Description of Topic and Students
Part A
I am a religious education teacher in a local primary school where I enjoy teaching the young children and have a great passion to see that every child benefits in class at an individual level rather than at the general level. My school is named St. John primary school in Vitaya district and the school has a total population of five hundred pupils. I teach in class seven south and the class has a total of thirty pupils both girls and boys. The ratio of boys to girls is 3:2.the curriculum of the school is an eight subject course throughout the primary school period. These subjects are mathematics, English, Swahili, science, religious education, home economics and business studies. Every student must study these eight subjects in every class in the eight year period. My passion in teaching involves understanding individual pupils so that I can be able to understand the whole class (Ames, & Archer, 1988). This is linked to my topic of study which how individual performance of students affect the whole performance of a class. This involves studying and carrying out an analysis of individual pupils in order to be able to separate each child from the crowd and be able to treat them accordingly. Since a class is composed of different children from diverse cultures and families, I saw it necessary to understand every pupil individually so as to understand their behavior and performance in class (Ames, & Archer, 1988).
My wondering question that led me towards carrying this research and having the passion to understand students individually is; how can I better the performance of each child in class considering that these children are unique from one another (Biskup, 2008). The other wondering question is what would be the most effective method of teaching that would ensure that need of all the pupils are met. Finally, how can a teacher engage parents into improving the performance of their children?
My current roles in the school are a teacher and at the same time an academic master. Holding these two positions in the school gives me a good chance to interact with the students and their parents and therefore I am able to research about every child and am able to put into place measures that can improve each child (Ames, & Archer, 1988).
The classroom practice that I used to construct my passion is the three principles that ensure inclusion of pupils. Thus engagement helps me to understand each child and to know how they even interact with their mates. I choose to use these three principles from the understanding that the original behavior of a person is portrayed when one is among their peers. These three principles included setting suitable challenges that match every child. This ensures that every child is given a chance to experience success or failure by handling a difficult situation. The other principle is responding to the diverse learning needs of pupils. This ensured that I interacted with pupils across a diverse encounter (de Valenzuela, 2006).
When planning the goals for a class, the teacher needs to set high standards that can be attained by every pupil. In this case, before setting the goals, one has to consider the needs of both genders, special needs such as disability, social and cultural backgrounds, and different ethnic backgrounds. In order to understand pupils individually, a teacher is expected to do a number of things (de Valenzuela, 2006). First, create an effective learning environment. Second, secure the motivation and concentration of each child so that students feel that they all have equal opportunity. The third thing is using different teaching approaches to ensure equality for all students. Forth, application of the right assessment approaches. Fifth, a teacher has to set a target for every learning activity. The third principle is overcoming the potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of students. This principle is used on the basis that some students have needs that require the use of special learning and assessment requirements.
For example, the curriculum has provisions for ranking and passes mark points for students with disabilities.
In the past, pupils have been seen to be equal and teachers went on to teach without acknowledging the fact that every pupil is unique. The curriculum had been set without considering pupils with special needs and this was discriminative. Students with disabilities has for a long time been taught together with other students who do not have any disabilities or even seen as lesser pupils (Thompson, 1999). The change in the curriculum has led to overcoming the barriers to barriers to effective teaching. The personal interaction between the teachers and the pupils also helps teachers to easily identify any abnormality that a pupil could be having. Current research shows that the relationship between the pupils and the teachers to an individual level has helped raise the education standards. In this way, the teachers are able to know how different pupils should be treated and also know what targets need to be set for pupils as individuals and the class as a whole. By understanding individual students, teachers are able to understand the whole class which is very important in teaching. The research also shows that the understanding of pupils personally establishes a good learning environment (Thompson, 1999).
Part B
Literature review
In discussing my topic of choice, I choose to use a case study and articles on educational research in order to understand pupil performance and the factors that affect this performance. The Australian council of education journal discusses a review of the empirical evidence identifying effective interventions that are used to address learning difficulties in class. The addresses difficulties are the key effects to student’s performance. This review is based on the standards of the American government that ensures that every student is able to achieve acceptable standards of literacy and numeracy (Timperley, et al 2009). This article focuses on the learning difficulties that students are faced with during learning and how they can be handled to ensure quality performance. According to this article, students with disabilities are those who have learning difficulties because of intellectual, sensory, physical, social/emotional, or multiple impairments. It is important to have a clear understanding of an effective classroom practice is necessary for a teacher to teach effectively and get a positive class performance. This also helps in bridging the gap between high scholars and low scholars so that there can be a balance in class performance. Failure to harmonize student performances can be destructive to performance because it could means that some students will feel left out and that their teachers are not interested in their performance (Timperley, et al 2009).
