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Assignment 4: Dilemma of Practice Commentary

Behaviour is communication. Outbursts in the classroom could be a result of
anything, the work is too hard, too easy, or maybe it is just boring. For a teacher it is
important to understand that behaviour is communication and learn to look beyond
the surface level of the behaviour. Teachers must learn strategies that allow work to
be differentiated in the classroom, get to know students to understand their strengths
and then work with the strengths. Teachers need to have the mindfulness not to
engage in power struggles, learn to use transformative classroom management skills
to build rapport and respect within the classroom. Give the students a sense of
responsibility and different roles in the classroom so they feel important, that they
belong. This paper will be looking at all these things, focused around the dilemma
(see appendix A) of a student and teacher that just didnt seem to work well together,
and that perhaps if a few of the strategies listed above had been implemented it may
have been a different story.
Teachers behaviour, beliefs and attitude can have a huge influence on a class
(Roffey, 2012). In this scenario the teacher was influencing the behaviour that the
student had by engaging in power struggles and positively reinforcing negative
behaviour. In a study completed in 2010 based on students success in schools;
students noted that having a teacher with a bad attitude was their biggest blocker to
school success (Lopez, 2010). If a teacher doesnt understand the role he is playing
in a students life it can be detrimental.
The engagement in a power struggle was probably the main issue in this scenario,
as a result of the power struggle everything else escalated. The power struggles
wouldnt have existed if the teacher did not buy in to it (Schindler, 2010). Yet time
and time again he would engage in back and forth arguments and when that was no
longer an option he would look for an easy way out and send the student to timeout
or result in suspension. This not only disrupted the student but the whole class. As a
teacher it should not be in their interest to look powerful, or be the boss. If you are
respectful and take time to get to know the students they will hopefully respect you
back and you will not need to prove yourself by engaging in pointless power
struggles.

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Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood that the behaviour will occur again
(Duchesne, McMaugh, Bochner, Krause, 2013). However teachers need to be aware
of when they may be positively reinforcing negative behaviour. In this scenario it
became quite obvious that the student did not want to contribute to the class, and
was not interested in engaging in the work that was set. He therefore took matters
into his own hands and decided to break free. To do this he would cause a ruckus,
then the power struggle would begin, the final stage of the power struggle, it
seemed, was for the teacher to send the student to time out or suspend him. This is
what the student wanted and he is therefore being rewarded for his behaviour.
Instead, a better option in this situation may have been to not buy into the power
struggle in the first place, continue with teaching the whole class, approach the
student when the rest of the students have started their work and try to engage the
student in the work on a one on one level or alternatively ask the other support staff
to assist him. Obviously in practice it may not be that simple, but the main thing to
take away from this is to not buy into power struggles, and be careful which
behaviours are being reinforced.
In the end the teachers attitude had a lot to do with the issues in this scenario.
However because that cannot be easily changed, the remainder of the paper will be
looking at reasons why the students behaviour may have been happening and
different ways of approaching the situation.
The question that immediately comes to mind when considering this scenario is why
did the student not want to engage in classroom activities? There may be many
reasons why; such as his traumatic brain injury (TBI). Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in
children and adolescents can significantly affect their lives and educational needs.
Deficits are often exhibited in areas such as attention, concentration, memory,
executive function, emotional regulation, and behavioural functioning (Aldrich &
Obrzut, 2012, p.291). Therefore, it would have been thought that his teacher and
support staff would provide him with specific interventions to accommodate his
individual needs. Furthermore, there may be ongoing problems at home that are
affecting his behaviour, and with his history discussed in the dilemma, this can
unfortunately be quite likely. Perhaps he feels that acting this way will help him to fit
in, or make him look cool, therefore increasing his social status. However if no effort

