Understanding Behaviour for Classroom Practice

Understanding Behaviour for Classroom Practice

Assignment 3: Case analysis

Word limit: 1500

This assignment requires you to engage with a case study and consider how you would respond as a teacher. In completing this assignment, you will draw together the theoretical frameworks and models for responding to a range of behaviours displayed in the learning environment. You are required to create strategies and describe these in your response for inclusive and ethical practices with families, community and support agencies.

This task is assessing your ability to demonstrate that you meet the criteria for the following unit learning outcomes:

1. Apply appropriate theoretical frameworks and models for responding to a range of behaviours displayed in the learning environment.
2. Create strategies for working effectively and ethically with families, community and support agencies.

Select one of the case studies below. Reflect upon the behaviour displayed and describe the approaches you could use to guide and support the child.

Gemma is a five-year-old child who attends a kindergarten/preschool where you are the teacher. Her family has communicated to you that she enjoys physical activities and ball games, but can become upset if she is ‘losing’ or having to wait for a turn. She enjoys high-level conversations, often not listening to instruction when asked to stop chatting and focus on her task. She also has an advanced artistic flair. Gemma has had several outbursts since she began attending three months ago. On four separate occasions, she has physically struck out at other children in the group by punching and kicking them. She has also been noticed pinching other children and then running away so the child does not see her. These incidents have been observed and documented. You have been trying to engage with her family but are not having any success.

Ahmed is a seven-year-old child who has always seemed happy and cognitively engaged with learning but in recent weeks he has started to become withdrawn with classroom tasks. You have observed him on the playground and he appears isolated and does not play with the other children. He is reluctant to join group activities, and when he does participate, he remains quiet and does not appear to contribute to the discussion. Upon discussion with his family, they have said they see no issues with what is being reported, that in fact when Ahmed returns home from school, he tells them all the playing activities he does during play times.

Balun is a 10-year-old child who is excellent at maths. He has a diverse family background and spends some time in foster care. Due to staffing issues within the school you have to teach another class for a term. After the first couple of weeks, the teacher who has taken over from you is in tears in the staff room; complaining about how Balun is rude, disruptive and can be aggressive. This behaviour has not been noticed in the playground or by his carers.

When approaching your case study response, remember that you have a snap shot of information about the learner and therefore careful consideration is needed when providing strategies and identifying reasons for the behaviour. An exemplary case analysis will provide:

• identificationand discussion of a variety of effective strategies and interventions that could support the learner in the case study in the learning environment to make decisions and guide their own behaviour
• identificationof how you would prepare the physical and social environment to contribute to the child’s relationship with others and learning
• identificationof familial, cultural and ethical considerations related to the case identification of how you can make effective use of policy frameworks and external support organisations
• considerationand discussion of the behaviour framework, strategy and model you would apply for your chosen case study
• discussionof theories that have been used to guide approaches to behaviour management.