In terms of collecting data to get a better overview of pupil Y’s support needs I wanted to explore the following four areas into which additional support needs can be categorised as outlined in the Code of Practise (Scottish Executive, 2005):
- Learning environment
- Disability or health needs
- Family circumstances
- Social and emotional factors.
To assess which of the above factors contribute to pupil Y’s support needs my plan was as follows:
- Learning environment: In order to assess how import the ethos, relationships, inflexible curricular arrangements, inappropriate approaches to learning and teaching, and disrupted learning are, I intended to observe pupil Y in different subjects as an observer visiting the classroom using the observation schedule Table 1 in the Appendix. I decided to amend the observation schedule – Special Educational Needs from the National Training Project slightly to include where pupil Y was seated in the classroom as I think this will have had some effect and to include a way of recording the pupil-teacher interaction as personal relationships appear to be important to pupil Y. I decided against a timed interval observation, e.g. every 15 seconds as I thought it might be too difficult as I expected quite an unsettled pupil. Observation of pupil Y in different settings should not only reveal his support needs but it should also be possible to identify if teaching strategies and attitude towards pupil Y affected the extent of his/her learning. Last year the Support for Learning PT issued a questionnaire to all the subject teachers to assess his progress (Table 2 in the Appendix). I would read over the response and evaluate the general outcome of this exercise. Prior to this study, I had suggested to provide pupil Y with tutorial lessons focussing on basic skills instead of him/her attending French lessons as he/she had major difficulties with French and had made any significant progress over the two proceeding years. During the tutorial lesson I would ask pupil Y to do some concentration exercise while observing his/her behaviour. Following the listening exercise, pupil Y would answer questions to check his comprehension of the story.
- Disability or health needs: Again the personal pupil record (PPR) should provide information on pupil Y’s health and both the individual educational plan (IEP) and PPR should give further details about any disability which has been diagnosed.
- Family circumstances: I would read the PPR, speak to the learning support principal teacher and her/his guidance teacher to investigate if his/her family circumstances are a contributory factor. I would use the overview table Table 3 in the Appendices as suggested in the lecture on 07.11.2006 by Mrs F. Ross-Watt on ‘Information gathering including classroom observation’ to generate a general overview. I also would get the information about his attendance record.
- Social and emotional factors: if any of these are contributory to his/her additionally support needs should be evident from reading the PPR and talking to his/her guidance teacher.
Data analysis
Learning environment
- Classroom observation
During the observation, I changed the layout of the observation schedule as pupil Y showed different types of behaviour to that which was initially anticipated. I also reverted back to choosing observational intervals of 15 seconds for 10 minutes as the pupil showed continuing off-task behaviour by talking to others. This lasted for quite some time and I thought I might end up with only a few counts of the intended observational period of 10 minutes. Figure 1 shows the observational data in a simple form to get an overview of the pupil’s behaviour within the classroom in different subjects (the filled in observation schedules are in Tables 4 to 7, respectively in the Appendices). Apart from Mathematics and Home Economics, working with a classroom assistant on a practical task, the pupil exhibited more off-task behaviour than on-task behaviour in all other observed subjects over the observed period. The reason for the high percentage of off task behaviour in English could be attributed to the following factors:
- Friendship grouping which encouraged off task talk
- Pupil faced away from teacher so no eye contact could be made – Pupil Y would forget that teacher is present
- Material focussed on writing summaries of book chapters and identifying verbs
- General atmosphere of the classroom was quite chatty.
In Home Economics the graph only covers the period in which initial instructions were given as the majority of pupils observed to be off-taks (as a result of the excitement of making muffins). Once the practical started and a classroom assistant came into the class to assist pupil Y in carrying out the task, his/her behaviour and concentration were excellent. Pupil Y, when motivated and interested in a task is very capable of working on his own even when the classroom assistant moved away from pupil Y. In Geography, his/her behaviour was often off task, in spite of a support for learning teacher being present. Pupil Y has not got a good personal relationship with the support teacher and this was evident from his behaviour by facing away from the teacher, hiding his work and pretending he/she is quite capable of doing it by him/herself. The off-task behaviour during this lesson was not mainly by keeping himself busy rather than talking to others but.
In contrast, pupil Y was for the majority of the observed time interval on task in Maths and in Home Economics when carrying out a practical task with the assistance of a classroom auxiliary. The reason for this increased on-task behaviour is, however, quite different. In Maths, pupil Y sits at the front of the classroom at a single desk within a class of only 10 pupils. This means the pupils are considerably spread out, therefore, he/she cannot talk easily to others. Additionally, the task set was appropriate to his level in Maths hence the task, although challenging was manageable and pupil Y was aware of this (I spoke to him/her and this was confirmed during a tutorial). The teacher was also able to help pupils when needed as there was a 10:1 pupil to teacher ratio. In Home Economics, pupil Y really enjoyed the task as could be easily observed from his body language and he/she also enjoyed working with the classroom assistant and his/her partner providing intrinsic motivation for him.
