be identified by the bank software. FBI Director Robert Mueller said he has recently came “just a few clicks away from falling into a classic Internet phishing scam” after receiving an e-mail that appeared to be from his bank.4 “Far too little attention has been paid to cyber threats and their consequences,” Mueller said.4 “Intruders are reaching into our networks every day looking for valuable information.4 Unfortunately they’re finding it.”4

Another fraud connected with online banking is the usage of online banking on public computers. This increases the probability of online banking fraud. This was the case of the woman, whose money have been stolen by Max Glover, who observed her and transferred money from her account onto his. She later discovered that her account was overdrawn and that money have been transferred without her knowledge.?

But data such as log-in can be saved on the computer’s web site history in form of a cookie. A small data file created by a Web server that is stored on your computer either temporarily for that session only or permanently on the hard disk (persistent cookie).7 Cookies provide a way for the Web site to recognize you and keep track of your preferences.7

Although online banking should be secure it still contains many positive impacts. It is very ecological, due to the fact that paper is not used. It is cheaper than the standard bank account because the customer does not pay for the worker as he does everything by himself. It is easier and faster for buying products from the Internet. Online banking is available from every place on earth, 24/7, so the client does not need to look for his bank on holidays, but he can easily transfer the money.

Solutions to the Problem Arising

The problem of the woman in my article can be easily eliminated by not using online banking in public places. If there is such need, the customer should remember to log out and clear the history and the Internet.

The solutions arising from my issue, should be implied by banks. They should install better security software, so that online banking fraud will be eliminated or at least reduces. A U.K. security company is giving to banks, for free, security software that it says can block malicious software from manipulating online banking transactions or stealing data, even if the computer is infected.9

Online banking should be fast, easy and secure.8 Firstly and foremost, the site should be secure with strong validation process and data encryption.8 For example, NatWest- owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group- requires customers to enter their birth date plus a unique four digit code.? During the second step, a person is prompted to enter some digits of a separate four-digit PIN (Personal Identification Number), which is not the same as the person’s at ATM card.?

Even if banks install new security software, it won’t eliminate online banking fraud completely. This can only cause reduction, because hackers will unlock the codes to the online bank software. This will take time but as the new security system is created by human it can be unscrambled by them.

Bibliography

? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8017138.stm

? http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/173267/online_banking_fraud_in_the_uk_hits_a_new_high.html

? http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/TheTop10OnlineBanks.aspx

4 http://www.pcworld.com/article/173319/citing_cybercrime_fbi_director_doesnt_bank_online.html

5 http://www.ffiec.gov/ffiecinfobase/booklets/e_banking/ebanking_00_intro_def.html

6 Tomorrow’s Technolgy and you pg.164

7 http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=cookie&i=40334,00.asp

8 http://www.moolanomy.com/1817/best-online-bank-for-savings-and-checking/

9 http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/181310/software_shields_online_banking_on_infected_pcs.html

Autism Spectrum disorders

Introduction

Autism awareness in today’s society has moved from the shadow of shame and unknown to the forefront of research and education as an increasing number of children and people with Autism Spectrum disorders gain attention in every aspect of their everyday lives. This paper will attempt to explore the many faces of autism: identification, possible causes, treatment, societal reaction/interaction, the learning/teaching cooperative, and expectations for the future regarding this disorder in an ever evolving and expanding society.

What is Autism? How does it manifest? Are there specific characteristics inherent to the disorder? How was it discovered? Who gets it? How is it diagnosed? When? Has the cause been identified? Is it hereditary, environmental or societal? Is there a cure? What kind of treatment is available, and how has it changed since discovery of the disorder? Do autistic children face specific learning challenges? What teaching methods best reach autistic children? Are some methods more effective than others? Autism is very broad, far-reaching and involved, but herein I expect to go from a brief discussion of the broad topic to the specific: ‘How does autism affect the learning/teaching relationship between children and teachers?’

What is Autism?

Autism was first thought to be mental retardation or insanity. In 1943, Leo Kanner noticed that these children did not fit the pattern of emotionally disturbed children and instead recorded patterns of being slow learners. Hans Asperger, making similar discoveries, discovered what has come to be known as Asperger’s Syndrome – often used to label autistic people that can talk. Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, working completely independent of one another, recognized autism for what it was: a developmental disorder that interferes with a child’s communication, social and interaction behavior. (Carew, 2009)

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). It is a bio-neurological developmental disability usually appearing before the age of three, best known for impairing a child’s ability to communicate and interact. Life-long disabilities significantly impact several areas of development: communication impairments, social difficulty, sensory processing deficits and a need for solid routines within their lives. Characteristics of Autism manifests in a myriad of ways: delay in verbal development, a need to finish what they begin, a rather h3 resistance to change in daily routine, lack of spontaneity, distress at being touched and the ability to show any kind of emotion, as well as an inability to process and respond to humor.

There are five subcategories associated with ASD, each with it’s own distinctive and unique features: Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD), Rett’s Disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Treatment within each subcategory is as diverse and varied as the individual being treated, depending on the individual’s personality, unique symptoms and manifestation of autism.

How is it Diagnosed?

To help determine the difference between autism and mental retardation, a qualified professional will examine and score children who are suspected of having autism through a questionnaire based on direct observation by professionals and reports given by parents, family members, and teachers. This test is known as CARS (Childhood Autism Rating Scale) and was developed by Eirc Shopler, Robert Reichier and Barbara Rochen Reiner. (Schopler, Reichler, DeVellis, & Daly, 1980) CARS was published in 1980, but the development began a lot earlier, in 1966. A Study conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center determined an accuracy rating of 98% in diagnosing children and showed encouraging results in diagnosing adolescents as well. CARS incorporates the criteria of Leo Kanner (1943) and Creak (1964), and characteristic symptoms of childhood autism. (Schopler et al., 1980)

The test focuses on 15 categories of behaviors, characteristics, and abilities and how the expected development is different than the actual development if autistic symptoms are present. The categories are: Relating to people, imitation, emotional response, body use, object use, adaptation to change, visual response, listening response, taste, smell and touch response and use, fear or nervousness, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, activity level, level and consistency of intellectual response, and general impressions. A child can score on a scale of one to four. Scoring a one meets a normal range for a child’s age and scoring a four means the child is severely abnormal. (Secor, 2009)

Who Gets It?

