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.

Im trying...

A Code of Conduct for Parents and Care Givers Who Wish to Create a Positive Family Environment for Their Children.

The most important thought for parents or care givers who wish to create a code of conduct to produce positive environment for their children is that before anything can be written you must learn to know the child/children in your care. Two main themes can be explored in this regard.
1. How a child learns at a particular age
2. His/her character/disposition or temperament
That being said I would now like to leave these two areas and concentrate on constructing a code of conduct the code of conduct

Children and adolescents need five main things in life,

A safe and secure place
To be loved
To have power
To have freedom
To have fun and learning

A Secure place
A secure place is a place that provides a feeling of comfort, safety and security. A place that creates the feeling that nothing of value to you will be taken away. A place that is beautiful and undisturbed

To be loved
To be loved, to have a sense of belonging to a family, to a group, to the world.

To have power
To have the ability, skill, or capacity to do something, To have the feeling of achievement even it is small, to have a sense of feeling worth while, to have the feeling of being empowered in what they think feel and do.

To have Freedom
The freedom to have personal independence and the capacity to make moral decisions and act on them. Not to be judged or commented on in the light of external knowledge only. To have some degree of self governance

To have fun and learning
To have a time, feeling or activity of enjoyment and amusement, joy in the acquisition of knowledge, understanding and skills.

(Reference Dr William Glasser Choice theory)

As parents, mentors or caregivers we can also strive to provide:
v Appropriate imagery –choosing metaphors with care and imagination
v Wholeness and balance – holistic paradigm
v Identification, connectedness, integration – epistemological inter-connectedness
v Individual values –value the individual
v Visualisation– development of the picturing imagination
v Empowerment through active hope -– distinguish between faith and hope
v Stories – use story telling and mythology as a powerful teaching tool
v Celebration -– learn how to celebrate festivals

(Australian researchers Beare and Slaughter)

All of the above can be found in a condensed form from the follow statement about education from Rudolf Steiner

“The need for imagination, a sense of truth and the feeling of responsibility --–– these are the three forces which are the very nerve of education.”

Rudolf Steiner

Q1.2 The Essential Elements of an Adequate Discipline Model

Identifying the Source of Inappropriate Behaviour
To begin with a teacher must firstly understand the causes of discipline problems. Teachers can be faced with a multitude of discipline problems in a class room and sometimes have to deal with them all at once which makes the job of finding the right way to discipline a student even harder. But if the teacher can identify the negative outside influences and respond instead to the students’ pain behind the inappropriate behaviour, they can be better prepared to manage the discipline problems that result.

There have been identified three main sources for inappropriate behaviour

Originating in the home.
1. Depravation of attention and love
2. Excessive control
3. Family restructuring
4. Abuses of various types
5. Damage to self--concept

Originating in society
1. Racial and class conflicts
2. Unemployment and poverty
3. Substance abuse
4. Gang activity

Originating in the school
1. Instruction without context
2. Failure to teach problem solving skills
3. Non acceptance
4. Competitive grading
5. Excessive coercion
6. Punishment

Above all an adequate discipline model must be a well planned, individual model of discipline that is compatible with the teachers beliefs, as a teacher will experience personal conflict and confuse the students if they discipline plan is contradictory to their own values.
These are the essential categories of an adequate discipline model a teacher needs to use in building their own; –

Assumptions: a description of the belief systems at the foundations of the educational theory.

Criteria: a set of criteria derived from the teacher’s evaluations of different educational philosophies and their own value, eg, choice theory.

Preventative strategies: these are strategies for preventing misbehaviour, eg, creating a positive, effective learning and social environment.

Corrective strategies: these are strategies for correcting misbehaviour
Such as exchanging students’ mistaken goals for positive goals as Dreikurs suggests.

School wide strategies: these are strategies for inclusion in a school wide approach to discipline models.


References: Rudolph Dreikurs, Rudolph Steiner, "Classroom Discipline and Management an Australian Perspective" by Clifford H. Edwards and Vivienne Watts.

1.3
A Critical Reflection on the Theories of Two Psychologists for Improving Student Motivation

The first educational psychologists theories I would like to explore are those of Rudolph Dreikurs.

Rudolph Dreikurs model of classroom management is a democratic discipline model that can be grouped with the Leadership theoretical bases.
Dreikurs asserts that all behaviour including misbehaviour is “orderly and purposeful and directed towards achieving social recognition”
Meaning that if a students desire for social recognition goes unfulfilled behaviours begin that are based on student’s faulty beliefs about how they can achieve social recognition.
There are four main stages and faulty ideas of how to gain social recognition:
1. Attracting Attention
2. Exercise power
3. Exact revenge
4. Display Inadequacy.

