Behavioural Management: Why It Is Important for a Teacher to Know Their Students - Assignment Example

Behavioural Management Responses Question 1: Part A: Explain why it is important for a teacher to know their students, the students’ background and what is occurring in the students’ lives ? It is important for a teacher to know their students, their backgrounds and things occurring to their lives because such knowledge can help a teacher better understand his or her student’s behaviour. Students like many other individuals are responding to the stimuli in their environment and internal feelings which according to Zirpoli (2012) are events capable of changing individual’s behaviour (p.15). A teacher who knows how to anticipate his or her students’ behaviour is more effective because such quality can prevent class misbehaviour before it occurs. According to Zirpoli, (2012), there are socio-cultural realities that affect behaviour such as values, customs, aspirations, and others that can greatly change the way how students behave inside the classroom. For instance, there are reasons why some students feel undervalued and powerless and these include teacher’s inadequate understanding of a particular student’s background (p.33- 43). It is therefore important for teachers to know many things about their students particularly those factors that promote misbehaviour and disinterest in learning. Effective teachers are those that understand the importance of appreciating their students as individual and effectively manage their own behaviour inside the classroom (Zirpoli, 2012, p.49). According to Zirpoli & Melloy (2012), teacher must manage their own behaviour particularly when it is being affected by a student’s disruptive behaviour (p.77). There is therefore a need to understand behaviour and the source of this behaviour in order to avoid frustration. According to Stronge (2007), effective teachers care and know their student individually; their learning styles and needs; likes and dislikes, and personal situations affecting their behaviour and performance in school (p.24). Moreover, if teachers are to manage students’ behaviour, they must understand and sympathise with their students’ feelings (Cooper et al, 2010). Certainly, there are some important benefits from completely being familiar with every student in the classroom. One is control over students’ behaviour and preventing disruptive and frustrating behaviour, increase teaching effectiveness and learning, eliminate biases arising from misconception of student behaviour, and better teacher-student relationship. Part B: Why and how this might impact your work in a classroom? Considering the consequences of misunderstanding students’ behaviour and the impact of teacher’s own misbehaviour toward their students, knowing every student in the classroom is vital to the success of my work inside the classroom. By analysis, the impact of ignoring the factors affecting students’ behaviour is detrimental to teacher-student relationship inside the classroom. For instance, students often see their teacher as an authority inside the classroom but this perception can turn into something adverse if they are treated unfairly. The impact of the response in Part A can be divided into two parts. One is the benefits of knowing students, their backgrounds, and other things occurring in their lives while the other is the consequences of misconceiving students’ behaviour in teaching effectiveness. On the positive side, the impact of considering the benefits of being familiar and understanding students’ behaviour inside the classroom is primarily on the way my students will be treated. For instance, if a certain student’s behaviour in the class was previously considered aggravating, his or her behaviour will be now considered as learned and affected by social-cultural realities mentioned earlier and therefore should be respected and manage. In relation to this impact, a certain strategy may be developed to shape the behaviour of this particular student exhibiting undesirable classroom behaviour. This strategy may include developing a higher level of understanding of rational and consistent leadership behaviour required to manage the classroom and acceptance of the fact that such student’s unacceptable behaviour can be minimised by an effective teacher who value all his or her students. For instance, my future work in the classroom may become more personalise and tailored to each student’s learning style. It may be more challenging and supportive of students’ needs and interest. On the negative side, disbelief in the value of knowing your students completely may lead to more conflict at work particularly in establishing rapport and credibility with students. It can also impact the quality of work inside the classroom as responses to student misbehaviour will likely lead disciplinary actions, inequitable treatment, and poor learning. Moreover, if this disbelief prevails, work inside the classroom will be generally marked with disrespect and misunderstanding. In worse situation, the disbelief can lead to impartiality in race, cultural background, gender, and so on resulting to students’ misperception that effective teachers do allow ethnicity to affect their treatment and expectations of students. Another impact of disregarding the importance of knowing your students is coping with my own emotions that in the end will result to significant reduction of teaching effectiveness