Intervention Plan: Culture and Curriculum - Case Study Example

Intervention Plan - Culture and Curriculum BACKGROUND This intervention plan is based on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological systems theory which visualizes the development of a child in the context of the relationships system that form the child’s environment. This theory provides a definition of complex layers of environment which impact on the development of a child. The development of the child is steered by the interaction between factors in the maturing biology of the child, his/her family or community environment and the social landscape. Thus, to be able to study the development of a child, one needs to consider macrosystem, mesosystem and the microsystem. MACROSYSTEM The macrosystem includes the overarching pattern of exosystems, microsystems and mesosystems feature of a specified culture or subculture with certain reference to the bodies of knowledge, the belief systems, material resources, lifestyles, structures, customs, hazards, opportunity and options for life course which embedded in the general systems (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). Australia is highly urbanized, immigrant societies which has ethnic group like the aboriginal as minority groups. the children of minority groups in Australia comprise a disproportionate share of those who are vulnerable. The Australian tradition is largely English inherited where individual family has the responsibility of raising their children (Brandell, 2010). As such, Australia is one of the countries which have the highest rates of single parent family and poverty among the world’s wealthy countries (Berns, 2009). Australia is also facing the challenge of moving from resource based economy to a knowledge based economy in which the social and intellectual demands are expected to be higher in future as compared to what exists now. Like other rich countries, life expectancy among Australian varies by as much as five years from its counterparts (Thompson, 2000). Studies have indicated that such a variation cannot be based on differences in expenditure on health care or national income difference but in the social environment in addition to the impact that the social environment has on the development of a child in his/her early years. Studies have further indicated that there is a consistency between higher socioeconomic standing and better health. Given the ideologies of Australia society where individual families have the responsibility to solely take care of their children; it is imperative that children from poor families will not be able to access basic needs such as food, clothing and education. Even if they do access better educational facilities they are likely to be disadvantaged by the underlying factors such as lack of good healthcare and food. This is based on the fact that the child’s developing brain is an environment organ and for the child’s development to be improved his/her environment in which he/she grows, learn, and live need to be improved. This implies that measures such as just fulfilling specific service mandates to narrowly defined client population cannot guarantee child development improvement. This is contrary to the situation which exists in Australian society in which various agencies have traditionally taken the responsibility of providing one on one client services. This implies that children like those in the case will not have a better social environment that enables their brain to develop appropriately. It has been established that well being, health and competence all have the same determinants. As such objective a wide variety of government and non government agencies can be attained by acting in concert (Brandell, 2010). This is based on the powerful evidence available to support intersectoral action for child development (Santrock, 2001). For instance, the laws and regulations which inhibit or support flexible work arrangements for parents with young children are not within the precincts of Ministries of Health but available evidence indicate that such arrangements could help improve the quality of development of a child which is related to health outcomes. A survey conducted in Australia indicated that determinants of child development impact on all levels of social aggregation such as family, community, neighborhood and economy (Thompson, 2000). This evidence shows the importance of a strategy that is both intersectoral and multilevel and which has strong local leadership. In order to ensure that care arrangements are quality, neighborhood is increasingly safe and coherent and neighborhoods are not ghettoized call for leadership at the municipal and neighborhood level. It has been established that in order to improve parenting skills there is need for leadership from credible individuals within the society on one hand and vulnerable families on the other hand (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). Thus, in our case, the parent of Rebecca in our case needs such credible leaders to aid them in acquiring better parenting skills. MESOSYSTEM The mesosystem refers to the linkages and process that occur between two or more settings that contain the developing person. In Australia, the success of an individual in education is linked to success or failure in his future life (Thompson, 2000). This seems to be the driving force behind the parents in the case sending their child to school in spite of their poor socioeconomic status. The believe that their current status of being poor based on the fact that they did not complete their high school studies and therefore unable to