These are ideas that occur in a hierarchical relationship to each other, that is, if the proceeding stage failed to give them a lasting and recognised place in the social life of the classroom, they move down to the next stage of faulty ideas and behaviour.
Dreikurs offers a solution to these behaviour traits through a process of firstly diagnosing the child’s level of behaviour then to lead the student towards an understanding the true nature of their behaviour, being socially recognised. Once this has accrued the student is encouraged and empowered to find positive and creating ways of gaining positive social recognition.
Through un obtrusive questioning designed to allow the student to find his own ways towards the reality behind his behaviour ( this technique could also take the form of personalised letter writing between the student and the teacher if the student feels too intimidated by the interview process),
listening and understanding students motives, conferencing and talking about solutions to instigating logical consequences, a process of encouragement that leads students towards re–aligning negative attention seeking goals towards positive gaols, creating a sense of care, safety and trust in their teacher, peers and school and class room through an open and democratic approach to learning. One problem that could arise out of the use of a democratic process of decision making is that it could require large amounts of time being spent on dealing with the negative behaviours instead of being able to make decisive and good decisions on what to do.


The second educational psychologist I would like to comment on is Dr William Glaser.
Dr William Glasser’s educational theories is again grouped with the Leadership theoretical bases and is know as Choice theory, reality therapy and lead management.

Glasser asserts the following as the base ideas behind his theory. Firstly that the only person whose behaviour we can control is our own and that all of our interactions with people are the mutual exchange of information, how we organise or deal with this information is our own choice. Therefore all psychological problems that we face are based on how we relate to people, they are relationship problems. We have relationship problems when our basic needs, love and belonging, power, freedom, fun and learning are not met in some shape or form. Our behaviour is what we do during life and how we behave is made up of four inseparable components: acting, thinking, feeling and physiology. Therefore all behaviour is chosen behaviour. It is chosen and not arbitrary because of the interrelationships between the parts we have direct control over, our acting and thinking, with our feelings and physiology.
Techniques to improve a student’s motivation to learn would centre on developing respect responsibility and problem solving with their peers through the example of how the teacher behaves and interacts with the students and his or her colleagues. The teacher does this through modelling and providing opportunities to learn how to listen, communicate and co-operate, to teach the students how to evaluate their own work emphasising that the essence of quality work is constant improvement. The teacher can minimise behavioural problems through planning lessons that have meaning and relevance to the lives, learning styles and age of the students. The teacher also discusses what needs to be done and encourages the students to help create the lesson with their input to create a sense of belonging and autonomy in the students.

Reference: "Become A Better Teacher" R. Featherstone

Exam One
Question 1
Teaching Skills

The following are areas a teacher must consider in selecting teaching strategies.

1.BOS
In selecting teaching strategies for a for a stage 4 English main lesson a teacher needs to firstly develop a working understanding of the BOS requirements for teaching that particular unit, stage and outcomes that need to be covered. This information can be obtained from the BOS website or a copy of the syllabus for that teaching area. The BOS Syllabus Is crucial for developing a lesson plan in that it provides a scaffold for a teacher to use in developing material content and a learning sequence. It also provides a scaffold for a teacher to use if they wish to create a lesson content that differs from the suggested content of the curriculum in that a teacher can teach other areas of the subject as long as they are covering the learning outcomes for the unit.

A teacher could use these syllabus outcomes if teaching an English stage 4 lesson.

4.2: a student uses a range of processes for responding to and composing texts.
4.5: A student makes informed language choices to shape meaning with accuracy, clarity and coherence.
4.7: A student thinks critically and interpretively about information, ideas and arguments to respond to and compose texts.
4.6: A student draws on experience, information and ideas to imaginatively and interpretively responds to and composes texts.
4.9: A student demonstrates understanding that texts express views of their broadening world and their relationships within it.
4.11: a student uses, reflects on and assesses individual and collaborative skills for learning.


2. Schemes of knowledge and Social Interaction
The age group and developmental stage of the class are very important as they determine the content, how it is delivered and how the class is expected to behave.
According to Piaget this age group falls into the Concrete Operations, and the Formal Operations period as seen below learns in the following manner


Concrete Operations (6/7 to 11/12 years)
Children in the concrete operations stage are able to take into account another person’s point of view and consider more than one perspective simultaneously, with their thought process being more logical, flexible, and organized than in early childhood. They can also represent transformations as well as static situations. Although they can understand concrete problems, Piaget would argue that they cannot yet contemplate or solve abstract problems, and that they are not yet able to consider all of the logically possible outcomes. Children at this stage would have the ability to pass conservation (numerical), classification, separation, and spatial reasoning tasks

Formal Operations (11/12 to adult)
Persons who reach the formal operation stage are capable of thinking logically and abstractly. They can also reason theoretically. Piaget considered this the ultimate stage of development, and stated that although the children would still have to revise their knowledge base, their way of thinking was as powerful as it would get.

Taking these developmental areas into consideration would mean that the class must be times set aside for active discussion and encouragement of open debate in order to see the thing from more than one side and stimulate critical reflection. These discussions could also be used to teach and determine the students Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky.) and work towards their potential development.


