Visited my new school today, met my colleagues, saw my new classroom, received my timetable and the plan for the first few weeks of school.
SOOO relieved to be at an organised school, which clearly cares about its students, is up to date with new technology, has lovely welcoming staff and a clear agenda. Long live public education.
Also SOOOO nervous about actually being responsible for students of my very own. WAY more nervous than I was for either of my student teaching placements, which doesn't seem to make sense - shouldn't I be feeling more confident, instead of less?
For all you out there reading this (I know you're there!) any advice for a nervous first year teacher is greatly appreciated.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
I have a job!
Well, it's official. I have been offered a job. In the interests of protecting students' (and my own) privacy I won't include the location here, but suffice to say I am really pleased. It's a school I'm familiar with, which eliminates at least some of the fears and challenges associated with my first full-time year of teaching. It's in a pretty convenient area for me, with a demographic context that I feel I 'fit' in, and although I don't know the specifics of what I'm teaching yet, I'm at least confident that it's in my discipline, which is a relief as well. So all in all I'm going into the summer holidays feeling pretty excited and not as nervous or stressed as I thought I'd be!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
STS E-Portfolio
Critical Incident
I have chosen to explore this critical incident as for me it is an example of "an incident that had been particularly successful, unsuccessful, surprising or revealing" (Hammerness et al, 2001, p. 6). This incident was, for me, all of the above. My success was in making history interesting and engaging for my students. I was unsuccessful, however, in assessing whether my students really learnt what I intended; and in managing their behaviour. The incident was surprising in that it revealed to me the extent to which I must focus on providing high quality scaffolding, even for senior students; and revealing in that on reflection, it has shown me both my strengths and my weaknesses.
My mentor teacher taught a senior (years nine and ten) elective History class called “Medieval Life” and asked me to design a three-week unit to teach between units on castles and food. This gave me the opportunity to determine what content I believed was important to an understanding of medieval history, but that was missing from her semester-long course. I elected to construct my mini-unit on Medieval Medicine, in which the students learnt about the Galenic theory of the four humors, common medieval illnesses and remedies, and the Black Death of 1346-51. This unit would address the following outcomes, taken from the placement school's course outline:
"The student:
- Understands the relationship between geographical context and particular world issues and events
- Identifies sources and collects data and information in systematic ways
- Manages, organises and evaluates data and information in order to draw conclusions consistent with this data"
The unit also worked towards standard outcomes including:
"6.LA.1: routinely use ICT to enhance their ability to research and learn through inquiry, with an understanding that using ICT can enable broader inquiry and access to a wide variety of information, opinions and perspectives
2.LA.11: draw conclusions that are consistent with the data or information and provide evidence or supporting details
23.LA.5: the relationship between geographical context and particular world issues and events"
(ACT DET)
My critical incident took place in the second week of the three-week long unit. To see the lesson sequence, click here.
The content was intrinsically interesting for most students in the class, who were particularly interested in the many implausible medieval treatments. As the class was made up of many verbal and kinesthetic learners (Gardner, in Krause et al., 2003, p. 201), I designed two role-play activities in which students took on the role of a medieval European. The first, which I entitled "Medieval Medical Marketplace", is the focus of this assignment. Roughly one-third of the class were given the part of various healers, including surgeons, nuns, apothecaries, blood-letters and the like, whilst the other two-thirds played patients with bubonic plague, St. Vitus’ Dance, leprosy, an injured arm, St. Anthony’s Fire, and so on. I distributed the roles strategically, giving the healer parts to the most engaged students in order to extend them.
The students were given two lessons of research time in the computer labs in which I presented a short-list of recommended websites on the class’s homepage and a list of "Research Goals" (questions based on their character in the role-play, such as "How did I learn my profession?" and "What are the selling points of my approach?"). I collected the students' books after the research lessons in order to assess the depth of their research, before returning them for the role-play.
For the next lesson, we rearranged the classroom furniture into a U-shape to create a marketplace in which each of the patients spoke to each of the healers, gathered information on each healer’s practice and recommended treatments, and judged which healer they would prefer to treat their affliction. The patients then reported to the rest of the class which healer they chose and why. I took a tally of the business gained by each healer, and the most successful healer was rewarded with a small toy.
The Medieval Medical Marketplace activity was, I believe, valuable for illustrating to the students the nature of medieval medical knowledges. The requirement for all patients to speak to all healers meant that every student was exposed to many medical traditions and methods, much like in an “Expert Groups” style cooperative learning activity. The patients were required to report to the class at the end of the role play, with the healer they had chosen to treat them, and their reasoning. This report functioned as a formative assessment for me, in the same way that the various healers’ diagnoses and prescriptions demonstrated the depth of their understanding.
Mentor Teacher's Feedback
My mentor teacher provided feedback after the first of the research lessons, intimating that there was a lack of appropriate scaffolding in my preparation of the lesson. Many of my recommended websites were text-heavy, which proved to be a challenge for the students. Some prior discussion about appropriate reading strategies for websites would have been beneficial, to remind students to skim their websites, assess the importance of elements of the text and focus only on those areas they deemed important. Instead, many students focused on only one website's information, when my aim was for them to visit many sites and therefore gain a much broader picture of medieval medicine. For this reason I booked a second research lesson in which I further refined my instructions and highlighted for the students that they would not need to read everything on the websites. During the second lesson I also provided more explicit information on the purpose of their research, giving them specific questions to answer rather than the first lesson's overly simple instruction to take notes on their role.
My mentor's feedback on the role play lesson itself was brief but encouraging. She focussed on the behaviour management challenges which I will explore later in this assignment, but did not discuss my pedagogy or assessment strategies, which are the focus of this assignment.
Interpretation of Critical Incident
My initial reflection on this incident is represented here (click to view larger):
The class were predominantly white students from middle and lower socio-economic status families, and, being aged between fifteen and sixteen years old, were in transition between Piaget's concrete operations and formal operations stages of development (Krause et al., 2003, pp. 47-53). My decision to use a role play activity was based on the knowledge that a large number of my students were what Howard Gardner would call verbal/linguistic and kinesthetic learners (Krause et al., 2003, pp.201), and several also had strong interpersonal intelligence. We also had one student with an undiagnosed learning difficulty and one student from a language background other than English; my intention was that the activity would provide these two students with a 'break' from what had been a fairly listening and writing intensive unit, with plenty of new vocabulary to digest. I took care when distributing the roles to give these two students roles that would link to their existing knowledge. The first student's low literacy level impeded her research somewhat, but I feel the role-play exercise benefitted her as she was exposed to the results of all the other students' research as well as her own, and her verbal/oral processing is sound, meaning she learnt more effectively from the other students' presentations than she would have done from her own research. The second student had an opportunity to talk about our content matter with his peers, in a safe and supportive environment that allowed him to show his understanding without the impediment of written language to slow him down.
I chose the role-play activity with an eye to exploring forms of cooperative learning. I was influenced by methods such as Jigsaw and Expert Groups, which require all members of the group to have completed their individual contribution for the good of the whole group (Krause et al., 2003, p. 185). I felt that this approach would be an efficient way in which to cover a very broad area of knowledge, since the content could be stretched in a number of different directions. Specifically, I intended on covering the medieval Catholic Church's beliefs about illness and healing, the similarities and differences between medieval and modern-day healing, the barter system, the range of choice available to the ruling classes and the lack thereof for peasants. This widely varying content could fill much longer than my three-week unit, so I elected to present it in this Jigsaw-style role play activity to allow students to become 'experts' in one area, and receive other experts' knowledge about the other areas.
My school subscribes to the "Learning By Design" theory of learning, so in an effort to ensure consistency for my students, and expose myself to a new theory of curriculum design, I approached this learning activity with the Learning By Design principles in mind. Our prior discussion of superstitions, as well as our "Noisy Round Robin" brainstorming exercise on medieval medicine, linked to the students knowledge in what Learning By Design refers to as "Experiencing the Known" (see the Learning By Design planning placemat here). This involves creating links to what the students already know about a topic to "switch them on" and prepare them for new information. I found this was particularly important to this unit of work, since medieval medicine is far removed from the students' everyday lives in many ways, and their previous exposure to it was almost non-existent.
My research lessons were based on the Learning By Design "Experiencing the New" principle, as students' research goals were grounded in finding out new information about their profession or illness. There was an element of linkage to their prior knowledge built into this lesson, since the patients were instructed to research the modern-day treatment for their illness as well as the medieval treatment, and for many of them that treatment was somewhat familiar.
The role-play activity was a combination of "Applying Appropriately" and "Analysing Functionally and Critically". The healers applied what they had learnt in the research lesson by acting out their role, employing the knowledge they had gathered in the research lesson to explain to patients the advantages of their treatment, their personal history of how they came to know their profession (for example, "My father was an apothecary and I worked with him from when I was eight years old") and to "sell" their services. I framed the exercise around the need to "sell" their services in order to highlight the credibility or validity of the various medical traditions. The students had hitherto been highly critical of medieval treatments, to the point of derision. Asking them to identify at least three benefits of their profession's approach therefore required them to think more positively about their topic - akin to them donning de Bono's yellow hat (see de Bono Thinking Systems).
The patients analysed the new information presented to them in the process of evaluating their healers' services. At the end of the activity they were required to explain to the class the healer they had chosen and why, based on the "sales pitch" that the healers had presented. This choice required evaluation of the effectiveness of the various healers' approaches, which the patients based on their understanding of both medieval and modern-day medical treatments, which they had learnt in the research lessons.
Although the lesson was relatively successful, I identified plenty of room for improvement, most importantly in the areas of assessment of learning and behaviour management. The lesson was under-scaffolded and lacked accountability measures. If I were to conduct this lesson again, I would provide the patients with a proforma on which to record their consultations and to help them evaluate the healers. This could then be submitted at the end of class, allowing me to assess the depth of their thinking during the activity, and also communicating to them that there is an element of accountability. This would then, hopefully, motivate them to stay on task, and give me tangible proof of their learning.
Behavioural Theories:
My mentor teacher advocated use of Glasser's "Choice Theory" for behaviour management, and also recommended low-intensity responses to misbehaviour, but I found neither work very well for me. I think part of the reason may be that I lack the requisite Referent and Position Power as the teacher (Olsen & Nielsen, 2009). Over the course of my placement my students responded less and less to my low-key responses and two individuals were engaging in attention-seeking behaviour that escalated to power struggles with me. Stepping back to consider what had gotten us to that point, I believe there are actions I could have taken at an earlier stage which may have prevented the deterioration of our working relationship.
As a humanist teacher, I place great emphasis on attending to students' needs (Krause et al., 2003, p. 173). I believe my greatest challenge in teaching is behaviour management, and I see clear links between the behaviour of some of my students and my inability to cater to their needs. Specifically, I believe a number of my students required greater attention to their need for belongingness and love (see Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, in Krause et al., 2003, p. 174). According to Maslow's hierarchy, this need is more basic than the need for knowledge; meaning until a sense of belonging is established, learning cannot take place. Below are a couple of examples of how I saw this theory evidenced in my classroom.
Z* had recently moved to our school after leaving two local independent schools (I suspect for behaviour-related reasons). This was the first time that Z* had been in a co-ed school, and the novelty of being around the opposite sex had not worn off. But in addition to the novelty of a co-ed school, and I believe more importantly, Z* was still establishing his sense of belonging both in the school and in our classroom. If this fact had occurred to me earlier I would have made more of an effort to help Z* establish his place in our class.
On the day of the activity, Z* and two other students in our class were involved in an external issue which caused a significant distraction. This issue resulted in the removal of one of the other students, which was unfortunate as she had previously been quite engaged and had compiled very useful information during her research. She would have been a valuable contributor to the group activity had she been able to stay. This issue created for me a feeling of powerlessness. It reminded me that I only see my students for one twenty-fourth of their day; and that much that happens in their lives is out of my control. I have struggled to identify any measures I might have taken to minimise the impact of this scenario, save removing the students, which works against my wish to promote their sense of belonging, and also precludes any chance of them learning from a "live" activity such as this. Thus I find myself caught between pragmatism and idealism - according to my ideal, I would rather keep the students in the class and foster a safe and secure environment, however when the need arises to take action against a behaviour concern, my options in terms of practical measures clash with my ideal.
B* also could have benefited from a stronger sense of belonging. Unlike Z*, B* had been at the school for some time, but did not value education as being relevant to his life. B*, with support from his family, was "riding out" his time in compulsory education and was as a result chronically disengaged. That said, since this was an elective unit B* must have had some interest in the content to have chosen the unit in the first place. I would have liked to have connected to his interest more effectively and hope that would have gone some way to re-engaging him. Unfortunately, he seemed to have developed an active dislike of me, which my mentor teacher suspected was rooted in his need for predictability and stability, which my arrival had upset. Perhaps with more time to establish a relationship and get used to each other, B* and I could have had greater success, but in three weeks that was not to be. In the context of this learning activity in particular, had I taken greater care with my distribution of roles, B* might have been tempted to engage with the activity. As the distribution fell, B* received the role of priest, which did not interest him. Had I given him a gorier role such as blood-letter or surgeon, he may have been more interested in his part.
The "Medieval Medical Marketplace" activity, or my implementation of it, also had an effect on the class's behaviour. Ordinarily the class is arranged in a teacher-mandated seating plan, which my mentor had implemented prior to my arrival. Under the seating plan, the students were arranged at desks of four, separating gregarious or disruptive students. By contrast, on the day of the activity I had the furniture arranged into a U-shape, to be more reflective of a market environment and more conducive to student movement around the "market". Unfortunately an unintended side-effect was the sense of freedom that the lack of a seating plan seemed to give the students. This freedom, combined with the fact that the class was the last for the week, at 2pm on a Thursday, led to a general air of frivolity. Had the task been more heavily scaffolded and required a greater measure of accountability, I might have counteracted this atmosphere; but my own lack of scaffolding undoubtedly led to a general feeling that the lesson was not "serious".
Assessment of Learning:
My assessment of the students' learning during the role-play was based on their verbal interaction. I roamed around the classroom during the entire activity, systematically working my way around the room to ensure I overheard every student. R*, who was the most successful healer, illustrated his grasp of his role well, prescribing treatments for patients that were generally realistic, though perhaps too closely related to modern day treatments to fully demonstrate his understanding of the medieval apothecary tradition (for example, applying ice to an injured arm).
T*, a boisterous and distractable student, was unfortunately absent for the two research lessons, but still managed to display some evidence of his learning from the previous week of the unit during the activity. When I asked T* midway through the lesson how he was going, he said "I've got my roof fixed and dinner cooked for a week!", by which he illustrated his understanding of the economic system in which a medieval apothecary operated. He had bartered these services as payment for his treatments of two patients. I found this a very encouraging comment, as it illustrated his grasp of the commercial nature of his profession. Considering he had missed out on the research lessons, I was pleased at his performance and his understanding, if not of the methods an apothecary used, then at least of the bigger picture.
Overall, I felt the "Medieval Medical Marketplace" activity was a useful critical incident for me to analyse because it was a combination of success and failure. Although the transformation of my content knowledge into a teachable activity was a success (Nilsson, 2009, p. 241), the incident illustrated for me the practical results of my own weaknesses, such as how a lack of scaffolding and accountability risks behavioural challenges that can threaten to sink an otherwise effective lesson plan.
Attachments:
Lesson Sequence
Mind Map
Powerpoint for "Body Count" narrative exercise
Example of student's creative response to "Body Count" exercise
References:
Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training, (2008) Every Chance To Learn Curriculum Framework http://activated.act.edu.au/ectl/resources/ECTL_Framework.pdf
Hammerness, K., Darling-Hammond, L., & Shulman, L. (2001) 'Towards Expert Thinking: How Case-Writing Contributes to the Development of Theory-Based Professional Knowledge in Student-Teachers'. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 10-14 April 2001
Krause, K., Bochner, S. & Duchesne, S. (2003) Educational Psychology for learning and teaching. Southbank: Thomson Learning
Learning By Design (2008). http://newlearningonline.com/learning-by-design/
Nilsson, P. (2009) 'From lesson plan to new comprehension: exploring student teachers' pedagogical reasoning in learning about teaching', European Journal of Teacher Education, 32:3, 239 - 258
Olsen, J. & Nielsen, T.W. (2006). Holistic Discipline . Pearson.
