Research to Practice

Hello All! Welcome back to my early childhood blog. As my experience with Pre-kindergarten comes to a close, this will be my final blog post regarding my most recent field work. Hopefully in the near future this will remain a valuable source for sharing my thoughts and ideas about my work in early childhood development and education!

With that being said, let’s get started!

First, I will begin by doing a brief overview of the past few weeks to recap what has been previously discussed.

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My first ever blog post was very rough around the edges to say the least. With absolutely no experience writing a blog post of any kind, it was a bit challenging for me to find a decent topic of interest to write about. For the first post, “The Power of Praise” I had decided to take a specific example of an observation that I the opportunity to witness and briefly connect it to a scholarly article I had researched. The observation directly connected to how rewarding a student with praise affected their behavior. This post was very dry in terms of what was discussed. While the information was interesting and relevant, the approach I took to telling you all was lacking the important element of, “connecting to the audience.” I hoped to improve upon this element as my posts went on.

(Between you and I, I really hope I managed to improve on this skill- there is nothing more boring than reading a blog post that lacks this element of connectivity to its readers!)

Anyway, the second blog post I had written was slightly better than the first! This one focused more on creating the narrative for writing a blog post, whereas the first one was more about spilling the information onto paper, or in this case a keyboard. It was my goal to approach this second post as more of a story. For this I began with what I thought was a catchy title, introduction and pictures. I was aware that I needed to include the audience into my story, so I started out by having readers connect their own lives and experiences with the ones I was having with this pre-kindergarten class. Within “Imagination Machines” I focused on telling the story of an observation I had made with the students I was working with in a nature that was exciting. Connecting the observation, I had made in regard to imagination with an educational article seems like a boring blog post, however I think I was able to present it in a way that was intriguing by allowing readers to put themselves in the shoes of my preschoolers. Overall, I was proud of my second post, more so than my first at least!

My third blog post was one in which collaboration was used. While this blog post was interesting and fun to write, it was lacking many of the characteristics of my, better, second blog post. This post was about a group activity that I had the opportunity to partake in. This post was written by me and three colleagues who all worked together to present a planting lesson at a local elementary school science fair. Within this post we were all able to reflect on our presentation and performance at the science fair. This post was very straightforward. We all wrote our thoughts and opinions and that was it; there was no narrative, no connection to the audience, no illustration; nothing, just our thoughts. For these reasons, I would say this post set us back in terms of learning and practicing the conventions of writing a blog post. Aside from losing the conventions, it was a great experience for writing a blog post with many authors. Overall, I think we did a good job; however, we could have made it a little fancier in terms of adding more elements of blog post conventions.

For my fourth blog post, “Innocent or Intentional,” I would say that I was able to apply all of the information I had learned about writing a blog post. I believe this one would be one of the better ones simply due to the fact that I was able to make it more of a conversation with my readers while also presenting valuable information in a way that is engaging. I still believe I have room to grow and develop my blog post writing skills, but I think this post is a great start to show what I am capable of!

Now that we have taken the time to reflect on the work that I have already created, let’s dive into what can be done to improve my blog post writing skills!

For this, I will be answering three simple questions:

1. If you were to experience the R2P project again, what would you do differently? Please specify.

If I were to experience this project again, I would do many things differently! First and foremost, I think I would research and read a variety of current blog posts. I think by doing this I will have something to reference. By viewing positive examples of what is expected of me, I believe my initial blog post would have been a little stronger thus allowing me to grow from a product that is already on a solid foundation. The second thing I would do would be to start from the very beginning thinking about the audience and they ways in which I present information. This skill came too late in the game for me. I feel as if having this information would have better prepared me for being able to write a decent, interesting and engaging blog post from the beginning.

2. What are you taking away to your future teaching practice from this R2P project?

I think the most important thing I am taking away from this project is the ability to take an observation and find a correlation to a recent scholarly article. This aspect of this project was the most time consuming due to the fact that there are so many educational articles relating to such a wide variety of topics. My ability to search for and find articles that relate absolutely increased over the course of writing these many blog posts. This skill will be most valuable to me as I continue my journey to becoming a teacher.