According to this article, the learner is an active contributor to the learning process and paying attention to individual students can manipulate them to perform better. The teaching process should be student-centered to ensure that the interest and welfare of the student is given the first priority. Embracing a constructivism approach in education ensures that all the needs of the students are met and also ensures good performance. Direct instruction can also be used to improve performance especially in instructing small groups then moving on to individuals. This close interaction gives the teacher a chance to analyze every student individually and understand their individual capabilities. Moreover, for a teacher to understand every student’s capabilities, they might be required to use self regulation strategies for students so that their personal performances can be determined.
The other article used in literature review is the independent learning: literature review which discusses the importance of independent learning to students. In this article, is explained the independent learning consists of personalized and student-centered learning. Independent learning ensures that the student-teacher roles and relationships and communication in learning are taken care of in the learning and teaching process. Good performance in class is affected by both internal and external factors outside the classroom (Biskup, 2008). The external factors involve establishing strong relationships between students and teachers and establishing an enabling learning environment. This review found out that independent learning for students improves academic performance, increases motivation and confidence, helps students to be more self aware and they are able to manage their limitations, makes it possible for teachers to provide differential tasks for children, and fosters social inclusion by countering alienation. Evidence shows that in schools where this approach is used, there is 100% performance with students attaining A-C grades (Biskup, 2008).
Supporting students in self regulation, providing feedback and helping them to state their progress improves performance especially students with special needs. Independent learning is base on establishing a positive relationship between students and teachers based on trust.
The other article that I used in the literature review is the Teacher Education for Inclusion which an international literature review developed by the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. This research was carried out in 2010. This article argues that the teacher has certain knowledge and understanding about the special needs of different learners and therefore, he/she can use teaching techniques and curriculum strategies that take care of every students needs (Donnelly, & Watkins, 2010). The review assumes that a teacher for inclusion has the ability to teach in an environment that is diverse in terms of age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious background, socio-economic status, disability or special educational needs. The key principles that should be used in the education set up as discussed in this article are; widening participation to increase educational opportunity for all learners, education and training in inclusive education provided to all teachers, support structures should be set up to promote inclusion and policies should be developed that promote inclusion (Donnelly, & Watkins, 2010).
The articles that I used for this review are recent thus providing reliable information today. The first article was produced in 2009, the second 2008 and the third was produces in 2010. Therefore, the data provided here is still applicable and has not been updated. This information is also reliable because it contains research about students and teachers and teaching and learning in general. These articles also provide information about the kind of a relationship that is necessary in order to improve class performance and understand pupils and students individually.
Part C
My wondering questions were how I would improve each child’s performance considering that each child is unique from one another, what teaching techniques can be used to ensure that the needs of every child are met and how could I involve the parents in improving the performance of every child. The refined question is what makes the performance of one child different from the other. In this question, one carries out an analysis to determine whether the teaching techniques used are suitable for all the children, and the effects of the personal relationship between the child and the teacher on their performance (Schmidt, 1983). Having answers to the refined questions helps in knowing how a teacher can relate individually with every child in order to understand their needs and capabilities in class. This question leads the teacher into investigating every child individually in order to understand the whole class. The teacher sees the need to know why the top performers perform highly; why average performers perform so and why low performers perform poorly (Schmidt, 1983).
The literature review helped in refining the wondering question because it gave me a wider understanding of the teaching scope. The performance in class can be influenced by external and internal factors and these must be considered in order to improve the performance of the class. The literature review provides useful knowledge about the principles of ensuring good performance in the class and how providing a good learning environment can improve pupil’s performance. Understanding the diversity that can exist in a single class is the first step to improving the performance of a class. A teacher has to know that at no one time will students perform equally but some actions can be taken to improve the performance of each child and eventually the performance of the whole class (Leithwood, & Riehl, 2003). These steps include using various teaching approaches so as to ensure that all the needs of different students are met, providing a good learning environment, establishing a good relationship with the students and involving the parents in the learning process. The parents should be involved because they could be having information about their children that the teacher may not be able to get and they can also be used to help students identify their weaknesses and work on them.