Ritchhart, R., & Perkins, D. (2008) 'Making Thinking Visible', in Educational Leadership, February 2008, Volume 65, Number 5, pp. 57-61
Shulman, L. (1987) "Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform". Harvard Educational Review. Vol. 57, No. 1, February 1987.
William Glasser Institute. (2010). http://www.wglasser.com/
I have chosen to explore this critical incident as for me it is an example of "an incident that had been particularly successful, unsuccessful, surprising or revealing" (Hammerness et al, 2001, p. 6). This incident was, for me, all of the above. My success was in making history interesting and engaging for my students. I was unsuccessful, however, in assessing whether my students really learnt what I intended; and in managing their behaviour. The incident was surprising in that it revealed to me the extent to which I must focus on providing high quality scaffolding, even for senior students; and revealing in that on reflection, it has shown me both my strengths and my weaknesses.
My mentor teacher taught a senior (years nine and ten) elective History class called “Medieval Life” and asked me to design a three-week unit to teach between units on castles and food. This gave me the opportunity to determine what content I believed was important to an understanding of medieval history, but that was missing from her semester-long course. I elected to construct my mini-unit on Medieval Medicine, in which the students learnt about the Galenic theory of the four humors, common medieval illnesses and remedies, and the Black Death of 1346-51. This unit would address the following outcomes, taken from the placement school's course outline:
"The student:
- Understands the relationship between geographical context and particular world issues and events
- Identifies sources and collects data and information in systematic ways
- Manages, organises and evaluates data and information in order to draw conclusions consistent with this data"
The unit also worked towards standard outcomes including:
"6.LA.1: routinely use ICT to enhance their ability to research and learn through inquiry, with an understanding that using ICT can enable broader inquiry and access to a wide variety of information, opinions and perspectives
2.LA.11: draw conclusions that are consistent with the data or information and provide evidence or supporting details
23.LA.5: the relationship between geographical context and particular world issues and events"
(ACT DET)
My critical incident took place in the second week of the three-week long unit. To see the lesson sequence, click here.
The content was intrinsically interesting for most students in the class, who were particularly interested in the many implausible medieval treatments. As the class was made up of many verbal and kinesthetic learners (Gardner, in Krause et al., 2003, p. 201), I designed two role-play activities in which students took on the role of a medieval European. The first, which I entitled "Medieval Medical Marketplace", is the focus of this assignment. Roughly one-third of the class were given the part of various healers, including surgeons, nuns, apothecaries, blood-letters and the like, whilst the other two-thirds played patients with bubonic plague, St. Vitus’ Dance, leprosy, an injured arm, St. Anthony’s Fire, and so on. I distributed the roles strategically, giving the healer parts to the most engaged students in order to extend them.
The students were given two lessons of research time in the computer labs in which I presented a short-list of recommended websites on the class’s homepage and a list of "Research Goals" (questions based on their character in the role-play, such as "How did I learn my profession?" and "What are the selling points of my approach?"). I collected the students' books after the research lessons in order to assess the depth of their research, before returning them for the role-play.
For the next lesson, we rearranged the classroom furniture into a U-shape to create a marketplace in which each of the patients spoke to each of the healers, gathered information on each healer’s practice and recommended treatments, and judged which healer they would prefer to treat their affliction. The patients then reported to the rest of the class which healer they chose and why. I took a tally of the business gained by each healer, and the most successful healer was rewarded with a small toy.
The Medieval Medical Marketplace activity was, I believe, valuable for illustrating to the students the nature of medieval medical knowledges. The requirement for all patients to speak to all healers meant that every student was exposed to many medical traditions and methods, much like in an “Expert Groups” style cooperative learning activity. The patients were required to report to the class at the end of the role play, with the healer they had chosen to treat them, and their reasoning. This report functioned as a formative assessment for me, in the same way that the various healers’ diagnoses and prescriptions demonstrated the depth of their understanding.
Mentor Teacher's Feedback
My mentor teacher provided feedback after the first of the research lessons, intimating that there was a lack of appropriate scaffolding in my preparation of the lesson. Many of my recommended websites were text-heavy, which proved to be a challenge for the students. Some prior discussion about appropriate reading strategies for websites would have been beneficial, to remind students to skim their websites, assess the importance of elements of the text and focus only on those areas they deemed important. Instead, many students focused on only one website's information, when my aim was for them to visit many sites and therefore gain a much broader picture of medieval medicine. For this reason I booked a second research lesson in which I further refined my instructions and highlighted for the students that they would not need to read everything on the websites. During the second lesson I also provided more explicit information on the purpose of their research, giving them specific questions to answer rather than the first lesson's overly simple instruction to take notes on their role.
My mentor's feedback on the role play lesson itself was brief but encouraging. She focussed on the behaviour management challenges which I will explore later in this assignment, but did not discuss my pedagogy or assessment strategies, which are the focus of this assignment.
Interpretation of Critical Incident
My initial reflection on this incident is represented here (click to view larger):
The class were predominantly white students from middle and lower socio-economic status families, and, being aged between fifteen and sixteen years old, were in transition between Piaget's concrete operations and formal operations stages of development (Krause et al., 2003, pp. 47-53). My decision to use a role play activity was based on the knowledge that a large number of my students were what Howard Gardner would call verbal/linguistic and kinesthetic learners (Krause et al., 2003, pp.201), and several also had strong interpersonal intelligence. We also had one student with an undiagnosed learning difficulty and one student from a language background other than English; my intention was that the activity would provide these two students with a 'break' from what had been a fairly listening and writing intensive unit, with plenty of new vocabulary to digest. I took care when distributing the roles to give these two students roles that would link to their existing knowledge. The first student's low literacy level impeded her research somewhat, but I feel the role-play exercise benefitted her as she was exposed to the results of all the other students' research as well as her own, and her verbal/oral processing is sound, meaning she learnt more effectively from the other students' presentations than she would have done from her own research. The second student had an opportunity to talk about our content matter with his peers, in a safe and supportive environment that allowed him to show his understanding without the impediment of written language to slow him down.
I chose the role-play activity with an eye to exploring forms of cooperative learning. I was influenced by methods such as Jigsaw and Expert Groups, which require all members of the group to have completed their individual contribution for the good of the whole group (Krause et al., 2003, p. 185). I felt that this approach would be an efficient way in which to cover a very broad area of knowledge, since the content could be stretched in a number of different directions. Specifically, I intended on covering the medieval Catholic Church's beliefs about illness and healing, the similarities and differences between medieval and modern-day healing, the barter system, the range of choice available to the ruling classes and the lack thereof for peasants. This widely varying content could fill much longer than my three-week unit, so I elected to present it in this Jigsaw-style role play activity to allow students to become 'experts' in one area, and receive other experts' knowledge about the other areas.
My school subscribes to the "Learning By Design" theory of learning, so in an effort to ensure consistency for my students, and expose myself to a new theory of curriculum design, I approached this learning activity with the Learning By Design principles in mind. Our prior discussion of superstitions, as well as our "Noisy Round Robin" brainstorming exercise on medieval medicine, linked to the students knowledge in what Learning By Design refers to as "Experiencing the Known" (see the Learning By Design planning placemat here). This involves creating links to what the students already know about a topic to "switch them on" and prepare them for new information. I found this was particularly important to this unit of work, since medieval medicine is far removed from the students' everyday lives in many ways, and their previous exposure to it was almost non-existent.
My research lessons were based on the Learning By Design "Experiencing the New" principle, as students' research goals were grounded in finding out new information about their profession or illness. There was an element of linkage to their prior knowledge built into this lesson, since the patients were instructed to research the modern-day treatment for their illness as well as the medieval treatment, and for many of them that treatment was somewhat familiar.
The role-play activity was a combination of "Applying Appropriately" and "Analysing Functionally and Critically". The healers applied what they had learnt in the research lesson by acting out their role, employing the knowledge they had gathered in the research lesson to explain to patients the advantages of their treatment, their personal history of how they came to know their profession (for example, "My father was an apothecary and I worked with him from when I was eight years old") and to "sell" their services. I framed the exercise around the need to "sell" their services in order to highlight the credibility or validity of the various medical traditions. The students had hitherto been highly critical of medieval treatments, to the point of derision. Asking them to identify at least three benefits of their profession's approach therefore required them to think more positively about their topic - akin to them donning de Bono's yellow hat (see de Bono Thinking Systems).
The patients analysed the new information presented to them in the process of evaluating their healers' services. At the end of the activity they were required to explain to the class the healer they had chosen and why, based on the "sales pitch" that the healers had presented. This choice required evaluation of the effectiveness of the various healers' approaches, which the patients based on their understanding of both medieval and modern-day medical treatments, which they had learnt in the research lessons.
Although the lesson was relatively successful, I identified plenty of room for improvement, most importantly in the areas of assessment of learning and behaviour management. The lesson was under-scaffolded and lacked accountability measures. If I were to conduct this lesson again, I would provide the patients with a proforma on which to record their consultations and to help them evaluate the healers. This could then be submitted at the end of class, allowing me to assess the depth of their thinking during the activity, and also communicating to them that there is an element of accountability. This would then, hopefully, motivate them to stay on task, and give me tangible proof of their learning.
Behavioural Theories:
My mentor teacher advocated use of Glasser's "Choice Theory" for behaviour management, and also recommended low-intensity responses to misbehaviour, but I found neither work very well for me. I think part of the reason may be that I lack the requisite Referent and Position Power as the teacher (Olsen & Nielsen, 2009). Over the course of my placement my students responded less and less to my low-key responses and two individuals were engaging in attention-seeking behaviour that escalated to power struggles with me. Stepping back to consider what had gotten us to that point, I believe there are actions I could have taken at an earlier stage which may have prevented the deterioration of our working relationship.
As a humanist teacher, I place great emphasis on attending to students' needs (Krause et al., 2003, p. 173). I believe my greatest challenge in teaching is behaviour management, and I see clear links between the behaviour of some of my students and my inability to cater to their needs. Specifically, I believe a number of my students required greater attention to their need for belongingness and love (see Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, in Krause et al., 2003, p. 174). According to Maslow's hierarchy, this need is more basic than the need for knowledge; meaning until a sense of belonging is established, learning cannot take place. Below are a couple of examples of how I saw this theory evidenced in my classroom.
Z* had recently moved to our school after leaving two local independent schools (I suspect for behaviour-related reasons). This was the first time that Z* had been in a co-ed school, and the novelty of being around the opposite sex had not worn off. But in addition to the novelty of a co-ed school, and I believe more importantly, Z* was still establishing his sense of belonging both in the school and in our classroom. If this fact had occurred to me earlier I would have made more of an effort to help Z* establish his place in our class.
On the day of the activity, Z* and two other students in our class were involved in an external issue which caused a significant distraction. This issue resulted in the removal of one of the other students, which was unfortunate as she had previously been quite engaged and had compiled very useful information during her research. She would have been a valuable contributor to the group activity had she been able to stay. This issue created for me a feeling of powerlessness. It reminded me that I only see my students for one twenty-fourth of their day; and that much that happens in their lives is out of my control. I have struggled to identify any measures I might have taken to minimise the impact of this scenario, save removing the students, which works against my wish to promote their sense of belonging, and also precludes any chance of them learning from a "live" activity such as this. Thus I find myself caught between pragmatism and idealism - according to my ideal, I would rather keep the students in the class and foster a safe and secure environment, however when the need arises to take action against a behaviour concern, my options in terms of practical measures clash with my ideal.
B* also could have benefited from a stronger sense of belonging. Unlike Z*, B* had been at the school for some time, but did not value education as being relevant to his life. B*, with support from his family, was "riding out" his time in compulsory education and was as a result chronically disengaged. That said, since this was an elective unit B* must have had some interest in the content to have chosen the unit in the first place. I would have liked to have connected to his interest more effectively and hope that would have gone some way to re-engaging him. Unfortunately, he seemed to have developed an active dislike of me, which my mentor teacher suspected was rooted in his need for predictability and stability, which my arrival had upset. Perhaps with more time to establish a relationship and get used to each other, B* and I could have had greater success, but in three weeks that was not to be. In the context of this learning activity in particular, had I taken greater care with my distribution of roles, B* might have been tempted to engage with the activity. As the distribution fell, B* received the role of priest, which did not interest him. Had I given him a gorier role such as blood-letter or surgeon, he may have been more interested in his part.
The "Medieval Medical Marketplace" activity, or my implementation of it, also had an effect on the class's behaviour. Ordinarily the class is arranged in a teacher-mandated seating plan, which my mentor had implemented prior to my arrival. Under the seating plan, the students were arranged at desks of four, separating gregarious or disruptive students. By contrast, on the day of the activity I had the furniture arranged into a U-shape, to be more reflective of a market environment and more conducive to student movement around the "market". Unfortunately an unintended side-effect was the sense of freedom that the lack of a seating plan seemed to give the students. This freedom, combined with the fact that the class was the last for the week, at 2pm on a Thursday, led to a general air of frivolity. Had the task been more heavily scaffolded and required a greater measure of accountability, I might have counteracted this atmosphere; but my own lack of scaffolding undoubtedly led to a general feeling that the lesson was not "serious".
Assessment of Learning:
My assessment of the students' learning during the role-play was based on their verbal interaction. I roamed around the classroom during the entire activity, systematically working my way around the room to ensure I overheard every student. R*, who was the most successful healer, illustrated his grasp of his role well, prescribing treatments for patients that were generally realistic, though perhaps too closely related to modern day treatments to fully demonstrate his understanding of the medieval apothecary tradition (for example, applying ice to an injured arm).
T*, a boisterous and distractable student, was unfortunately absent for the two research lessons, but still managed to display some evidence of his learning from the previous week of the unit during the activity. When I asked T* midway through the lesson how he was going, he said "I've got my roof fixed and dinner cooked for a week!", by which he illustrated his understanding of the economic system in which a medieval apothecary operated. He had bartered these services as payment for his treatments of two patients. I found this a very encouraging comment, as it illustrated his grasp of the commercial nature of his profession. Considering he had missed out on the research lessons, I was pleased at his performance and his understanding, if not of the methods an apothecary used, then at least of the bigger picture.
Overall, I felt the "Medieval Medical Marketplace" activity was a useful critical incident for me to analyse because it was a combination of success and failure. Although the transformation of my content knowledge into a teachable activity was a success (Nilsson, 2009, p. 241), the incident illustrated for me the practical results of my own weaknesses, such as how a lack of scaffolding and accountability risks behavioural challenges that can threaten to sink an otherwise effective lesson plan.
Attachments:
Lesson Sequence
Mind Map
Powerpoint for "Body Count" narrative exercise
Example of student's creative response to "Body Count" exercise
References:
Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training, (2008) Every Chance To Learn Curriculum Framework http://activated.act.edu.au/ectl/resources/ECTL_Framework.pdf
Hammerness, K., Darling-Hammond, L., & Shulman, L. (2001) 'Towards Expert Thinking: How Case-Writing Contributes to the Development of Theory-Based Professional Knowledge in Student-Teachers'. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 10-14 April 2001
Krause, K., Bochner, S. & Duchesne, S. (2003) Educational Psychology for learning and teaching. Southbank: Thomson Learning
Learning By Design (2008). http://newlearningonline.com/learning-by-design/
Nilsson, P. (2009) 'From lesson plan to new comprehension: exploring student teachers' pedagogical reasoning in learning about teaching', European Journal of Teacher Education, 32:3, 239 - 258
Olsen, J. & Nielsen, T.W. (2006). Holistic Discipline . Pearson.
Ritchhart, R., & Perkins, D. (2008) 'Making Thinking Visible', in Educational Leadership, February 2008, Volume 65, Number 5, pp. 57-61
Shulman, L. (1987) "Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform". Harvard Educational Review. Vol. 57, No. 1, February 1987.
William Glasser Institute. (2010). http://www.wglasser.com/
Monday, October 25, 2010
Fearing the demise of a long-beloved friend
I'm feeling a little defeated this afternoon, by the one thing that's never let me down before. Reading.
I am a voracious reader. I love it. I can't sit down for breakfast of a morning without something in front of me to read, whether it be the newspaper, a magazine, junk mail, random letters, anything. I deliberately choose certain toilet cubicles based on the knowledge that they have advertising material on the back of the door, or a large amount of graffiti on the walls. I used to go to the library during recess and lunch when I was in primary school. Come to think of it, I did it a fair bit in high school too. My mother had to complain to the principal when the librarian tried to close the primary school library at recess, because I was so distraught. I exhausted my borrowing quota at primary school, and started hiding books strategically behind other books, so that nobody else could borrow them while I was reading them.
