Vignette Assignment for Secondary Students.

To begin with I think that on a professional level, short of someone becoming physically injured this would have to be the worst-case scenario for any classroom experience… there isn’t much more that one could throw into a scenario to make a teacher seriously consider changing professions! Yikes! However, that being said every teacher at some stage will have classes like Mr Jones’ but there are several ways to prevent, manage and minimise scenarios like this one occurring.

The scenario provided is divided into three parts, the planning stage, the implementation or the face-to-face classroom management stage, and lastly the consequences stage.

There are several areas for concern in the initial planing stage that are setting the teacher and the students up for a lesson that does not have a good chance in succeeding. To begin with this class is a 1-hour physical education lesson that the students have most likely been looking forward to. This is one of the times in the week that students can have the chance to move out of the normal classroom environment into a physically active time of enjoyment and exertion. Instead Mr Jones has planned a class during which the students have 45 minutes of sitting inside, quietly discussing and planning a presentation that demonstrates water rescue and safety procedures. On top of this another 12 minutes is spent on listening and observing the other groups, leaving three minute of performance time per group. In this case Behaviour problems almost certainly will occur unless their has been substantial preparation in letting the students know before hand that their Phys Ed lesson will be different.
Another important point that has been missed by Mr Jones in the planning stage is an awareness of how to teach a Phys Ed class. When teaching physical education a lesson must have two main parts, a theoretical component that creates an understanding about why particular skills are used and a practical component to practice and learn the best techniques to achieve them. Mr Jones has not catered for either of these effectively.
There are eight fundamental points of creating a good Physical Education Lesson as suggested in the book “ Teaching Health and Physical Education in Australian Schools”, Pearson Education Australia 2006,
1.Devote a large percentage of the time to content
2.Minimise management/wait and transition time
3. Devote a high percentage of time to practise
4. Keep students on task
5. Assign tasks that are meaningful and match the students ZOPD
6.Keep learning environment supportive but set up realistic but high expectations
7.Create lesson smoothness and momentum
8.Hold students accountable for learning.
Had Mr Jones incorporated some of these points into his lesson plan a lot of confusion could have been avoided?
Mr Jones has used a behaviourist approach in teaching by writing up on the board a description of the lesson tasks that excludes students form discussing the different ways the task could be done. This approach does not encourage the students to engage in the process of the lesson. This is crucial to all age groups but particularly this one. A student of this age needs to feel connected to their subject matter through a process of thinking and feeling. Feeling in terms of finding meaning in content of the lesson by relating it to personal past experiences and thinking in terms of finding new applications for the skills presented in the lesson through problem solving scenarios.
Piaget states that students of this age learn best through a revision of past experiences and through abstract and logical thinking in his Formal Operations (11/12 to adult) period of learning.
Rudolph Steiner also summarizes this period as a time when students seek to connect themselves to the world through thinking about what they feel strongly for thus finding creating meaning and relevance to their lives. The following quote from the book Between Form and Freedom by Betty Staley outlines this stage of learning as follows.

“During this time the emerging intellect longs to meet the world, to grapple with ideals, and to feel some sense of mastery over the environment. When issues of substance (issues that the students relate to in their feelings) are presented, the intellect is exercised.”

