Analytical Report of Professional Practice - Essay Example

?Introduction As an educational practitioner, behaviour management in the primary school environment poses a significant challenge for the Children in primary school have been exposed to unique and diverse experiences in the social and familial environments throughout their earlier developmental years, which either contribute successfully to cognitive and emotional development or have created problems with social and emotional adjustment. When working as a professional with young children, ranging from the pre-operational stage of development to the concrete operational stage (Piaget, 1952, cited in Martin & Fabes, 2009), there are distinct cognitive capabilities and capacities that must be considered by the practitioner to develop effective teaching and behaviour management strategies to facilitate a more effective and productive learning environment. This reflective piece describes the challenges as an educational professional in behaviour management, an identified personal weakness, which requires significant development in order to facilitate a cohesive classroom environment and assist children in constructing a sense of communality and to respect the rights of others from a social standpoint. There are a range of strategies designed to modify problematic behaviours with primary school-aged children, including elements from cognitive behavioural therapy, an interactive and authoritarian role of the educational practitioner, creating sanctions, and a variety of reinforcement strategies to curb or otherwise deconstruct problem habits in the classroom. As a professional, the practitioner must understand which strategies are appropriate for children in the pre-operational or concrete operations stage of cognitive development in order to ensure that the aforementioned strategies will be effective in producing a socially-harmonious learning environment and curbing problematic behavioural issues. Identifying weakness in curbing undesirable child behaviours, which is defined as an individual’s response to environmental stimuli that dictates conduct and manner (Endoo 2012), is critical in education in order to ensure comprehension and effective participation by the child (Brophy 1986). Referent professional practice The practitioner has recently taken on the professional role of 1:1, working with a child maintaining very aggressive behaviours and oppositional attitudes that significantly complicate the learning process. Traditional behaviour management strategies are oftentimes ineffective when engaging the child, representing a substantial challenge in facilitating a positive educational practice. This child maintains a socio-historical background that apparently did not provide appropriate social guidance and strategies for curbing impulsive responses, making it the role of the practitioner to attempt to deconstruct these caregiver oversights that likely occurred during earlier childhood development. Reflection will focus on these interventions with the aggressive and non-compliant child, referencing contemporary theoretical positions on behaviour management in the educational environment to assist in professional self-development in behaviour control. Defining behaviour and behaviour management. Behaviour is defined by Endoo (2012, p.83) as the” specific actions and/or reactions of the individual in relation to environmental stimuli, either conscious or unconscious” that drives mannerisms and conduct. Behaviour management is strategies that are inclusive of all actions to increase the likelihood that people, both as individuals or in the group/team environment, choose to manifest behaviours that are fully productive, socially appropriate and even fulfilling from a personal perspective (Baldwin and Baldwin 1986). Behaviour management works under the premise that the professional attempting to manage problem behaviours can effectively manipulate changes to behaviour and attitudes once the practitioner identifies what the individual deems personally rewarding (Grenning 1993). They key emphasis of behavioural management strategies is to instil a sense of intrinsic motivation that is persuasive in creating the desire to behave appropriately. Referred to as positive reinforcement psychology, behaviour management is a blend of strategies that can create productive classroom behaviour. Theoretical positions: linking theory to practice Roffey and O’Reirdan (2001) reinforce that many young school children find difficulties in settling into academic life because their socio-historical backgrounds have not equipped them with the necessary skills to encourage cooperation and engage in positive social contact. As such, it becomes the direct responsibility of the professional to create an environment where there is clear guidance provided to replace pre-existing distorted social lessons with more rewarding behaviours that will assist in maximising the educational experience (Roffey and O’Reirdan 2001). As a professional in the educational environment, this poses a personal challenge as the complexity of historical experiences with caregivers or others in the social environment represents tremendous diversity of attitude and values that are unique to many primary school-aged children. Socio-historical backgrounds represent the level of attachment that was provided to youths during their earlier developmental years, which serves to impact such social characteristics as illustrating respect to the practitioner and others in the classroom environment. Poor attachment during early development, attributable generally to the early caregivers in the child’s life, can lead to very defensive, aggressive and non-compliant behaviours (Panda 2002). Recurring negative attachments in the child’s home and social environment can lead many children to begin to question their own self-value, forcing them to over-compensate in an effort to protect