I. Love. Reading.
Now I'm teaching at a school that encourages students to read by enforcing a thirty minute "Silent Reading" period at the beginning of every English class. When I first started I thought this was great. But I'm increasingly wondering if it's actually having the reverse effect from that it's intended for. A number of the students, and the number can be quite large on any given day, hate Silent Reading and make it a chore for most of the half hour allotted to it. They complain that all the books in the room are boring, or that they hate reading. Some would rather sit and stare blankly into space for half an hour, than read. This breaks my heart.
But, I'm wondering if MAKING them read, FORCING them to read, is the answer. What if they respond to it in the same way I responded to forced physical education when I was in school, and never go near it again after their schooling is done? Are we doing them a disservice by forcing reading down their throat?
I think we are. But that doesn't mean I don't think we should be making them read - we just have to find a way to make it more meaningful, more accessible, more enjoyable. For one thing, by broadening the range of texts substantially. Their choice is pretty much limited to teen/young adult fiction, mainly novels. What if there were a selection of other texts at their disposal? There are a couple of comics, but what about graphic novels, short stories, poetry, information texts, travel writing, biographies, histories, other non-fiction?
Would the broader choice be enough to lure them back to reading? Or is something more required?
I am a voracious reader. I love it. I can't sit down for breakfast of a morning without something in front of me to read, whether it be the newspaper, a magazine, junk mail, random letters, anything. I deliberately choose certain toilet cubicles based on the knowledge that they have advertising material on the back of the door, or a large amount of graffiti on the walls. I used to go to the library during recess and lunch when I was in primary school. Come to think of it, I did it a fair bit in high school too. My mother had to complain to the principal when the librarian tried to close the primary school library at recess, because I was so distraught. I exhausted my borrowing quota at primary school, and started hiding books strategically behind other books, so that nobody else could borrow them while I was reading them.
I. Love. Reading.
Now I'm teaching at a school that encourages students to read by enforcing a thirty minute "Silent Reading" period at the beginning of every English class. When I first started I thought this was great. But I'm increasingly wondering if it's actually having the reverse effect from that it's intended for. A number of the students, and the number can be quite large on any given day, hate Silent Reading and make it a chore for most of the half hour allotted to it. They complain that all the books in the room are boring, or that they hate reading. Some would rather sit and stare blankly into space for half an hour, than read. This breaks my heart.
But, I'm wondering if MAKING them read, FORCING them to read, is the answer. What if they respond to it in the same way I responded to forced physical education when I was in school, and never go near it again after their schooling is done? Are we doing them a disservice by forcing reading down their throat?
I think we are. But that doesn't mean I don't think we should be making them read - we just have to find a way to make it more meaningful, more accessible, more enjoyable. For one thing, by broadening the range of texts substantially. Their choice is pretty much limited to teen/young adult fiction, mainly novels. What if there were a selection of other texts at their disposal? There are a couple of comics, but what about graphic novels, short stories, poetry, information texts, travel writing, biographies, histories, other non-fiction?
Would the broader choice be enough to lure them back to reading? Or is something more required?
Monday, October 18, 2010
Mid-Prac Exhaustion
I'm three weeks into my prac, with two weeks to go. I'm feeling flat tonight, having sensed my mentor teacher's possible disappointment with some aspects of my performance. There's no doubting I put the hours in when it comes to preparation - I have my lesson plans chunked down into 10-20 minute intervals, addressing learing outcomes, taking inspiration from my school's favoured unit planning framework, allowing space for reflection, and so on. But my weak point appears to be behaviour management. It's not so much that I don't know what to do, but that in someone else's classroom, with someone else's rules, I don't feel comfortable enforcing my expectations.
In my placement I'm teaching two different teacher's classes; one teacher is laid-back, cruisy, with a level of patience I envy and a seeming ability to tune out from the noise level of the classroom. Her students are boisterous, chatty, cheeky, and often just plain rude - but loveable nonetheless. My other teacher seems to accept less "problem" behaviour, and expects me to as well, which is fine by me - but I don't seem to have the control I need in her classroom. Students disregard my instructions or answer back, and I'm reluctant to escalate my response to the point of a power struggle, when a low-key response should be enough.
*sigh*
I'm also finding that I need to provide far more scaffolding than I anticipate - even for older students who I would have thought were capable of being more autonomous than they are. I seem to keep failing to chunk tasks down into small enough bites for them to manage - but I feel like I'm holding all their hands through tasks that really shouldn't need as much structure and scaffolding as I have to provide. What I'm wondering is, at what point does scaffolding become hand-holding?
In my placement I'm teaching two different teacher's classes; one teacher is laid-back, cruisy, with a level of patience I envy and a seeming ability to tune out from the noise level of the classroom. Her students are boisterous, chatty, cheeky, and often just plain rude - but loveable nonetheless. My other teacher seems to accept less "problem" behaviour, and expects me to as well, which is fine by me - but I don't seem to have the control I need in her classroom. Students disregard my instructions or answer back, and I'm reluctant to escalate my response to the point of a power struggle, when a low-key response should be enough.
*sigh*
I'm also finding that I need to provide far more scaffolding than I anticipate - even for older students who I would have thought were capable of being more autonomous than they are. I seem to keep failing to chunk tasks down into small enough bites for them to manage - but I feel like I'm holding all their hands through tasks that really shouldn't need as much structure and scaffolding as I have to provide. What I'm wondering is, at what point does scaffolding become hand-holding?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Mini-Lesson Reflection
What Happened?
I opened the lesson with a brief review of the questions history students should ask about a source. The questions were presented on a Powerpoint slide and I briefly read them out, before moving on to the new question for the day, which was “What is my attitude?” This question was designed to get students thinking about their own perspective and how it affects their interpretation of a historical source.
The lesson activity involved considering the same quote, as though it was spoken by a number of different historical personalities including Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King, Jnr., Germaine Greer, and others. The activity progressed well, with almost all of the students contributing a view on one or more of the subjects. Their views varied sufficiently to illustrate the extent to which our individual opinion of a speaker influences our interpretation of their quote, actions and motivations.
After discussing the hypothetical speakers and unveiling the true identity of the source (Adolf Hitler), I asked the class to pair up for sixty seconds and brainstorm some of the factors of their life that contribute to their individual perspective. After the minute was over, I asked students to name some of these factors. Fortunately most of the factors named were ones I had prepared for my next slide; although I had a couple that the class did not name, such as our chronological context (referred to in the lesson as ‘time’ or ‘era’) and nationality (though this was touched on in terms of ‘place’).
Following the brainstorm, I asked students what good historians, when considering a source, should do with the factors that make up their perspective. We agreed that you could not get rid of them entirely, but I suggested that they “pack them away in your prejudice box” in an effort to be as objective as possible. At this point I ended the lesson.
What worked?
My repeated linkage between the activity, the quote and the overarching unit of Revolutions was good for reiterating for students the relationship between concepts.
I responded well to Steven's "bowel movement" comment about Andy Warhol, and the ensuing laughter. By laughing along with the students and thanking Steven for using a euphemism, as well as rephrasing his comment to suggest his opinion of Warhol’s art influenced his perception of the quote, I did not allow a minor disruption to become a classroom management issue.
Similarly, I recast Tom’s comments about Constantine to reflect his opinion of the quote – that is, his skepticism of the quote being attributed to Constantine.
My response to Tahlia’s comment on Martin Luther King, Jnr. worked to lead her into continuing to explain her position. Rather than moving on to the next student, I allowed her time to further explore her thoughts on King’s actions and get a little deeper into her perspective on King.
Two students made unexpected contributions to the discussion about Hitler, noting that his definitions of “popular” and of “human” differed from those we would expect from other speakers, such as Martin Luther King, Jnr. The students’ knowledge of Hitler’s actions clearly affected their interpretation of his language, on a word-by-word basis, which was a perfect example of perspective for this exercise.
The class was clearly surprised to learn that the quote was in fact from Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf. This reaction was exactly what I had hoped to elicit by showing them how positive and inspiring the quote can sound when attributed to someone that the average Australian has respect for (such as Martin Luther King, Jnr.) and how manipulative and ambitious it sounds when attributed to someone that we are taught to deplore, such as Hitler.
Since the class had fortuitously also been presented a mini-lesson on Nazi propaganda before my mini-lesson, I was able to link the subject quote to their prior learning a number of times, particularly when discussing the totalitarian leaders Mao Zedong and Hitler. This was not a planned link, but one that I was able to make on the day in much the same way as I would in a real classroom, linking to units that I was aware the students had covered, not only in SOSE but in any other discipline area or in their everyday lives.
When I asked the class to pair up and discuss their perspectives, I gave them a time limit of only sixty seconds. This was deliberately short, as I only needed each pair to come up with one or two factors that affect their perspectives, and I wanted to ensure they stayed on-topic and that their discussions did not have time to stray beyond the task. I find that students are often given too long to discuss content in groups, and after the first minute or so they begin to get off-topic. I would rather ask after sixty seconds “Are we finished?” and be asked for longer, than to let discussions ramble on for five minutes with no deeper learning achieved.
I made a positive statement in response to most student’s contributions to the class discussion, giving them recognition for their contributions and thanking them for their comments; however, I need to broaden my variety of responses beyond “Very good” and “excellent”, which I over-used.
Giles made an interesting observation about how our “immediate context” affects our perspective. I asked him “Can you elaborate on that?” which I think was a good response to encourage him to clarify and expand on his comment. This sounds better, to me, than “What/how do you mean?”
What I would do differently:
At the opening of the lesson, I should have involved the class in the review of the previous lesson, by asking them to contribute the questions they should ask about sources. Each of the four questions I had on the Smart Board could have been contributed by one of the students, rather than me, which would then have made this introduction a chance for formative assessment of the previous lesson.
I feel that I need to be more physically animated and project my voice more. In a well-behaved university group, my voice is fairly audible; but in a normal secondary school class I would expect more background noise to be competing with my voice. I also need to make an effort with my body language to create a more engaging and interesting “performance”. I had my hands in my pockets quite a lot, which gave the effect of me looking unenthused with the subject matter, which is not the case.
My mini-lesson lacked a substantial conclusion, which I have known is a fault in my teaching since my first practicum placement. I seem to find it hard to conclude effectively, and my lessons seem to end quite abruptly. Part of my lesson planning in future will have to include a concluding statement to help prompt myself and train myself into a habit of properly concluding activities and lessons, reviewing the contents of the lesson, foreshadowing the next lesson, assigning homework or raising anything else that needs to be discussed before releasing students.
My Thinking
This mini-lesson on Perspective was designed with both the ACT’s “Every Chance To Learn” curriculum framework, the “Problematic Knowledge” component of the Quality Teaching Model (McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 51) and the National Curriculum’s history skills in mind. The activity, which calls on students to examine how their own attitudes affect their interpretation of historical sources, was designed to encourage students to think about their own thinking, and learn to analyse their own thoughts as well as source materials. This analysis would form part of their growing metacognitive ability.
The lesson was developed in order to present information in a variety of modes – verbally, written and with visual images, and through both whole-class and small group discussion. This was not designed with an eye to catering to different “learning styles”, as criticized by Scott (“The enduring appeal of ‘learning styles’”, 2010), but rather with the intention of creating an interactive and engaging classroom dialogue.
The lesson required minimal resources. It was delivered with a Powerpoint presentation projected onto the classroom’s interactive whiteboard, but the entire lesson’s activities could have been performed without ICTs if they were not available. Photocopies of the quote could have been distributed; and images of the hypothetical speakers were intended only to help prompt students’ memories in case the names were not enough, but were nonetheless included as supplementary, rather than necessary, material, and as such could have been omitted if resources were an obstacle.
The group discussion depended upon a certain level of prior knowledge amongst the students for conversations about the various historical personalities to successfully take place; however, it was designed to form a part of a unit of work on Revolutions which would have introduced many of the personalities mentioned. I also chose personalities whose place in history I felt I could “sum up” for the students in a single sentence if they were unfamiliar with the personality. The repetition of the activity also allowed for skipping a personality entirely if students could not contribute to an informed discussion about the hypothetical speaker, and the activity could easily be edited to include more recognizable speakers if required, for instance in a mixed-ability class that lacked the prior knowledge, or if students lacked the cultural capital to take part.
The whole-class and small group conversations were intended to take place within a quality learning environment (McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 46) in which students felt they were safe, respected, and that their opinions were valued. The concept being taught, “Perspective”, was also chosen to support the values promoted by the Quality Teaching model, such as “recognition of difference” (McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 46). The concept also provides an opportunity to develop and encourage the values promoted by the “Values for Australian Schooling”, particularly that of “Understanding, Tolerance and Inclusion”, and also reinforcing the value of “Freedom” as defined by that document. (Australian Government, Department of Education, Science & Training, in McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 139) The use of hypothetical speakers such as Mao Zedong and Adolf Hitler serve to strengthen students’ value of democracy and freedom by providing a contrast to the Australian way of life.
Sources
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2009). Draft Australian Curriculum. www.acara.edu.au
Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training. (2010). Every Chance To Learn: Curriculum Framework for ACT schools preschool to year 10. http://activated.act.edu.au/ectl/resources/ECTL_Framework.pdf
Marsh, C. (2008). Studies of Society and Environment: Exploring the Teaching Possibilities. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.
McLeod, J. H., & Reynolds, R. (2007) Quality Teaching for Quality Learning. South Melbourne, VIC: Thomson Social Science Press.
Scott, C. (2010). The enduring appeal of ‘learning styles’. Australian Journal of Education, Vol. 54(1), 5-17.
I opened the lesson with a brief review of the questions history students should ask about a source. The questions were presented on a Powerpoint slide and I briefly read them out, before moving on to the new question for the day, which was “What is my attitude?” This question was designed to get students thinking about their own perspective and how it affects their interpretation of a historical source.
The lesson activity involved considering the same quote, as though it was spoken by a number of different historical personalities including Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King, Jnr., Germaine Greer, and others. The activity progressed well, with almost all of the students contributing a view on one or more of the subjects. Their views varied sufficiently to illustrate the extent to which our individual opinion of a speaker influences our interpretation of their quote, actions and motivations.
After discussing the hypothetical speakers and unveiling the true identity of the source (Adolf Hitler), I asked the class to pair up for sixty seconds and brainstorm some of the factors of their life that contribute to their individual perspective. After the minute was over, I asked students to name some of these factors. Fortunately most of the factors named were ones I had prepared for my next slide; although I had a couple that the class did not name, such as our chronological context (referred to in the lesson as ‘time’ or ‘era’) and nationality (though this was touched on in terms of ‘place’).
Following the brainstorm, I asked students what good historians, when considering a source, should do with the factors that make up their perspective. We agreed that you could not get rid of them entirely, but I suggested that they “pack them away in your prejudice box” in an effort to be as objective as possible. At this point I ended the lesson.
What worked?
My repeated linkage between the activity, the quote and the overarching unit of Revolutions was good for reiterating for students the relationship between concepts.
I responded well to Steven's "bowel movement" comment about Andy Warhol, and the ensuing laughter. By laughing along with the students and thanking Steven for using a euphemism, as well as rephrasing his comment to suggest his opinion of Warhol’s art influenced his perception of the quote, I did not allow a minor disruption to become a classroom management issue.
Similarly, I recast Tom’s comments about Constantine to reflect his opinion of the quote – that is, his skepticism of the quote being attributed to Constantine.
My response to Tahlia’s comment on Martin Luther King, Jnr. worked to lead her into continuing to explain her position. Rather than moving on to the next student, I allowed her time to further explore her thoughts on King’s actions and get a little deeper into her perspective on King.
Two students made unexpected contributions to the discussion about Hitler, noting that his definitions of “popular” and of “human” differed from those we would expect from other speakers, such as Martin Luther King, Jnr. The students’ knowledge of Hitler’s actions clearly affected their interpretation of his language, on a word-by-word basis, which was a perfect example of perspective for this exercise.
The class was clearly surprised to learn that the quote was in fact from Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf. This reaction was exactly what I had hoped to elicit by showing them how positive and inspiring the quote can sound when attributed to someone that the average Australian has respect for (such as Martin Luther King, Jnr.) and how manipulative and ambitious it sounds when attributed to someone that we are taught to deplore, such as Hitler.