Although it is unclear how much of the surge reflects better diagnosis, recent data suggests a 10-fold increase in autism rates over the past decade. The journal, Pediatrics, released on October 5, 2009, reported one percent of U.S. children ages 3-17 have an Autism Spectrum disorder, a prevalence of 1 in 91. This is a dramatic increase from the 2007 report by the Center for Disease Control reported 1 in 150 children diagnosed with Autism. Boys are diagnosed four times more often than girls. There has been no connection established regarding socio-economic status, race or religion in identifying autistic individuals. (Kogan, 2009)

Cause of Autism

All over the world, researchers are working to find just what causes Autism. However no direct, specific cause of Autism has been determined, to date. The pressure to identify a cause is a top priority among researchers and it appears, due to the various levels of severity and combinations of symptoms, there may be multiple causes and scientific evidence suggests both genetic and/or environmental factors. Because of intense research, there are several specific claims that have been disproven.

Bruno Bettelheim, a once well-renowned child psychologist, blamed autism on parents, specifically mothers, claiming they did not properly bond with their children. There is no evidence to support that claim. Due in large part to Dr. Bernard Rimland, who has an autistic son, founded the Autism Society of America and the Autism Research institute. Dr. Rimland was instrumental in helping to determine autism as a biological disorder not a causal effect, ie., neglect, isolation, cold, indifferent or ‘bad’ parenting. He disproved the theory by defining ASDs as biological disorders, not emotional illnesses in his book, Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior (Rimland, 1964). However, Dr Rimland is a proponent of another high profile controversial claim suggesting vaccinations given to children during babyhood may be a cause of the disorder. Despite Dr Rimland’s advocacy and beliefs, this claim has little or no scientific backing. In fact, in a timely ruling Friday, March 12, 2010, the so-called ‘vaccine court’, a special branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, found that the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal is not to blame for autism, and concluded the last of three cases on theories related to a vaccine-autism relationship. A 2009 ruling rejected a theory that thimerasol can cause autism when combined with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which perhaps was based on a discredited medical journal article published in 1998 by British physician, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, linking a particular type of autism and bowel disease to the measles vaccine. The 2009 ruling predicated the dropping of a second case based on a theory that certain vaccines alone cause autism. Interestingly, in this third case, the court found that “none of the expert witnesses who argued mercury can have a variety of effects on the brain, offered opinions on the cause of autism in any of the three specific cases argued.” (Schmid, 2010)(emphasis added)

Two studies conducted by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia link specific genes to autism. “One study pinpoints a gene region that may account for as many as 15 percent of autism cases, while another study identifies missing or duplicated stretches of DNA along two crucial gene pathways. Significantly, both studies detected genes implicated in the development of brain circuitry in early childhood.” (Wang, 2009)

A specific connection between fragile x (FXS) and autism has also been found. Dr. Don Bailey , director of the Frank Porter Graham Institute, and colleagues found that in young boys with FXS, 25% met the criteria for autism using the (CARS). Their profile of behaviors was very similar to that of children with autism but without fragile X. Consequently, they also found that children with autism and FXS together, had a lower IQ than children with either FXS alone or autism alone. (Bailey, Jr., Hatton, et al., 2001)

Methods of Treatment

Since 1943, many ways have been developed to help the autistic child. Then, the famous Sigmund Freud discovered that parents who did not attempt to communicate with an autistic child saw no progress, while a close parent/child relationship seemed to cause the child to thrive and move forward. Although it lingered well into the 50’s and 60’s, Freud’s theory lacked two critical bits information: first, oftentimes the parent didn’t try to interact with the child due to the Autistic behavior; and second, in some cases it was a genetically inherited personality. For a time, children were removed from their home to see if they would recover although there was no clear-cut evidence of any value in future use of this method.

Due to research and study, it was found that facilitated communication could teach the child to communicate with the world; for example an autistic child could be taught to manage and control his emotions; a parent could help a child desensitize from the over sensitivity to sound.

Today, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Occupational Therapy (OT), Pivotal Response Training (PRT), Physical Therapy (PT), Sensory Integration Therapy, Floortime, and medications, all have a place in accepted scientific treatment. Alternative methods are also sometimes used. These can include Dietary intervention, Vitamins and Minerals, Social Skills Groups, Music and Art Therapy, and even Dolphin Therapy.

One of the most tried and true methods utilized today, Applied Behavior Therapy (ABA) is usually accompanied by Physical Therapy and Occupational therapy. As with any treatment there are good and bad points associated with each. ABA was developed by Dr. Ivar Lovaas and contains the B.F. Skinner’s theories on operant conditioning. This treatment includes rewards which may include toys or treats, for acceptable behavior. There is no punishment for wrong or incorrect behavior, however. There are a myriad of steps involved, and a fairly rigid structure to this method. ABA is very time-consuming and has shown many positive results.

According to some ongoing research, diet may be fueling Autism. There is convincing empirical evidence that special diets help autistic individuals. Karl Reichelt of Oslo has been a pioneer in this area for decades, showing the highly significant effects of removing gluten, gliadin and casein from the diets of autistic children. There are now about forty research studies in Norway, the U.K., Italy, and the United States supporting this finding. Special diets are, most often, hard to implement.

Eighteen research reports have been published since 1965, by scientists in six countries showing that about half of all autistic children and adults improve significantly when given large amounts of B6. Unlike drugs, B6 is a safe, natural substance that the brain requires. This vitamin, along with the mineral magnesium, is used in the production of serotonin.

