Extracts from this document...

Introduction

How much do Behavioral Disorders Affect Academic Development? Introduction to the Case Study Who is the school age student? Travis is in third grade and is ten years old. He attends Elementary School. Travis has a number of friends at this elementary school that are in different grade levels. He enjoys playing sports, video games and enjoys laughter and jokes. His educational history at this school encompasses a proficient number of excellences in all content areas of the curriculum but Travis has difficulty conducting himself in social environments. Travis performs well when he is not under self-constraint or stress. When he is given assignments that are irrational or difficult, he has incapability's to cope with the given situation. His desire for success and fear of failure seem to hinder his development academically and socially. When he is given a task in which he feels is too difficult, he appears to build high anxiety in forms of aggression and expressions of crying. In his past classes, he has had problems with teachers who have traditional settings. Travis needs his own space and room to work. He is above average in his height and weight for his age level. He doesn't like to sit on the floor and must sit on a chair for activities. This has been a problem in his previous class settings because in primary grades, there is much instruction in reading circles on the floor and in many lower level grade classrooms the students sit at tables instead of having their own desk. Travis works better independently and needs an adequate amount of space to work. Travis's exquisite display of independent work may be from his habitual experience from his family life. Travis is the only child and hey may receive a large amount of direct attention and he may be use to working alone. His parents are divorced so he lives with his mother and his grandfather. ...read more.

Middle

Objective assessment is becoming more popular due to the increased use of online assessment since this form of questioning is well-suited to computerization, which is less costly to grade. These standardized tests are graded by criterion-referenced assessment. A criterion-referenced test is one that provides for translating the test score into a statement about the behavior to be expected of a person with that score or their relationship to a specified subject matter. Most tests and quizzes written by school teachers are criterion-referenced tests. A criterion-referenced test would report the student's performance strictly according to whether or not these questions were answered correctly. The objective is simply to see whether or not the student has learned the material. In elementary school, these tests are considered to be high-stakes testing. High-stakes testing is the assessment of individual performance, normally through paper-and-pencil measures, and the use of those data to make decisions about promotion, graduation, instructor effectiveness, program performance, and the approval of educational programs and institutions. A good assessment has both validity and reliability, plus the quality of the test attributes for a specific context and purpose. A valid assessment is one which measures what it is intended to measure. An assessment that would not be valid would be to assess driving skills through a written test alone. A more valid way of assessing driving skills would be through a combination of tests that help determine what a driver knows, such as through a written test of driving knowledge, and what a driver is able to do, such as through a performance assessment of actual driving. Reliability relates to the consistency of an assessment. A reliable assessment is one which consistently achieves the same results with the same or similar group of students. Various factors affect reliability, including ambiguous questions, too many options within a question paper, vague marking instructions and poorly trained markers It is very reliable, but not very valid. ...read more.

Conclusion

A person will be scared to explore new activities and new objectives because of the fear of performing badly. They would rather not try new things then fail which may lower their self-esteem. For Travis to overcome this, I recommend assistance and taking bold, decisive action. Action gives you the power to change the circumstances or the situation. You must overcome the inertia by doing something. This can be done by doing things different. Travis needs assistance by learning how to conquer tasks in different ways. If Travis has more options and ways of performing, he would be more inclined to try new tasks which will lower feelings of failure. Travis also needs support and to learn not to take failure as a personal self-worth. Travis needs to look at failure as an event or a happening, not as a person. Travis's support systems need to help his way of thinking. Travis needs to think of failure as a learning experience. If Travis was given more optional methods of performance, this would significantly help him build his self esteem and knowledge. Travis needs to learn how to problem solve. He needs to think of optional ways he will perform the task when he is having trouble. The teacher and the school psychologist need to develop ways Travis can learn problem-posing procedures. Travis needs to learn that there is more than one way to solve a problem. If Travis is taught the different ways he can develop answers to solve math problems and the different methods used for reading and writing, I think it would lower his fear of failure. I believe part of growing and developing is to learn the idea of choice. Yes, in elementary school most students have not developed cognitively to think abstractly but I still think it should be taught. Students learn differently and must be given choices in which they can learn and develop information. I recommend Travis to learn differentiated methods of instruction and learn the concept that there is not always one correct answer for everything in order to lower his fear of failure. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our University Degree Teaching section.