Since the class had fortuitously also been presented a mini-lesson on Nazi propaganda before my mini-lesson, I was able to link the subject quote to their prior learning a number of times, particularly when discussing the totalitarian leaders Mao Zedong and Hitler. This was not a planned link, but one that I was able to make on the day in much the same way as I would in a real classroom, linking to units that I was aware the students had covered, not only in SOSE but in any other discipline area or in their everyday lives.
When I asked the class to pair up and discuss their perspectives, I gave them a time limit of only sixty seconds. This was deliberately short, as I only needed each pair to come up with one or two factors that affect their perspectives, and I wanted to ensure they stayed on-topic and that their discussions did not have time to stray beyond the task. I find that students are often given too long to discuss content in groups, and after the first minute or so they begin to get off-topic. I would rather ask after sixty seconds “Are we finished?” and be asked for longer, than to let discussions ramble on for five minutes with no deeper learning achieved.
I made a positive statement in response to most student’s contributions to the class discussion, giving them recognition for their contributions and thanking them for their comments; however, I need to broaden my variety of responses beyond “Very good” and “excellent”, which I over-used.
Giles made an interesting observation about how our “immediate context” affects our perspective. I asked him “Can you elaborate on that?” which I think was a good response to encourage him to clarify and expand on his comment. This sounds better, to me, than “What/how do you mean?”
What I would do differently:
At the opening of the lesson, I should have involved the class in the review of the previous lesson, by asking them to contribute the questions they should ask about sources. Each of the four questions I had on the Smart Board could have been contributed by one of the students, rather than me, which would then have made this introduction a chance for formative assessment of the previous lesson.
I feel that I need to be more physically animated and project my voice more. In a well-behaved university group, my voice is fairly audible; but in a normal secondary school class I would expect more background noise to be competing with my voice. I also need to make an effort with my body language to create a more engaging and interesting “performance”. I had my hands in my pockets quite a lot, which gave the effect of me looking unenthused with the subject matter, which is not the case.
My mini-lesson lacked a substantial conclusion, which I have known is a fault in my teaching since my first practicum placement. I seem to find it hard to conclude effectively, and my lessons seem to end quite abruptly. Part of my lesson planning in future will have to include a concluding statement to help prompt myself and train myself into a habit of properly concluding activities and lessons, reviewing the contents of the lesson, foreshadowing the next lesson, assigning homework or raising anything else that needs to be discussed before releasing students.
My Thinking
This mini-lesson on Perspective was designed with both the ACT’s “Every Chance To Learn” curriculum framework, the “Problematic Knowledge” component of the Quality Teaching Model (McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 51) and the National Curriculum’s history skills in mind. The activity, which calls on students to examine how their own attitudes affect their interpretation of historical sources, was designed to encourage students to think about their own thinking, and learn to analyse their own thoughts as well as source materials. This analysis would form part of their growing metacognitive ability.
The lesson was developed in order to present information in a variety of modes – verbally, written and with visual images, and through both whole-class and small group discussion. This was not designed with an eye to catering to different “learning styles”, as criticized by Scott (“The enduring appeal of ‘learning styles’”, 2010), but rather with the intention of creating an interactive and engaging classroom dialogue.
The lesson required minimal resources. It was delivered with a Powerpoint presentation projected onto the classroom’s interactive whiteboard, but the entire lesson’s activities could have been performed without ICTs if they were not available. Photocopies of the quote could have been distributed; and images of the hypothetical speakers were intended only to help prompt students’ memories in case the names were not enough, but were nonetheless included as supplementary, rather than necessary, material, and as such could have been omitted if resources were an obstacle.
The group discussion depended upon a certain level of prior knowledge amongst the students for conversations about the various historical personalities to successfully take place; however, it was designed to form a part of a unit of work on Revolutions which would have introduced many of the personalities mentioned. I also chose personalities whose place in history I felt I could “sum up” for the students in a single sentence if they were unfamiliar with the personality. The repetition of the activity also allowed for skipping a personality entirely if students could not contribute to an informed discussion about the hypothetical speaker, and the activity could easily be edited to include more recognizable speakers if required, for instance in a mixed-ability class that lacked the prior knowledge, or if students lacked the cultural capital to take part.
The whole-class and small group conversations were intended to take place within a quality learning environment (McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 46) in which students felt they were safe, respected, and that their opinions were valued. The concept being taught, “Perspective”, was also chosen to support the values promoted by the Quality Teaching model, such as “recognition of difference” (McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 46). The concept also provides an opportunity to develop and encourage the values promoted by the “Values for Australian Schooling”, particularly that of “Understanding, Tolerance and Inclusion”, and also reinforcing the value of “Freedom” as defined by that document. (Australian Government, Department of Education, Science & Training, in McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 139) The use of hypothetical speakers such as Mao Zedong and Adolf Hitler serve to strengthen students’ value of democracy and freedom by providing a contrast to the Australian way of life.
Sources
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2009). Draft Australian Curriculum. www.acara.edu.au
Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training. (2010). Every Chance To Learn: Curriculum Framework for ACT schools preschool to year 10. http://activated.act.edu.au/ectl/resources/ECTL_Framework.pdf
Marsh, C. (2008). Studies of Society and Environment: Exploring the Teaching Possibilities. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.
McLeod, J. H., & Reynolds, R. (2007) Quality Teaching for Quality Learning. South Melbourne, VIC: Thomson Social Science Press.
Scott, C. (2010). The enduring appeal of ‘learning styles’. Australian Journal of Education, Vol. 54(1), 5-17.
A Critical Friend's Response To My "Perspective" Mini-Lesson
"As a student in Shannon's lesson on perspective I responded positively to the lesson and its format. Shannon has a very friendly, but calming manner.
Shannon used the smart board and included visual stimulus so that each time she introduced a new historical person the students could put a face to a name. This was an effective tool to use.
Shannon engaged the class through prompting questions. When brainstorming with the class Shannon encouraged the students to share their ideas and praised their responses. This enabled a positive classroom environment and also helped students to feel that she valued their opinions as an integral part of her teaching.
A couple of points of reflection for Shannon: I would suggest moving around the classroom more. This helps to engage the students more and make them feel like it is more of a relaxed atmosphere.
In terms of the activity I would have liked to have seen more scaffolding around the task. At times I got a little confused about what exactely we were doing each time the quote came up.
I think I would have been helped if Shannon had have had an individual slide that clearly articulated exactely what the task was.
Lastly, I did not have much knowledge on who Constantine was. For next time, maybe it is worth having famous people that year 9 students would definately have know and potentially studied previously."
Shannon used the smart board and included visual stimulus so that each time she introduced a new historical person the students could put a face to a name. This was an effective tool to use.
Shannon engaged the class through prompting questions. When brainstorming with the class Shannon encouraged the students to share their ideas and praised their responses. This enabled a positive classroom environment and also helped students to feel that she valued their opinions as an integral part of her teaching.
A couple of points of reflection for Shannon: I would suggest moving around the classroom more. This helps to engage the students more and make them feel like it is more of a relaxed atmosphere.
In terms of the activity I would have liked to have seen more scaffolding around the task. At times I got a little confused about what exactely we were doing each time the quote came up.
I think I would have been helped if Shannon had have had an individual slide that clearly articulated exactely what the task was.
Lastly, I did not have much knowledge on who Constantine was. For next time, maybe it is worth having famous people that year 9 students would definately have know and potentially studied previously."
Friday, September 10, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
STS Mini-Lesson Planning
Lesson Title: Perspective
Lesson Plan:
Intended Outcomes:
Students will learn that their own perspective affects their interpretation of a source.
Students will learn how to identify their own perspectives.
Every Chance to Learn ELAs:
ELA 1: The student uses a range of strategies to think and learn
ELA 2: The student understands and applies the inquiry process
ELA 11: The student critically interprets and creates texts
ELA 22: The student understands and values what it means to be a citizen within a democracy
This mini-lesson also engages with the "Problematic Knowledge" component of the Quality Teaching Model (McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 51), and the following skills from the National History Curriculum:
H9SK3: Identify the origin, purpose and context of historical sources
H9SK6: Identify and analyse the different actions, motives, values and attitudes of people from the past
H9SK7: Identify and account for differing perspectives and historical interpretations
Importance of Learning:
It is important for students to recognise the power of individual factors such as gender, socio-economic status, context in place and time, culture, political opinions, religious faith, and so on, to influence their perspective and that of other people. An understanding of the nature of individual perspective will encourage a more compassionate and tolerant understanding of the perspectives of others.
Future Learning:
This mini-lesson can form part of a larger unit of study on almost any topic within the History discipline, but was developed with an eye to forming part of a unit of study on Revolutions. It is not intended to be an introduction lesson to the unit, but a mid-way point at which some of the key concepts and agents have been identified, allowing for some background knowledge to inform students' group discussions during the mini-lesson.
Lesson Resources:
- Teacher-developed Powerpoint
- Projection device eg. Interactive Whiteboard
Existing Student Understandings:
Students have begun to explore Revolutions within their Modern History course. It is assumed that students have a basic knowledge of the historical identities discussed in the mini-lesson, including Martin Luther King, Jnr., Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedung and Germaine Greer. Identification of some other personalities used in the presentation, such as Andy Warhol and Lady Gaga, rely on non-historical cultural capital; but this knowledge is not intergral to a student's understanding of the concept of perspective.
Possible Teaching/Learning Difficulties:
Lack of knowledge of any of the featured historical identities may impede the impact of the lesson. I am relying on at least one student knowing each personality in the presentation; but at a Year Nine level I hope this assumption is not unreasonable.
Teaching Strategies:
It should be clear from the group discussion whether any students do not understand the purpose of the lesson. My decision to choose personalities like Lady Gaga and Germaine Greer was taken to highlight the extent to which an individual's attitude to a source affects their interpretation of the source; but if the Lady Gaga example does not work as expected, I will invite comment on sources that the students would judge differently.
Teaching Considerations:
This activity may not work with certain demographics of students. If a large number of the students are from non-English speaking backgrounds or are recent arrivals to Australia, they may lack the cultural capital to engage with the discussion effectively. If this were the case, I would attempt to include a number of personalities that I might expect those students to be aware of; or change the activity entirely. If students with special needs are present, I would adjust my teaching strategy to accommodate their needs more inclusively. I hope that the activity would engage students with challenging behaviours, as it invites their comment and opinion in a non-judgmental environment and welcomes conflicting opinions for maximum effect.
Sources:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2009). Draft Australian Curriculum www.acara.edu.au
McLeod, J. H., & Reynolds, R. (2007) Quality Teaching for Quality Learning. South Melbourne, VIC: Thomson Social Science Press.
Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training. (2010). Every Chance To Learn: Curriculum Framework for ACT schools preschool to year 10. http://activated.act.edu.au/ectl/resources/ECTL_Framework.pdf
Lesson Plan:
Intended Outcomes:
Students will learn that their own perspective affects their interpretation of a source.
Students will learn how to identify their own perspectives.
Every Chance to Learn ELAs:
ELA 1: The student uses a range of strategies to think and learn
ELA 2: The student understands and applies the inquiry process
ELA 11: The student critically interprets and creates texts
ELA 22: The student understands and values what it means to be a citizen within a democracy
This mini-lesson also engages with the "Problematic Knowledge" component of the Quality Teaching Model (McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 51), and the following skills from the National History Curriculum:
H9SK3: Identify the origin, purpose and context of historical sources
H9SK6: Identify and analyse the different actions, motives, values and attitudes of people from the past
H9SK7: Identify and account for differing perspectives and historical interpretations
Importance of Learning:
It is important for students to recognise the power of individual factors such as gender, socio-economic status, context in place and time, culture, political opinions, religious faith, and so on, to influence their perspective and that of other people. An understanding of the nature of individual perspective will encourage a more compassionate and tolerant understanding of the perspectives of others.
Future Learning:
This mini-lesson can form part of a larger unit of study on almost any topic within the History discipline, but was developed with an eye to forming part of a unit of study on Revolutions. It is not intended to be an introduction lesson to the unit, but a mid-way point at which some of the key concepts and agents have been identified, allowing for some background knowledge to inform students' group discussions during the mini-lesson.
Lesson Resources:
- Teacher-developed Powerpoint
- Projection device eg. Interactive Whiteboard
Existing Student Understandings:
Students have begun to explore Revolutions within their Modern History course. It is assumed that students have a basic knowledge of the historical identities discussed in the mini-lesson, including Martin Luther King, Jnr., Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedung and Germaine Greer. Identification of some other personalities used in the presentation, such as Andy Warhol and Lady Gaga, rely on non-historical cultural capital; but this knowledge is not intergral to a student's understanding of the concept of perspective.
Possible Teaching/Learning Difficulties:
Lack of knowledge of any of the featured historical identities may impede the impact of the lesson. I am relying on at least one student knowing each personality in the presentation; but at a Year Nine level I hope this assumption is not unreasonable.
Teaching Strategies:
It should be clear from the group discussion whether any students do not understand the purpose of the lesson. My decision to choose personalities like Lady Gaga and Germaine Greer was taken to highlight the extent to which an individual's attitude to a source affects their interpretation of the source; but if the Lady Gaga example does not work as expected, I will invite comment on sources that the students would judge differently.
Teaching Considerations:
This activity may not work with certain demographics of students. If a large number of the students are from non-English speaking backgrounds or are recent arrivals to Australia, they may lack the cultural capital to engage with the discussion effectively. If this were the case, I would attempt to include a number of personalities that I might expect those students to be aware of; or change the activity entirely. If students with special needs are present, I would adjust my teaching strategy to accommodate their needs more inclusively. I hope that the activity would engage students with challenging behaviours, as it invites their comment and opinion in a non-judgmental environment and welcomes conflicting opinions for maximum effect.
Sources:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2009). Draft Australian Curriculum www.acara.edu.au
McLeod, J. H., & Reynolds, R. (2007) Quality Teaching for Quality Learning. South Melbourne, VIC: Thomson Social Science Press.
Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training. (2010). Every Chance To Learn: Curriculum Framework for ACT schools preschool to year 10. http://activated.act.edu.au/ectl/resources/ECTL_Framework.pdf
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Teaching Manners?
A recent altercation with a very rude person has led me to muse on the place of manners in education. As with so many elements in a young person's social development, the line between the parent's role and that of the teacher is very blurry when it comes to issues such as manners. Of course we can reinforce good interpersonal skills through modelling the 'right' or 'nice' way to interact; but I wonder whether, as with so many other skills, social skills need to be explicitly taught?
Take metacognition, for example. Throughout my teacher education course I've been struck by how often we are encouraged to teach students to think about thinking, to analyse their own learning, be able to characterise it in order to see how best they can help themselves learn. More and more often, skills like this are being highlighted, explicitly identified as something we need to teach students; the implication is that we cannot expect them to think about thinking on their own.
Is there a similar need for expliit discussion of social skills?
Take metacognition, for example. Throughout my teacher education course I've been struck by how often we are encouraged to teach students to think about thinking, to analyse their own learning, be able to characterise it in order to see how best they can help themselves learn. More and more often, skills like this are being highlighted, explicitly identified as something we need to teach students; the implication is that we cannot expect them to think about thinking on their own.
Is there a similar need for expliit discussion of social skills?
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Reflecting on BSSS History rationale
The BSSS's rationale for the study of History in years 11 and 12 makes perfect sense to me. I like that emphasis is placed on the role of history in shaping an individual's sense of where they fit in the world, as well as shaping their understanding of cultural heritages and why values and beliefs vary from one culture to another.
I'm also pleased to see that the rationale calls attention to the fallibility of history, its flexibility of interpretation and that various theoretical approaches to history, be they feminist history, Marxist, post-colonial, marginalised, indigenous and so on, can both illuminate history from another angle and problematise some elements of history.
The rationale compares quite closely with my own reason for teaching history. I've always found it an interesting topic and one that sheds light on the modern world and how we live today. I like that looking at the world through an historians' eyes helps us to be more accepting of different cultures, more tolerant, and yet at the same time more critical and analytical. The old adage rings true: "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
I'm also pleased to see that the rationale calls attention to the fallibility of history, its flexibility of interpretation and that various theoretical approaches to history, be they feminist history, Marxist, post-colonial, marginalised, indigenous and so on, can both illuminate history from another angle and problematise some elements of history.