2.Habitus
The classroom culture in terms of providing a creative learning community is necessary to encourage a deep learning environment.

Characteristics of the ideal learning place_
1. A special place: Feeling of comfort, safety, and security. _
2. Networked Learning: Learn through connections/networking_, Connect to others and learn_
3. Community: a linked group that have bonded through sharing, giving time and listening to each other creating a place where people are valued. A group that achieves beyond the sum of any one person. _
4. Reflection: Descriptive, self and critical reflection. Thinking about things at a base level, thinking about what a thing means to us and looking through the perspective of someone else to see things differently.
5. Deep learning: Bloom’s taxonomy_
6. Gifts and Talents: The recognition that all students and staff have gifts and talents and that the community is committed to the nurturing of them. A network of talent is created that moves together to produce something larger than any one person. An openness and inclusion to members of the community. _
7. Power and Freedom: Glasser’s recognition that it is power and freedom that are the great drivers of humanity. Only when these are present can a person take risks and create, can dare to dream. _
8. Creativity: the ability to approach the mundane from ever-new angles, the ability to create something out of nothing_
9. Transformation of the individual: An individual’s commitment to improving him or herself. To let the achievements of the whole community affect him or her in changing their outlook. _
10. Transformation of the culture of the school: Creating a team the has the same set of ideals and values that can identify the current paradigm and begin inclusive individualized efforts to ever improve that which exists

ref. Alan Coman


3.Connectedness
Using a constructivist approach to learning focuses on cognition as a collaborative process involving social processes, interactions with the environment and self-reflection and access to Information Communication Technologies. For example a class time could be divided between, teacher given material, individual research, group discussion and research, and a process of journaling for critical reflection.

4.Motivation to learn
By providing opportunities for students to experience Glasser’s drivers
1. A Secure Place– Safety and a sense of order though providing an individual place for each child and a strong class time rhythm reinforced through time.
2. Belonging– Offer each student a time to express their views on the subject, finding value in what they bring and offering reflective discussion.
3. Freedom independence and autonomy– Provide time for students to decide on an area of personal research within the topic. Provide for individual expression of their findings.
4. Fun and learning-–to make structured time and free time to seise the many opportunities that arise in a class for the students to enjoy and have fun in their learning process.

5.Ability to learn
By being aware of the childrens need for social recognition in how they behave (Rudolph Dreikurs) and providing time and opportunities for the students to experience there own and different learning styles as suggested by Rudolph Steiner with the four temperaments and Howard Gardner in his Multiple Intelligences. A teacher can also help the student’s ability to learn by structuring lessons that give opportunities for the different stages of learning as suggested in Blooms Taxonomy.

6.Expert Teachers
A teacher can by reviewing John Hattie’s guidelines for what makes an expert teacher use them as a guideline in preparing their material.

Expert teachers:

– Can identify essential representations of their subject,
– Can guide learning through classroom interactions,
– Can monitor learning and provide feedback,
– Can attend to affective attributes
– Can influence student outcomes
– Can identify crucial tools in creating effective teaching

Question 2
Teaching Skills and Assessment

To create a holistic approach to assessment in stage 4 Visual Arts there are a number of basic elements that need to be addressed.
Syllabus and levels of achievement.

The first is a consideration and understanding for the visual arts syllabus, and support documents as these contain the outcomes and content for the lessons and descriptions of the levels of achievement for this stage. Teachers can use the visual arts syllabus and stage outcomes as a tool in planning their teaching and learning programs and for assessing and reporting a students progress.

Assessment
The next stage a teacher needs to consider is planning and implementing strategies to assess a students learning. This means that teachers need to plan for and provide activities to assess student achievement during the classes. This involves teachers deciding on how and when to assess a students work and can be done on an individual basis or a in a normative approach, that is, assessing a students work by a comparison to other students. The students can also be encouraged to take part in their own self assessment and in how their work stands up next to their peers as this creates opportunities for the them to take responsibility of their learning though gaining continual feedback in how they have achieved the given tasks. In preparation for this the teacher can provide the students clear learning goals and the criteria that will be used to judge them.

Reporting
Reporting is mainly a tool for providing feedback to students, parents and other teachers, this can be done in two ways, either verbally with peer involvement or in a written form which could involve the results gathered from previous assessments of learning made at key moments during the learning stages of the lesson; For example an assessment of learning involving the use of line and tone, before another assessment is made of a formal sketch of a class mate. The previous results can inform the overall assessment.
In the visual arts syllabus descriptions have been given for the levels of achievement that provide a useful tool for report making in giving consistent information about student achievement to students, parents and other teachers.
The level of achievement for Stage 4 Visual Arts are as follows:

Level Four: High achievement

Level 2–3: A satisfactory and high level of achievement that is enough to provide for a solid grounding for the next stage of learning.

