Science Case Writing Task:

Jessica Armstrong
s4492650

Case: Dealing with a students personal struggles of Depression
& OCD
Describe:
What?
What happened, what context, who was involved, what did you do, what did others do?
It is the second session of the school day at Hogwarts High School, with an English
lesson about to get underway. The focus of todays English lesson is the reading novel called
the declaration. The management of the classroom is set out with two long tables at either
side of the room, one long table at the back and a four seat table in the centre of the room,
therefore drawing the attention of the entire student body to the front of the room. This is
year 8 Gryffindors classroom. Professor Snape, their homeroom teacher starts the class off
with checking if the home learning was completed, whilst he gets a chair and situates himself
at the front of the class. Snape starts the class off with a discussion by generating questions
to allow the students to develop a deeper inquiry of the text. Throughout the whole class one
boy Harry Potter, sat there the whole time with his hand up, and Snape just either ignored
him or was unable to see him due to the position he situated himself at which was in front of
the ends of the two long side tables, where Harry was sitting.

Prior to this class Snape told me that he has weekly conferences with Harrys parents.
Harry always sits by himself, not talking, or trying to join in on conversations and always
wanting to work alone or listen to music. He gives the impression that he does not sleep and
when he asks to listen to music and sit out, Snape sometimes lets him. But when I got asked
one lesson, I didnt want to push the issue too much because of my lack of understanding of
what is actually happening within his life. Snape informed me afterwards that Harry just
played games that whole lesson, and that he likes to exaggerate how he feels to get out of
class work. Snape said its a balancing and understanding act, what will over time allow me
to make better judgements.

Throughout my first week of teaching Harry, I would greet him each morning and end
of the day, with a hello, how are you? which slowly developed into proper conversations of
time. One lesson that had a focus on Vikings, I asked the class to work in groups of 3, but
Harry came up to me and asked to work alone, instead of with a group. I didnt want
exclusion to occur, so I told him there are two girls who would love to have him in their
group, so he reluctantly went with them but just looked at the paper. When I went up to that
group he asked if they could use their OWN knowledge for the activity and I was more than
happy with that idea. This started a massive conversation from him and how he loves
mythology. Over the next few days I found out that Harry wants to be a nurse and has a
talent for technology, which lead to my discovery of him suffering from obsessive
compulsive disorder (OCD). He went into great depth of how it took him more than 8hoursto
perform the ritual of cleaning his computer system due to little specks of dust, which required
him to use dental floss at one stage.
A few days after the English class, the year 8s had sport on Friday afternoon and
Harry was with me for Badminton. Half way through the class he asked to sit out as he
wasnt feeling well. I reluctantly let him sit out, but confronted him after the class to check in
on him. I was not expecting to be told exactly what was going on within his life. I found out
that Harry suffers from not only OCD, but depression too, hence why he constantly wants to
work alone, or listen to music; music controls his moods. I was shocked to find this out but
this confirmed some of my suspicions. I told Harry that Professor Snape is always there to
talk since he is more informed than I am, but I am here also to help accommodate learning
and find solutions that would suit everyone. I confronted my mentor after that and he said
that Harry must feel safe around me if he openly confided in me about his personal life and
that sometimes its best to let him just listen to music, as said before its a balancing act.
The following Monday, I asked Harry if he would feel comfortable to assist me at the
front of the room to demonstrate to the class how to use the app. Harry looked hesitant at first
but when he was up there, he interrupted me and he became the teacher as he was engaging
and answering all his fellow peers question with enthusiasm. This slowly became routine for
my remaining two weeks at Hogwarts High, and any lesson about Vikings or technology,
Harry is always actively participating within that class and looking engaged compared to
when I use to see him.

Commentary:
Inform:
So what?
So what do you think this all means? How are you interpreting the situation?
Prior to the knowledge that Harry suffers OCD and depression, my mentor Snape
informed me that Harrys parents have weekly meetings with the school, in order for both
parties to be kept up to date on the situation at hand. I interpreted this as good strategy by
both parties; as in order to be successful in what they hope to achieve both sides need to be in
agreement. From my observations he gives the impression of a person with insomnia, as he is
constantly late to school, falling asleep during class, and quite. After learning about what
Harry is really going through, I feel that if any effort made by a student who usually never
tries to engage in class, needs to be acknowledge and not ignored. Individuals with
depression tend to focus on the negative thoughts, feelings and perceptions, so when they
make mistakes or in this case ignored, they think Im stupid, nobody likes me (Kids Matter
2013). I still cant justify why Snape ignored him in the first place, besides poor decision to
situate himself, where he could not see all of his students.


Confront:
Why?
Why do you think things are the way they are; what are your assumptions; where do your
ideas come from; why do you maintain them; whose interests are served by your practice,
who has what power in the situation?