acquire a stable job seems to drive the parents of Rebecca to send her to school in order to have a better future (Brandell, 2010). This believes in cumulative effects seems to be shared with the school which sees that the future of the children is dependent on their success in education. This is the reason the teachers have been able notice the discrepancy in performance of Rebecca from others (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). The teachers seem to strive to ensure that the kids have successful education in order to have a better future. Thus there is some degree of congruence between the student’s home, culture and school in terms of the importance of education on the future of the student. Given that the mother sends the kid to school, she expects her to perform even though she knows that her lack of stable job is impacting negatively on performance of Rebecca. The teachers also expect her to perform not withstanding her poor background (Brandell, 2010). The general Australian culture also expects that Rebecca performs well in her studies in order to be well prepared for future life challenges. The Australian society believes that in order to transition from the current resource based economy to knowledge based economy the next generation of labor force, Rebecca included, need to attain sufficient intellectual or social competence to cope with it (Cicchetti & Cohen, 2006). The expectation of the school and culture however differs from the home expectation in that in Australia a child is expected to be provided for by her parents but in the case of Rebecca, her mother is unable to provide her with essential nutrition and she only has snacks for lunch and sometimes goes without breakfast based on changes observed in her behavior. From the information given in the case, Rebecca was developmentally vulnerable at school entry. The instability in her family which led to her parents divorcing and lack of stable employment for her parents necessitated by lack of sufficient education could have made Rebecca more developmentally vulnerable. Studies have indicated that one of the major requisites for optimal child development is secure attachment to a trusted caregiver with consistent caring support and affection early in life. Contrary to this, Rebecca’s early life was characterized by inconsistent care support and affection in life due to separation of her parents when she needed their care most. Rebecca mother is wholly dependent on government welfare and has insufficient money to cater for their basic needs. As a consequence Rebecca cannot afford basic needs such as food and educational materials that could foster her performance in school. Australia is largely a Christian society and it is possible that Rebecca is also a Christian (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). Based on the fact that Rebecca’s parents were not able to complete their high school education, it is possible that Rebecca hails from a minority group such as aboriginals which are known to be vulnerable and unable to access sufficient education. It is possible that this has been a cumulative effect where Rebecca’s generation has been latently been unable to access good education owing to the poor economic status. The fact that her parents lacked sufficient education implies that her educational support at home was also poor from the onset. This is because she could not be able to get assistance at home in handling her homework and get support for various educational supports (Brandell, 2010). The inability of Rebecca to access books and materials needed for basic school work due to incapability of her mother to meet costs of such materials makes Rebecca vulnerable developmentally in terms of basic education. This could be the reason why she lags behind academically as indicated in the case that she is 2 years behind in reading comprehension. This is an indication that Rebecca comes from a non English speaking ethnic group. The inability to understand subtraction and limited knowledge of multiplication and division all point to inability to access basic school materials. Furthermore, Rebecca displays a dislike toward writing and displays difficulty in forming letters on the page, a skill that should have been formed in the early years. MICROSYSTEM Microsystem refers to a pattern of activities, social roles and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing child in a specified face to face setting with certain social, physical and symbolic feature features which attract, permit or inhibit engagement in sustained, progressively more complex interaction with, and activity in, the immediate environment (Brandell, 2010). This includes family, peer group, school and workplace. Studies have indicated that grouping practices have detrimental effects. Grouping students into high and low academic tracks increases the gap between the groups and accentuate inequality in skills and knowledge that is initially present when such groupings are not there (Shaffer, 2008). Based on these findings if I were a teacher of Rebecca’s class I would try as much as possible to avoid any groupings based on student achievement or ethnic and language background to reduce the discrepancy between the two groups in terms of academic achievement. Studies have indicated that positive results for both social and academic outcomes can be attained when children learn in heterogeneous and cooperative groups (Thompson, 2000). Thus, to address Rebecca’s academic shortfalls, I would use group design to teach the students in the class. In this case I would group Rebecca in a heterogeneous group with low, medium