In Figure 2 the various off-task behaviours pupil Y engaged in are shown depending on the circumstances. Given the opportunity and being with his/her friends, pupil Y will choose to talk to others instead of engaging him/herself with a difficult task. However, if this is not possible he/she is creative in finding other means of masking not being on task.
In summary, apart from Maths, pupil Y demonstrated very little interaction with teachers; this is, however not so unusual as it is probably the same for a lot of the pupils in the classes I observed. The majority of responses within a class were made by a relatively small proportion of between five to eight pupils.
- Pupil progress as assessed by classroom teachers
A series of 11 questions about his/her general conduct were asked and the class teacher also had an opportunity to comment on areas of difficulties and concerns. Unfortunately, there was no room for writing down strength and needs and hence it makes rather depressing reading with almost all the teacher suggesting that all his/her difficulties are his/her personal fault. It seems a shame that the opportunity was missed to investigate the factors that enable pupil Y to learn successfully.
The list of areas of difficulty and concerns voiced by teachers are attached as Table 8 in the Appendix. At the time of the questionnaire pupil Y was in S1 and a year later a lot of the same issues still arise. Teachers seem, however, to have given up on him/her as none of the teachers expects him/her to carry any of the materials with him/her or do any assigned homework.
- Tutorial lessons
During one of the tutorial lessons pupil Y listened to a 10-minute concentration thriller while I was observing his/her behaviour. Pupil Y demonstrated a series of off-task behaviour like fidgeting, playing with furniture and the cassette recorder, and day-dreaming which accounted for 48% of the observed time interval. Surprisingly, pupil Y answered all the questions with ease demonstrating he/she had listening very carefully and was quite capable of concentrating for 10 minutes without losing track of the story. Hence, care should be taken to interpret observational data. Pupil Y, although superficially of task, still remained focused in listening. Pupil Y really enjoys listening to these stories, so his intrinsic motivation to stay focused on the task is high. During the tutorial, pupil Y works very hard and puts a lot of effort into completing various tasks, such as mathematics or working on basic literacy. At the end of the tutorial we carry out a fun science experiment that pupil Y enjoys – this might provide the extrinsic motivation that pupil Y requires to carry out tasks that are not of his/her choosing and that he/she finds difficult.
Family circumstances
Reading the pupil Y’s PPR made for rather depressing reading and the main points are summarised in Table 9. It is not really the pupil I have got to know while working with him/her during the tutorials. There was very little information about family circumstances in the PPR so I assume that the family is not a contributory factor to his/her learning needs. From reading the minutes of an IEP review meeting, his/her mother comes across as supportive in general; however, from some of the occupational therapist correspondence and some other documents it appears that his/her mother gets a times frustrated about his/her behaviour and about his/her inability to do certain tasks such as washing himself when he was at Primary School. Reading his S1 reports and a summary report collated by the Support for Learning Department, it becomes clear that pupil Y never uses his/her planner and hence never completes homework and comes unprepared to lessons, e.g. forgets his PE kit and home economics equipment frequently. From a mother’s point of view, I am surprised that his/her mother does not assist him/her in taking the appropriate material to school but she may have the opinion that he/she is old enough and should take responsibility to do it him/herself.
Social and emotional factors
There are no major concerns about his emotional well-being. Pupil Y, however, does seem to get at times to get into fights as he/she has at times problems controlling his/her temper with certain people. On the whole, pupil Y is very pleasant and so called out of control behaviour might be caused by being still quite immature.
Disability and health needs
From the overview of his needs, pupil Y has been diagnosed to have dyspraxic type difficulties and concentration difficulties. He/she is currently not administered any medication. Holloway (2004) and Reid (2005) have written extensively about the difficulties and strategies pupils with these difficulties should receive and are in line with the observations made with pupil Y.