In order to address the wondering question, it is necessary to come up with a strategy that solves the problem portrayed in the wondering question (Leithwood, & Riehl, 2003). This strategy is providing different teaching approaches that pay attention to additional learning and special needs of the students. These approaches should be in a position to address the needs of the student as an individual, in their family and also in their schools. These strategy may be short term or going out throughout schooling. They may relate to stunts disabilities of difficulties in learning or behavior that could be as a result of different factors.
A student based strategy is the best approach ensuring that individual needs of each child are known by the teacher and addressed. Another approach that can be used is a one-to one approach. These teaching approaches ensure that the programs put in place for learning provide additional support for students with disabilities and special needs. Moreover, these strategies are aimed at harmonizing the performance of all the students so that the top performing can also be shown how they can help the low performers and in that way, the differences in performance will at least be close (Haycock,1998). These programs include specialist services and programs targeted for individual students and programs that provide specialist resources to schools to support students who have learning difficulties. However, it is a bit challenging for teachers to understand the diverse learning needs of students in class and they are required to use the right approaches in addressing these needs. This calls for high level expertise and professionalism on the side of the teacher.
Positive teacher-student relationship can be established by the teacher communicating positive expectation that the students are expected to meet, provide equal opportunities to students, correcting students in a constructive way, demonstrating caring, and preventing frustrations for students (Haycock,1998).
These strategies are easy to implement since they can be easily applied in class. Communicating positive expectations to the student helps in ensuring that a student is working to reach a specific target. In this way the student will work toward some specific goal that is set considering their personal needs, strengths and weaknesses. Providing equal response opportunities for children ensure that all students are treated equally and therefore the performances do not differ greatly. This helps students to have self confidence in their abilities when the teacher gives them a chance to give the right answer. This also ensures that not only the top performing students are called upon to do tasks in the class (Schmidt, 1983).
In order to understand the needs of a student, the teacher needs to communicate that they understand the student’s feelings, let the students know that you treat them the same and also help the student to verbalize their own needs and feelings. Demonstrating care to students is another great way of building a positive relationship with the students. This improves the student’s performance greatly. Care can be demonstrated by showing interest in the student’s personal life, listening to the students and empathizing with them (Good, Gruba, & Kaminski, 2002).
There some changes that I plan to make in my class to improve the performance of every child. These changes include meeting with every child and their parent of an academic basis so that I can be able to understand each child’s needs. Another change is creating a positive learning environment where all students feel that they are equal and that they are responsible for performing excellently well (Good, Gruba, & Kaminski, 2002). Providing equal chances especially in answering questions helps in ensuring that all the students go at the same pace with the teacher. These changes will ensure that a teacher is able to interact with students at a personal level and understand what can be provided to ensure they improve their performance. The improvement of each student eventually leads to good performance of the whole class.
References
Ames, C., & Archer, J. (1988). Achievement goals in the classroom: Students’ learning strategies and motivation processes. Journal of educational psychology, 80(3), 260.
Biskup, D. (2008). A state-of-the-art review on scheduling with learning effects. European Journal of Operational Research, 188(2), 315-329.
de Valenzuela, J. (2006). Review of Why are so many minority students in special education? Understanding race and disability in schools. The Teachers College Record.
Donnelly, V., & Watkins, A. (2010). Teacher education for inclusion in Europe. Prospects, 41(3), 341-353.
DuFour, R. (2002). The learning-centered principal. Educational leadership, 59(8), 12-15.
Good, R. H., Gruba, J., & Kaminski, R. A. (2002). Best practices in using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) in an outcomes-driven model. Best practices in school psychology IV, 1, 699-720.
Haycock, K. (1998). Good teaching matters: How well-qualified teachers can close the gap. ERIC Clearinghouse.
Leithwood, K. A., & Riehl, C. (2003). What we know about successful school leadership. Nottingham: National College for School Leadership.
Schmidt, H. G. (1983). Problem‐based learning: Rationale and description. Medical education, 17(1), 11-16.
Thompson, S. (1999). Haskell: the craft of functional programming (Vol. 2). Addison-Wesley.
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2009). Teacher professional learning and development.