In a comprehensive review of the neurochemistry of autism, published in 1990, Dr. Edwin Cook wrote, “The most consistent finding has been that over 25% of autistic children and adolescents are hyperserotonemic. However, after 29 years of investigation, the mechanism of hyperserotonemia has not been determined.” (Genetics, autism and priorities, 1997)

Teaching Methods

Autistic children all have specific learning challenges; however, the method of approach depends entirely on the child. When teaching an autistic child, environmental considerations, a set schedule and routine for the student and a visual structure the student can see clearly to enable them to understand what is expected of them, and when it is expected of them. No one method is necessarily better than another. Many of the various methods utilize the same basic principles needed to help focus and teach a child with autism.

An effective instructional strategy is one that incorporates structure, a communication system, sensory accommodations, individualized programming, inclusion, social integration and access to the general curriculum. It is important to find research-based methodology that has proven effective through application and data collection. This helps enhance the effectiveness and accountability of the program.

There are also different teaching approaches enabling students with this disorder to learn and function as well as any other student in the classroom. No one approach has proven more effective. However, Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) (Shopler, E 1997) incorporates several methodologies and techniques into one program.

Developed in the 1970’s at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine, the philosophy behind TEACCH was: the environment should be changed to meet the needs of the students, not the students changed to meet the needs of the environment. Techniques are developed to meet the specific communication, social and coping needs of the student. The goal is to help students with ASDs learn functional skills so they can live productively and reach their full potential at school and home, and later in their community and working lives. TEACCH stresses the need for elements of behavioral and cognitive interventions, direct teaching of social skills, the need for structure, and the use of visual cues to show tasks to be done in work or play areas.

Another stand alone method of teaching, also one of the components within TEACCH, Structure-Positive-Empathetic-Low Arousal- Links (SPELL), emphasizes a clear routine and an atmosphere that helps maximize positive relationships and reduce anxiety while teaching children with ASD. This can be accomplished by trying to anticipate the experiences, settings, or problems the children may consider threatening. This methodology has been integrated into most of the centers run by the National Autistic Society.

Basic strategies need to be implemented inside a classroom to help transition students with ASD. These include:

A clear structure and daily routine
Use of clear and unambiguous language (not a lot of humor or irony)
Make clear which behaviors are unacceptable
Address the child individually
Provide a warning if there is an impending change in routine or activity switch
Know the student’s ticks and what ‘abnormal behavior might be
Specific teaching using photographs, video recording, how feeling are expressed and communicated so they can be recognized.
Regular opportunity for simple conversations to help increase the use of ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions
Use charts to record behavioral progress reinforcement

How Does Autism Affect the Learning/Teaching Relationship Between Children and Teachers?

Any teacher can get very frustrated with children in general, and if a disability is added to the equation, it can make for a difficult learning and teaching experience for both parties involved. It is important to remember what the student is going through and having to deal with. Patience truly is a virtue for the teacher, combined with empathy, understanding, encouragement and compassion.

Within any teaching strategy, to work and develop a method of structured teaching, there must be an understanding of the unique features and characteristics of the autistic child. A teacher must organize the child’s environment so the child is able to focus on relevant information and not be distracted by irrelevant things. The teacher must also develop appropriate activities to engage the student and not frustrate them. The instructor must also help the student understand what is expected of them so they do not have any disruptions to their routine or be inadvertently thrust outside of their comfort zone.

Despite a teacher’s best efforts to reduce the stress, anxiety and frustration of the environment, behavioral challenges will still arise, depending on the characteristics of the autistic child.

Conclusion

Autistic Spectrum Disorder has come out of the shadows and gained notoriety in today’s society through the actions of celebrities, organizations, and parents of autistic children as awareness of this increasingly prevalent disorder increases exponentially with research, education and mainstreaming. Since it was identified just a little over a half century ago, ASD has gained attention and momentum and tremendous strides in identification, possible causes, treatment, societal reaction/interaction, the learning/teaching cooperative, have provided lofty expectations for the future.

While teaching students with ASD is challenging, it can also be hugely rewarding. Teaching methods like TEACCH, which encompass the basic principles and techniques found to be most effective and least upsetting for the autistic child: consistency in a passive environment, an unvaried schedule and basic repetitive routine– enable teachers to help the autistic student learn and progress within a safety zone geared toward their own individual learning style.

Although there is no cure, there have been significant strides in identifying, developing and implementing new treatments every day. Children with ASD are often able to lead full, happy, and productive lives, interacting with society on their own terms. One can only hope that the strides of today will be not only matched but outpaced in the future as ASD becomes not a mysterious disorder of unknown origin, but a minor affliction overcome by millions, unidentifiable and without stigma in the mainstream world.

Bibliography

Carew, Betty. (2009, January 28). The History of autism. Retrieved from http://healthmad.com/children/the-history-of-autism/

Kogan, Michael, et al. (2009). Prevalence of parent-reported diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder among children in the US, 2007. Pediatrics, 10.1542(1522)

Schopler, E, Reichler, RJ, DeVellis, RF, & Daly, K. (1980). Toward Objective classification of childhood autism: childhood autism rating scale (cars). J Autism Dev Disorder, 10(1), 91-103.

Secor, M.L. (2009, january 6). Child autism rating scale. Retrieved from http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Childhood_Autism_Rating_Scale

Rimland, Bernard. (1964). Infantile autism: the syndrome and its implications for a neural theory of behavior. New York: Prentice Hall.

Schmid, Randolph. (2010, march 12). Court says thimerosal did not cause autism. Associated Press,

Wang, Kai, et al. (2009). common genetic variants on 5p14.1 associate with autism spectrum disorders. Nature, 459(528-533), Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7246/full/nature07999.html

Bailey, D. B., Jr., D. D. Hatton, et al. (2001). Autistic behavior, fmr1 protein, and developmental trajectories in young males with fragile x syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders , 31(2), 165-174.

Genetics, autism and priorities. (1997). Autism Research Review International, 11(2), Retrieved from http://autism.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&zTi=1&sdn=autism&cdn=health&tm=27&f=00&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.autism.com/ari/faq/faq_diets.htm

Exkorn, Karen Siff. (2005). The autism sourcebook everything you need to know about diagnosis, treatment, coping, and healing. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Shopler, E (1997) Implementation of TEACCH philosophy. In D. Cohen and F. Volkmar (eds). Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. New York: Wiley.

