Implications for Jessica’s teachers.

Jessica’s scenario highlights the inextricable link between welfare and

curriculum. It is essential that the whole student be considered when making
appropriate adjustments, modifications and interventions. Case management
for Jessica through the school welfare system and at classroom level with
teacher intervention would be the best options.

One way Jessica’s teacher can assist her in overcoming her challenges is by
distinguishing what her preferred learning style is. Teaching styles and teaching
strategies such as: peer coaching & reciprocal teaching may be highly
beneficial in Jessica’s case. Newman’s Prompts for reciprocal numeracy can be
used as a strategy to tackle the challenging behaviour Jessica’s is presenting in
maths and science. This type of learning style, involves Jessica working
collaboratively on problem solving tasks, which supports her comprehension
and solving of mathematical word problems. Reciprocal Teaching aims to
improve reading comprehension. Students work in groups with a text through
a structured process. This process in Mathematics involves: Predicting,
Clarifying, Solving, Summarising

Creating and setting goals that will combat misbehaviour, will require the
adoption of the psycho-educational principles including: supporting her self-
esteem via encouragement during class and offering moral and financial
support through involvement of other stakeholders i.e.: principals and welfare
executives.

Techniques/ interventions to reduce Jessica’s challenges Using Goal Centred

Theory –to address underperformance and behavioural problems in maths
and science.

Goal Centred Theory considers the notion that “people are social beings with
an innate need and desire to belong to social groups- they are, school groups
and family groups, and that the development of positive relationships in these
is central to needs satisfaction” (Lyons, Ford & Slee, 2004, p. 23). Thus, it is
suggested that student behaviour is orderly and purposeful and seeks to
achieve social recognition. Primarily this is determined by an individual’s social
influences.
If Jessica feels she does not belong socially amongst a large group of people in
her everyday life, than Jessica may experience similar feelings of not belonging
and associated negative feelings, thoughts and behaviours in other
environments. In Jessica’s case, these social and emotional factors have been
unfortunately transferred into her maths and science classroom. To assist
Jessica’s performance in maths and science, the following teaching practice,
driven by the GCT principles is needed. These include:

Continually encouraging Jessica to stay focused and engaged in her learning

instead of drawing out her flaws; reinforcing the need to behave
appropriately; highlighting the importance of discipline; creating a goal driven
partnership between student and teacher; demonstrating positive practice
that fosters mutual respect and valuing of Jessica’s needs; identifying and
responding to strengths and weaknesses, using encouragement to minimise
her social struggle to belong; invoking a safe classroom climate by facilitating
and accommodating appropriate content and using open, flexible and
reasonable consequences when responding to misbehaviour.

Goal Centered Theory requires that the teacher seek out a needs-based
explanation for why a student is motivated to misbehave. In Jessica’s case her
lack of motivation & unwillingness to learn content, combined with her low
self- esteem (fear of failure) and her inability to concentrate as a result of
outside negative social influences, requires the adoption of a behavioural
contract that follows that outlines specific goals.

Negotiation of alternative ways for these goals, can best be implemented by:
engaging Jessica in whole class discussion; providing Jessica with choice and
differentiation for her learning, setting appropriate rules, expectations,
consequences and academic work; modelling consistent, considerate and
responsible behaviour; providing explicit instructions, expectations and
boundaries; building a positive and supportive relationship; using natural and
logical consequences, not punishment and encouraging effort, not
achievement as the primary means to meet her needs.
Developing Content enhancement strategies- to address underperformance
in maths and science.

For Jessica a strategy that can be implemented to support this problem would
be to use of organisational strategies, which aim at helping students to develop
their own individual processes for organising information. Mnemonic aids are a
category of metacognitive strategies, geared at encoding information in
memory in ways that make it easier to recall and use the information later.
Another strategy is the introduction of story maps, to provide a framework or
guide for linking prior knowledge to new information.

Missing links- to address underperformance and behavioural problems in

maths and science.

Maths is a building block subject, if students miss vital concepts in early years it
can dramatically affect further learning. Cognitive skills such as: reading,
numeracy and scientific literacy allow people to better understand
information, to make decisions and to solve problems. These skills allow
people to better translate intentions into actions; establish positive
relationships with family, friends and the community; and avoid engaging in
unhealthy lifestyles and risky behaviours.

Social and emotional skills are as important as cognitive skills in shaping

outcomes (Heckman, Stixrud and Urzua, 2006; Kautz et al., 2014). For Jessica
shifting her perception of learning maths and science can be carried out by
building a positive classroom environment that showcases the relevance of
learning maths and science in her everyday life. This will make the content
appear worthwhile to Jessica.

Strategies that can be implemented include: using positive reinforcement (in

the form of verbal praise), using literacy and numeracy strategies to target the
content being taught, differentiating course work and using every day
examples i.e.: money in maths, to demonstrate to Jessica the importance of
learning these skills. In Jessica’s situation, content enhancement strategies
may help her to refocus attention on the learning task, process critical
information, and develop an internal locus of control through enhanced
motivation. For example: Visual displays help categorise and (inter-) relate
different sections or aspects of the information.