3. What advice would you give to the next ERCH496 students about the R2P project?

The most valuable piece of advice I could give to the next group of students who will participate in the ERCH 496 Research to Practice Project will be to do activity read and follow an actual blog post. I believe if this is something I would have done; I would have been more successful from the beginning. I regret not taking the time to find real world examples to follow as I began the process of learning how to create a successful blog post.

Well, it looks like this is the end. I have been provided the opportunity to create and continue a blog for the last few weeks, reflect and synthesize on my work and provide recommendations for the next round of students. It looks like my work here is done! I appreciate those of you who have followed along with me in my journey through Pre-kindergarten! I sincerely hope these last few blog posts were of value to many of you!

Stay tuned and best wishes,

Riley

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Innocent or Intentional?

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog! I am excited for todays post, as it will allow us to dive into the mind of a preschooler and really analyze the difference between innocent aggression and intentional aggression. This topic comes as all of us have experienced the feeling, attitudes and actions that come with aggression; whether it was when we were in preschool or well into adulthood. As I have had the continued pleasure of observing a pre-kindergarten classroom over the course of the last few weeks, I have been able to witness and connect some of the aggressive behaviors that are exhibited by four- and five-year old’s to my own personal experiences with aggression.

With that being said, before we get into some of the things I have witnessed in terms of preschool aggression, I would like you all to think of a time in your past, both far and recent, and remember a time in which you had experienced the feeling of aggression and/or participated in an aggressive act. I would like you to remember how you felt, in the moment and after. Remember how it made others feel; what were their reactions? How did you resolve the issue at hand? What were the consequences both immediate and long term? As you are thinking I would like you to recall how you have changed since that experience.

Inside the Mind of a Preschooler

Now that you’ve reflected on your experiences, let’s look at an observation I have made and the connections it has to me personally.

Since beginning my observations in this pre-kindergarten classroom, I had noticed the behaviors both negative and positive of one young child. This child is a four-year-old African American boy. He comes from a large family, with five siblings and his family is of low socio-economic status. This child is often times disruptive during both whole class activities as well as during individual work time. He has been observed not following the directions of the teacher and not actively participating in whole group activity. Many of his disruptive behaviors appear to be of an aggressive nature. The behaviors he exhibits include, throwing toys and classroom materials around the room, hitting and pinching both teachers and peers, pulling on his peers clothing, pushing his peers on the playground, stealing his peers snack and meal time foods and he has even gone so far as to dumping a cup of water on his peers head.

All of these behaviors had struck my attention, as it was unclear to me why this child was behaving in such a manner. I began making connections to my own personal life and my own feeling and/or behaviors of aggression. I wanted to put myself into the tiny shoes of this child.

What I came to find was that even though most of the time this child was given what he wanted in this classroom setting, he continued on with this aggressive behavior towards both his teacher and his peers. This got me to thinking; why did this behavior continue. When I was a child, I would too have aggressive outbursts, especially towards my siblings. The outbursts were always surrounding an issue I had had with one of them, but after it had been resolved and I had gained the time to “cool down” the aggressive behaviors stopped. So, if this child is given what he wants, whether that is a physical object or adult attention, why doesn’t the aggression stop for him? What more is he seeking to gain? Is there any underlying issue? If so, what could it be?

Let’s Ask the Expert

As I have observed this child, made connections to my own life and tried to put myself into his shoes, I still did not understand his behaviors. With no reasonable explanation in sight, I turned to the experts. Author Christine N. El Ouardani writes of a possible solution in her article; Innocent or Intentional? : Interpreting Oppositional Defiant Disorder in a Preschool Mental Health Clinic. Within her article Ouardani details the difference between innocent aggression and intentional aggression. She starts by explaining that “aggressive, disruptive behavior represents the main reason for the referral of preschoolers to mental health clinics. Researchers and clinicians in the field of child mental health are thus concerned with developing effective ways to identify and treat disruptive behavior in this age group (Keenan and Wakschlag 2002; Luby and Morgan 1997). From their perspective, early intervention can not only help children to adapt to the institutional demands of family and school effectively, but potentially prevent the development of later, more destructive, and even criminal behavior.” This made me think, maybe the behaviors that this child was exhibiting were a continued act for attention; a never-ending need for gratification.