and total dissatisfaction of the teaching profession. Overall, the impact of responses in Part A depends on the chosen path to effective teaching which in this case is recognising the importance of knowing the factors affecting students behaviour in class. Question 2: Part A: Why it is important for a teacher to develop positive learning styles and strategies within the classroom and how this impacts on behaviour management? Discussing the common causes and antecedents of disruptive and oppositional defiant behaviour, Zirpoli & Meloy (2012) emphasizes the role of teaching strategies in students’ misbehaviour and inability to learn. This in particular is the importance of presenting a curriculum in a style that addresses students’ strengths and needs (p.81). Similarly, in a study of effective teaching, Killen (2006) noted that being honest, friendly; dedicated is no longer a measure of a good teacher because teaching today is closely linked to understanding of how people learn. It is now an individualised process where teachers primarily role is to facilitate learning rather than a source of knowledge (p.2). Certainly, the facilitative role of teachers makes them developer of positive teaching strategies and creator of positive learning environment. The relationship between teaching strategies and student behaviour is in the way a student struggle and frustrated by poor teaching methods. According to Zirpoli & Melloy (2012) it is common for students to be frustrated by the classroom curriculum and the strategies used by the teacher for instruction because they find it difficult to learn (p.81). Consequently, poor delivery of instruction becomes an antecedent for disruptive behaviour and the classroom quickly become frustrating for both teacher and students. Effective teaching strategies is commonly intended to arouse and maintain students’ interest in learning but this according to Westwood (2010) will never occur if the teaching strategy is not integrated with behaviour management as the latter provides students with safe and secure environment in which learning can take place (p.77-91). There is therefore a need to develop positive teaching strategies within the classroom along with carefully planned behaviour management strategy. Part B: Describe why and how this might impact your work in a classroom? There is undoubtedly a strong connection between learning and behaviour management thus must be taken into account and applied in the classroom. The impact of knowing the important of developing positive learning styles and strategies at work is primarily in the way teaching should be done. In particular, teaching strategies will be developed along with behavioural management strategy so they can complement each other. If the effects of teaching strategies on the level learning and associated student behaviour (which is actually dependent on how quickly they learn the instruction) will be taken into account then teaching strategies should ensure that it will not frustrate students during the learning process. Otherwise, such teaching strategies will only result to misbehaviour rather than learning and friendly classroom. The impact of knowing the importance of developing a positive teaching and learning strategies may be more visible in the way the work in the classroom improved. For instance, knowledge gained from Part A may be used to improve existing teaching practices where the impact of poor teaching instruction delivery on students’ behaviour is not considered. There will be significant changes in the delivery of instructions and monitoring of students learning particularly in subjects where noticeable resistance and confusion is observed. It may be necessary to adopt a more personalised approach and take action whenever a certain student struggle or exhibit learning difficulty. For instance, it may be necessary to revise a portion of the instruction or formulate another approach that can make learning easy and more appropriate to students learning styles. This is in particular is optimising the integration between teaching and learning strategy and behaviour management where the latter serve as reference point in instruction delivery. For instance, if the behaviour management plan includes considerations on the life struggle of certain students, then the instruction should be delivered in a manner consistent to the learning level of individuals with this kind of personal problems. In other words, instruction should be delivered not once but several times in order to fill the gap and facilitate learning regardless of difficulties. Note that such approach can make a particular student feel important and cared for and therefore will behave in manner beneficial to his or her learning. References: Cooper J, (2010), Classroom Teaching Skills, US: Cengage Learning Killen R, (2006), Effective Teaching Strategies: Lessons from Research and Practice, Australia: Cengage Learning Stronge J, (2007), Qualities of Effective Teachers, US: ASCD Westwood P, (2010), Commonsense Methods for Children with Special Educational Needs, UK: Taylor & Francis Zirpoli S.J, (2012), Strategies for Specific Behavior Challenges. In Behavior Management: Positive Applications for Teachers, 6th Edn, pp. 386-427, Pearson Education Inc. Zirpoli T. & Melloy K, (2012), Strategies for Specific Behavior Challenges, Chapter 14, In Behavior Management: Positive Applications for Teachers, 6th Edn, pp. 386-427, Pearson Education Read More