The rationale compares quite closely with my own reason for teaching history. I've always found it an interesting topic and one that sheds light on the modern world and how we live today. I like that looking at the world through an historians' eyes helps us to be more accepting of different cultures, more tolerant, and yet at the same time more critical and analytical. The old adage rings true: "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
A definition of History
Reading the NSW Board of Studies History syllabus, I quite liked the introduction to the discipline of history. It's not often I actually am struck by an eloquent, all-encompassing yet realistic piece of text like this in such formal documents:
"History is a disciplined process of inquiry into the past that allows students to locate themselves in the broad continuum of human experience. It enables students to appreciate and enjoy the human endeavours and achievements of the past, both for their own intrinsic interest and for their legacy to later generations. History provides opportunities for students to explore human actions in a range of historical contexts and encourages them to develop understanding of motivation, causation, consequence and empathy.
The study of history provides the intellectual skills to enable students to critically analyse and interpret sources of evidence in order to construct reasoned explanations, hypotheses about the past and a rational and informed argument. History also enables students to understand, deconstruct and evaluate differing interpretations of the past. The cognitive skills of analysis, evaluation and synthesis underpin the study of history and equip students with the ability to
understand and evaluate the political, cultural and social events and issues that have shaped the world around them.
"History is a disciplined process of inquiry into the past that allows students to locate themselves in the broad continuum of human experience. It enables students to appreciate and enjoy the human endeavours and achievements of the past, both for their own intrinsic interest and for their legacy to later generations. History provides opportunities for students to explore human actions in a range of historical contexts and encourages them to develop understanding of motivation, causation, consequence and empathy.
The study of history provides the intellectual skills to enable students to critically analyse and interpret sources of evidence in order to construct reasoned explanations, hypotheses about the past and a rational and informed argument. History also enables students to understand, deconstruct and evaluate differing interpretations of the past. The cognitive skills of analysis, evaluation and synthesis underpin the study of history and equip students with the ability to
understand and evaluate the political, cultural and social events and issues that have shaped the world around them.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
ELPC2: Task of the Week 1
Initial Thoughts
As an English teacher I am probably one of the more enthusiastic about our course content. I can understand teachers of other subjects having some misgivings about being expected to teach reading, with the amount of time pressures we all have and the seemingly endless list of topics we're expected to cover with our students, however I truly believe without the ability to read and write our students will be lost. So I'm looking forward to this course equipping me with more skills to help my students read.
My Own Early Literacy Experiences
I can't remember a lot about learning to read, and what I do remember I realise are received memories from my parents. They've told stories ever since I can remember about my conscientious nature (that was my teachers' pet word in ALL my school reports). When I was 4, my two preschool teachers passed one another a book over my head, and as it went past I read the upside down title out loud, to their surprise. We have various home videos of myself and my little sister reading (or trying to); I can't sit down for breakfast even now without some kind of text in front of me. I read the graffiti on toilet walls; catalogues and other junk mail; menu boards at cafes; road signs and so on. I can't help myself! I don't remember reading ever feeling like a challenge, I think it came fairly naturally to me.
Chapter One of Tovani
I've enjoyed Tovani's first chapter, especially her introduction of the "proficient readers" techniques, and generally I have high expectations of this unit. I really enjoyed her linking the chapter on viruses to the fat man sneezing on her; I think linking concepts and content to real life is so important, not just in reading but in engaging students in any subject.
Initial Thoughts on a Research Subject
My research subject for assessment one is my partner. He doesn't particularly enjoy reading and being a fairly practical, hands-on sort of bloke he is not drawn to sitting down with a book like I am. I'm hoping to learn from him not just about his reading experiences, but on a broader level how I can engage my male students who aren't as academically inclined.
As an English teacher I am probably one of the more enthusiastic about our course content. I can understand teachers of other subjects having some misgivings about being expected to teach reading, with the amount of time pressures we all have and the seemingly endless list of topics we're expected to cover with our students, however I truly believe without the ability to read and write our students will be lost. So I'm looking forward to this course equipping me with more skills to help my students read.
My Own Early Literacy Experiences
I can't remember a lot about learning to read, and what I do remember I realise are received memories from my parents. They've told stories ever since I can remember about my conscientious nature (that was my teachers' pet word in ALL my school reports). When I was 4, my two preschool teachers passed one another a book over my head, and as it went past I read the upside down title out loud, to their surprise. We have various home videos of myself and my little sister reading (or trying to); I can't sit down for breakfast even now without some kind of text in front of me. I read the graffiti on toilet walls; catalogues and other junk mail; menu boards at cafes; road signs and so on. I can't help myself! I don't remember reading ever feeling like a challenge, I think it came fairly naturally to me.
Chapter One of Tovani
I've enjoyed Tovani's first chapter, especially her introduction of the "proficient readers" techniques, and generally I have high expectations of this unit. I really enjoyed her linking the chapter on viruses to the fat man sneezing on her; I think linking concepts and content to real life is so important, not just in reading but in engaging students in any subject.
Initial Thoughts on a Research Subject
My research subject for assessment one is my partner. He doesn't particularly enjoy reading and being a fairly practical, hands-on sort of bloke he is not drawn to sitting down with a book like I am. I'm hoping to learn from him not just about his reading experiences, but on a broader level how I can engage my male students who aren't as academically inclined.
Friday, July 30, 2010
RINE Final Summary: Teen Pregnancy
Teenage Pregnancy Final Research Journal Summary
Approximately one in twenty births in Australia is to a mother between the ages of fifteen and nineteen years old (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007, in Education Queensland, 2009). Giving birth while still of school age can severely affect a young parent’s education and her future prospects, as well as those of her offspring. The link between parental educational attainment and that of offspring has been established (Krause et al., 2003, p. 283); therefore it is imperative that educators create the best opportunities possible for pregnant and parenting teens to continue their education for as long as possible, to improve not only their students’ post-school outcomes, but those of their children. This essay will explore the additional needs of pregnant and parenting students and ways in which educational bodies can provide inclusive education for pregnant and parenting students.
In a study of the factors that contribute to a teen’s decision whether to terminate or continue her pregnancy, Ann Evans identified a strong link between a student’s level of academic achievement and her decision regarding her pregnancy. Students who habitually achieved higher grades were more likely to choose to terminate their pregnancy, whilst poorly achieving students were more likely to carry their baby to term (Evans, 2004, p. 32). Their decisions were influenced by other factors of course, including religion, living arrangements, socio-economic status, cultural and linguistic background, their age at conception and their aspirations for the future. However, there can be no doubt that a student’s attachment to their education has an important role to play in her decision. Therefore, the better educators can maintain a student’s engagement in her education, the less likely she is to leave school due to parenthood. Of course, her many challenges post-birth will make her ongoing education ever more difficult; so educators must mitigate these challenges to the best of their abilities in order to ensure her ongoing education.
Pregnant teenagers face dramatic disturbances to their education from a variety of factors, including absenteeism, physical symptoms of pregnancy such as morning sickness and fatigue, absence surrounding the birth of the child, and emotional stresses including fear, stress and family conflict. Young parents face even more challenges after birth: ongoing fatigue, logistical problems such as transport and childcare, changed living arrangements, distraction, stress, social isolation, vastly altered priorities, changed life aspirations, and much more. Our task as educators is to mitigate the educational impact of these challenges to the best of our ability, by providing flexible and inclusive education options. Some educators have made great headway into inclusive education for pregnant and parenting teens, including a number of Australian schools and educational bodies which can serve as role models for the wider educational community.
CCCares is an excellent example of an educational institution that has gone the extra mile to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment for pregnant and parenting students. The college provides a “best practice model for pregnant and parenting students to access education … Year 12 Certification; goal oriented learning packages, on-line learning and employability skills.” (CCCares @ Canberra College, 2010) Its facilities include play and sleep rooms, change rooms, a medical suite, outside play areas and two minibuses to provide transport to and from school for the students and their children. Its programs include an “Adopt a Grandparent” scheme, a breakfast, morning tea and lunch program, childcare support, vocational course options, a dual control vehicle for driving lessons, and much more. The college exemplifies what can be provided to pregnant and parenting teams with a sufficient level of commitment and funding, as well as collaboration with community services and government agencies. With over eighty pregnant or parenting students, the college caters to a niche in the Australian Capital Territory educational system. Many of its programs and facilities would not be possible in an everyday school environment due to logistical challenges, lack of funding, and insufficient pregnant and parenting student numbers. However, many of the considerations the school makes for its parenting students are applicable in traditional school environments, for example, its e-learning options, collaboration with institutions such as TAFE to provide vocational courses to students; and the students’ ability to stretch their two-year college education over three years to lighten the load. Flexible learning options are probably the most easily applicable in any other educational environment, especially in the twenty-first century with our capabilities for e-learning.
Opportunities for inclusion and accommodation of pregnant and parenting students exist in every school, albeit more often in the form of positive and inclusive attitudes and flexibility than in physical amenities. Whereas a mainstream school can probably not supply an on-campus childcare facility, it can negotiate with pregnant and parenting students to create Individual Learning Plans, extend due dates on assessments, allow students to undertake less than a full-time study load and extend their schooling life, excuse higher levels of absenteeism and send schoolwork home, and so on. It can adopt a holistic approach to education, considering the benefits to the parenting teen of alternatives to traditional education such as vocational courses, or studies that are directly related to their parenting role, including First Aid courses or the Certificate III Community Services (Childcare) (Harrison, Shacklock, Kamp & Angwin, 2004, p. 11).
Pregnant and parenting teens come to school with a complex and ever-changing set of additional needs. Some of their needs are within the scope of the educational institution to provide, whereas some are logistically not possible. However, using tools such as Individual Learning Plans, a positive attitude to flexibility and inclusion, a “can-do” problem-solving approach, e-learning tools and collaboration with the wider community and government services, educators have many options for improving the educational outcomes of pregnant and parenting teens.
Source List
The Canberra College (2010), CCCares @ Canberra College, http://www.canberrac.act.edu.au/curriculum/cccares
Clayden, Peter. Using the power of partnership to address important educational and social welfare needs, Canberra College, 2009, http://www.canberrac.act.edu.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0019/122239/CCCares_Schools_First_conference_article_2010.doc
Flood, M., Greenspan, S., & Mundorf, N. (1985) School-Based Services for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents. Special Services in the Schools, 2(1), 27-44. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J008v02n01_03
Evans, Ann. Education and the resolution of teenage pregnancy in Australia [Paper in: Symposium on Women's Health, Hunt, Lynne and McNamarra, B (eds).] [online]. Health Sociology Review, 13(1), Sept 2004, pp. 27-42.
Harrison, L., Shacklock, G., Kamp, A., & Angwin, J. (2004) Taking your baby to school: The Young Parents Access Project at Corio Bay Senior College. Redress, May 2004, pp. 10-13.
Harrison, L., Angwin, J. & Shacklock, G. (2002) "Having a Baby and Being in School: Researching Pregnant and Parenting Young People and their Educational Transitions". Deakin University.
Krause, K., Bochner, S., & Duchesne, S. (2003) Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching. Southbank: Thomson.
Queensland Pregnant & Parenting Students Project, Redress, May 2004, pp. 7-9.
Viadero, D. Study Finds Teen Pregnancies On The Rise. Education Week 2010, 29(20), 4. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=48135020&site=ehost-live
Teenage pregnancy rate rises for the first time in ten years. (2009) Education 2009 (345), 1. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=36919545&site=ehost-live
The State of Queensland (Department of Education and Training) (2006). Pregnant and Parenting Students. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/studentservices/inclusive/gender/pregnant.html
Approximately one in twenty births in Australia is to a mother between the ages of fifteen and nineteen years old (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007, in Education Queensland, 2009). Giving birth while still of school age can severely affect a young parent’s education and her future prospects, as well as those of her offspring. The link between parental educational attainment and that of offspring has been established (Krause et al., 2003, p. 283); therefore it is imperative that educators create the best opportunities possible for pregnant and parenting teens to continue their education for as long as possible, to improve not only their students’ post-school outcomes, but those of their children. This essay will explore the additional needs of pregnant and parenting students and ways in which educational bodies can provide inclusive education for pregnant and parenting students.
In a study of the factors that contribute to a teen’s decision whether to terminate or continue her pregnancy, Ann Evans identified a strong link between a student’s level of academic achievement and her decision regarding her pregnancy. Students who habitually achieved higher grades were more likely to choose to terminate their pregnancy, whilst poorly achieving students were more likely to carry their baby to term (Evans, 2004, p. 32). Their decisions were influenced by other factors of course, including religion, living arrangements, socio-economic status, cultural and linguistic background, their age at conception and their aspirations for the future. However, there can be no doubt that a student’s attachment to their education has an important role to play in her decision. Therefore, the better educators can maintain a student’s engagement in her education, the less likely she is to leave school due to parenthood. Of course, her many challenges post-birth will make her ongoing education ever more difficult; so educators must mitigate these challenges to the best of their abilities in order to ensure her ongoing education.
Pregnant teenagers face dramatic disturbances to their education from a variety of factors, including absenteeism, physical symptoms of pregnancy such as morning sickness and fatigue, absence surrounding the birth of the child, and emotional stresses including fear, stress and family conflict. Young parents face even more challenges after birth: ongoing fatigue, logistical problems such as transport and childcare, changed living arrangements, distraction, stress, social isolation, vastly altered priorities, changed life aspirations, and much more. Our task as educators is to mitigate the educational impact of these challenges to the best of our ability, by providing flexible and inclusive education options. Some educators have made great headway into inclusive education for pregnant and parenting teens, including a number of Australian schools and educational bodies which can serve as role models for the wider educational community.
CCCares is an excellent example of an educational institution that has gone the extra mile to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment for pregnant and parenting students. The college provides a “best practice model for pregnant and parenting students to access education … Year 12 Certification; goal oriented learning packages, on-line learning and employability skills.” (CCCares @ Canberra College, 2010) Its facilities include play and sleep rooms, change rooms, a medical suite, outside play areas and two minibuses to provide transport to and from school for the students and their children. Its programs include an “Adopt a Grandparent” scheme, a breakfast, morning tea and lunch program, childcare support, vocational course options, a dual control vehicle for driving lessons, and much more. The college exemplifies what can be provided to pregnant and parenting teams with a sufficient level of commitment and funding, as well as collaboration with community services and government agencies. With over eighty pregnant or parenting students, the college caters to a niche in the Australian Capital Territory educational system. Many of its programs and facilities would not be possible in an everyday school environment due to logistical challenges, lack of funding, and insufficient pregnant and parenting student numbers. However, many of the considerations the school makes for its parenting students are applicable in traditional school environments, for example, its e-learning options, collaboration with institutions such as TAFE to provide vocational courses to students; and the students’ ability to stretch their two-year college education over three years to lighten the load. Flexible learning options are probably the most easily applicable in any other educational environment, especially in the twenty-first century with our capabilities for e-learning.
Opportunities for inclusion and accommodation of pregnant and parenting students exist in every school, albeit more often in the form of positive and inclusive attitudes and flexibility than in physical amenities. Whereas a mainstream school can probably not supply an on-campus childcare facility, it can negotiate with pregnant and parenting students to create Individual Learning Plans, extend due dates on assessments, allow students to undertake less than a full-time study load and extend their schooling life, excuse higher levels of absenteeism and send schoolwork home, and so on. It can adopt a holistic approach to education, considering the benefits to the parenting teen of alternatives to traditional education such as vocational courses, or studies that are directly related to their parenting role, including First Aid courses or the Certificate III Community Services (Childcare) (Harrison, Shacklock, Kamp & Angwin, 2004, p. 11).
Pregnant and parenting teens come to school with a complex and ever-changing set of additional needs. Some of their needs are within the scope of the educational institution to provide, whereas some are logistically not possible. However, using tools such as Individual Learning Plans, a positive attitude to flexibility and inclusion, a “can-do” problem-solving approach, e-learning tools and collaboration with the wider community and government services, educators have many options for improving the educational outcomes of pregnant and parenting teens.
Source List
The Canberra College (2010), CCCares @ Canberra College, http://www.canberrac.act.edu.au/curriculum/cccares
Clayden, Peter. Using the power of partnership to address important educational and social welfare needs, Canberra College, 2009, http://www.canberrac.act.edu.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0019/122239/CCCares_Schools_First_conference_article_2010.doc
Flood, M., Greenspan, S., & Mundorf, N. (1985) School-Based Services for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents. Special Services in the Schools, 2(1), 27-44. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J008v02n01_03
Evans, Ann. Education and the resolution of teenage pregnancy in Australia [Paper in: Symposium on Women's Health, Hunt, Lynne and McNamarra, B (eds).] [online]. Health Sociology Review, 13(1), Sept 2004, pp. 27-42.