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is made to try and understand why the behaviour is happening then it is unlikely to
change.
The kind of challenging behaviour displayed in the scenario can be very frustrating
and demanding for the teacher. Landrum, Scott and Lingo (2011) believe that there
seems to be a pattern to this behaviour and realising the pattern is the start of
changing the behaviour. The three main points of the pattern are: that the problem
behaviour is predictable if teachers can identify environmental predictors, then they
will be able to manipulate the environment to prevent the undesirable behaviour. This
could include changing the table settings and who the student is sitting with. The
second part of the pattern is that the problem behaviour is preventable, if teachers
can develop routines and arrangements. This may include social contracts, or if
needed a behaviour contract. Preventing the problem behaviour also requires
attention to instruction, this is the third point. The academic instruction has to be
designed and delivered in a way that engages the students. A lot of the social and
academic skills that teachers want their students to display need to be taught,
perhaps through modelling.
Landrum, Scott and Lingo (2011) believe that teachers may already know the
solution to the problem they just need to open their eyes to it, involving a third party
may be a good way to do this. Another concept that has been developed is called the
Keystone approach which works with a keystone behaviour. This can be described
as a relatively confined behaviour that may be the bases of other behaviours, this
means that when the keystone behaviour is modified it can have a substantial
positive influence on the other behaviours without directly targeting them (Ducharme,
Shecter, 2011).
Social contracts have been found to be a positive way of running a democratic
classroom (Schindler, 2010). A contract can be a set of rules, boundaries,
expectations and consequences that is written with the whole class. By involving the
class and including their input and ideas it puts ownership and responsibility on the
students. This means that if a student is to break one of the social contract rules, it is
more likely that another student will notify the teacher, or enforce the contract
consequences themselves. It may take some time to set up and reinforce but once
the contract is concreted in the classroom it will have a positive effect. If a social
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contract was in place in the classroom in the scenario then it may have unlikely
happened in the first place. Also there would be clear consequences that the student
would have to follow, consequences that have been made by the students, which
makes it a lot harder for them to argue against it.
Many behavioural problems are rooted in work that is either too challenging or not
challenging enough for some students, (Schindler, 2010, p219). This quote could not
be more relevant for this scenario. If work is too easy students will fly through it and
then be bored, if it is too hard then some students may not even be bothered to try. A
solution to this problem is to differentiate the work that students are doing,
depending on their individual needs and abilities. This does however require a lot of
work and time for the teacher. Therefore Schindler (2010) suggests developing
strategies that meet the needs of all students and then supplement them with
individual strategies when necessary. It is important to change up the way lessons
are delivered and implemented so that all the different learning styles in the
classroom can be catered for (Schindler, 2010). Looking at the kind of behaviour that
was occurring in the scenario it does not seem that this was happening, but if the
teacher had invested a little bit of time and effort into doing so it may have been a
different story. If the teacher had decided to take action with the student a strengths
based approached could have been used (Burrows, n.d). A strengths based
approach involves doing something that the student already enjoys and knows that
they can achieve, for example sports. The teacher could have used the students
interest in sport to get him engaged in learning. Also if a teacher shows interest in an
individual students interest it will help to build respect and rapport in the classroom,
which can help to build a sense of belonging that is very important for success
psychology.
Promoting a success psychology is very important as a lot of research indicates that
it can lead to academic success (Schindler, 2010). There are fundamental
components of a success psychology, three being a growth versus fixed ability
orientation, a sense of belonging and acceptance versus isolation and worthlessness
and internal versus external locus of control. (Schindler, 2010, p129). All
components are equally important inside the classroom. A sense of belonging for
example is important, because the more someone feels accepted and acceptable
the more a person can express themselves for who they truly are and be fully
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present. There is a possibility that the student in the scenario did not feel accepted.
Perhaps because of the problems he might have had academically and because of
being excluded from school for a term, he felt he was not up to par with other
students; and the easiest way he felt to get around this was to act out and end up
doing no work at all. Having said this, he did seem have friends.
Sometimes it may seem that student behaviour is aimed at the teacher, but the
teacher needs to look past this and understand that behaviour is communication.
Schindler (2010) has developed a series of steps to help change the negative
identity pattern and succeed with more challenging student behaviour. These
included: 1. establishing involvement with the students, as a teacher you need to
make a personal commitment to the welfare of the student. 2. Focus on the
behaviour, the student needs to understand that this process is not a personal attack
on them but a way of facilitating more functional and positive behaviour. 3. The
student has to accept responsibility for the behaviour, this is important because once
this has been done you can move beyond it. 4. The student should evaluate the
behaviour. 5. Develop a plan of action or behavioural contract, the more of the plan
that is written by the student the more effective it will be. 6. The student has to make
a commitment to follow the plan, and finally 7. Follow up and follow through, ensure
that the contract that was laid out is being followed otherwise the whole process will
not really be effective. This kind of intervention will take a lot of time and effort for the
teacher and the student. However if the behaviour is consistently challenging and is
disrupting the other class members the time and effort will be worth it.
Teaching can be a challenge; it is not as simple as standing in front of a class
reciting times tables. It takes time and effort to get to know students, and behaviour
management strategies that work. However the rewards of setting up a
transformative classroom with a social contract, and students that you respect and
that respect you are endless. Sometimes teachers need to go the extra mile, for
some management strategies only going half way will not cut it. Effectively this will
not lead to any major changes in the students behaviour; teachers need to be
prepared to do this to get the results they want. Teachers influence students in one
way or another, the difference is whether it is by making the students feel worthless
and unaccepted or inspiring them to believe in themselves and achieve their goals.