When I learned of the fact that “national data [has begun] suggesting that boys are more likely to be treated for disruptive behavior in mental health clinics at this age,” many of this child’s behaviors began to make sense. Ouardani continues to explain that as a child is continuously engaging in behaviors such as this child has, they are more likely to be engaging in a power struggle with their parent or teacher. Ouardani says; “clinicians also associated these manipulative and deceitful ODD children as powerful and asserting influence over weaker adults, intentionally controlling their behavior and upsetting the normative balance of power.” With Ouardani’s research, the behaviors of this child are becoming clear; perhaps this child should be considered for Oppositional Defiant Disorder. (I am not a mental health care professional, what I have researched is based off of the observations I have experienced with this child.)

“ODD is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV) as ‘‘a recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that persists for at least 6 months’’ that impairs a child’s social and/or academic functioning (APA 2000:100).”

Now What?

Now that this child has been observed engaging in these behaviors and there has been a connection made to research based on Ouardani’s article, what should be done? What interventions will best assist this child and the difficulties he his having?

One possible way to assist this child with Oppositional Defiance Disorder is described through Ouardani’s article, she states that, “although during the diagnostic process clinicians talk about the ODD child as acting out ‘intentionally’ and as part of their intrinsic ‘self’ in order to upset others, in the treatment process very little emphasis is put on trying to change or treat the child. Instead, the majority of the treatment practice is focused on teaching caretakers how to more effectively discipline and relate to their children.” What Ouardani is describing is a great way to manage this child’s behavior. This approach not only allows the adult to make accommodations for the child based on the behavior, but it also allows the child the opportunity to manage their own behavior without the negative reactions they accustomed to. This child needs to be aided in their behavior management; this approach will do just that.

What Do You Think?

After having read about my personal experience with aggression both as the aggressor and as a witness, what are your thoughts and/or feelings on having a child as young as a preschooler being tested for Oppositional Defiance Disorder? Do you think this child should be tested or do you think this is a phase he will likely grow out of?

Hello! Welcome to my first ever blog! If you are as excited as me to learn about child development in education, then you’re in the right spot. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be observing a classroom and reporting back to you the information that I have gathered. To begin this blog, I will be discussing the observations and questions that I’ve come across being in the field – stay tuned!

In this blog, I will be connecting the observations that I have recorded to researched articles that relate the effectiveness of praise when it comes to both positive and negative behaviors exhibited by Pre-K students. After having the opportunity to observe this classroom, I began asking myself a multitude of questions in relation to the behaviors of both the teacher and the student had exhibited. These questions include; How does praise affect a student’s behavior? positive or negative? How does planned ignoring affect student’s behavior? is this a good approach? How is this teacher maintaining control of her classroom? What rules does she have established in the classroom? How were these rules introduced? When were they introduced? Did the students participate in rule setting? What are other good reinforcers for positive behavior? Is food a “go too”? How often should positive behavior be reinforced? When do you “call out” negative behavior? How does positive reinforcement in a preschool classroom affect student behavior? As we follow this saga of behavior from weeks one and two, I will try to answer these questions and more!

In coordination with Millersville University, I had the opportunity to engage in a field placement in a Bright Horizon Pre- Kindergarten classroom. In this classroom there are approximately twenty students, one teacher, one teacher assistant, and one behavior specialist. During my time in this classroom, I was able to make many observations; these observations include but are not limited to, the classroom setting, the rules, the schedule and the behaviors of the students and the teachers. For the purpose of this blog I will be discussing the behaviors I was able to observe during the first few hours of the Pre-kindergarten day. These observations relate to the student’s behaviors and the teacher’s reaction; this would include what the behavior was, how it began, how long it lasted and how the teacher responded.

To begin each school day at the Bright Horizons Pre-Kindergarten classroom the teacher takes attendance as her students arrive. As all of her students enter the classroom, they are to take off their outerwear (in this case it is their winter coats) and put them in their cubbies before they are allowed to partake in center/play time. The schedule and routine are the same every Monday through Friday for this classroom, all of the students are aware of the rules and schedule.

On the morning of Monday March 5, 2019 this organization was experiencing a two hour delay due to a recent snow storm, thus altering the schedule (by pushing the scheduled lunch times up in the day), although not affecting the procession of the schedule.