Autism Spectrum disorders

Introduction

Autism awareness in today’s society has moved from the shadow of shame and unknown to the forefront of research and education as an increasing number of children and people with Autism Spectrum disorders gain attention in every aspect of their everyday lives. This paper will attempt to explore the many faces of autism: identification, possible causes, treatment, societal reaction/interaction, the learning/teaching cooperative, and expectations for the future regarding this disorder in an ever evolving and expanding society.

What is Autism? How does it manifest? Are there specific characteristics inherent to the disorder? How was it discovered? Who gets it? How is it diagnosed? When? Has the cause been identified? Is it hereditary, environmental or societal? Is there a cure? What kind of treatment is available, and how has it changed since discovery of the disorder? Do autistic children face specific learning challenges? What teaching methods best reach autistic children? Are some methods more effective than others? Autism is very broad, far-reaching and involved, but herein I expect to go from a brief discussion of the broad topic to the specific: ‘How does autism affect the learning/teaching relationship between children and teachers?’

What is Autism?

Autism was first thought to be mental retardation or insanity. In 1943, Leo Kanner noticed that these children did not fit the pattern of emotionally disturbed children and instead recorded patterns of being slow learners. Hans Asperger, making similar discoveries, discovered what has come to be known as Asperger’s Syndrome – often used to label autistic people that can talk. Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, working completely independent of one another, recognized autism for what it was: a developmental disorder that interferes with a child’s communication, social and interaction behavior. (Carew, 2009)

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). It is a bio-neurological developmental disability usually appearing before the age of three, best known for impairing a child’s ability to communicate and interact. Life-long disabilities significantly impact several areas of development: communication impairments, social difficulty, sensory processing deficits and a need for solid routines within their lives. Characteristics of Autism manifests in a myriad of ways: delay in verbal development, a need to finish what they begin, a rather h3 resistance to change in daily routine, lack of spontaneity, distress at being touched and the ability to show any kind of emotion, as well as an inability to process and respond to humor.

There are five subcategories associated with ASD, each with it’s own distinctive and unique features: Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD), Rett’s Disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Treatment within each subcategory is as diverse and varied as the individual being treated, depending on the individual’s personality, unique symptoms and manifestation of autism.

How is it Diagnosed?

To help determine the difference between autism and mental retardation, a qualified professional will examine and score children who are suspected of having autism through a questionnaire based on direct observation by professionals and reports given by parents, family members, and teachers. This test is known as CARS (Childhood Autism Rating Scale) and was developed by Eirc Shopler, Robert Reichier and Barbara Rochen Reiner. (Schopler, Reichler, DeVellis, & Daly, 1980) CARS was published in 1980, but the development began a lot earlier, in 1966. A Study conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center determined an accuracy rating of 98% in diagnosing children and showed encouraging results in diagnosing adolescents as well. CARS incorporates the criteria of Leo Kanner (1943) and Creak (1964), and characteristic symptoms of childhood autism. (Schopler et al., 1980)

The test focuses on 15 categories of behaviors, characteristics, and abilities and how the expected development is different than the actual development if autistic symptoms are present. The categories are: Relating to people, imitation, emotional response, body use, object use, adaptation to change, visual response, listening response, taste, smell and touch response and use, fear or nervousness, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, activity level, level and consistency of intellectual response, and general impressions. A child can score on a scale of one to four. Scoring a one meets a normal range for a child’s age and scoring a four means the child is severely abnormal. (Secor, 2009)

Who Gets It?

Although it is unclear how much of the surge reflects better diagnosis, recent data suggests a 10-fold increase in autism rates over the past decade. The journal, Pediatrics, released on October 5, 2009, reported one percent of U.S. children ages 3-17 have an Autism Spectrum disorder, a prevalence of 1 in 91. This is a dramatic increase from the 2007 report by the Center for Disease Control reported 1 in 150 children diagnosed with Autism. Boys are diagnosed four times more often than girls. There has been no connection established regarding socio-economic status, race or religion in identifying autistic individuals. (Kogan, 2009)

Cause of Autism

All over the world, researchers are working to find just what causes Autism. However no direct, specific cause of Autism has been determined, to date. The pressure to identify a cause is a top priority among researchers and it appears, due to the various levels of severity and combinations of symptoms, there may be multiple causes and scientific evidence suggests both genetic and/or environmental factors. Because of intense research, there are several specific claims that have been disproven.

Bruno Bettelheim, a once well-renowned child psychologist, blamed autism on parents, specifically mothers, claiming they did not properly bond with their children. There is no evidence to support that claim. Due in large part to Dr. Bernard Rimland, who has an autistic son, founded the Autism Society of America and the Autism Research institute. Dr. Rimland was instrumental in helping to determine autism as a biological disorder not a causal effect, ie., neglect, isolation, cold, indifferent or ‘bad’ parenting. He disproved the theory by defining ASDs as biological disorders, not emotional illnesses in his book, Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior (Rimland, 1964). However, Dr Rimland is a proponent of another high profile controversial claim suggesting vaccinations given to children during babyhood may be a cause of the disorder. Despite Dr Rimland’s advocacy and beliefs, this claim has little or no scientific backing. In fact, in a timely ruling Friday, March 12, 2010, the so-called ‘vaccine court’, a special branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, found that the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal is not to blame for autism, and concluded the last of three cases on theories related to a vaccine-autism relationship. A 2009 ruling rejected a theory that thimerasol can cause autism when combined with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which perhaps was based on a discredited medical journal article published in 1998 by British physician, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, linking a particular type of autism and bowel disease to the measles vaccine. The 2009 ruling predicated the dropping of a second case based on a theory that certain vaccines alone cause autism. Interestingly, in this third case, the court found that “none of the expert witnesses who argued mercury can have a variety of effects on the brain, offered opinions on the cause of autism in any of the three specific cases argued.” (Schmid, 2010)(emphasis added)

Two studies conducted by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia link specific genes to autism. “One study pinpoints a gene region that may account for as many as 15 percent of autism cases, while another study identifies missing or duplicated stretches of DNA along two crucial gene pathways. Significantly, both studies detected genes implicated in the development of brain circuitry in early childhood.” (Wang, 2009)

