Interactive Activity
Sometimes educators attribute classroom dynamics to individual children/students rather than to the environment as a whole. In this activity, the goal is to encourage educators to look at the environmental factors that are the underlying cause of the classroom dynamic, as opposed to seeing individual children/students as the cause of disruptions. It is important to look at the environment and all environmental factors (including physical space, social relationships, and the temporal environment) to understand what changes may potentially be contributing to these difficulties. Specifically examine how changes in curriculum can affect the structure and pacing of the day including how everyone in the room is relating to each other, as well as how this may be impacting students. This case study shares the educator viewpoint on changes in a classroom followed by discussion questions.
Case Study - Educator Viewpoint
- The child care centre has recently implemented approaches that are derived from How Does Learning Happen? (HDLH) Daisy, an educator in the centre, is not sure what is expected of her in this new environment but she is open to learning. When HDLH was first introduced, she read most of it, and found that is seemed intuitive. However, over the past few months Daisy has noticed several changes in the centre.
- For one thing, the centre used to have a schedule of themes that they would work on each week. For example, Mondays were for cooking, Tuesdays for sports, Wednesday was science, Thursday was a community walk, and Friday was for families to come in and do an activity. These themes helped to know what was going to happen each week. In addition, the day was structured with snack, lunch, washroom, reading, play and outdoor time each day. With the implementation of HDLH, these routines have been adjusted with an emphasis on asking children/students what they would like to do. As a result, the day is getting less and less structured. Daisy finds this difficult and she finds that she is spending more of her time writing down what the children/students are saying and asking to do. She sometimes feels that what she is writing down is not particularly relevant but she has to show that she is participating.
- For example, the children/students wanted to play hockey, so Daisy went and bought 10 hockey sticks. When she brought them into the centre, the children/students played with them for a few minutes and quickly became bored. She feels that these activities are taking up her time and the result is that she has less time to do what she did before, including spending one-on-one time with Sarah, a child/student who uses mobility aids and who Daisy sees as having very high needs.
- Daisy also has a new student who has just moved into the neighbourhood. This student, Karen, is on the Autism Spectrum (her family says she has Asperger’s although this diagnosis is now part of the ASD spectrum), which Daisy does not know anything about. Karen seems to want other children/students to listen to her and she becomes quite angry if she does not feel heard. Since Karen arrived, Daisy feels that the behavior of the group has declined significantly, with a lot more silliness, and even some aggressive behavior. One student, Michael, has been biting. Another educator in the room, Lucy, is refusing to work with Michael because she says that Michael is violent and she should not have to be exposed to his outbursts. Michael has thrown objects at her in the past, and told other children/students that he will “kill them”.
Discussion Questions
- Is it really because of Karen that behavior has changed? What else might be causing that change?
- What about Michael? What do we know about him, what strategies might you use to support him?
- What about Lucy's behaviour? How can we address the role of the educator in the
environment?
- Note: Think of roles and responsibility, training, supports, consistent staff, etc.
- What are Sarah, Karen, Michael, Daisy, and Lucy teaching us about what is happening in this classroom? From a universal design standpoint, what could be better… and what about differentiated instruction?
- What factors in the physical, social and temporal (time or pacing) environment do you
think you could change?
- Note: Often we think the children/students are the problem, but we can always change different components of the environment.
- Examine the routines in the classroom, as opposed to the characteristics of the
children/students. What routines in your classroom could you change that would allow you to adapt the
physical, social or temporal environment of your class?
- Note: Think about daily transitions since these happen often in a classroom or program.
- How could routines based questioning be used to start conversations that coincide with
a social model of disability?
- Note: Look at the environment rather than focusing on an individual child. Routines can be part of a classroom that has a flexible temporal environment. Routines can provide important structure for students, that allows them to anticipate upcoming activities and to envision their role in a group setting.
Follow up Questions
- Did some of the children/students in the case take up more of your attention than
others?
- Note: This is often used as an argument against inclusion. But you can draw attention to how the environment is creating that situation as much as the children/students. And in this case, it is the child/student with an identified disability who is getting less attention.
- What about Sarah? Was she lost in the new environment? Or was she not actually being included in the earlier environment?