Difficulties which apply to pupil Y are:
- Poor organisational skills
- Poor handwriting and spelling
- Difficulties in constructing more complex sentences
- Sustaining attention
- Some indication of impulsiveness
- Has difficulty in organising thoughts sequentially, hence experiences difficulty in planning written tasks
Strengths:
- good visual-spatial skills
- very good listening skills when listening to audio recordings
- good reading skills
- good social skills
Required support needs:
- strategies to improve his organisational skills
- potentially use of a laptop computer if pupil Y accepts responsibility for this
- support to keep focussed – either strategies or direct support from support for learning department
- strategies for controlling his anger at times
- initial help to start a task
- being taught strategies how to plan a task
Response
In order to give pupil Y the best opportunity to be included within the lesson, I would recommend that pupil Y is seated at the front of the class where it is easy for the teacher to maintain eye contact. This also gives the teacher a better opportunity to have one-to-one contact with the pupil to explain tasks again when necessary but also to establish a good teacher-pupil relationship as this is very important to pupil Y. When working in groups, it would be beneficial to carefully select the pupils so that pupil Y works with responsible pupils which will encourage him/her to maintain concentration.
Another possibility would be to put more support into place within classes using support for learning teachers or classroom assistant. Pupil Y works very well with certain classroom assistants or support for learning teachers but to have all his lesson covered, I think, would undermine his social interactions within the class and he/she also needs to start to take more responsibility for his/her own actions.
Having a situation as it currently exists, in which pupil Y is allowed not to bring anything to school, I think is very defeatist and results in all teachers having very low expectations about his/her ability. It also gives a wrong message to pupil Y. Pupil Y’s parents had lost the consent letter and I had asked pupil Y to take the letter home and return it signed the next day. As he had forgotten to bring the letter back the next day but assured me that it had been signed I handed over a stamped envelope to post it to me. Despite getting into a fight that day and being suspended for three days, pupil Y managed to post the letter. My feeling was, therefore, that we should not be so negative about his/her organisatorial skills but provide strategies on how to improve this.
I have organised for him/her to receive a new homework diary into which his timetable was copied. We planned what materials/equipment he/she needs to bring to school every day. Pupil Y will go to the support for learning department in the morning to show his planner on a daily basis and a reward system has been put in place. Hopefully, teachers will see a change in pupil Y’s effort and may modify their often very negative perception of pupil Y and this in turn will provide some motivation for pupil Y to maintain his efforts.
Teachers may also need some help in adjusting the materials for pupil Y – even enlarging worksheets might be sufficient in some instances. Differentiation by task should be necessarily be recommended as this may lead to low expectations, as pointed out by McNamra and Moreton (2003), particularly when taking into account teachers’ opinions of pupil Y. If extended written tasks need to be carried out then pupil Y should be given either writing frames as suggested by Wray (2007) or a step-by-step plan of how to tackle the task. In order to assist him/her initially, part of the tutorials should be used to talk him/her through the individual steps and to help him/her to maintain concentration as this task may initially be quite challenging for him/her.
I was very aware how little interaction took place between pupil Y and teachers. Teachers should be encouraged to check pupil Y’s understanding of a task and, if necessary, break it down into simpler tasks using clear, concise instructions. Pupil Y may additionally benefit from using a word processor, however, he/she may need to convince the support for learning PT that it will be used for work not another means of distraction.
Reflection
Although I had been working with pupil Y for a couple of weeks prior to starting the assignment, I cannot stress enough how much more I have learned about the needs of pupil Y by focussing on his/her strength and by carrying out the observations. Most importantly, however, I feel far more confident about suggesting constructive strategies on how to support pupil Y. I was surprised by the extent of negative comments made about pupil Y and how most of the difficulties were attributed to pupil Y instead of realising that some of these are attributes of the difficulties he/she has. I suppose it is always easier not to find fault with oneself.
Some of the observations were quite difficult because I not only tried to observe pupil Y’s behaviour over a 15 second interval but I also wanted to get an overall impression of the lessons content and other pupil’s behaviour. A 10-minute observation period is relatively short to get reliable data on pupil Y’s behaviour. Nevertheless, I think that it is possible to garner a fair idea of what is going on within a classroom. If however, more quantitative data is required to make comparisons or see changes in behaviour, I think it would be necessary to carry out a couple of observations in each of the subjects over a few weeks to allow for variations – classrooms are a complex mixture of a number of factors.
Bibliography
H. M. Inspectorate of Education. (2002). Count us in: Achieving Inclusion in Scottish Schools. Edinburgh: HMIE.
Halloway. J. (200). Hidden disabilities.
Hamill, P., & Clark, K. (2005). Additional Support Needs. Paisley: Hodder Gibson.
McNamra. S. & Moreton, G. (2003). Understanding differentiation – a teacher’s guide. London: David Fulton.
Reid, G. (2005). Learning styles and inclusion. London: Paul Chapman.
Scottish Executive. (2005). Supporting children’s learning – Code of practice. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive.
Simpson, M., & Tuson, J. (2003). Using Observations in Small-Scale Research. Glasgow: The SCRE Centre.
Wray, D. J. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from http://www.warwick.ac.uk/staff/D.J.Wray/Ideas/discuss2.txt