Level 1: Identifies students progressing towards achieving the outcomes of that stage.
If these levels of achievement are used a common language for reporting is established.

Choosing Assessment Strategies.
Teachers of Visual Arts need to employ a number of assessment strategies to ensure that information is being learnt and understood and that the necessary skills, are being developed. The assessments should be appropriate to the outcomes of the lesson and be supportive of the stages of the learning process.
In planning assessments in the Visual Arts teachers need to think about weather there will be sufficient and appropriate information collected for making an informed judgement of the standard achieved at the end of the stage.
There are three main areas of assessment for the Visual Arts that achieve this.

1.Artmaking: Examples of assessment activities include, individual and group artmaking, range of materials investigated, oral presentations explaining procedures and ideas, an exhibition of the students work.

2.Visual Art Process Diaries: Assessment activities include student research of different techniques, exploration of interests through sketches, notes and other media, explanations of art making procedures.

3.Art Critical and Historical: Possible assessment activities, Explanations of artworks employing one or more of the frames, research tasks investigating artists and their art works, exhibition reports.

Assessment Rubric
An assessment Rubric for evaluating Visual Arts Stage 4 enables the students, parents and teachers to clearly see the criteria or expectation for achievement. This allows for feedback that is more concise and builds a students responsibility in their leaning process.

Here is an example of a rubric that for art making practice in a stage 4 Visual Arts lesson.

Task Elements

1. To produce a portrait
2. Oral presentation
3. Written material

Dimensions

1.
– Knowledge of color theory
– Composition and likeness
– Understanding of light and shade

2.
– Word annunciation
– Articulation of ideas
– Planning

3.
– Evidence of research into elements colors theory
– Research task involving a painter and his use of color

Guidelines for Marking

Level 4.
– Has achieved a high understanding for the use of colors in creating mood, perspective and achieved a good likeness through accuracy or the use of symbolism and the frames
– Has achieved a high level of speaking through well presented ideas and articulated speech
– Has shown how art gains meaning form the world for the artist
Level 2-3.
– Has demonstrated an understanding of complimentary colors and the tonal effects of light and shade.
– Has demonstrated an organized talk
– Has demonstrated research into chiaroscuro and artist biography
Level 1.
– Presents a portrait with flat tone and no color theory
– Present a talk that is not clear and poorly planned
– Presents unorganized research about an artist and artwork

Reference: Visual Arts syllabus

Question 3

Deep Learning

There is a basic set of skills that a teacher can utilize and teach to students that helps them provide a space for themselves that allows them to learn. These skills have been called Emotional Intelligence Skills and if they can be taught to students a tremendous amount can be achieved in helping children become ready and motivated to learn.
The term Emotional Intelligence encompasses the following five characteristics and abilities:


1. Self – awareness—knowing your emotions, recognizing feelings as they occur, and discriminating between them.

2. Mood management—handling feelings so they’re relevant to the current situation and to react appropriately

3. Self--motivation –“gathering up” your feelings and directing yourself towards a goal, despite self-doubt, inertia, and impulsiveness.

4.Empathy –recognizing the feelings of others and tuning into their verbal and non-verbal cues.

5.Managing relationships—handling interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, and negotiations.
(Wikipedia)

If an educator can create for students a physical and emotional space of well being as well as provide for older students the means for clearing or unburdening themselves they will have a much greater chance of approaching their learning with a wakeful calm anticipation, a state of readiness through which to tackle whatever life throws at them.
In planning a lesson a teacher must also consider the many different types of learning styles and temperaments as Steiner suggested or the Multiple Intelligences as per Gardner’s theory.

Gardner’s Intelligences are:
Verbal/Linguistic: sensitivity to spoken and written language

Logical/Mathematical: Capacity to analyze problems logically, carries out mathematical operations, and investigates issues scientifically

Visual/Spatial: learning visually and organizing ideas spatially.

Musical/Rhythmic: learning through patterns, rhythms and music.

Bodily/Kinesthetic: learning through interaction with one's environment and understanding through concrete experience.

Interpersonal Intelligence: learning through interaction with others.

Intrapersonal Intelligence: learning through feelings, values and attitudes.

Naturalist Intelligence: learning through classification, categories and hierarchies.

Existential: Learning by seeing the "big picture". This intelligence seeks connections to real world understandings and applications of new learning.
(Reference Walter Mc Kenzie)

Rudolph Steiner’s positioning of the temperaments in the classroom to enhance learning through placing opposite temperaments facing towards each other brings attention to qualities that one temperament lacks by showing examples of other ways or temperaments at work.(see above diagram)

In a Stage 4 Visual Arts Portrait series of lessons Gardner's MI could be used to design parts of the learning activities for each Intelligence or take the one lesson and explore it from all 9 intelligences.
Here is an example of how different parts of a lesson could be taught through a focusing on one intelligence.

Verbal/Linguistic
An oral presentation could be given on a particular artist and his ideas on portraiture as an example for an assessment task to be done by the students.