A specific connection between fragile x (FXS) and autism has also been found. Dr. Don Bailey , director of the Frank Porter Graham Institute, and colleagues found that in young boys with FXS, 25% met the criteria for autism using the (CARS). Their profile of behaviors was very similar to that of children with autism but without fragile X. Consequently, they also found that children with autism and FXS together, had a lower IQ than children with either FXS alone or autism alone. (Bailey, Jr., Hatton, et al., 2001)

Methods of Treatment

Since 1943, many ways have been developed to help the autistic child. Then, the famous Sigmund Freud discovered that parents who did not attempt to communicate with an autistic child saw no progress, while a close parent/child relationship seemed to cause the child to thrive and move forward. Although it lingered well into the 50’s and 60’s, Freud’s theory lacked two critical bits information: first, oftentimes the parent didn’t try to interact with the child due to the Autistic behavior; and second, in some cases it was a genetically inherited personality. For a time, children were removed from their home to see if they would recover although there was no clear-cut evidence of any value in future use of this method.

Due to research and study, it was found that facilitated communication could teach the child to communicate with the world; for example an autistic child could be taught to manage and control his emotions; a parent could help a child desensitize from the over sensitivity to sound.

Today, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Occupational Therapy (OT), Pivotal Response Training (PRT), Physical Therapy (PT), Sensory Integration Therapy, Floortime, and medications, all have a place in accepted scientific treatment. Alternative methods are also sometimes used. These can include Dietary intervention, Vitamins and Minerals, Social Skills Groups, Music and Art Therapy, and even Dolphin Therapy.

One of the most tried and true methods utilized today, Applied Behavior Therapy (ABA) is usually accompanied by Physical Therapy and Occupational therapy. As with any treatment there are good and bad points associated with each. ABA was developed by Dr. Ivar Lovaas and contains the B.F. Skinner’s theories on operant conditioning. This treatment includes rewards which may include toys or treats, for acceptable behavior. There is no punishment for wrong or incorrect behavior, however. There are a myriad of steps involved, and a fairly rigid structure to this method. ABA is very time-consuming and has shown many positive results.

According to some ongoing research, diet may be fueling Autism. There is convincing empirical evidence that special diets help autistic individuals. Karl Reichelt of Oslo has been a pioneer in this area for decades, showing the highly significant effects of removing gluten, gliadin and casein from the diets of autistic children. There are now about forty research st

Play is almost universally recognized as an integral factor in children’s learning and development. For example, Macintyre (2001, 4) quotes Isaacs’ 1933 description of play: Play is “the crucial component in children’s development,” and adds that everyone “concerned with young children” should “recognise and value the different kinds of understanding developed through play” (Macintyre 2001, 3-4).

Although different play activities promote children’s in different ways, Keenan (2002) identifies a number of areas of development that are impacted or enhanced by play, including cognition, language and communication, social, and emotional. The recent Curriculum guidance for children from three through the reception year (Foundation Stage) ephasizes learning opportunities and experiences ; for example, “the area of language and literacy was broadened to include communication and emphasized the importance of developing literacy through play” and “advocates play and exploration as a basis for literacy learning in the early years” (Miller and Smith 2004, 122). Within the Early Years curriculum, role play is an excellent example of a play activity that promotes many areas of development.

Before examining the ways role play promotes development in children, it is helpful to define both play and role play. Macintyre (2001, 3) defines play as activity that is enjoyable, gives pleasure, and undertaken by the player freely, that is, it can be abandoned at any time without blame. Play further has no preconceived outcome; the agenda can develop as play goes on (Macintyre 2001, 3). Additionally, play allows the player to develop skills which are important in non-play situations, such as development of social skills (Macintyre 2001, 3). Children around age three and four begin to enjoy imaginative role play in twos or small groups (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 36).

As a particular play activity, role play is a type of imaginative play, where children assume roles outside their real world place. Role play allows children to construct proximities between themselves and others in their lives. Piaget’s theory of development contends infants first engage in pretend play around eighteen months, acting out imaginary activities and using real objects to represent imagined objects, such as pretending a television remote is a telephone (Keenan 2002, 123). Children may participate in limited role play at this point if directed by an older person.

However, cooperative role play, where children instigate their own roles and story line, are rarely undertaken by children before three years of age (Keenan 2002, 200). According to Vygotsky, children engage in pretend play roles beyond their current stage in life, such as taking on adult roles, such as a parent, teacher or doctor, or roles as adolescents or older children(Keenan 2002, 135). Through pretend play, children place themselves in a zone of proximal development, where they play at a level which is in advance of their real capabilities (Keenan 2002, 135)

Cognitively, role play promotes development in several ways. First, it allows children practice in ordering their thoughts and develop understanding. “Piaget believed that children were active agents of their own learning and that the major task for them was to develop an ability to organize experiences and learn from them in a way which enables them to make sense of the world (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 10). Role play activities are “the highest form of symbolic play, encompassing two types of cognitive operation which are necessary for conservation, namely reversibility and decentration” (Umek and Musek 2001, 56).

Children are able to freely leave the roles they take on, as indicated in the free participation concept introduced in the definition of play above. This ‘reversibility’ indicates cognitively children are awareness that they can abandon their assumed role and return to reality at any time (Umek and Musek 2001, 56). The cognitive ability of decentration involves children’s understanding that the person in the role play scenario is really them, yet is also simultaneously the role undertaken (Umek and Musek 2001, 56).

Cognitively, this means children must “preserve the imaginary identity of toys or play materials despite the fact that they are perceptually and/or functionally inadequate (the issue being the conservation of identity)” (Umek and Musek 2001, 56). In such pretend play, “children learn that the objects they use can be separated from their normal referents, and that they can stand for other things” (Keenan 2002, 135). This object will typically be similar in some way, such as size or shape, to the pretend object in the role play, causing the children to practice analogous thinking skills where they related an item not available to them to another available object (Keenan 2002, 135).

