EDUC 6760Educational InquiryAssessment Task 2Sub-

class I Group 6

Tsui Wingie 3036139120Katrina Chan 2012604822

School Background
Observation 1 (O1):
Rightmind (PN-K1 mixed age)
Students are not motivated or actively engaged in Reading Wizard Class on
reading the story "Help me!" It was introduced for three weeks. The
observation was the second last class.
Some students were excited about the story revision and fully engaged.
A few students just relocated from mainland China for few months was
not able to understand the story or to express themselves during the
interaction.
Teachers have not taken any further step to provide a 1:1 help with
students who were not able to understand.
New students who joined in since January were left out and not able
to enjoy the Reading Wizard class. Some are not even speaking.
O1: Students Motivation
Revision method:
Teacher reads out the story again to the class. Questions was asked during the
reading but very less interaction was given.
Students were asked to come out to find the flashcard to match the story book
vocabularies, only very little students could do that.
Some students who could perform the flashcard games would be praised by saying
"good job", "Bravo!" And "give a high five" with teacher.
Student A: a 2.5 year old student remained silence since the beginning of term
and would never speak up in class, it has symptoms of Autism and needs special
educational needs.
Positive reinforcement:
When students were being praised verbally by teacher they showed smile and confident for what they have accomplished
and achieved. The other quiet children will start to take initiative and try to engage and interact with the class activity.
A good social interaction?
Teacher tends to focus more on students who were able to answer the questions and able to follow the pace. Due to the large
group of students the teacher was not able to cater different learning needs and pace in the class. Students were not given a
good interaction with teachers and their peers during learning.
O1: Poor Classroom Management
The children have Reading Wizard class in a sub-divided multi-purpose room
which is attached to the outdoor area which also conduct music or PE class
at the same time.
Students were distracted by listening to the music outside and the PE
instructions in the area attached nearby.
The arrangement of classroom needs to be addressed in practicum
Lack of defined and purposeful learning areas needs improvement as students don’t have a
designated area for the Story Reading class and they need to walk from the end of the school to
the multipurpose room at the other edge. Logistically this will last until the end of the term due to
the new enrolments of students and insufficient space. After the new renovation is done there
will be a fixed classroom for the PN students.
Observation 1Analysis 1 (Why are students not motivated?)
Students are lack of interest to learn, PN-K1 students still yet to build up reading habit and it takes time to be able to
understand the content.
Teachers needs to show visual tools and real life situations and illustrations to draw student attention and show
eagerness to learn
Teachers could introduce community helpers to save characters in the book and how do they rescue people in real life
situation.
Teacher needs to set clear learning objectives and share them with students. During observation, students were not quite sure what is the
Students have no clue of what the characters are doing in the book and lost interest to learn.
expectation and how to achieve learning goals.​
Teacher needs to arouse students' motivation in learning and provide opportunities to experience success in learning. (students were not
given much capacity to learn but just follow teachers to read and it was dull.) ​
Contexts needs to be age appropriate to students (Not all PN students could understand the rescuing by Policeman and Fireman yet,
Teacher did not give an introductory of real-life example to class prior reading the story and doing the reading assessment.

The importance of Smooth transitions

Inappropriate behavoirs tends to occur during transition time, given the present case has many many transition from the
classroom to multipurpose room and back to classroom again after reading class ends, students feels a less sense of
belonging of their own classroom, (Rosenshine, 1980).
Students need to visit the washroom before trasiting to the Mulripurpose room for the Reading Wizard class, while students
with learning difficulties or ADHD/ Autism may need special assistance. Transitions can be harder for these students as they
may have trouble refocusing attention after periods of "down time". (Beattie, Johnson & Algozzine, 2006).
If students have a good sense of belogning in their own classroom and feel more confident to learn, this back and
forth trasnsition caused a lot of distraction and uncomfortable feeling to students of having a Reading class in a multipurpose
room, where the outside encironment has another PE or Music lesson going on.
O1
Analysis 2 (Students were not given any extrinsic and intrinsic reward)
Students were told to match flashcards to story book to find words, teachers did not give praise
or extrinisic rewards on the board (maybe can give points when answer a questions) or give high five or
saying good job/ well done! The revision was only done by everyone taking turns to come out and read and
was boring and dull. (Social reinforcers)
Only a few students were praised by teacher and they would show off to others and smiled with confident.
They were motivated and want to keep trying to answer more questions. Majority of the class lack of
motivation to learn and remain sitting without fully engaging.
Students were told to match flashcards to story book to find words, teachers did not give praise or extrinisic rewards on the board (maybe can
give points when answer a questions) or give high five or saying good job/ well done! The revision was only done by everyone taking turns to come
out and read and was boring and dull. (Social reinforcers)
Only a few students were praised by teacher and they would show off to others and smiled with confident. They were motivated and want to
keep trying to answer more questions. Majority of the class lack of motivation to learn and remain sitting without fully engaging.