If Mr Jones created a lesson plan using a Lead Management teaching style as suggested by Glasser he could have provided a learning opportunity that catered to the students of this age group in their need to feel connected to the lesson content. A lead management style seeks to develop respect, responsibility and a problem solving approach through listening, communicating and demonstrating good models. It also promotes planning useful learning that has meaning and relevance to the lives of the students by discussing what needs to be done in a lesson encouraging learner’s input.
At the outset of the lesson Mr Jones could have also provided the students with a rubric for assessment of learning to make clear for them, and him, what the students need to learn and how they are to be assessed on that learning. This would have created an expectation about the sequence of the lesson and allowed the children to become involved and take responsibility for their learning.
At the beginning of the face-to-face teaching stage of the lesson Mr Jones missed the crucial moment that determined how his lesson would progress. It was stated that the students arrived in a disorderly manner after recess and that they were vigorously discussing something. This is the moment Mr Jones could have used to his advantage in gaining the class’ attention. Rather than try to stop what was going on or perhaps ignore the discussion the students were engaged in Mr Jones could have become involved in the conversation and steer their interest towards the lesson content. For example if they were talking about how a boy had asked a girl in the class out he could begin to talk about how involved the process of asking someone out is, in that a boy or girl must sometimes summon up a huge amount of courage to overcome their fears. This conversation could then be steered towards other situations that require courage in overcoming fears such a saving a friend who is drowning. The students could then be asked to quickly relate their personal experiences of the dangers associated with swimming thus determining their ZOPD in terms of water safety. At this point Mr Jones has the whole class’ attention and is progressing towards the lesson lessons planned content. The most important thing here is that Mr Jones gains the students focus through engaging in their activity no trying to stop it outright.
This process likens itself to Rudolph Dreikurs assumptions about understanding student’s motives for misbehaviour and the teacher’s role in redirecting their mistaken behaviour towards productive behaviour.
After this moment the lesson begins to loose coherence and order and most of what Mr Jones asked of them beyond this point could not be accomplished. For example, it was unrealistic for Mr Jones to expect the students to organise themselves into groups that would work effectively, as they were still wishing to be socially active in the playground sense and were not ready to learn. Further more giving the class props in this scenario just added fuel to the fire, as under these circumstances they would only be used as “toys” for further play. Mr Jones again compromised himself in letting some groups go outside and others stay in doors as now he has spread him self too thinly and is prone to distraction. In this state it is impossible for him to keep track and order of the different groups of students.
This misbehaviour was the result of Mr Jones not gaining the classes attention on the outset.
Had Mr Jones gained their attention through the above-mentioned conversation, the lesson could have proceeded in the following way. By asking the class to think about and write down what they would do if one of their friends were drowning in a river Mr Jones would further their interest and connection to the lesson content. Then he could split the class up into pre-selected groups and asked them to find ways for safely saving their friend using only one of the props, for instance a bucket. This would engage the need for creative problem solving indicative of this age groups learning style. The groups could be taken outside onto a field to work on their scenarios and after a short time asked to demonstrate their ideas. After the groups had presented their solutions Mr Jones could make a formal demonstration of the correct procedures for safely rescuing someone in water eluding to the correct procedures exhibited in each of the presentations. The class could then spend the rest of the lesson practicing the appropriate skills demonstrated. A follow up lesson could then be planned at the local pool so that the students could then gain important real life experiences of how these skills work.
Mr Jones’ lesson gradually disintegrated into mayhem as a direct consequence for the missed opportunities in the planning and delivery stages of his lesson. The result for Mr Jones was that he was unable to create the appropriate learning environment in achieving the lessons objectives, that is, Phys Ed water safety skills. Mr Jones then made the common mistake of punishing the students for their” misbehaviour “ when in fact their misbehaviour was born out of his own lack of understanding and forethought. Mr Jones has also run the risk of creating future behaviour problems in his class through the students lost of respect for being punished.
Throughout the course of the lesson we see a situation building in which Mr Jones is becoming increasingly more frustrated resulting in him yelling at the class and punishing them. It is important for all teachers to be aware of their own emotional states during a lesson particularly when it is not going the way we had planned and there is a high degree of student misbehaviour. Had Mr Jones managed his own emotions he could have avoided this frustration and left room for him self to seek opportunities to bring the class back under control.
Skills in Emotional Intelligence are often talked about in reference to teaching students how to manage their emotions but they would also be greatly beneficial for teachers to learn as well. The Traffic Light model for anger management a suggested by Frank Donovan in his book Dealing With Anger outlines four levels of anger management that could have been used by Mr Jones in identifying situations that create emotional conflict for him and thereby stand a higher chance at getting the lesson back on track.

Traffic Light Approach to Anger Management

Stage one– The green light. Where you are aware you should approach a situation with care as it has the potential to make you angry.

Stage two –The yellow light. You are feeling angry and you should prepare to stop and make decisions and strategies to avoid wrong expressions.

Stage three– The red light. You have gone past your comfort/control and need to pull back

Stage four– The moment of no return. You have gone through the red light and are out of control.

Although Mr Jones did not progress very far down this path he could have benefited form knowing his own triggers and avoid the behaviours that could have resulted in damaging his relationship with the class.