Logical/Mathematical
Presentations given on the historical development of portraiture form cave paintings to postmodernism with a time line. After this the students would be asked to research how this process through the ages is also mirrored in the single life.

Visual/Spatial
The creation of a self-portrait without a mirror to visually learn what ideas the students have about creating a portrait.
Teaching through demonstrating how a portrait is made up of a scaffold of the correct proportions of the face in its division into three equal parts, line drawing to establish planes of the face and a build up of tonal structure.


Musical/Rhythmic
An example of a song describing someone’s face could be played to show how music can produce a mood and how moods can be represented through colors in a portrait.

Bodily/Kinesthetic
Portraiture in terms of creating three dimensional space on a two dimensional canvas could be taught through allowing the students to close there eyes and explore a sculpted portrait with their hands or even explore another students head and face!

Interpersonal
Showing how the styles of portraiture can infer meaning and feeling to an audience by making a case study from at Fauvist, English Romantic and Cubist period.

Intrapersonal
Constructing a collage portrait with a group that emphasizes one of the four frames

Naturalistic
A theoretic study on the different types of portraiture in the postmodern era.

Existential
Finding ones own meaning in their own self-portrait through the use of color and symbolism.

A teacher must also provide for deep learning, or critically reflective thinking in each lesson. This can be done by using a taxonomy to learning to provide a scaffold that addresses each stage of learning in a subject as suggested by Benjamin Bloom.

In a visual arts lesson this could be applied as follows:
Remembering: recalling as a class previous knowledge of portraiture
Understanding: Write down in own words the groups findings.
Application: Create a simple portrait using the understandings gained.
Analysis: Explore the work through the Four Frames, Structural, Subjective, Cultural and Postmodern.
Evaluating: form judgments about how best to emphasize each Frame through choice of subject matter and medium in portraiture.
Creation: Out of an understanding of Frames create a work that has pre-determined execution of the frames gained from own experience.

Question 4
BOS Materials

The board of studies provides the following materials for the Visual Arts
– Past HSC examination papers and notes from the marking centre 1995-2005
– HSC Assessment policies and documents for teachers and students
– HSC Syllabus documents
– School Certificate information
– NSW Revised Visual arts Syllabuses For k–12
– Stage 5 Visual Arts Performance Descriptors
– Guides to the Years 7–1O Visual Arts Syllabuses
– Advice on programming and Assessment
– Life Skills Outcomes worksheet
– HSC Exam Timetables
– Examples for assessing for learning
– Visual Arts Support Documents
– Search engine for visual arts articles, topics, texts and points of interest.
– Links to other Visual Arts resources
All of the above material can be located and downloaded from the board of studies web site @ http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/
Once in the site there are several avenues to find the Above Visual Arts material.
On the site tool bar;
– The Website Index which allows you to click a letter in the alphabet to find related areas, V for Visual Arts, T for Textbooks! Etc.
– A “links” link to find other related sites
– A Search link that allows you to type in words associated with Visual Arts

On the left hand side of the web page there are links to HSC exam Papers, HSC syllabuses, School certificate Information, NSW syllabuses and Manuals and guides.

On the right hand side of the page there is a link to shop online where you can search for and buy audio cd, audio tape, CD–ROM, mixed media, print and video relating to Visual Arts.

All of the above material can be used for inspiration, learning and understanding the particulars of the Visual Arts Curriculum.

The Visual Arts Syllabus presents an in-depth and thorough understanding of the curriculum in that it is designed to provide educational opportunities that engage and empower students and to have a continuity and coherence of learning between primary and secondary schooling.
The syllabus helps programming lessons in the following ways:

– It organizes Visual Arts content into three main areas that are helpful in designing a lesson in that each lesson must contain these elements.
1. Practice –art making
2. The Conceptual Frame –identifies the relationships the intentions of the artist and the relationship the artwork has to the world and audiences.
3. The Frames–Give meaning and are the instrument for generating different understandings of the function of and relationships between the artist–artwork– world– audience.

– The syllabus outlines the scope or work units of visual arts for a particular stage providing me a guideline or scaffold to use in creating a sequence of learning or lessons that relate to the schools life and the life of the students.

– It is used to develop my teaching program in outlining what I cover, what is required to be covered in the stage and how I cover it.

– The syllabus can be used to divide outcomes into an hourly schedule for four terms to allow the right amount of time to achieve the outcomes for stage.

– It allows my teaching program to be flexible and changeable enough to modify it in response to student feedback.

– The syllabus allows me to see the learning sequence and development of a students learning from K-12 from which i can create a taxonomy for each stage. For instance a stage 5 or electives visual arts student would be expected to show a higher level of creative or critically reflective thinking than a stage 4 student therefore I would scale the taxonomy to meet the age and stage of the students.

– The syllabus can be used to create an assessment rubric for learning that reflects the outcomes needed to cover in a given stage.