Students were not taught in a way they could value their achievement as even though they answered the questions and involved in
the activity, they were not given any rewards or encouragement. ​
Teacher was just to rush through teaching without catering the diversity needs of the individuals. Only brighter students were
responded with "Good job! Well Done!" And those quiet students were not given extrinsic reward thus lack of intrinsic reward, due
to teacher did not arouse their cusisiuty to learn. ​
Most children don’t understand what they are learning but just echoing after the teacher and their peers. ​
Use positive encouragement to enhance pupil's identification and satisfaction and solidarity with the class. ( Let the students
affirm their own merits with teacher's encouragement to inspire further learning achievements)​
Teacher should study student pupil's background (just relocated from Mainland China and not familiar with English medium)
thus to help students to get rid of factors not conducive to learning.
O1
Analysis 3: Case of Student A

Assuming that all human begins have a desire to belong and part of a social
group thus all misbehavior (Student A refused to participate or give
response) represents a misplaced attempt to reach the goal of achieving
belonging and control in one's life. (Dreikurs, 1968).
In Student A case, she used "power" to over feelings of inferiority (not being
confident to speak english and refused to give response), by exercising
power and control to achieve by becoming the center of attention or striving
to win a perceived battle with a teacher.
Student A tends to hid in the corner at the back of rows and avoid interaction
with teachers, there were no intervention by teacher to invite Student A to
move to the front to be seen and engaged. (Be sure all students can be easily
seen from all areas of the classroom, Everston and Emmer (2009)).
Observation 2
Small World K2 (Curious Bear class)
A newly relocated kid from Canada constantly asked 'When is it home
time?' During the unit 'A Brilliant Bug Ball'
Lasted for 2 weeks when it was towards the end of the unit
Classroom setting (mainly projects presented e.g. puzzles, maths
language activities) reminds the same for the whole unit until the next
unit
Choice of toys gravitates towards non-unit related items such as
Legos and box of constructions
O2
O2
Part 3 What have we learnt from SE and EI?

Observation 1 + Obseration 2
Students need to be motivated to learn

Catering for Learner Diversity – to create an inclusive learning environment – as school adopt
"Child-centeredness" as the core value of the curriculum, teachers should care for, accept
and understand children's individual needs and create an inclusive environment.

Strengthen children's learning motivation – teach age-appropriate topic and use the correct
materials, given an introductory lesson when it is a new topic (more real-life examples and
hands on activity to enhance learning experience and understand throughout the concept
of learning)

Developing children's various potential – to make students enjoy a sense of satisfaction and
accomplishment brough by learning (Student enjoy reading the story and engage in the
assessment given a sense of achievement is crucial), thus enjoy the learning success.

Have a good classroom management – Smooth transitions between classrooms and eliminate
distractions
Implications on the meso-level
Empathy
Positive regard
Enhance self-esteem and personal growth
Teacher as Parent, Counsellor, Mentor and Facilitator.
Create a welcoming and inclusive school community
Integration and Inclusion

These elements are not limited only SEN students but also to majority of students in a school, every
student needs caring by teachers, showing empathy to understand the student's situation by putting
ourselves into their shoes. Self-esteem of students input into their personal growth by a supportive teacher
acting as (Parent, Counsellor, Mentor and learning facilitator) at school. Creating an integrated and
inclusive classroom is the key to student learning success.
Implications on the macro-level

Family – involvement of parents – enhance the parent-

teacher- student communication and facilitator with student learning
progress
Peers – The mixed PN-K1 class can arrange pairing buddy program and
learning together side by side. The younger children can learn from the
older children and withdraw the dependency they use to have at home.
Older children can be trained to be more independent and promote
leadership skills.
What do we need to learn before practicum?
Remember Students diversity and their needs

(Personalised teacher-pupil relationships) - teacher's attributes and attitudes are very important for raising pupil's self esteem

How to motivate students to learn?

How to create an inclusive and integrated classroom learning environment?

Set clear leaning objectives and share them with students

Remember to give clear instructions and expectations to let students experience their learning success

Contents needs to be age appropriate, fits background and culture

Learn to observe students' strengths and weaknesses to offer help

References

KECG
https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/major-level-of-edu/preprimary/ENG_KGECG
_2017.pdf
Basic Education Curriculum Guide – To sustain, Deepen and Focus on Learning to Learn Chapter.4
https://cd.edb.gov.hk/becg/english/chapter4.html
Ch.8 Roles and Functions of the Class Teacher: Guidance for Pupils’ Personal Growth on an Individual and
Class Basis (p. 155-174), Ching Leung Lung https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zsx12.13
Ch.5 Motivating Students to Learn , John Biggs and David Watkins p.79-106

Ch.13 Managing Classrooms for Effectively Working With Students, Educational Psychology in the Inclusive
Classroom.