the self (Panda 2002). This self-protectionism often manifests itself in restlessness, a complete unwillingness to learn new concepts, and even hostility. As it has been identified that the practitioner maintains weaknesses in behaviour management, it is necessary to critically evaluate the role of the socio-historical environment and its relevance and influence in the educational environment. In current professional practice, working with the aforementioned aggressive and non-compliant child is clearly a by-product of attachment issues in the familial and social environment as the child is manifesting all typical behaviours supported by research that are outcomes of poor attachment development. Attempts to establish a secure-base relationship with the child has led to resistance of development of interpersonal attachments with the practitioner, a phenomenon identified by Schaefer and Kaduson (2007) for children with attachment issues that are unwilling to trust others. The result is recurring hostility, non-compliance to academic or social direction, and aggression during the learning experience. Some of the problems in this area, however, are attributable to weaknesses in the school organisational structure and support networks that do not always recognise that children have a propensity to unconsciously construct meaning about their environment in a way that matches their own internal viewpoints (Klein 1946, cited in Wright 2009, p.282). Therefore, not all supportive academic networks effectively assist in creating productive behaviour management literature to buoy up teaching methodology. Because of the aforesaid support weaknesses in the learning environment, the effectiveness of discourses must be emphasised. The content of what is being said and who is saying it is a consideration when attempting to control problematic behaviours. There is some risk, it would seem, of relying on emotional intelligence to guide discourses as a control methodology, as the child can become overly dependent on supporting discourses and thereby constraining their autonomous learning and emotional resiliency (Craig 2009). In reflection, the practitioner should be concerned about the quality and content of discourses to avoid this alleged phenomenon and build dependency in attachment. Prior to examining the literature on attachment theory and its relevancy in predicting future behavioural problems in the classroom, the practitioner struggled with the teaching process and managing these problem behaviours. One particular strategy that did not work effectively was omission training, or the process of taking away a desired stimulus in an effort to decrease undesirable behaviours (McSweeney et al 1996). Omission training is theoretically effective with children maintaining problematic behaviours as a form of negative punishment designed to facilitate more effective responses to instruction or interpersonal interactions with the practitioner. Foster et al (2008) agree with this strategy for behaviour management, offering that sanctioning and temporary loss of desirable privileges can prevent problem behaviours from recurring. However, upon reflection, when working with the aggressive and non-compliant child, sanctioning known appetitive objects or rewards was completely ineffective with this child. Because this and other strategies known to be effective with some problem children have been ineffective, the practitioner was determined to evaluate personal professional practice and enhance knowledge on the role of socio-historical attachment development. The objective was to critically assess the practitioner’s approaches to behaviour management and consider the role of psychological adjustment as a predictor of problem behaviours. During historical educational practice, the practitioner had focused more intently on strategies intended to be effective within a broader social context with known positive outcomes for the majority of children manifesting mild to moderate behavioural problems. After working in professional practice with an individual with rather severe behavioural issues, it became imperative to examine the theoretical positions on modifying extreme behavioural problems from a psycho-social perspective to build knowledge about more effective strategies for a niche of the child population that do not fit the profile of minor to moderate behavioural problems. The practitioner was able to critically assess their own competencies related to behavioural management, realising a significant limitation in appealing to psychological needs of the children when attempting to build a harmonious teaching curriculum. Masterson and Costello (1980), as one example, believe that simply setting limits can reinforce what behaviours are deemed appropriate in the classroom as an effective behavioural management strategy. Though rather simplistic, professionals are convinced that being consistent in reinforcing limits will prevent the child from acting out their impulsive emotions associated with most behavioural problems. As an experienced practitioner, it has become apparent that the depth and complexity of influencers that contribute to behavioural problems require a multi-faceted approach to behaviour control that moves beyond the simplistic, theoretical position to a more intensive analysis of social competencies of students and their developmental capacity influenced by their caregivers and the general social environment in and outside of the school environment. The practitioner has been able to develop much more effective knowledge in psychological and sociological contributors to problematic child behaviours, creating the ability to assess and evaluate the emotional and psychological capacity of young children to build effective classroom strategies where problematic behaviour might be more easily controlled. Ellis and Todd (2009) reinforce that the practitioner becomes the most critical focal