and high achievers. I would encourage all members of the group to participate in discussions at hand. I would try as much as possible to complement her for any small improvements that she makes. This will help to change her behavior of being alone and encourage her to be social to others. In addition, I would have group activities which require active participation of each group member. This would allow Rebecca to realize the power of cooperation and start altering her isolated behavioral features. Furthermore, I would alter the sitting arrangement in the classroom so as to reflect heterogeneity in those students with low academic achievements sits with both medium and high achievers (Shaffer, 2008). This will help to create heterogeneity that has been found to reduce disparity in performance capabilities of students in a class setting. Studies have also indicated that observations and conversations with family members in addition to formal test information can enable a teacher to build upon child’s strengths in spite of whether the child is disabled, has a primary language other than English or is from an ethnic minority group. Thus to be able to help Rebecca, as her teacher I would also use observations and converse with her mother in addition to using her test information to build upon her strengths in order to help her improve her performance. It has been found that various things need to be emphasized in a developmentally appropriate early childhood program. This includes active senses based exploration of the environment, self directed hands on learning activities balanced with teacher directed activities and a balance between individual and group activities (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). Such a program also requires regular and supportive interaction with both teachers and peers; a balance between active movement and quiet activities; and ongoing observation and assessment to inform the program. In the case of Rebecca’s class, I would try to use the group activities to design assessments based on these activities to assess its effectiveness. I would also schedule personal meetings with various students in the class in order to interact with Rebecca on personal grounds and try and help her out. Developmentally appropriate practice requires greater cultural sensitivity and emphasis on use of active or experiential teaching model character used by guidance and facilitation instead of control of student learning by the teacher. Thus, I would design my lessons in such a way that am just a facilitator for group and individual activities with the class. Individual Teacher within the classroom In order to create a positive classroom environment a teacher need to consider various things related to both physical environment and emotional environment (Shaffer, 2008). When creating a classroom physical environment the teacher needs to take into account his or her expectations. This should inform the teacher on how the desks are to be arranged, how students are placed, how classroom is decorated and the classroom music (Thompson, 2000). Desk arrangement should reflect the purpose at hand. The seating arrangements should accommodate an inclusive learning environment. An inclusive classroom is argued to be one which places students in areas of the class best suited to their needs. When decorating classroom, the sense of belonging of students ought to be taken into account by including student made posters. The music to be used should take into consideration its purpose whether its for reward, creating positive mood or helping students focus. In terms of emotional environment, it has been argued that it is the responsibility of a teacher to value all students in his/her classes in order to aloe each student to feel special and important. In creating emotional environment the teacher need to let his/her students know what he/she is and what he/she likes and dislikes. The uniqueness of students in a classroom calls for diversification of curriculum, teacher pedagogy and assessment in order to meet special needs for each student (Shaffer, 2008). Three aspects of curriculum can be differentiated by teachers in classroom environment: process, content and products. Process refers to the activities which can help students make sense of the ideas being taught. This can be diversified by providing some students with more complexity while others with more scaffolding based on their readiness levels (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). Content refers to principles, concepts and skills that teachers want students to learn. In order to meet special needs of each student in a classroom all students should be given access to the same core content but adjust the degree of complexity. Product refers to culminating projects which allow learners to demonstrate and extend what they have learned. It is argued that teachers should allow students to create different products based on their readiness levels, learning preferences and interests. Teacher pedagogy can be diversified through adoption of standards for preparing and retaining high quality teachers who can work effectively with students from a diversity of backgrounds (Damon & Lerner, 2006). The teachers should be engaged in instructional practices which demonstrate a valuing for cultural diversity. This should include racial/ethnic background, language, ability, religion, socio economic status and gender. Assessments can be diversified by use of meaningful pre-assessment which can result in functional and successful differentiation (Shaffer, 2008). Incorporation of pre and continuous assessments enables the teacher