Harrison, L., Shacklock, G., Kamp, A., & Angwin, J. (2004) Taking your baby to school: The Young Parents Access Project at Corio Bay Senior College. Redress, May 2004, pp. 10-13.
Harrison, L., Angwin, J. & Shacklock, G. (2002) "Having a Baby and Being in School: Researching Pregnant and Parenting Young People and their Educational Transitions". Deakin University.
Krause, K., Bochner, S., & Duchesne, S. (2003) Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching. Southbank: Thomson.
Queensland Pregnant & Parenting Students Project, Redress, May 2004, pp. 7-9.
Viadero, D. Study Finds Teen Pregnancies On The Rise. Education Week 2010, 29(20), 4. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=48135020&site=ehost-live
Teenage pregnancy rate rises for the first time in ten years. (2009) Education 2009 (345), 1. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=36919545&site=ehost-live
The State of Queensland (Department of Education and Training) (2006). Pregnant and Parenting Students. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/studentservices/inclusive/gender/pregnant.html
Thursday, July 29, 2010
RINE Final Summary: ADHD
AD/HD Final Research Journal Summary
The name Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or AD/HD, refers to a family of disorders which interfere with a person’s capacity to regulate their physical activity level (hyperactivity), inhibit their behaviour (impulsivity), and properly focus on tasks (inattention) (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000, in Rief, 2005, p. 4). The disorder has attracted controversy and has had its legitimacy questioned by some, who would reinterpret the problem behaviours exhibited by children with AD/HD as being simply energetic, lazy, naughty, and so on (Rief, 2005, p. 4). In spite of its detractors, the disorder has been identified as one of the most common additional needs in school-aged children, affecting between 2.3% and 6% of students (Krause, Bochner & Duchesne, 2003, p. 256). With such a high incidence rate, teachers can expect to teach approximately one student with AD/HD in every class. Therefore it is imperative that teachers are equipped to appropriately respond to this additional need.
Craig Wright offers several practical suggestions for accommodating students with AD/HD in an inclusive classroom environment. Students with AD/HD often experience deficient working memory and difficulty internalizing rules and expectations, so Wright recommends regular external reminders of school and classroom rules, such as with posters or other visual aids (Wright, 2006, p. 4). Wright also explains that working memory deficiency affects an individual’s perception of time, and as a result students with AD/HD often exhibit less goal-oriented behaviour. For educators, this may require a reevaluation of systems of long-term goals such as delayed rewards or large, ongoing assessment projects (Wright, 2006, p. 4). By breaking down tasks into smaller, more readily achievable components, we can scaffold a student with AD/HD’s eventual completion of the task. Similarly, when implementing behaviouralist rewards for behaviour, teachers should aim to minimize the time delay between the behaviour and the reinforcer (Wright, 2006, p. 4).
AD/HD can have a particularly detrimental effect on academic achievement when it impacts on a student’s literacy levels. Owing to their deficiency in working memory, many students with AD/HD experience difficulty reading, and comment that by the time they have read to the bottom of a page, they have forgotten what they had read at the top (Wright, 2006, p. 7). Wright recommends that students with AD/HD be explicitly taught “active reading” skills including strategies for note-taking, highlighting texts, making notes in margins and writing short summaries as they read (Wright, 2006, p. 7). Strategies such as these are useful study tools for all students, as are the above recommendations for posting class rules, breaking down tasks into smaller components, and establishing a strong link between behaviour and reinforcer when using positive and negative reinforcement for behaviour management (Wright, 2006, p. 4, and Krause et al., 2003. pp. 110-124).
Many of the above strategies for accommodating students with AD/HD in an inclusive learning environment fall under the framework of Universal Design for Learning (CAST). Scaffolding tasks by breaking them down into more management components, reinforcing rules and expectations, providing external motivation, encouraging “active reading”; these are all strategies that will benefit every student in any given class. Above all, ensuring lessons and tasks are interesting and engaging, thereby heightening a student with AD/HD’s state of arousal and hence their attention, is a goal teachers should be aspiring to wherever possible, and one which will benefit all students and provide a better quality educational experience (NSW DET, 2003, in McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 47).
Much of the literature surrounding AD/HD focuses on the early childhood and primary school years, with hopes that early intervention can minimize the disorder’s disruption in later life. However, as Noël Gregg asserts, the disorder is an enduring, life-long condition and requires ongoing efforts to accommodate it in secondary and tertiary settings. As a secondary school teacher, this is the domain in which I personally will encounter students with AD/HD. Gregg is particularly interested in the systemic discrimination in assessments for students with AD/HD; that is, how the formative and summative assessments that are commonly administered in secondary and tertiary education marginalize students with AD/HD.
Gregg has identified a number of areas in which students with AD/HD and related learning disorders are disadvantaged by secondary and tertiary education assessment structures. As the majority of high-stakes, standardized assessment in both America and Australia, such as college entrance exams, the HSC and NAPLAN are administered in an exam environment, they do not successfully accommodate students with AD/HD. These students’ reduced ability to focus on tedious tasks, as well as their lower inhibition, puts them at risk of underperforming in exam situations. However, reasonably simple accommodations could go a long way to inclusively assessing these students. They could be allowed regular breaks from exam conditions, or be able to sit the exams over multiple sessions; they could undertake exams in a less distracting environment or in an environment in which they are less likely to distract their neighbours. Other options are available for students with related and often co-morbid learning disabilities such as dyslexia, including providing a human or screen reader (Gregg, 2009, p. 232)
People with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder experience working memory deficiency, diminished inhibition and self control, and difficulty attending to tasks which do not provide adequate arousal. They have difficulty internalizing expectations, maintaining intrinsic motivation for tasks, and controlling impulsive behaviour. Students with AD/HD, and several other learning disabilities, benefit from a range of strategies for inclusion which fall within the Universal Design for Learning framework, meaning that teachers can accommodate their needs with methods that will benefit their entire class (CAST). Recasting medical descriptions of the disorder into considerations of its day-to-day impact, for example recognizing the impact of deficient working memory on activities such as reading and completing ongoing tasks, internalizing rules and expectations, and motivating goal-oriented behaviour, allows teachers to implement practical strategies to better include their students with AD/HD. These strategies include more structured scaffolding of tasks, breaking down projects into attainable chunks, reinforcing desirable behaviour, regular reminders of expectations, and explicit teaching of metacognitive strategies such as active reading. More research and consideration of inclusive assessment practices, especially in the secondary and tertiary fields, is required to improve inclusive education and, by extension, improve later life outcomes for adults with AD/HD.
Source List
Centre for Applied Special Technology (n.d.). What is Universal Design for Learning? Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/research/udl/index.html
Cherkes-Julkowski, M., Sharp, S., & Stolzenberg, J. (1997) Rethinking attention deficit disorders. Cambridge: Brookline Books.
Gregg, N. (2009) Adolescents and Adults with Learning Disabilities and ADHD: Assessment and Accommodation. New York: The Guilford Press.
Krause, K., Bochner, S., & Duchesne, S. (2003) Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching. Southbank: Thomson.
McLeod, J., & Reynolds, R. (2007) Quality Teaching for Quality Learning: Planning through Reflection. South Melbourne: Thomson Social Science Press.
Rief, S. (2005) How to reach and teach children with ADD/ADHD: practical techniques, strategies, and interventions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wright, C. (2006) "Practically Speaking: ADHD In The Classroom", Special Education Perspectives, 15(2), 3-8.
The name Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or AD/HD, refers to a family of disorders which interfere with a person’s capacity to regulate their physical activity level (hyperactivity), inhibit their behaviour (impulsivity), and properly focus on tasks (inattention) (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000, in Rief, 2005, p. 4). The disorder has attracted controversy and has had its legitimacy questioned by some, who would reinterpret the problem behaviours exhibited by children with AD/HD as being simply energetic, lazy, naughty, and so on (Rief, 2005, p. 4). In spite of its detractors, the disorder has been identified as one of the most common additional needs in school-aged children, affecting between 2.3% and 6% of students (Krause, Bochner & Duchesne, 2003, p. 256). With such a high incidence rate, teachers can expect to teach approximately one student with AD/HD in every class. Therefore it is imperative that teachers are equipped to appropriately respond to this additional need.
Craig Wright offers several practical suggestions for accommodating students with AD/HD in an inclusive classroom environment. Students with AD/HD often experience deficient working memory and difficulty internalizing rules and expectations, so Wright recommends regular external reminders of school and classroom rules, such as with posters or other visual aids (Wright, 2006, p. 4). Wright also explains that working memory deficiency affects an individual’s perception of time, and as a result students with AD/HD often exhibit less goal-oriented behaviour. For educators, this may require a reevaluation of systems of long-term goals such as delayed rewards or large, ongoing assessment projects (Wright, 2006, p. 4). By breaking down tasks into smaller, more readily achievable components, we can scaffold a student with AD/HD’s eventual completion of the task. Similarly, when implementing behaviouralist rewards for behaviour, teachers should aim to minimize the time delay between the behaviour and the reinforcer (Wright, 2006, p. 4).
AD/HD can have a particularly detrimental effect on academic achievement when it impacts on a student’s literacy levels. Owing to their deficiency in working memory, many students with AD/HD experience difficulty reading, and comment that by the time they have read to the bottom of a page, they have forgotten what they had read at the top (Wright, 2006, p. 7). Wright recommends that students with AD/HD be explicitly taught “active reading” skills including strategies for note-taking, highlighting texts, making notes in margins and writing short summaries as they read (Wright, 2006, p. 7). Strategies such as these are useful study tools for all students, as are the above recommendations for posting class rules, breaking down tasks into smaller components, and establishing a strong link between behaviour and reinforcer when using positive and negative reinforcement for behaviour management (Wright, 2006, p. 4, and Krause et al., 2003. pp. 110-124).
Many of the above strategies for accommodating students with AD/HD in an inclusive learning environment fall under the framework of Universal Design for Learning (CAST). Scaffolding tasks by breaking them down into more management components, reinforcing rules and expectations, providing external motivation, encouraging “active reading”; these are all strategies that will benefit every student in any given class. Above all, ensuring lessons and tasks are interesting and engaging, thereby heightening a student with AD/HD’s state of arousal and hence their attention, is a goal teachers should be aspiring to wherever possible, and one which will benefit all students and provide a better quality educational experience (NSW DET, 2003, in McLeod & Reynolds, 2007, p. 47).
Much of the literature surrounding AD/HD focuses on the early childhood and primary school years, with hopes that early intervention can minimize the disorder’s disruption in later life. However, as Noël Gregg asserts, the disorder is an enduring, life-long condition and requires ongoing efforts to accommodate it in secondary and tertiary settings. As a secondary school teacher, this is the domain in which I personally will encounter students with AD/HD. Gregg is particularly interested in the systemic discrimination in assessments for students with AD/HD; that is, how the formative and summative assessments that are commonly administered in secondary and tertiary education marginalize students with AD/HD.
Gregg has identified a number of areas in which students with AD/HD and related learning disorders are disadvantaged by secondary and tertiary education assessment structures. As the majority of high-stakes, standardized assessment in both America and Australia, such as college entrance exams, the HSC and NAPLAN are administered in an exam environment, they do not successfully accommodate students with AD/HD. These students’ reduced ability to focus on tedious tasks, as well as their lower inhibition, puts them at risk of underperforming in exam situations. However, reasonably simple accommodations could go a long way to inclusively assessing these students. They could be allowed regular breaks from exam conditions, or be able to sit the exams over multiple sessions; they could undertake exams in a less distracting environment or in an environment in which they are less likely to distract their neighbours. Other options are available for students with related and often co-morbid learning disabilities such as dyslexia, including providing a human or screen reader (Gregg, 2009, p. 232)
People with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder experience working memory deficiency, diminished inhibition and self control, and difficulty attending to tasks which do not provide adequate arousal. They have difficulty internalizing expectations, maintaining intrinsic motivation for tasks, and controlling impulsive behaviour. Students with AD/HD, and several other learning disabilities, benefit from a range of strategies for inclusion which fall within the Universal Design for Learning framework, meaning that teachers can accommodate their needs with methods that will benefit their entire class (CAST). Recasting medical descriptions of the disorder into considerations of its day-to-day impact, for example recognizing the impact of deficient working memory on activities such as reading and completing ongoing tasks, internalizing rules and expectations, and motivating goal-oriented behaviour, allows teachers to implement practical strategies to better include their students with AD/HD. These strategies include more structured scaffolding of tasks, breaking down projects into attainable chunks, reinforcing desirable behaviour, regular reminders of expectations, and explicit teaching of metacognitive strategies such as active reading. More research and consideration of inclusive assessment practices, especially in the secondary and tertiary fields, is required to improve inclusive education and, by extension, improve later life outcomes for adults with AD/HD.
Source List
Centre for Applied Special Technology (n.d.). What is Universal Design for Learning? Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/research/udl/index.html
Cherkes-Julkowski, M., Sharp, S., & Stolzenberg, J. (1997) Rethinking attention deficit disorders. Cambridge: Brookline Books.
Gregg, N. (2009) Adolescents and Adults with Learning Disabilities and ADHD: Assessment and Accommodation. New York: The Guilford Press.
Krause, K., Bochner, S., & Duchesne, S. (2003) Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching. Southbank: Thomson.
McLeod, J., & Reynolds, R. (2007) Quality Teaching for Quality Learning: Planning through Reflection. South Melbourne: Thomson Social Science Press.
Rief, S. (2005) How to reach and teach children with ADD/ADHD: practical techniques, strategies, and interventions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wright, C. (2006) "Practically Speaking: ADHD In The Classroom", Special Education Perspectives, 15(2), 3-8.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
RINE Research Journal 8: Teen Pregnancy
This article explores the relationship between various factors and the decision by a pregnant teenager to either abort or carry her baby to term. Interestingly, the article reports a correlation between a student's achievement levels and the student's decision-making. Those with higher achievement in school were more likely to abort, while students with low achievement were more likely to keep their baby (Evans, 2004, p. 32).
The survey revealed a number of associations between factors such as living arrangements, socio-economic status, cultural and linguistic background, religious beliefs, school achievement, age of the student at the time of the pregnancy, as well as geographical placement and aspirations, and the decision to terminate or continue the pregnancy.
For teachers, the most important factor, I feel, is the student's attachment to their schooling. Those with higher achievement levels, or higher aspirations for the future such as the hopes of completing Year 12 or entering tertiary studies, were more likely to terminate their pregnancy than students who were ambivalent towards their studies (Evans, 2004, pp. 32-36).
Source:
Evans, Ann. Education and the resolution of teenage pregnancy in Australia [Paper in: Symposium on Women's Health, Hunt, Lynne and McNamarra, Beverly (eds).] [online]. Health Sociology Review, v.13, no.1, Sept 2004: 27-42.
The survey revealed a number of associations between factors such as living arrangements, socio-economic status, cultural and linguistic background, religious beliefs, school achievement, age of the student at the time of the pregnancy, as well as geographical placement and aspirations, and the decision to terminate or continue the pregnancy.
For teachers, the most important factor, I feel, is the student's attachment to their schooling. Those with higher achievement levels, or higher aspirations for the future such as the hopes of completing Year 12 or entering tertiary studies, were more likely to terminate their pregnancy than students who were ambivalent towards their studies (Evans, 2004, pp. 32-36).
Source:
Evans, Ann. Education and the resolution of teenage pregnancy in Australia [Paper in: Symposium on Women's Health, Hunt, Lynne and McNamarra, Beverly (eds).] [online]. Health Sociology Review, v.13, no.1, Sept 2004: 27-42.
Friday, July 23, 2010
RINE Research Journal 7: AD/HD
Noël Gregg's "Adolescents and Adults with Learning Disabilities and ADHD: Assessment and Accommodation" attempts to redress the imbalance in the literature surrounding learning disabilities and ADHD. As Gregg asserts, the majority of studies and associated literature on ADHD focuses on early childhood and the primary years, in the hopes that early intervention can correct the impact of the disorder on later life. However Gregg believes that the disorder is a lifelong condition that requires accommodation in secondary, tertiary and adult education as well, and her book focuses on these later years.
As Gregg's book also deals with learning disabilities, students with ADHD are not the primary focus, however as with many "Universal Design for Learning" principles many of her ideas apply to both categories.