point for facilitating learning in the classroom, with the capacity to disgrace or indulge, harm or cure the child. It is the methodology by which the practitioner responds to problem behaviours whether a behavioural emergency recurs or de-escalates (Ellis and Todd 2009). In personal evaluation of the practitioner’s competencies as an professional, it has come to the forefront of consciousness that the intricacy and range of potential catalysts for problem behaviour moves beyond the naive or rudimentary to a more thoughtful and expansive understanding of child development in order to build any effective behavioural management strategies. To elaborate further on the aforementioned, Skinner (1974, cited in Cole, 2004 p47), a respected psychologist, believed that positive reinforcement is an effective strategy for behaviour management. This is defined as adding a positive stimulus as a means of reinforcing desired behaviours when they occur (Blackman 1974). Theoretically, the practitioner should be adding a variety of rewards or positive acknowledgements when desirable behaviours have occurred in order to motivate future occurrences of positive actions. This is a form of operant conditioning that, over time, should be changing behaviours and producing more long-term positive adjustment in the classroom. In practice, younger children in primary school in the pre-operational stage of development still often maintain very egocentric behaviours placing little emphasis on the needs or opinions of others (Santrock 2004). Thus, theoretically, Skinner’s (1974, cited in Cole, 2004 p47) position on utilising positive reinforcement should have considerable merit especially when working with children between five and seven years of age that still maintain many egocentric thoughts and attitudes where personal rewards would satisfy self-centred desires. This sentiment about the value of positive reinforcement has improved the practitioner’s scope of knowledge about the importance of making significant psychological connections with the child that are aligned with their current capacities related to their present position in cognitive and emotional development. After experiencing problematic behaviours with the aforesaid aggressive and non-compliant child, it became quite apparent that the involvedness of psycho-social and historical interventions in the child’s life needs more addressing when attempting to manage difficult behaviours. In similar accord, the practitioner has come to the realisation that appropriate strategies that appeal to emotional needs must be coupled with the current developmental capability of children to identify a strategy that will be effective individually rather than collectively. As each child maintains unique environmental, social or familial stimulus that contribute substantially to problematic behaviours, a genuine educational professional must be consciously aware of these conditions to build a cohesive learning environment. To elaborate, Nolen-Hoeksema et al (2009) indicate the children in the pre-operational stage of cognitive development are unable to comprehend concrete logical concepts and still maintain magical beliefs and engage in symbolic play. The practitioner believes that younger children, up until age seven for the normally-adjusted child, will require strategies for behaviour management that will likely defy adult-like logical statements and strategies based on their current level of cognitive development. Concurrently, when working with a young child that has socio-historical problems with adjustment that is either related to improper attachment with adult figures or other traumatic situations in the social environment, the child will be unable to make practical sense (decoding) of their experiences. In this case, cognitive capacity considerations must be addressed by the practitioner alongside development of strategies that instil the legitimate motivation (in most cases appealing to psychological needs) to learn without aggression or acting on impulsive emotions. Critical reflection in this area has indicated that knowledge of appropriate, multi-blended strategies relevant for a child’s current developmental capacities needs improvement. However, the practitioner believes that maintaining legitimate consciousness of the complexity of psychological problems alongside cognitive inabilities can further complicate maintaining a learning environment free of problematic behaviour manifestations. This awareness will dramatically improve the ability to create a competent learning curriculum and maintain the ability to remove certain trouble behaviours during the teaching process. All of the aforementioned realisations about the linkage between current psychological adjustment capacity and cognitive capabilities of primary school-aged children ties into more hard-line strategies as a means of reducing the frequency of negative child behaviours. Educational practitioners can utilise strategies involved with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which is a psychotherapeutic method of tackling emotions that are dysfunctional and challenging child behaviours. CBT focuses on changing distorted thoughts, “substituting them with more reality-oriented interpretations for biased cognitions to alter dysfunctional attitudes” (Graham 2005, p.41). Though these strategies would likely be more effective for a child in the concrete operational stage of cognitive development where logic and rationalisation are more achievable, CBT is an approach that can alter maladapted thinking that serves as a predictor for poor socialisation or improper assessments of the learning process. The first step in cognitive behavioural therapy is assessment, an evaluation process in which the practitioner determines the cognitive capacity of the youth, their level of psychological fulfilment and adjustment and the probability that the individual will respond to behaviour