to provide a better menu of approaches, scaffolds and, choices to meet the varying interests, needs and abilities in classroom setting (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). The assessment to be employed can either be formal or informal. Various strategies can be used to improve Rebecca’s English outcomes. First this can be attained by the teacher employing multiple research based methods and strategies into a coherent plan for reading instruction which meets the diverse learning needs in Rebecca’s classroom (Shaffer & Kipp, 2009). For instance, by teaching students to recognize and use cognates, they are able to acquire a valuable comprehension strategy (Lerner, Jacobs & Wertlieb, 2003). Thus, if a teacher uses multiple approaches to reading instruction, Rebecca will be able to benefit from approaches that reinforce the relationship between experience, talk and print. The second strategy that can be used to teach Rebecca’s class is use of systematic and explicit instructions to develop phonemic awareness. This will allow Rebecca to perceive the phonemes that make up spoken words. This can in turn help improve spoken and written outcomes of Rebecca (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). A third strategy that can be used to improve Rebecca’s English outcome is by the teacher developing student’s phonic skills via systematic instruction on sound-symbol relationships while spending appropriate time to meet individual needs. This strategy will help Rebecca improve her reading and writing skills of words with silent letters such as l in walk and words which present certain sounds that are almost similar but differ in spelling such as meet, mete and meat. Various strategies can be used to teach mathematics. On of these strategies is integrating the arts in the curriculum. By engaging students in arts activities dialogue on issues that are important to them is encouraged (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008). This provides opportunities for the students to express themselves via visual and performing arts that enable them to develop verbal and mathematical intelligences among others (Bjorklund & Blasi, 2011). Studies have indicated that the low SES children who learn in arts integrated schools have better mathematical outcomes in comparison to those in comparison schools which lack the integration. Thus by integrating arts in the curriculum Rebecca’s mathematical outcomes will be improved (Sigelman & Rider, 2011). Another strategy that can be used to improve mathematics outcome is incorporation of multiple forms of assessment. Another strategy that can be used to teach math in Rebecca’s scenario is teaching language through subject matter instead of specific linguistic exercises (Shaffer, 2008). For instance instead of removing students from a content lesson in math just because they are not proficient in English, Rebecca’s math teacher can pair bilingual and monolingual students in small groups and provide them with a math related tasks within those groups. in this case bilingual students will assist the monolingual learners in completing the math task and at the same time provide natural models of language development within content domain. This will be helpful to Rebecca who has language problems and math problems. Literature Lesson Children’s books have a big role in the effort of the society trying to transmit the culture of the society in the lifestyle of the children. Literature for the children often depicts some social roles for females and males with an aim of promoting as well as highlighting the occurrences of asymmetrical (gender roles that are incongruent through female character) or symmetrical (gender roles that are congruent through the female character). Gender bias has been in existence in the language, content and illustrations in so many children’s books. This has been shown by the gender that has been used as the main character as well as through the manner in which the roles of such a gender has been depicted. According to the main researches, the male role has been used more often for the main character’s role. A research by Kingston & Lovelace, (2008) showed that the male character was represented in the children’s books twice the times the female was used. Further she noted that even in the books with a neutral name the role was played by a male. Also she found out that for the stories where girls were portrayed, they reflected the stereotypes of female and male roles. The students will be provided with some questions which they will answer and through the answers they will give then an analysis will. The following are the critical discussion questions to be used 1. Name in the story book, the main boy and girl character boy and 2 where the main character is a girl 2. Describe the main character in the story book (both the female and a male) for example; what this character did/how did this character behave? And according to you do you think it was appropriate? 3. What were the differences and the similarities between the roles played by the female characters and the male characters? 