One area in which Gregg asserts students with ADHD are being marginalised is in standard, high-stakes assessment such as college entrance exams, NAPLAN and the like. Much standardised testing both in America and Australia is still largely based on written work, so they do not accommodate students with ADHD well, nor do they reflect their whole ability (Gregg, 2009, p. 128). Multiple intelligences are poorly catered for in written exam situations, and the requirement for sustained focus in a stressful, silent exam environment is particularly difficult for students with ADHD. This is one area in which accommodations are yet to be made, although relatively simple changes to procedure such as allowing breaks in exam settings, would no doubt assist students with inattention problems.
Source:
Gregg, N. (2009) Adolescents and Adults with Learning Disabilities and ADHD: Assessment and Accommodation. New York: The Guilford Press.
As Gregg's book also deals with learning disabilities, students with ADHD are not the primary focus, however as with many "Universal Design for Learning" principles many of her ideas apply to both categories.
One area in which Gregg asserts students with ADHD are being marginalised is in standard, high-stakes assessment such as college entrance exams, NAPLAN and the like. Much standardised testing both in America and Australia is still largely based on written work, so they do not accommodate students with ADHD well, nor do they reflect their whole ability (Gregg, 2009, p. 128). Multiple intelligences are poorly catered for in written exam situations, and the requirement for sustained focus in a stressful, silent exam environment is particularly difficult for students with ADHD. This is one area in which accommodations are yet to be made, although relatively simple changes to procedure such as allowing breaks in exam settings, would no doubt assist students with inattention problems.
Source:
Gregg, N. (2009) Adolescents and Adults with Learning Disabilities and ADHD: Assessment and Accommodation. New York: The Guilford Press.
RINE Research Journal 6: AD/HD
As my research steers away from the identification and classification of AD/HD towards real-world responses to it, I have been drawn to Craig Wright's short but helpful article "Practically Speaking: ADHD In The Classroom". Wright describes a number of traits common to children with AD/HD and links them to practical strategies and techniques that teachers can employ to assuage their impact on the student's learning.
I have been struck by the prevalence of Universal Design for Learning in many of the recommendations made for accommodating students with special needs, and this is especially the case for students with AD/HD. As Wright explains, issues such as working memory deficiency and a lack of internal motivation can be minimised with carefully scaffolded learning experiences. For example, since their lack of working memory affects a child with AD/HD's perception of time, they are less likely to show goal-oriented behaviour, especially when it comes to long term goals (Wright, 2006, p. 4). Teachers can adapt activities to a child with AD/HD simply by breaking tasks down into smaller, shorter term goals, which for the child with AD/HD are more easily attainable. This approach to scaffolding large tasks is undoubtably beneficial for all students who struggle with procrastination and the daunting task of a large school assignment.
Similarly, Wright identifies the student with AD/HD's lower ability to internalise rules (both classroom and school rules, as well as unwritten social rules and teacher/parent expectations). Frequent reminders, for example in the form of class rules posted on a wall or represented visually, will help to reinforce expectations (Wright, 2006, p. 4). Again, this concept will benefit all students in the class.
Wright also points out that students with AD/HD, owing to their working memory deficiency, sometimes have difficulty recalling information from their short term memory, particularly as they read texts. Some students comment that by the time they get to the bottom of a page, they have forgotten what was at the top. Wright recommends that "students with ADHD ... should be taught to become active readers ... [using] strategies such as highlighting ... underlining, writing notes ... and making ongoing summaries." (Wright, 2006, p. 7) This recommendation is clearly applicable to all secondary students and is an obvious example of Universal Design for Learning. Active reading is the key to getting the most out of any source during assignment research, yet it is a strategy that is allowed to develop on its own in many cases. By explicitly teaching this reading strategy to all students, teachers can scaffold students with AD/HD's literacy development at the same time as extending other student's research skills.
Source:
Wright, C. (2006) "Practically Speaking: ADHD In The Classroom", Special Education Perspectives, 15(2), 3-8.
I have been struck by the prevalence of Universal Design for Learning in many of the recommendations made for accommodating students with special needs, and this is especially the case for students with AD/HD. As Wright explains, issues such as working memory deficiency and a lack of internal motivation can be minimised with carefully scaffolded learning experiences. For example, since their lack of working memory affects a child with AD/HD's perception of time, they are less likely to show goal-oriented behaviour, especially when it comes to long term goals (Wright, 2006, p. 4). Teachers can adapt activities to a child with AD/HD simply by breaking tasks down into smaller, shorter term goals, which for the child with AD/HD are more easily attainable. This approach to scaffolding large tasks is undoubtably beneficial for all students who struggle with procrastination and the daunting task of a large school assignment.
Similarly, Wright identifies the student with AD/HD's lower ability to internalise rules (both classroom and school rules, as well as unwritten social rules and teacher/parent expectations). Frequent reminders, for example in the form of class rules posted on a wall or represented visually, will help to reinforce expectations (Wright, 2006, p. 4). Again, this concept will benefit all students in the class.
Wright also points out that students with AD/HD, owing to their working memory deficiency, sometimes have difficulty recalling information from their short term memory, particularly as they read texts. Some students comment that by the time they get to the bottom of a page, they have forgotten what was at the top. Wright recommends that "students with ADHD ... should be taught to become active readers ... [using] strategies such as highlighting ... underlining, writing notes ... and making ongoing summaries." (Wright, 2006, p. 7) This recommendation is clearly applicable to all secondary students and is an obvious example of Universal Design for Learning. Active reading is the key to getting the most out of any source during assignment research, yet it is a strategy that is allowed to develop on its own in many cases. By explicitly teaching this reading strategy to all students, teachers can scaffold students with AD/HD's literacy development at the same time as extending other student's research skills.
Source:
Wright, C. (2006) "Practically Speaking: ADHD In The Classroom", Special Education Perspectives, 15(2), 3-8.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
RINE Research Journal 5: Teen Pregnancy
Harrison, L., Angwin, J. & Shacklock, G. (2002) "Having a Baby and Being in School: Researching Pregnant and Parenting Young People and their Educational Transitions". Deakin University.
This paper introduced a study in progress on pregnant and parenting teens and education, and focused on the cultural assumptions made by the researchers in interviewing a sixteen year old mother named Jemma. The paper's researchers seem preoccupied to identify and disclose their own cultural baggage in order to get closer to some intangible, postmodern "Truth" about Jemma's story, but do touch on some issues that I hope to learn more about. Geoff Shacklock identifies what he calls three different storylines or narratives in Jemma's story: that of being a teenage parent, of being a student, and of finding an identity.
It is interesting to consider the 'storylines' in a teen parent's life through this lens, seeing three intertwining narratives that connect and affect one another. Jemma's struggle to come to terms with her pregnancy and her family's adjustments to accommodate her new baby and her live-in boyfriend become one narrative. Alongside this, Jemma's continuing engagement at school is becoming more and more interrupted, despite her evident desire to be just like everyone else. Finally her more complex narrative, that of finding an identity as "a mum, a student, a daughter, a partner, not to mention ... a 16 year old" highlights the intrinsic contradictions in her life. As Shacklock illustrates, these identities clash at times: "how can you be a good student if you miss class ... because you are tired from being up all night being a good mum to your sick child?" (Harrison et al., 2002).
Harrison et al's paper strays to far into self-reflection and postmodern pondering for my purposes, but it has given me a few other sources to follow up which may be of better use.
This paper introduced a study in progress on pregnant and parenting teens and education, and focused on the cultural assumptions made by the researchers in interviewing a sixteen year old mother named Jemma. The paper's researchers seem preoccupied to identify and disclose their own cultural baggage in order to get closer to some intangible, postmodern "Truth" about Jemma's story, but do touch on some issues that I hope to learn more about. Geoff Shacklock identifies what he calls three different storylines or narratives in Jemma's story: that of being a teenage parent, of being a student, and of finding an identity.
It is interesting to consider the 'storylines' in a teen parent's life through this lens, seeing three intertwining narratives that connect and affect one another. Jemma's struggle to come to terms with her pregnancy and her family's adjustments to accommodate her new baby and her live-in boyfriend become one narrative. Alongside this, Jemma's continuing engagement at school is becoming more and more interrupted, despite her evident desire to be just like everyone else. Finally her more complex narrative, that of finding an identity as "a mum, a student, a daughter, a partner, not to mention ... a 16 year old" highlights the intrinsic contradictions in her life. As Shacklock illustrates, these identities clash at times: "how can you be a good student if you miss class ... because you are tired from being up all night being a good mum to your sick child?" (Harrison et al., 2002).
Harrison et al's paper strays to far into self-reflection and postmodern pondering for my purposes, but it has given me a few other sources to follow up which may be of better use.
RINE Research Journal 4: Teen Pregnancy
The Queensland Government has a state-wide Pregnant and Parenting Student programme designed to assist schools in providing equitable education to pregnant and parenting teens. Their website, http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=13245, includes some interesting statistics on the incidence of teen pregnancies in Australia.
Click image to enlarge
As is, unfortunately, so often the case, a cursory glance at the Northern Territory's figures is jaw-dropping. Whereas births to teenage mothers accounts for approximately 4% of all births, births to Indigenous teenage mothers account for a staggering 20% of all Indigenous births. The gap is heartbreaking.
The site quoted, as a Queensland authority, focuses on Queensland initiatives for pregnant and parenting students. However these initiatives, like those of the CCCares program in Canberra, provide an excellent benchmark and guide by which to orientate our inclusive programs for educating pregnant and parenting students.
The Learning Place outlines the pathways available to pregnant and parenting teens, which include continuing their schooling in a mainstream institution, studying by Distance Education, continuing at an alternative education centre which caters to their needs with on-campus support including child care, or enrolling in tertiary education.
The site underlines the importance of partnerships and flexibility in catering for pregnant and parenting teens. Partnerships may involve health care providers, counselling services, local charitable organisations, transport providers, vocational training institutions and many more members of the wider community. These partnerships allow the school more options in terms of the logistics of catering to a pregnant or parenting teen on a restricted funding budget.
An excellent example of using partnership and thinking outside the square, is the case of Geelong school Corio Bay Senior College (CBSC). Located in a disadvantaged area with a growing population of young parents, CBSC established an on-campus creche to care for the children of their students by creating a partnership with the local TAFE, who agreed to use the school campus as the site for its Certificate III Community Services (Childcare) course. Initiatives such as this illustrate the importance of flexibility, not just in curriculum delivery but in organisational planning, and shows what can be achieved when schools look beyond their own resources to the wider community for help.
Click image to enlarge
As is, unfortunately, so often the case, a cursory glance at the Northern Territory's figures is jaw-dropping. Whereas births to teenage mothers accounts for approximately 4% of all births, births to Indigenous teenage mothers account for a staggering 20% of all Indigenous births. The gap is heartbreaking.
The site quoted, as a Queensland authority, focuses on Queensland initiatives for pregnant and parenting students. However these initiatives, like those of the CCCares program in Canberra, provide an excellent benchmark and guide by which to orientate our inclusive programs for educating pregnant and parenting students.
The Learning Place outlines the pathways available to pregnant and parenting teens, which include continuing their schooling in a mainstream institution, studying by Distance Education, continuing at an alternative education centre which caters to their needs with on-campus support including child care, or enrolling in tertiary education.
The site underlines the importance of partnerships and flexibility in catering for pregnant and parenting teens. Partnerships may involve health care providers, counselling services, local charitable organisations, transport providers, vocational training institutions and many more members of the wider community. These partnerships allow the school more options in terms of the logistics of catering to a pregnant or parenting teen on a restricted funding budget.
An excellent example of using partnership and thinking outside the square, is the case of Geelong school Corio Bay Senior College (CBSC). Located in a disadvantaged area with a growing population of young parents, CBSC established an on-campus creche to care for the children of their students by creating a partnership with the local TAFE, who agreed to use the school campus as the site for its Certificate III Community Services (Childcare) course. Initiatives such as this illustrate the importance of flexibility, not just in curriculum delivery but in organisational planning, and shows what can be achieved when schools look beyond their own resources to the wider community for help.
Friday, July 16, 2010
RINE Interim Summary: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or AD/HD, is a commonly misunderstood and controversial disorder that affects approximately three to seven percent of school aged children. (Rief, 2005, p. xvi) This high incidence rate virtually guarantees the pre-service teacher will encounter students with AD/HD in their practicum classrooms, and consistently throughout their future teaching careers. My previously limited understanding of the disorder has motivated me to investigate its effects within the classroom, and the techniques I can employ to mitigate them.
AD/HD, or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, refers to “a family of related chronic neurobiological disorders that interfere with an individual’s capacity to regulate activity level (hyperactivity), inhibit behaviour (impulsivity), and attend to tasks (inattention) in developmentally appropriate ways.” (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000, in Rief, 2005, p. 4) This helpful definition concisely separates the traits of the child with AD/HD into the sometimes co-existent, sometimes mutually exclusive categories of hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention, which is perhaps the least recognizable form of the disorder.
I was previously unaware of the “predominantly inattentive” form of AD/HD, which according to Rief is easy to overlook, as the child with this form does not exhibit the disruptive behaviours that are commonly associated with AD/HD. The “predominantly inattentive” child may exhibit behaviours such as seeming not to listen, difficulty remembering and following directions, forgetfulness, difficulty sustaining alertness during tedious tasks, daydreaming, disorganization and poor study skills. As Rief acknowledges, many of these behaviours could easily be dismissed as “not trying” or “being lazy” (2005, p. 4), meaning students with this form of AD/HD could go undiagnosed and unassisted in the classroom, thus disadvantaging the student throughout their schooling and later life careers.
In addition to the “predominantly inattentive” form of AD/HD, the “predominantly hyperactive-impulsive” type is the more recognizable. This form of the disorder is responsible for behaviours such as extreme energy and hyperactivity, unnecessary movement, fidgeting, roaming, excessive talking, interruptions, impatience, lack of self control, inappropriate noises, poor consideration of the consequences of actions, and so on. Since this is a far more observable form of the disorder, this is the form of AD/HD we are most likely to respond to in the classroom, generally in a negative fashion.
One of the main inhibitors for a student with AD/HD being able to focus and participate in their work is their need for “arousal” (Cherkes-Julkowski, Sharp & Stolzenberg, 1997, p. 50). In “Rethinking Attention Deficit Disorders”, Cherkes-Julkowski et al. recommend tactics for maintaining a student’s interest in an activity, by maintaining their state of arousal. Importantly, they recognize that the teacher’s oft-quoted “sit still so you can pay attention” is absolutely wrong when it comes to students with AD/HD. These students need to maintain arousal in order to maintain attention. Teachers can help students maintain arousal by switching tasks frequently, incorporating movement into tasks and allowing motor activity while working. These suggestions excite me as a teacher, as I believe these active, exciting and engaging lesson tasks are not only suitable for students with AD/HD, but are ‘best practice’ techniques for engaging all students, regardless of their additional needs. They are all techniques which I have already employed in my practicum, in order to maintain a high engagement level, not only for students with AD/HD but for their peers, and even for myself.
It is easy to sympathise with some parents’ concerns about administering drugs such as Ritalin to their children on a long-term basis. I hope to develop a greater understanding of how to help both the medicated and unmedicated students with AD/HD to deal with their disorder on a day to day basis, by providing a challenging and stimulating learning environment which will benefit all the students in my classroom.
Thus far my research has focused on developing an understanding of the nature of Attention Deficient/Hyperactivity Disorder in order to create a foundation on which to build my ongoing research. From this point forward my research will focus more on some of the recommended practical techniques and strategies for engaging students with AD/HD to ensure their higher achievement in the classroom.
Source List
Cherkes-Julkowski, M., Sharp, S., & Stolzenberg, J. (1997) Rethinking Attention Deficit Disorders. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Brookline Books.
Rief, S., (2005) How to Reach and Teach Children with ADD/ADHD: Practical Techniques, Strategies, and Interventions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wright, C. (2006) Practically speaking: ADHD in the classroom. Special Education Perspectives, 15(2), 3-8. Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=155036;res=AEIPT
AD/HD, or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, refers to “a family of related chronic neurobiological disorders that interfere with an individual’s capacity to regulate activity level (hyperactivity), inhibit behaviour (impulsivity), and attend to tasks (inattention) in developmentally appropriate ways.” (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000, in Rief, 2005, p. 4) This helpful definition concisely separates the traits of the child with AD/HD into the sometimes co-existent, sometimes mutually exclusive categories of hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention, which is perhaps the least recognizable form of the disorder.