modification strategies productively. Friedberg and McClure (2002) strongly agree with this sentiment, offering that the practitioner must consider the social-cognitive skills of the child and make adaptations to CBT strategies (interventions) that are appropriate to developmental capabilities. Without delving into the vast array of specific cognitive behavioural therapy strategies, it is important in self-reflection to understand the importance of conducting preliminary assessment of the child when attempting to create behavioural management strategies. The practitioner has come to understand that it is absolutely critical to perform more than observation about the potential catalysts for problem behaviours, but to conduct a competent preliminary evaluation of the current state of psychological and emotional adjustment. Practitioner observations can easily be distorted by their own personal experiences and beliefs that differ from the views and beliefs of the child. When attempting to engage with children, the practitioner must interact from the child’s own personal framework or there runs the risk of practitioner values and beliefs being projected onto the child (Geldard and Geldard 2008). When this occurs, the child is going to be even more resistant to attempts to build interpersonal relationships with the practitioner especially when the child already maintains problems with psychological or sociological adjustment created by their historical experiences. In order to effectively utilise cognitive behavioural therapy, the effort to adjust maladapted perceptions and attitudes, all functional strategies must be aligned with child faculties and abilities. Critical evaluation of personal weaknesses in behaviour management has indicated that this has been a historical limitation in attempting to use higher-order strategies to change challenging behaviours. Only after examining the vast volumes of literature on child development theories and child psychology was the practitioner able to make a logical connection between performing a non-biased assessment of child experiences and developmental capacity as a catalyst for building effective behavioural management stratagem. The practitioner has come to believe that the reason that previous attempts to curb negative behaviours when working with the aggressive and non-compliant child was due to the fact that strategies being implemented were intended to represent the broader cross-section of children that maintain appropriate socio-historical experiences and productive psychological adjustment. The practitioner now realises that not all children fit this profile, thus requiring innovation and flexibility in developing appropriate behavioural management approaches that are customisable for each individual child. This is what makes a true professional in the field of education: to understand what is actually serving as drivers and motivations for aggressive or non-compliant behaviours and then translating assessment findings into workable strategies with more probability of success for assisting the individual change distorted cognitions and gain the legitimate desire to learn and cooperate socially. The practitioner has come to learn that behavioural management requires significant time investment of the educator and a well-versed set of competencies in psycho-social evaluation processes to change problem behaviours within the individual child. Only by understanding the root of challenging behaviour production can the practitioner hope to manage the situation effectively short- and long-term. Conclusion and recommendations The educational environment often demands group working accompanied by independent work, therefore being able to interact socially with the practitioner and others in the classroom is vital to building a cohesive learning environment. Children that have limited social abilities or poor psychological adjustment can significantly complicate this process. As a true professional, it is recommended that in order to improve weaknesses in behaviour management, the practitioner devote more investment into child-centric psychology to gain a breadth and depth of knowledge about the mechanisms that drive cognitive processes and perception in primary school-aged children both pre-operational and in the concrete operations stages of development. Though the practitioner maintains awareness of potential strategies available for behaviour control and the role of psycho-social adjustment with the child, the intensity of knowledge on how to apply these lessons effectively need improvement. By engaging with more appropriate and higher-order learning in this domain of knowledge, the practitioner will be better equipped to assist learners in gaining the inherent motivation to learn and to build strategies that will appeal to their emotional needs to create productive outcomes in the teaching process. The practitioner has performed a very critical and forthright analysis of existing limitations in behavioural management, identifying recent improvements in approach understandings as well as gaps in applying theory to workable practice that will gain results in this effort. These are the constructs of a genuine educational professional: to evaluate the congruency between knowledge, practice, and experience to create productive behavioural management strategies in difficult learning environments or when working with challenging individual children. References Baldwin, J.D. and Baldwin, J. (1986). Behaviour Principals in Everyday Life, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Blackman, D. (1974). Operant Conditioning: An experimental analysis of behaviour. London: Methuen. Brophy, J. (1986). Classroom management techniques, Education and Urban Society, 18(2), pp.182-193. Cole, G (2004). Management Theory and Practice 6th Edition. London: Cengage Learning. Craig, C. (2009). 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