– It can be used to create a critically reflective teachers assessment rubric that reflects on how I have managed the scope and sequence of a stage in achieving the outcomes.

Exam TWO
Question 1

Understanding and Managing Adolescents

In chilhood developement there are several crisis moment where seperation occurs between themselves and the wortld. Children reaching their 12–14 year are coming into one of those of crisis points (The word crisis in the Chinese means danger and opportunity). They’re lives are beginning to be vastly different from anything they have experienced until this point. A new state of consciousness is expressed through the physical changes with the development of the sexual organs, changes in the larynx, a growth spurt in the arms and legs heralding adolescence. During this time an intense inner world of feeling begins to grow and expanding in the students giving them a powerful sense of themselves. This new world is a “four seasons in one day” kind of landscape of feeling, always changing from one minute to the next, sometimes strong and explosive weather and other times mild and calm with everything else in between. The main difference that occurs around this age is that along with this new abstract feeling awareness comes the beginnings of abstract thought and thinking activity, Thoughts such as why do I feel like this, what does it mean, what do I do with how I feel how should I express them begin make themselves ever present in the students individual search for meaning in relating to the world. Because of this newly emerging feeling and thinking world a heightened sense of themselves creates a separation from the outer world, this is the “crisis”. On the one hand the dangerous element to this time is that the adolescent expresses these abstract thoughts and feelings through "doing" in an attempt to bridge the gap between themselves and the world. Left to themself these expressions can be destructive to the environment and to the individual. To balance this a teacher or caregiver must step into the breech and offer thoughtful guidance. Guidance is this case can only come from a teachers truthful and real life experience of the world not just a theoretical one as studetns of this age strongly desire knowledge gained through the experience of living. The opportunity for a student to gain a positive deep understanding of the relationships between themselves and world can safely come about though the guidance and experience of an older mento/ friend.
A teacher facing a class of adolescents need to practice an incredible balancing act between allowing the students to express themselves and at the same time meeting them in their expression to give them the required feedback they need in learning to find what is appropriate behaviour not what is destructive.
In order to create a positive and safe place for the adolescent student to achieve this crucial reflective process a teacher can provide for them five fundamental platforms as suggested by William Glasser.

A Secure place
A teacher of adolescents can provide a secure place by creating a place that is beautiful, lots of colourful images or paintings depicting important soul values such as valour, courage, loving sacrifice, reverence, beauty, truthfulness and goodness…perhaps a picture of valiant Knights would be just the thing, so that the students can always have positive emotions exhibited before them.


To be loved
To Create a sense of belonging and place through allowing each child to have input that is valued and encouraged through using the jigsaw and graffiti methods of teaching and allowing each child to critically reflect on each lesson and have a moment to verbally express this. A teacher could also make time for each student during the day, perhaps as they enter the room in the morning and exchange a few words of welcome.

To have power

To have the ability, skill, or capacity to do something, To have the feeling of achievement even it is small, to have a sense of feeling worth while, to have the feeling of being empowered in what they think feel and do. To be involved in deciding the lesson process.

To have Freedom
To allow the students to have some level of autonomy in how they exercise their lesson work and by allowing them to play a part in decisions regarding the classroom and in creating logical consequences.

To have fun and learning
To allow time for the students to enjoy their learning by catering to the multiple intelligences.

Question 2 Exam Two

Student Motivation.


In creating a lesson rich in the student motivating principles I would choose create
Lessons that have meaning and relevance to the particular age group and lives of the students by understanding and applying Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. To do this I must first understand the age and stage of development of the students in finding out how they best learn .By using Piaget’s Stages of learning, in this case the Concrete Operations (6/7 to 11/12 years) and the Formal Operations (11/12 to adult) stages (see exam one– question one) and Rudolph Steiner's Educational Periods as seen below...

Ages 0–7
The child seeks itself and does this through experiences of bodily separation, that is time away from the mother (The end of the womb experience)

Ages 7--14
The child seeks its inner life through experiences of a soul or feeling nature, a separation through the gradual birth of a their feelings life.

Ages 14– 21
The child seeks meaning through experiences of thought/thinking activity thus creating a separation form the outer world through the development of an inner conceptual reality.

To create a rich motivated learning environment a style of teaching could be used in order to empower students to become an active participant in the lesson process as suggested by Glasser in establishing love, personal power, safety/security, a degree of student autonomy and enjoyment in the learning process.
By adopting a democratic model of classroom behavior and instigating logical consequences for student behavior, as suggested by Rudolph Dreikurs, removes obstacles to student learning.
Dreikurs identifies three main sources for inappropriate behaviour (see below). Understanding where inappropriate behaviour stems from allows a teacher to adequately diagnose the problem and then create a solution toward helping that student redirect their behaviour towards learning.

The Three Main Sources for Inappropriate Behaviour.