I was previously unaware of the “predominantly inattentive” form of AD/HD, which according to Rief is easy to overlook, as the child with this form does not exhibit the disruptive behaviours that are commonly associated with AD/HD. The “predominantly inattentive” child may exhibit behaviours such as seeming not to listen, difficulty remembering and following directions, forgetfulness, difficulty sustaining alertness during tedious tasks, daydreaming, disorganization and poor study skills. As Rief acknowledges, many of these behaviours could easily be dismissed as “not trying” or “being lazy” (2005, p. 4), meaning students with this form of AD/HD could go undiagnosed and unassisted in the classroom, thus disadvantaging the student throughout their schooling and later life careers.
In addition to the “predominantly inattentive” form of AD/HD, the “predominantly hyperactive-impulsive” type is the more recognizable. This form of the disorder is responsible for behaviours such as extreme energy and hyperactivity, unnecessary movement, fidgeting, roaming, excessive talking, interruptions, impatience, lack of self control, inappropriate noises, poor consideration of the consequences of actions, and so on. Since this is a far more observable form of the disorder, this is the form of AD/HD we are most likely to respond to in the classroom, generally in a negative fashion.
One of the main inhibitors for a student with AD/HD being able to focus and participate in their work is their need for “arousal” (Cherkes-Julkowski, Sharp & Stolzenberg, 1997, p. 50). In “Rethinking Attention Deficit Disorders”, Cherkes-Julkowski et al. recommend tactics for maintaining a student’s interest in an activity, by maintaining their state of arousal. Importantly, they recognize that the teacher’s oft-quoted “sit still so you can pay attention” is absolutely wrong when it comes to students with AD/HD. These students need to maintain arousal in order to maintain attention. Teachers can help students maintain arousal by switching tasks frequently, incorporating movement into tasks and allowing motor activity while working. These suggestions excite me as a teacher, as I believe these active, exciting and engaging lesson tasks are not only suitable for students with AD/HD, but are ‘best practice’ techniques for engaging all students, regardless of their additional needs. They are all techniques which I have already employed in my practicum, in order to maintain a high engagement level, not only for students with AD/HD but for their peers, and even for myself.
It is easy to sympathise with some parents’ concerns about administering drugs such as Ritalin to their children on a long-term basis. I hope to develop a greater understanding of how to help both the medicated and unmedicated students with AD/HD to deal with their disorder on a day to day basis, by providing a challenging and stimulating learning environment which will benefit all the students in my classroom.
Thus far my research has focused on developing an understanding of the nature of Attention Deficient/Hyperactivity Disorder in order to create a foundation on which to build my ongoing research. From this point forward my research will focus more on some of the recommended practical techniques and strategies for engaging students with AD/HD to ensure their higher achievement in the classroom.
Source List
Cherkes-Julkowski, M., Sharp, S., & Stolzenberg, J. (1997) Rethinking Attention Deficit Disorders. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Brookline Books.
Rief, S., (2005) How to Reach and Teach Children with ADD/ADHD: Practical Techniques, Strategies, and Interventions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wright, C. (2006) Practically speaking: ADHD in the classroom. Special Education Perspectives, 15(2), 3-8. Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=155036;res=AEIPT
RINE Interim Summary: Teenage Pregnancy
The temptation when considering additional needs in education is to focus on diagnosable medical conditions: physical and intellectual disabilities, learning difficulties, behavioural disorders and so on. Attention is also paid to social and cultural needs, particularly for Indigenous students and learners from language backgrounds other than English; and for students from low socio-economic status families. The focus of this research summary is an additional need that hasn’t received very much attention in the Responding to Individual Needs in Education readings and course so far, despite its capacity to completely alter a student’s life and education. That additional need is pregnancy.
Our duty to provide an inclusive education extends to every student in our class, but for the pregnant student, I believe our duty extends even further than our own classroom. In the case of teenage pregnancy, we can provide an inclusive and supportive environment in which a pregnant teenager or young parent can continue their education, which studies have shown is a vital influencing factor on their own child’s education achievement in the future (Bradley and Corwyn, 2002, in Krause et al., 2003, p. 283). Therefore, by extending our students’ education and future career prospects, we can indirect influence their own children’s future as well.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 16 live births per 1000 girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen in 2007. This equates to over 10,000 mothers of secondary school age across Australia (ABS, 2009, from Clayden, 2009, p. 2). Statistics from the United Kingdom and the United States also reflect rises in teen pregnancy rates in those countries during the past few years (Viadero, 2010, & “Education”, 2009). Much of the literature I have seen so far has focused on possible means for prevention, mainly by reviewing the efficacy of sex education in secondary schools. While prevention is better than the cure, for the individual student what matters is not to focus on what should have happened; rather it is what to do from now on. The teacher of a pregnant teen must, as with all their students, cater to the needs of the student, both during the pregnancy and after the birth.
Clearly a teen pregnancy alters a student’s priorities significantly. Their career prospects and their motivation for completing their education may change; their absences will affect their academic achievement; their relationships with family will go through a turbulent and stressful time. Our task as teachers is to strive to continue our students’ engagement with the curriculum, maintain their motivation as much as possible, and “sell” the benefits of keeping up with their education to the student. Practically speaking, we may need to negotiate with the student and their family to implement an Individual Learning Plan, and create a new structure for their learning, such as facilitating flexible learning options such as studying from home after the birth.
I have commenced my research with a consideration of a school known in the ACT for its commendable program for pregnant teens and young parents. The Canberra College runs the “CCCares” program out of its Weston Campus. Currently approximately eighty-five percent of the College’s Weston Campus student population are young parents (www.canberrac.act.edu.au, 2010). The school offers transportation to and from school for the students and their children, on-site childcare, play rooms, sleep rooms, change rooms, a medical suite and play areas designed to accommodate the students’ children in an open-plan and inclusive environment. The students can complete their Year 12 certificates, or work towards achieving goals established in Individual Learning Plans. CCCares is a commendable benchmark program which anticipates the future needs of its parenting students and has created an holistic approach to their education. It incorporates not only traditional educational objectives such as literacy and numeracy, but develops personal skills and attributes to prepare students for the employment market, providing vocational training, and aiming to assist students to become financially independent.
Not all schools have the necessary population of pregnant and parenting students to create such an impressive support framework; nor would they wish to have it so. From an economic perspective, many of the auxiliary supports provided by CCCares are out of reach for the average secondary school. However, its ethos and intentions are absolutely transportable, and aspects of its program can be implemented within other schooling environments. These aspects are to be the focus of this research journal.
Source List
Canberra College, 25 May, 2010, http://www.canberrac.act.edu.au/curriculum/cccares
Clayden, Peter. “Using the power of partnership to address important educational and social welfare needs”, Canberra College, 2009, http://www.canberrac.act.edu.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0019/122239/CCCares_Schools_First_conference_article_2010.doc
Flood, M., Greenspan, S., & Mundorf, N. (1985) School-Based Services for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents. Special Services in the Schools, 2(1), 27-44. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J008v02n01_03
Krause, Kerri-Lee, Sandra Bochner, and Sue Duchesne. (2003) Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching. Victoria: Thomson Learning
Viadero, D. Study Finds Teen Pregnancies On The Rise. Education Week 2010, 29(20), 4. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=48135020&site=ehost-live
Teenage pregnancy rate rises for the first time in ten years. (2009) Education 2009 (345), 1. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=36919545&site=ehost-live
Our duty to provide an inclusive education extends to every student in our class, but for the pregnant student, I believe our duty extends even further than our own classroom. In the case of teenage pregnancy, we can provide an inclusive and supportive environment in which a pregnant teenager or young parent can continue their education, which studies have shown is a vital influencing factor on their own child’s education achievement in the future (Bradley and Corwyn, 2002, in Krause et al., 2003, p. 283). Therefore, by extending our students’ education and future career prospects, we can indirect influence their own children’s future as well.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 16 live births per 1000 girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen in 2007. This equates to over 10,000 mothers of secondary school age across Australia (ABS, 2009, from Clayden, 2009, p. 2). Statistics from the United Kingdom and the United States also reflect rises in teen pregnancy rates in those countries during the past few years (Viadero, 2010, & “Education”, 2009). Much of the literature I have seen so far has focused on possible means for prevention, mainly by reviewing the efficacy of sex education in secondary schools. While prevention is better than the cure, for the individual student what matters is not to focus on what should have happened; rather it is what to do from now on. The teacher of a pregnant teen must, as with all their students, cater to the needs of the student, both during the pregnancy and after the birth.
Clearly a teen pregnancy alters a student’s priorities significantly. Their career prospects and their motivation for completing their education may change; their absences will affect their academic achievement; their relationships with family will go through a turbulent and stressful time. Our task as teachers is to strive to continue our students’ engagement with the curriculum, maintain their motivation as much as possible, and “sell” the benefits of keeping up with their education to the student. Practically speaking, we may need to negotiate with the student and their family to implement an Individual Learning Plan, and create a new structure for their learning, such as facilitating flexible learning options such as studying from home after the birth.
I have commenced my research with a consideration of a school known in the ACT for its commendable program for pregnant teens and young parents. The Canberra College runs the “CCCares” program out of its Weston Campus. Currently approximately eighty-five percent of the College’s Weston Campus student population are young parents (www.canberrac.act.edu.au, 2010). The school offers transportation to and from school for the students and their children, on-site childcare, play rooms, sleep rooms, change rooms, a medical suite and play areas designed to accommodate the students’ children in an open-plan and inclusive environment. The students can complete their Year 12 certificates, or work towards achieving goals established in Individual Learning Plans. CCCares is a commendable benchmark program which anticipates the future needs of its parenting students and has created an holistic approach to their education. It incorporates not only traditional educational objectives such as literacy and numeracy, but develops personal skills and attributes to prepare students for the employment market, providing vocational training, and aiming to assist students to become financially independent.
Not all schools have the necessary population of pregnant and parenting students to create such an impressive support framework; nor would they wish to have it so. From an economic perspective, many of the auxiliary supports provided by CCCares are out of reach for the average secondary school. However, its ethos and intentions are absolutely transportable, and aspects of its program can be implemented within other schooling environments. These aspects are to be the focus of this research journal.
Source List
Canberra College, 25 May, 2010, http://www.canberrac.act.edu.au/curriculum/cccares
Clayden, Peter. “Using the power of partnership to address important educational and social welfare needs”, Canberra College, 2009, http://www.canberrac.act.edu.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0019/122239/CCCares_Schools_First_conference_article_2010.doc
Flood, M., Greenspan, S., & Mundorf, N. (1985) School-Based Services for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents. Special Services in the Schools, 2(1), 27-44. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J008v02n01_03
Krause, Kerri-Lee, Sandra Bochner, and Sue Duchesne. (2003) Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching. Victoria: Thomson Learning
Viadero, D. Study Finds Teen Pregnancies On The Rise. Education Week 2010, 29(20), 4. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=48135020&site=ehost-live
Teenage pregnancy rate rises for the first time in ten years. (2009) Education 2009 (345), 1. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=36919545&site=ehost-live
RINE Research Journal 3: Teen Pregnancy
I've been on the look-out for an "additional needs" research topic that hasn't received much attention in my studies so far, and I believe pregnant teens and young parents are a prime contender.
What strikes me about our responsibility to pregnant teens in the school system is that the impact of our commitment to inclusive education extends beyond the students in our classroom. If we can effectively inclusively educate teen mothers and fathers, we can have an effect not only on their education and future career prospects, but those of their child.
My initial research has unfortunately turned up mainly journal articles focusing on prevention rather than adaptation. In the past few years both America and the UK have seen a rise in teen pregnancies (Viadero, 2010; and "Education", 2009) and these rises have sparked interest in the effectiveness of sex education programs and the like.
I would rather focus on what we as educators can do for these teens after the fact. I would like to recognise that, for them, their pregnancy is not the end; it is the beginning. Our job as their teacher is to prepare all students for life beyond school, whatever that may involve.
Sources:
Viadero, D. Study Finds Teen Pregnancies On The Rise. Education Week 2010, 29(20), 4. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=48135020&site=ehost-live
Teenage pregnancy rate rises for the first time in ten years. (2009) Education 2009 (345), 1. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=36919545&site=ehost-live
What strikes me about our responsibility to pregnant teens in the school system is that the impact of our commitment to inclusive education extends beyond the students in our classroom. If we can effectively inclusively educate teen mothers and fathers, we can have an effect not only on their education and future career prospects, but those of their child.
My initial research has unfortunately turned up mainly journal articles focusing on prevention rather than adaptation. In the past few years both America and the UK have seen a rise in teen pregnancies (Viadero, 2010; and "Education", 2009) and these rises have sparked interest in the effectiveness of sex education programs and the like.
I would rather focus on what we as educators can do for these teens after the fact. I would like to recognise that, for them, their pregnancy is not the end; it is the beginning. Our job as their teacher is to prepare all students for life beyond school, whatever that may involve.
Sources:
Viadero, D. Study Finds Teen Pregnancies On The Rise. Education Week 2010, 29(20), 4. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=48135020&site=ehost-live
Teenage pregnancy rate rises for the first time in ten years. (2009) Education 2009 (345), 1. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=36919545&site=ehost-live
Monday, July 12, 2010
RINE Research Journal 2: AD/HD
"AD/HD is the most common neurobehavioural disorder of childhood, affecting approximately three to seven percent of school-aged children." (Rief, 2005, p. xvi)
AD/HD is an umbrella term for a family of disorders which interfere with a person's capacity to regulate activity level (hyperactivity), inhibit behaviour (impulsivity), and attend to tasks (inattention). (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000, in Rief, 2005, p. 4)
A child may have the more easily recognisable attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or only the attention deficit disorder, which is harder to recognise and hence can go undetected throughout a child's schooling. Their failure to attend to tasks, stay focused, listen, refrain from daydreaming and so on, can be read as laziness rather than identified as a treatable disorder.
AD/HD is an umbrella term for a family of disorders which interfere with a person's capacity to regulate activity level (hyperactivity), inhibit behaviour (impulsivity), and attend to tasks (inattention). (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000, in Rief, 2005, p. 4)
A child may have the more easily recognisable attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or only the attention deficit disorder, which is harder to recognise and hence can go undetected throughout a child's schooling. Their failure to attend to tasks, stay focused, listen, refrain from daydreaming and so on, can be read as laziness rather than identified as a treatable disorder.
Friday, July 2, 2010
RINE Research Journal 1: ADHD
ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is an increasingly common and, at times, controversial disorder that I expect to encounter with reasonable frequency during my teaching career. Since my understanding of the disorder is basic, I will be exploring both the traits of children with ADD/ADHD, and the possible impact that ADD/ADHD will have in my classroom.
My initial research sources are "Rethinking Attention Deficit Disorder" by Miriam Cherkes-Julkowski, Susan Sharp and Jonathan Stolzenberg, and "How to Reach and Teach Children with ADD/ADHD" by Sandra F. Rief.
My initial research sources are "Rethinking Attention Deficit Disorder" by Miriam Cherkes-Julkowski, Susan Sharp and Jonathan Stolzenberg, and "How to Reach and Teach Children with ADD/ADHD" by Sandra F. Rief.
Friday, April 30, 2010
First Week of Prac is Over!
Well I've survived my first week in the "real world" as some people have called it... I'm only teaching two lines in this prac and so far I've only delivered three classes, but I'm already feeling so much more comfortable!
I still have plenty of things to improve on though - such as:
1) watching my language!
2) preparing stronger lesson closes/conclusions
3) more assertive behaviour management
4) not assuming prior knowledge
5) improving my visual literacy knowledge
But on the whole I'm pretty pleased with how it's going so far - not a tear all week and not a single moment of wondering if this is really what I want to do... in fact, I had so much fun in the first and last sessions today that I can see myself enjoying my job a lot more than some people do! :-)
I still have plenty of things to improve on though - such as:
1) watching my language!
2) preparing stronger lesson closes/conclusions
3) more assertive behaviour management
4) not assuming prior knowledge
5) improving my visual literacy knowledge
But on the whole I'm pretty pleased with how it's going so far - not a tear all week and not a single moment of wondering if this is really what I want to do... in fact, I had so much fun in the first and last sessions today that I can see myself enjoying my job a lot more than some people do! :-)
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