The development of language and communication skills are recognized as “closely linked to children’s thinking and conceptual development” (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 18). In addition to cognitive development, role play offers important development opportunities in the areas of language and communication. This can be intentional, such as when parents or other older players in the role play intentionally support vocabulary development by introducing names of things during the context of play (Keenan 2002, 154). However, the opportunity to talk and verbally interact with others in the role play further presents a powerful way of learning even when no intentional instruction occurs (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 18).

In role play, children learn to use language as a form of symbolic representation, and also “communicate symbolically through dramatic play” (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 25). Such symbolic play encourages the development of language comprehension (Umek and Musek 2001, 56). Fantasy role play encourages explicit and expressive speech due to its symbolic nature.

“Role enactment and the use of various objects have different functions in play and in real life, therefore the child-player-must define these symbolic transformations verbally, so that they have a clear (recognisable) meaning and are comprehensible to his or her playmates” (Umek and Musek 2001, 56). In this way role play promotes the communicative skills of its players. “The symbolic elements of fantasy play, like role and object transformations, enable the child to use lexicographic meanings and explicit speech” (Umek and Musek 2001, 56).

Socially, role play typically involves several other children and/or adults. Keenan (2002) discusses Parten’s theory that such cooperative play is “the most complex form of play,” as it includes behaviours such as social pretend play where children take on pretend roles (Keenan 2002, 200). The children involved in the role play talk to one another as part of the play, developing their imaginative situations in a co-operative manner. Umek and Musek (2001, 56) report Smilansky’s (1968) contention that role play activities promote the child’s social development.

“When children use role enactment, they have to reach a consensus about the play theme, the course of events and the transformation of roles and play materials. This can only be achieved when individuals transcend their egocentrism and develop the ability to empathise” (Umek and Musek 2001, 56).

Children further build relationships with the other children or adults with whom they play. Although such relationships are often temporary, such play causes children to “express a preference for certain friends and play regularly with them;” during the Early Years period “there is usually, but always, some preference for play with children of the same sex, but there is still a good deal of mixed play” (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 36). Role players “share symbolic meanings with each other and assign imaginary roles in their pretend play,” both providing opportunities for social development (Keenan 2002, 203).

Co-operative pretend play also is usually based on the children’s understanding of the social rules of their culture (Keenan 2002, 135). Therefore, a child behaving ‘badly’ in the role play will be ‘punished’ by the child in the ‘parent’ role. Vygotsky held that as such role play “was an important context in which children learned about the social world” (Keenan 2002, 135). “Children’s play is constrained by the rules which guide behaviour in these roles, and, because of this, they learn about the social norms that are expected of people” (Keenan 2002, 135).

Role play can be an important component in children’s emotional development. Around eighteen months, “the increase in language and symbolic thought allows some feelings to be expressed through imaginative play” (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 27). Prior to this children’s options were limited to physical displays such as crying, hitting, or facial expressions. This can promote children’s emotional development, as it allows them to learn to express their wants and needs, and become emotionally aware of the wants and needs of others.

For example, role play can allow children to act out their fears, such as going to the doctor or being punished (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 36). These fears might develop from an experience the child has had, such as having a painful injection at the doctor’s office, or a perceived fear, such as concern over anticipated punishment.

Role play can also help chilren develop self-efficacy. Even young children have a strong desire to be right or successful, and will avoid areas where they expect to fail (Macintyre 2001, 4). However, “if children can try things with no fear of failure they are more likely to stretch out and tackle things they might otherwise avoid” (Macintyre 2001, 4). Since there is no defined end product, there is no fear or experience of failure. Children are empowered through the communication skills developed in role play, “as they can express their feelings freely, can negotiate their wishes and needs and develop self-confidence and self-esteem” (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 18)

This self-efficacy can both be encouraged in actions and in emotional expression; role play teaches children healthy and appropriate expressions of emotion. O’Hagan and Smith (2004, 38) studied groups of young children who viewed adults handling a situation, with each group seeing a different emotional response. One group viewed the adults as dealing with the issue by becoming angry and physically aggressive, and were later observed to emotionally deal with a similar situation in a similar manner, i.e. with anger and physical aggression. O’Hagan and Smith (2004, 36) contend this reinforces Bandura’s claim that children learn from models in their lives, particularly those they view as similar to themselves, who have a nurturing relationship with them, or who they perceive as powerful and competent (O’Hagan and Smith 2004, 39).

Symbolic play, such as role play, “should certainly form an important part of the preschool curriculum but preschool teachers should bear in mind that the quality of a child’s play will be determined by general characteristics of development as well as by the play context” (Umek and Musek 2001, 63). In the classroom, role play can be encouraged through the use of story and related play objects. For example, reading stories that include a kitchen and having a play kitchen available encourages children to first repeat the story through role play, then diverge and develop their own story lines. O’Hagan and Smith (2004, 58) present a typical classroom element, a ‘home corner’ complete with dressing-up clothes and various objects for domestic play.

Role play can be used for many learning purposes, such as to reinforce desired behaviour or assess children’s understanding of material. A teacher is trying to encourage sharing amongst her pupils. In this scenario, the teacher could role play with the children, demonstrating and reinforcing that sharing is a desireable activity. The activity could then be extended, with children being allowed to continue the play without teacher involvement, by later drawing pictures, and/or talking about the role play in a circle time or similar sharing opportunity.

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Finally, role play can also enhance a teacher’s evaluation of children’s attainments, as the children will demonstrate their abilities in a number of areas during a typical role play activity. In practice, “children can achieve higher levels of individual cognitive functions (conservation, one-to-one correspondence, decentration) in their symbolic play than they demonstrate when the same mental operations are tested and measured in formal, non-play, situations” (Umek and Musek 2001, 64). As such, observations and assessment based on role play can be highly valuable in the classroom environment.

REFERENCES

Keenan, T. 2002. An Introduction to Child Development. London: Sage.

Macintyre, C. Enhancing Learning Through Play. London: David Fulton.

Miller, L. 2001. Shaping Early Childhood through the Literacy Curriculum. Early Years, 21(1): 107-116.

