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
Showing posts with label Final Summary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final Summary. Show all posts
Friday, July 30, 2010
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.
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