4. Were the main characters doing what their social roles suggest i.e. were young men/young women or boys/girls or in the story doing what or young men/young women or boys/girls generally do? 5. Do you think all of their behaviors were appropriate? Why? And Why not? Reflection Questions to check the achievement of the objective: a. What are you trying to accomplish? The main point I was trying to prove is that Children’s books have a big role in the effort of the society trying to transmit the culture of the society in the lifestyle of the children. b. Did you succeed? Yes I succeeded because according to the answers the children were giving, it was evidence that what they were reading was simply preparing them for what to expect as their roles with reference to their gender. In most answers the boys are represented as active while the girls as acted upon and not being active. This is whereby the girls are represented as being conforming, naïve and dependent while the boys as being adventurous, capable and independent. This is whereby the boys assume the role of fighting, rescuers and adventurers while girls are very passive in their roles of caretakers, princesses and desperately in need of rescue, mothers and roles that shows their support for the males (Weitzman et el, 2002). The success of the role of a girl is showed by the help of other people while for the boy it’s through perseverance. The genders have been demonstrated in the form of stereotype and the girl child has been presented being lesser than the boy child. c. What is the strongest aspect of this work? The research findings as well as the social theories emphasize on the fact that all children in their young age learns to do and believe what they hear and see, this why the gender roles in their mind are well established still in their young age. This explains why gender stereotype displayed books present the children with very restricted role models to the children hence contributing to the children’s growth with a biased behaviour that is gender stereotyped and it is not healthy for their growth. In most of these books, the girl child or a woman has been presented less in the pictures (Weitzman et el, 2002). Also the roles of these girls in the pictures are mainly watching, listening, waiting and helping while the boys are associated with activities like exciting activities, adventures and camaraderie. Whole school approach Whole school approach refers to organizational system which integrates health and well being within the culture, ethos, core business, routine life of the school setting. It entails addressing the needs of pupils, staff and the wider community. Currently it seems the school offers only education based on curriculum (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). This is because the students are required to carry packed snacks and lunch. This is disadvantageous to vulnerable kids like Rebecca whose parents cannot afford descent meal. The school needs to implement change in order to cater for special needs of both pupils like Rebecca and teachers (Little & Bovaird, 2007). The only assistance available is to parents in form of welfare which is not sufficient to cater for disadvantaged kids like Rebecca. The school needs to adopt policies which allow students to be given meals at school. To do the school ought to source for assistance from governmental and non governmental organizations. Family By involving parents in the care and schooling of their kids, the kids are able to perform better. In this case the emotional and behavioral problem of Rebecca and her performances need to be considered when communicating to her parents. In addition, when communicating the teacher need to consider her ethnic and socio-economical background so that suggestions being provided do not make the parent feel guilty and hence unwilling to participate in helping Rebecca. References Berns, R. (2009). Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support, 8th Ed. London: Cengage Learning Bjorklund, D., & Blasi, C. (2011). Child & Adolescent Development: An Integrated Approach. London: Cengage Learning Brandell, J. (2010). Theory & Practice in Clinical Social Work, 2nd Ed. New York: SAGE Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making human beings human: bioecological perspectives on human development. London: SAGE Bukatko, D., & Daehler, M. (2004). Child development: a thematic approach, 5th Ed. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University. Cicchetti, D., & Cohen, D. (2006). Developmental Psychopathology: Theory and method, 2nd Ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Damon, W., & Lerner, R. (2006). Handbook of Child Psychology: Theoretical models of human development, 6th Ed. London: John Wiley and Sons. Kail, R., & Cavanaugh, J. (2008). Human Development: A Life-Span View, 5th Ed. Oxford: Cengage Learning Kingston, J. & Lovelace, T. (2008). Sexism and reading: A critical review of the literature. Reading Research Quarterly, 7(1), 133-161. Lerner, R., Jacobs, F., & Wertlieb, D. (2003). Handbook of applied developmental science: promoting positive child, adolescent, and family development through research, policies, and programs. Applying developmental science for youth and families: historical and theoretical foundations, Volume 1. New York: SAGE Little, T., & Bovaird, J. (2007). Modeling contextual effects in longitudinal studies. London: Routledge. Parke, R., & Clarke-Stewart, A. (2010). Social Development. London: John Wiley and Sons. Santrock, J. (2001). Child development, 9th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Shaffer, D. (2008). Social and Personality Development, 6th Ed. London: Cengage Learning Shaffer, D., & Kipp, K. (2009). Developmental Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence, 8th Ed. London: Cengage Learning Sigelman, C., & Rider, E. (2011). Life-Span Human Development, 7th Ed. Oxford: Cengage Learning Thompson, L. (2000). Young bilingual children in nursery school. London: Multilingual Matters Weitzman, L. J., Eifler, J., Hokada, E., & Ross, C. (2002). Sex-role socialization in picture books for preschool children 5(77), 1125-1150. Read More