Miller, L. and Smith, A.P. 2004. Practitioners’ beliefs and children’s experiences of literacy in four early years settings. Early Years, 24(2): 121-133.

O’Hagan, M. and Smith, M. 2004. Early Years Child Care and Education: Key Issues. Edinburgh: Bailliere Tindall.

Discuss, evaluate and reflect upon the aims of assessment for learning in primary science, and consider strategies that may be employed to identify children’s strengths and weaknesses. Show how assessment information can be used to monitor children’s progress in science, and inform and develop quality teaching and learning.

Introduction:

Science became a core subject for primary schools in 1989 with the introduction of the National Curriculum. Primary Science has a broad agenda, an important element of which is the development of ‘scientific literacy’ in the population (Howe et al., 2005, p.5), the scientific understanding that should be part of everyone’s education. Teachers have a responsibility to ensure that children’s experiences in primary science are positive ones so that more children will undertake post primary science subjects. Assessment for learning, an important element of primary science, has come to prominence in educational policy because of its perceived potential to underpin lifelong learning (Black et al., 2006, p.120). Described as a teaching strategy of very high leverage (Howe, 2004, cited in Marshall & Drummond, 2006, p.133), assessment for learning allows teachers to track pupil learning and progress and plan quality teaching using appropriate strategies.

Aims of Primary Science Teaching:

Children have many ideas about the world and how it works before they come to school and experience science in the context of their everyday lives, for example most children will have some knowledge about plants and animals, or will understand that a lolly melts. The most important aim of primary science is to foster children’s appreciation of the world around us, to encourage a close observation of our physical environment, and to develop an understanding of how different aspects of it are related (Howe et al., 2005, p.6).

Views about science have changed in recent decades with a recognition that transmission modes for teaching in science are not appropriate (Gray & Bryce, 2006, p.171). A constructivist view of teaching science has been adopted which recognises that children learn best when they are able to construct new ideas and concepts from existing ones. In order to teach primary science effectively, teachers must have a sound subject knowledge and an appropriate understanding of these constructivist theories (Traianou, 2996, p.828). Key Stage one children, for example, learn a lot about science through play and ideas must be rooted in experiences that are meaningful to them. Effective learning in science cannot be facilitated by providing children with facts and information because:

Facts unrelated to concepts that children already have are meaningless and therefore of no use to them.
Children use their own ideas to construct understanding. While they may be able to recall answers, understanding only evolves out of their own experience.

(Harlen & Jelly, 1998, p.26).

Science is very much a process based subject in which learners develop their understanding of things around them by using and developing process skills (Harlen & Qualter, 2004, p.133). Effective assessment in science should be reflective of this by being an ongoing process in the classroom.

The Primary Science Curriculum:

One of the main ideas in the National Curriculum is that of scientific enquiry which is seen as learning about ‘ideas and evidence’ and three stands of ‘investigative skills’: ‘planning’, ‘obtaining and presenting evidence’ and ‘evaluating’ (Howe et al.,2005, p.8). Each strand consists of a number of processes which are to be taught through the subject areas of ‘life processes and living things’, ‘materials and their properties’ and ‘physical processes’. A practical approach to learning in science is vital for primary school children. The teacher’s role as learning facilitator centres on creating a rich and stimulating learning environment, allowing children to explore and test their ideas. At every stage in the science process, language skills can be developed to assist the learning of science and vice versa (Sherrington, 1993, p.206).Assessment begins from the beginning and it is useful to start science teaching with an activity to find out what children know about a topic before beginning teaching, paying particular attention to the language children use..

Assessment in Science:

Assessment is a process of deciding, collecting and making inferences or judgements about evidence of children’s learning and skills (Harlen & Qualter, 2004, p.121). One of the main conclusions arrived at by the Children Learning in Science Project (CLISP) is the importance of establishing whether children have any misconceptions about scientific concepts and addressing these before moving on. Effective assessment is therefore crucial for primary science as pre-conceived ideas can have an adverse effect on learning.

There are two main areas in assessment, formative and summative. Formative assessment, an ongoing process for the teacher, provides immediate evidence of learning and should be used to inform planning for teaching. Gathering information about learning and giving feedback while it is in progress has been seen as a crucial aspect of teaching since the Task Group on Assessment and Testing (TGAT) report was published in 1988 (MacGilchrist et al., 2006, p.84). It has a number of strengths because of its focus on learners and how they learn.

Summative assessment is generally administered to gather evidence of learning at the end of the teaching period. It has often been criticised as failing to take a holistic view of the learner. A comprehensive science programme will incorporate both elements but the formative assessment will be of most use to the teacher on a day-to-day basis.

The Purposes of Assessment:

Assessment is a statutory requirement for teachers. Section 3.2 of the Requirements for Qualifying to Teach has a range of requirements in respect of monitoring and assessment, among them that teachers ‘monitor and assess as they teach, giving immediate and constructive feedback to support pupils as they learn. They involve pupils in reflecting on, evaluating and improving their own performance (TTA, 2002, p.11).

Assessment enables teachers to ascertain how effectively children have been learning in science. It has a number of aims including:

To help children’s learning by identifying what they are making good progress with and areas in which they need further support.
To summarise achievements at certain times.

(Harlen & Qualter, 2004, p.124).

This has important implications for primary science teaching in light research suggesting that children have many misconceptions in respect of scientific concepts. Harlen and Jelly have reported that misconceptions in science arise from:

Attributing an effect to a particular feature and not having an understanding that a number of factors may be operating.
A lack of awareness that there may be more than one explanation.
Not understanding science vocabulary.
Insufficient opportunity to test ideas and discuss findings.
A lack of access to alternative ideas that might provide a better explanation.

(Harlen & Jelly, 1998, p.24).

Effective assessment can address this by being an integral part of activities, with teachers constantly seeking information that enables them to support learning and give appropriate feedback. The teacher can then diagnose learning responses and needs, and note the progress that is being made (MacGilchrist et al., 2006, p.85). Formative assessment methods have received attention in recent years, being more suited to achieving the goals of:

Learning with understanding
Understanding learning

highlighted by the Assessment Reform Group as being crucial in the aim to equip learners for a place in a rapidly shrinking world and changing society (Assessment Reform Group, 2006, p.8).