Originating in the home.
1. Depravation of attention and love
2. Excessive control
3. Family restructuring
4. Abuses of various types
5. Damage to self--concept

Originating in society
1. Racial and class conflicts
2. Unemployment and poverty
3. Substance abuse
4. Gang activity

Originating in the school
1. Instruction without context
2. Failure to teach problem solving skills
3. Non acceptance
4. Competitive grading

In creating a positive learning experience for students of today the use of ICT can be incorporated to a part of the lesson. By creating a network of e–learning, researching and communication and a distributed learning environment as suggested by Stephen Downes establishes ways to research information that are contemporary and relative to the lives of the students creating enjoyment and relevance for the student.
Motivation can also be engendered through using a certain degree of “teacher pushing”, the use of positive reinforcement techniques as suggested by the Behaviorist theorist Skinner. However one must choose wisely when and how to adopt this approach as a student can sense teacher coercion a mile away!

Designing lessons that cater to the different learning styles a suggested by Glasser in his multiple intelligences theory engenders an inclusive classroom environment. MI theory combined with a with a taxonomy of learning also designs lessons that have step by step learning process that is logical and gradually leads to higher or deep learning creates inclusiveness and easily identifiable stages for the learning process.
The creation of assessment rubrics that can be given to the students also empowers and creates responsibility for the students removing misunderstanding and confusion, the great blockers of motivation, for the students in how to carry out tasks.
Finally a teacher must continually reflect on the educational habits of himself or herself, the classroom and the larger school community to assess what needs to be changed in order to further enhance a student’s motivation to learn.

Question Three

Bullying

Restorative justice methods for addressing social problems include the method of shared concern, the no blame approach, restitution, community conferencing and the formal apology. Restorative justice approaches use the incident of misbehavior as an educative opportunity for repairing the harm and fostering more socially responsible relationships and behaviors that take others perspectives into account. This is achieved through carefully structured opportunities for individuals to understand the impact of their actions, recognize their social responsibilities and make amends to those who have been affected by their actions. The young person is also assisted to reintegrate successfully into the school community.
The Restorative justice approach requires these factors to be in place first: _
• The support of the victimized person who needs to have identified that he/she is being bullied and is confident that the approach advocated will work_
• Preliminary investigation to clearly understand the issues before the process is implemented
• Staff guidelines and professional development to build understanding, skills and confidence in using the strategies
• Support within the school community for the approach
• Agreement that the goal is to solve the problem rather than to interrogate, punish, blame or label individuals
• Respectful facilitation of the process by trained people
• Follow up monitoring of the agreement.

In a incident where I were to come across a student who is being pushed, name called and excluded form the social group the process I would undertake would be as follows:
1. Become active in the situation by making my presence known to the individuals involved. I would do so in as calm and strong a manner as possible in bringing order and control back into the situation.
2. I would then move all the children involved away from the place of the incident. This is done in order to change the emotional context/attachment to the place of incident and to provide a change in content the place and space of the incident. The area I would take them two would be one that was remove from other students like an empty classroom. I would avoid using a detention room or office unless it would help in bringing the children back under control. I would then explain what I saw to them in a non-accusative way and encourage honesty to make them understand that it is their behavior that needs to be redirected not them as individuals. I would then explain to them how their behavior could create a positive creative or a negative and destructive environment around themselves that will reflect back towards them, like the scenario they are now in. I would then ask for another teacher to supervise them while I went to check on the bullied child
3. Whilst the apparent perpetrators were being talked to I would conduct an interview with the apparent victim reassuring him/her that a lawful process was now being undertaken to help and stop the situation.
4. After this initial interview I would conduct another interview with the perpetrators to hear their story. I would again emphasize what I saw and that it was enough for me to become upset enough to investigate emphasizing honesty and clarity in what they say so I can gain an objective perspective of the situation. I have usually found this to be effective, as the children in the end really want the issue to be resolved. Usually a process of open cross-examination occurs as they group contradicts and correct themselves.
5. I would then relay the scenario back to the victim to see if it is correct and ask if there was anything else he/she might like to add.
6. After this stage i would begin to talk to the students involved about how the victim feels then place them in his/her position “imagine if”. Within this interview I would also ask them what the victim does to provoke the behavior in order to fully understand why it is that this child is being singled out as in my experience there is usually something that the bullied student is doing to evoke such a response.
7. After this interview I would ask the group to come up with a way to repay the victim for the harm done. I would encourage a scenario where the group does not just give a superficial restorative gesture. A scenario that would have them each individually spend time with the student , to partner up for an activity would be one way. During these sessions I would carefully observe the interaction between the bullied child and the ohter class mate to see how the victim could be setting up negative behaviour for themselves. If it was a situation where the victim was also a perpetrator I could them resolve to create a process of self-reflection for that student.

This approach is much like the shared method of concern.