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When you do what you love and love what you are doing, meaning and purpose
emerge naturally, (Schindler, 2010, p340).
Word count: 2,138

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Reference List:
Aldrich, E., M. & Obrzut, J., E. (2012). Assisting students with a Traumatic Brain
Injury in School Interventions, Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 27(4), 291301.
Burrows, L. (n.d). Max and the knight: how a therapeutic story provided a connection
point for child, family, school, human service agencies and communication.
Ducharme, J.M., Shecter, C. (2011). Bridging the gap between clinical and
classroom intervention: keysonte approaches for students with challenging
behaviour. School Psychology Review, 40(2).
Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A., Bochner, S., Krause, Kl. (2013) Educational
psychology, for learning and teaching 4th edition. Cengage Learning, Victoria.
Landrum, T.J., Scott, T.M., Lingo, A.S. (2011). Classroom misbehaviour is predictable
and preventable: look for the keys to curbing bad behaviour in the patterns and
problems of the student offenders; then serve up a healthy dose of engaging
lessons. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(2), 30-35).
Lopez, S.J. (2010). Making ripples: how principals and teachers can spread hope
throughout our schools; helping students become more hopeful can improve their
ability to learn as well as make them more resilient for future challenges. Phi Delta
Kappan, 92(2), 40-45.
Mundschenk, N.A., Miner, C.A., Nastally, B.L. (2011.) Effective Classroom
Management. Intervention in School and Clinic, 47(2), 98-103.
Roffey, S. (2012). Pupil wellbeing Teacher wellbeing: Two sides of the same coin?
Educational and Child Psychology, 29(4), 8-17.
Schindler, J. (2010). Transformative Classroom Management. San Francisco.
Jossey-Bass Teacher.

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Appendix A: Dilemma Story I was both excited and nervous to start my first major professional experience. Being
a double degree student in middle/secondary education, doing a minor in health and
a degree in disability studies, I was going to spend time in both these settings.
During my observation days in term 2 at Blackbird High School, I was told that a
student that was excluded for the whole of term 2, was returning to school in term 3.
This paper will explain the dilemma of this student. Furthermore this paper will
describe how I and others responded to this dilemma. Finally this paper will serve as
a basis of how this dilemma has challenged my emerging teaching philosophy.
Upon commencing my 4 week block placement at the start of term 3, sitting in the
back of the classroom of 13 students, I was introduced to Naylor. He is 14 years old
and in year 9 in the junior special unit. I understand that he was a student with
behaviours of concern hence the exclusion in term 2. It seemed clear that most of
the staff both the teacher and the student support officers, had already given up on
him and did not seem to support the fact that he had returned to school.
When enquiring further information on Naylor, I was told that as a young boy, his dad
attempted to murder him, but luckily failed. However, as a result of the trauma, he
has acquired a brain injury. It was also known to me that no schools in South
Australia wanted to accept his enrolment, and therefore Blackbird High School was
asked to give Naylor one last chance to a successful education experience. During
my professional experience, there were various incidences that resulted in Naylor
being suspended. As stated above, it seemed that whatever behaviours of concern
Naylor was involved in, they were quick to suspend him, instead of working through
the behaviour of concern and using alternative methods of dealing with the
situations.
I made an effort to spend time with all the students in the special unit, and getting to
know them all. Naylor seemed to like me, and would respond to me positively every
time I engaged in a conversation with him. One particular day I could clearly smell
tobacco smoke on him, and discussing this with other staff, was told that Naylor
smokes both tobacco and marijuana.

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This dilemma has challenged my emerging teaching philosophy in various ways. I

felt that the staff at the school did not seem interested in trying to assist Naylor in a
way that would support him and motivate him in reducing his behaviours of concern
and engaging in a positive learning experience.
Questions that arose for me during this dilemma were; how does an acquired brain
injury effect your education, why are the staff not investigating and implementing
methods to support and motivate Naylor? And how does tobacco and marijuana
affect your willingness to learn?
In conclusion, it is clear that the dilemma I described was both a very sad and
difficult to deal with. This dilemma has certainly challenged my emerging teaching
philosophy and will form the basis for further analysis and investigation.
Word count 532 words

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