Methods of Assessing Children’s Progress in Science:

A substantial amount of learning in science occurs outside school, being accessed through field trips, zoos, science museums etc. (Braund & Reiss, 2006, p.214). Because of this teachers must have a range of ways of gathering evidence to assess pupil learning and understanding and be able to use this as the basis for subsequent teaching.

Methods that the teacher can use include:
Observing children as they work- the teacher can gauge learning by listening to the ways in which children work their way through an activity, with particular attention to their use of scientific vocabulary. The language used by the children is a very good indicator of their understanding. Open-ended teacher questioning gives children opportunities to express their ideas and develop them. Research shows that where correct scientific language is taught, children develop more accurate scientific concepts (Sparks-Linfield & Warwick, 1998, p.128).
Studying children’s work in relation to a task – drawings, reports and written work. For this to be most effective, it is important that the task requirements are clear. For example, if the aim is to assess children’s understanding of the structure of a flowering plant, it is important that the children are not simply asked to draw a flower, but that the task requires the parts to be labelled or indicated in some way.
Administering tests related to the learning activity.
Having a plenary session where the children can talk about what they think they have learned from a task or activity.
Involving Children in the Assessment Process:

Central to formative assessment is the idea of involving children in their learning. Black and William found that self and peer assessment in children as young as five was successful in raising achievement (Black & William, 1998). The effectiveness of involving children in the assessment process stems from an understanding that children learn most effectively when they have opportunities to build new ideas on existing experiences. For this approach to be successful, it has to be carefully planned for by the teacher. The children need a clear understanding of the learning intentions of a lesson to be able to assess if they have achieved them.

The teacher must be very explicit, particularly in relation to processes within science. If it is not clear that the learning intention is process based, children tend to focus on their answers rather that the methods used for obtaining them. Harlen & Qualter point out that when children understand what they should be doing and how well, they are in a position to share in deciding the next steps to be taken (Harlen & Qualter, 2004, p.179). This approach does not suggest a lack of rigour in terms of assessment, the ultimate decisions in the management of which are teacher directed.

Assessing Children’s Process Skills:

Children use the process skills they have developed when they engage with tasks. Teacher observation is very important here but it is important for teachers to be aware that some types of behaviour are more indicative of learning than others and to be able to differentiate between them. The teacher needs to consider what would indicate that a child is employing a particular skill, for example observation. In this case the teacher might look for evidence of the child paying attention to detail, really exploring an object. The degree to which a particular skill is being employed will also be different for older and younger children. With younger children it is most important to develop positive attitudes to science and to give children opportunities to be scientists through access to a range of science equipment and to nurture correct use of scientific vocabulary.

Using assessment to improve learning in science:

Evidence gathered by the teacher must be used to make judgements regarding the effectiveness of the learning. This process can be enhanced by discussion with the children. Harlen and Qualter have identified three reasons for using assessment to help learning in science:

Knowing what ideas learners bring to new experiences and how these ideas develop during their activities is central to learning through enquiry. Using assessment as part of the teaching means that information can be collected about progress towards goals. If activities provide opportunities for skills, understanding and attitudes to be developed, then they also provide opportunities for these to be assessed and for the information to be used to help learning.
Widely accepted theories of learning emphasis the role of learners in constructing their own understanding, the constructivist approach. Formative assessment involves children in recognising where they are in progress towards goals and in the decisions about what their next steps are and how to take them.
There is firmly established evidence that when the key components of formative assessment are practised, levels of achievement are raised.

(Harlen & Qualter, 2004, p.132).

Assessing Children’s Ideas in Science:

Children have many ideas about science when they start school. It is important to establish what these are and plan teaching accordingly. Discussion is extremely important in primary science and teachers must create a climate in which children can express ideas with confidence. Keogh and Naylor have pointed out the importance of this:

If we want children to ‘think out loud’, to be creative in their thinking and to argue about alternative possibilities, then we need to provide the kind of learning environment in which they feel comfortable to do that. They need to know they can make mistakes or give wrong answers and still feel good about themselves. (Keogh & Naylor, 2004, p.18). Scientific language should be introduced when appropriate and in contexts that allow children to develop an awareness of the different meanings that words may have in everyday and scientific contexts.

Using Assessment to Inform Teaching:

Children’s ideas, whether in oral or written form, often give an indication of experience or skills that are lacking. This is an important consideration when planning teaching. When children are displaying a lack of experience, it is necessary to provide experiences for them. For example, organising a trip to the local park to investigate living things. Children often have ideas about science which may not reflect reality and can be difficult to change. In this case it is necessary to scaffold and model alternative explanations for children. It is important that teachers use assessment information and evidence to address any misunderstandings or misconceptions that children may have. The strength of formative approaches to assessment is that difficulties can be addressed in the short term before misconceptions are too well cemented.

Conclusion:

The Government believes that primary education is about;

‘Children experiencing the joy of discovery, solving problems, being creative in writing, art and music, developing their confidence as learners and maturing socially and emotionally’ (DfES, 2003, p.4). Discovery and problem solving are central to science teaching and an effective programme for assessment can be used to facilitate this by enabling teachers to plan and devise lessons accordingly. Research has shown that implementing the essential features of formative assessment in classrooms leads to gains in achievement that are greater than those of equivalent groups where formative assessment is not practised (Harlen & Qualter, 2004, 137).

Marshall & Drummond have pointed out that assessment for learning demands a high degree of organisation in the classroom if it is going to help pupils become independent learners (Marshall & Drummond, 2006). It is essential that teachers feel sufficiently confident in respect of subject knowledge pertaining to science and plan interactive lessons for children that mirror the interactive nature of assessment for learning.

In science learning children must begin with what they know. The teacher must therefore employ a range of strategies for gathering this information and must apply it to subsequent teaching. This can lead to quality teaching and learning in science and to positive experiences for children and their teachers.

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