Method of shared concern_
_This method (developed by Pikas, 1989) enables the trained teacher or counselor to establish shared concerns and encourage shared solutions to the problem. The method includes initial individual meetings with perpetrators as well as a final meeting of all parties. This is the method of shared concern sequence:
1 Gather preliminary to understand the problem.
2 Meet each of the perpetrators individually to encourage acknowledgment of the situation and to develop constructive responses and a plan to change the behavior.
3 Meet the person being bullied or harassed.
4. Meet perpetrators individually to review progress of their agreement.
5 Following positive signs of change hold a meeting of all perpetrators to reinforce the changes made and prepare for the next meeting.
6 Hold a final combined meeting of all involved as a public demonstration that the behaviors have ceased.

Instead of 'bullying the bullies', this strategy establishes a shared concern and a process of logical consequence in determining reparation.



References

Bullying No Way website @ http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/)

Question 4

My Fundamental Ideas Educational Beliefs

Never discourage anyone... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
Plato

My initial experiences in learning the art of education have been mainly through the educational views of Rudolph Steiner. These views serve as the foundation for my educational beliefs of which I outline below. However through the study of this course I have come to realise and understand other educationalist theories that compliment and add to my own.

Education is an art in that it is a creative endeavour that defines and redefines itself through the different ages and the changing cultures of our world. However behind it’s changing outer face the art of education must be built upon the knowledge of the members of the human being and of each of the developmental stages that these bodies or members go through.

The main bodies that give us a holistic picture of the human being are–

1. The physical body– The physical material form of the outer human being, in common with the mineral system.
2. The etheric body-– The etheric or life body, the body that forms and organises the outer matter into a vessel for the human being, in common with the plant kingdom
3. The astral or feeling body-– The astral or feeling life of a person that is in common with the animal kingdom
4. The ego or thinking body – The living-thinking component in a person placing themselves within the human kingdom.

As the human being grows he or she has a predominance of activity in one of these bodies from the physical to the ego. These phases on increased activity reveal themselves not only outwardly through the physical changes that occur but also inwardly in the development of soul or spiritual faculties. The word spiritual in this sense means the higher world of thinking, of thoughts as being the reflection of the truth in the universal whole.
There are seven-year periods of increased activity and development for the four bodies mentioned above. During these periods a person intereacts, learns and acquires knowledge predominantly through that particular developing body.

Ages of Increased Development
Ages 0–7
The physical body predominates. Children during this age learn most strongly through the physical body as experiences through the senses inform the child of its new home on the earth.
Ages 7–14
The etheric body predominates. Children learn most strongly in this period through activities that have a strong life principle. Rhythm, harmonious growth and movement, the lawfulness of the musical scale in that the notes all develop a sequence of expectation and learning to begin again with the octave, the lawfulness of rhythms of day and night and the seasons , the sounds of speech, all processes that can be found in nature in terms of the life/ form giving principle can be used as learning tools. An educator of this stage must teach through using the natural rhythms and forms in nature in their presentation of content

Ages 14–21
The birth and development of the feeling body predominates. Children of this age learn through their feeling life of antipathies and sympathies. An educator of this stage must teach through presenting material that create a strong feeling response.

Ages 21–27
The birth and development of the thinking or ego body predominates. People at this stage learn most strongly through their thinking and reflecting. An educator must provide this stage with material to "chew over" with their thinking gained though his/her and other's experiences and reflections of life.

I believe that a teacher must teach students by firstly meeting them where they are, by teaching through the realities of how the children learn at different stages of development. This view I have also found in the Constructivists theories of Vygotsky with his ZOPD and emphasis on the importance of culture and language and Piaget’s different periods of learning, that is,the Sensorimotor Period (birth to 2 years), Preoperational Thought (2 to 6/7 years), Concrete Operations (6/7 to 11/12 years) and the Formal Operations (11/12 to adult).
The methods used in my practical day to day teaching and preparation resemble most strongly Constructivist ideas in terms of learning being a progression involving social process, interactions with the environment and self-reflection.
The Leadership theories in education also resinate with my teaching beliefs in that I teach though example and not through demands, although I do occasionally employ Behaviourist positive reinforcement as suggested by Skinner, but only if i can believe what i am saying and not just simply use it as a coersion tool.
I believe that there are many different ways to learn something and that a teacher must develop lessons that cater to all those different and sometimes highly individual styles of learning. I have found Gardner’s MI very helpful in diagnosing and understanding different learning styles an useful in developing lessons that cater to those styles.
My discipline models resemble those of Rudolph Dreikurs in that all children are inherently good and that inappropriate behaviour occurs when I child has a disturbance in their life, also through the instigation of logical consequences and Glasser in understanding that if the basic foundations for inner and outer health are lacking a child behaves inappropriately.
I believe children should be given tools that help them remove obstacles in their learning process as found in the Emotion Intelligence theories
Finally my views are similar to those of educationalist and teacher Alan Coman in th ten point he outlined in establishing a Creative Learning Community.


(So I guess you can call me Anthroposophoconstructidemocrativist)