The students began to enter the classroom around approximately 10:45 AM, they continued to arrive for the next fifteen minutes or so. As the second half of the class arrived around 11:00 AM, the teacher continued to direct her students to their morning activities. While a majority of the students had followed the directions of the schedule, one student did not…

Each center has a designated number of students that can be at each. All students are aware of this rule, and all students know where to find out how many people are allowed at any particular center.  As students are occupied at their centers, the teacher will be engaging one on one with individual students or will be working in small groups. For example, this week the teacher would call over two or three students so she could explain the process of planting seeds. This activity was taking a wet paper towel and placing it into a sandwich bag with two bean seeds; the students would then close the baggies and the teacher would tape them to the window so they could watch it grow. As center time was taking place, there was one student who had refused several times to take off and hang his winter coat. This student was being defiant as the teacher repeatedly asked for his cooperation. This student refused to follow directions. He kept his coat on and proceeded to lay on the floor. The teacher informed this student that if he did not follow directions when it came to removing and hanging his coat, he would not be able to participate in the planting of the seeds. The child insisted he keep his coat on as the other students worked at their centers.

While this student was refusing to take off and hang his belongings, the teacher finished planting seeds with the remaining students in small groups. After she had finished, she rang the xylophone bell, alerting the students it was time to clean up and head to the center carpet for the morning circle meeting.

The same student that had not taken off his coat was still defying the classroom assistant, who had taken over so the teacher could continue her activities with the other students. At the conclusion of morning center time, it was time to begin the morning circle. While most students were actively engaged in the morning circle, the teacher openly commended the rest of the class for following directions. Her praise in this situation was both verbal praise and rewards. The rewards consisted of who got what job what for the day. For example; there was one girl who the entire time was quite during the morning meeting, she had raised her had after each question – her reward was getting to be the line leader of line one. This praise for the rest of the class was directed at the student who had refuse to follow directions, the teacher had hoped the defiant student heard the praise in hopes it would change his behavior.

After the morning meeting, the boy who had refused to remove his winter coat had finally given in to the assistant. After, he went to the table where the teacher was planting seeds. He insisted that he plant his seeds as well. The teacher explained to him in a calm voice that since he had not followed directions previously, he was not going to plant his seeds. This further provoked this student. The teacher explained that if he were to demonstrate the same behaviors as one of his other; more well-behaved peers, he would be able to plant his seeds. After more convincing this student got to the end of the line and stood with the assistant.

The article, Rates and Types of Teacher Praise: A Review and Future Directions is a scholarly reviewed article about how and when teachers praise should be used in the classroom. This article goes on to talk about a few different types of teacher praise and how they are used in the classroom. The authors of this article discuss the outcome of a few studies that were conducted in regard to when a student was given praise and how many times, they were given praise in relation to the student’s behavior progression. This article does however specifically say that teacher praise is different from teacher reinforcements. The article focuses on teacher praise as simply verbal. Verbal praise and tangible reinforcement carry their own value to students, this is discussed in this article as well.

While this Bright Horizons Pre-kindergarten teacher did use praise; both verbal and rewards in this instance, she used it to almost coax a defiant student into his good behavior. According to the article, children respond to verbal praise in a way in which they seek it. The teachers approach in relation to this specific case worked. Her public praise of the other, more well-behaved students was partially to be credited for the ways in which this student changed his behavior; with credit given to the assistant as well for aiding the teacher in dealing with this matter. This student most likely saw what his peers had earned in regard to things such as, planting their seeds, and he decided he wanted the same opportunities, so he decided to follow the directions given by both the teacher and the assistant.

Reinforcement holds value. Being rewarded for positive behavior in any aspect of life; not just the classroom, will more often than not result in continued positive behavior. In a classroom setting, I have noticed that many times teachers will give students positive behavior reinforcers to commend good behavior and to redirect negative behavior in students. After having read this article about praise, I am now aware that the inclusion of both verbal praise (which this teacher was including in her classroom) and physical rewards are very important to students and controlling their behavior.

With that being said, I can conclude based on my own personal opinion that this teacher’s use of praise to redirect negative behavior and commend positive behavior was used correctly. It is clear to me, after having observed this classroom that her process is successful. I look forward to continuing to observe this teacher and her student’s behaviors as they continue to work together.

Thanks for following along, until next time

Riley S.