Harry Potter is a student within year 8 Gryffindor, who suffers from Depression.
Depression is a mental illness in which a person has feelings of sadness, instability,
loneliness, hopelessness, and worthlessness (Ministry of Education, 2013). Research
suggests that transition from primary school setting, to a high school setting, limits the
supportive contact between a teacher and student, therefore students can start to feel alone,
unsupported and hopeless (Reddy, Rhodes & Mulhall 2003). This was my original
assumption to this case, but Professor Snape is the home group teacher for year 8 Gryffindor
and unlike other high schools he teaches this class for, English, maths and humanities
instead of just home group. Therefore Snape has the power in most situations, as Harry
knows not to play on his problems, as its not accepted. Snape inform me after one of my
lessons, that it is a balancing and understanding act and will only come with practice and
getting to know your students more. This conversation got me thinking back to the
Principles of Teaching and Learning theories, in particular Principle 1: the learning
environment is supportive and productive.

My first goal was to create an inviting environment where Harry will feel safe to take
healthy risk and to let him know that I have the utmost confidence in his ability to succeed, as
its my job to make students feel comfortable and cared about (Jere 2004; Mandinach &
Cline 2013). The week I started teaching 8 Gryffindor, I used the technique of initiating
conversation when students arrive, leave, or during breaks (Reddy, Rhodes & Mulhall 2003).
Each day I would greet Harry with a Hello how are you? How are we going with the work?
By the end of that week Harry had slowly started to open up to me and I found out about how
he wants to become a nurse, like all the men in his family; his love for mythology and
technology. This slowly led to Harry opening up about him suffering from OCD. OCD can
make daily life very stressful for children. OCD rituals take a lot of time and therefore
children who suffer from it go to bed late, are often late for school and are tired during the
day, which was evident with Harry (Hanstede, Gidron & Nyklicek, 2008). All this stress must
make one sad, which lead me to think that the reason he always turns to music is for him to
calm down and relax, instead of hanging with his peers who can be unpredictable and might
make his OCD worse.

When Harry opened up to me about his depression, I was not prepared on how to
handle such a delicate situation. My mind was going a million miles a minute connecting the
dots, that all I could say was that Im here if you need help, but Professor Snape is always
there for you, if you feel like talking and going deeper into discussion. I felt like I should
have done more in that situation, but I was connecting the dots of OCD, and lengthy rituals
leading to lack of sleep, can quite possibly lead to depression. But two positives came out of
this, firstly, it confirmed my suspicions slightly, from my observations of how I perceive
Harry, but secondly as my mentor praised me for, was that Harry must feel safe and
supported around me, if he is openly confiding in me about his personal life. Therefore the
power is slowly shifting back to me, with my ability to get a student-teacher relationship built
of trust.

Professor Snape informed me that when Harry sometimes abuses peoples
knowledge of his life and try to get out of doing class work. This placed me in a difficult
situation, as I fully didnt know what was the actually problem. I got my first taste of this in
my second week of teaching, when Harry came up to me and told me he was sick. I let him
sit in the middle of the two rooms on the bean bags and said I would check up on him later.
Afterwards my mentor Snape informed me that Harry just sat there playing games, listening
to music and not looking or acting sick. Basically Harry had the power over me and was
going to abuse my trust so that he could take the easy road of getting out of class work. I
think Harry has done this a few times to other specialist teachers, with just the sheer ease at
which he abused my trust. This was further maintain when Snape informed me that
sometimes Harry will just exaggerated because he wants sympathy and that its a fine line
in terms of how to deal with him

Back to focusing on the Principles of Teaching and Learning, I decided to apply 1.1:
where the teacher builds positive relationships through knowing and valuing each student;
and 2.2: the teacher uses strategies that build skills required for productive collaboration,
together. I remember Harrys love of technology and asked for his help with learning a new
app, as when he was telling me about technology, his eyes shined with happiness and
confidence and I wanted Harry to feel both of those again. Harry looked over the moon to be
able to show off his ability and something he had a massive interest in. When I asked Harry
for assistant, I think his OCD came through slightly, but in a positive way as he got to
demonstrate how to use the app HIS way, but not only that he become the teacher without
even knowing it. Slowly I hand over the power of the class to Harry and used the strategy of
student-centred learning, as studies (McMahon & ONeill, 2005) has proven that students
learn best from other students. The idea of student centred learning is that knowledge is
constructed by students, and that the educator is a facilitator of learning rather than a
presenter of information (McMahon & ONeill, 2005). This become routine for any lesson
involving technology, as it allowed Harry to engage more with his peers, but also the students
seemed to like the idea of students teaching the students, that a few other students would
show case their expertise in other classes.

Reconstruct:
Now what? I dentification of what to do next time:
There were two situations that stood out to me where I could have done a much better job
at. Firstly when Harry opened up about his depression to me, I would use a technique that I
read in Ministry of Education (2013), where I should maintain a pleasant, interested and be
prepared to listen tone, so that Harry felt safe and was not making a fool of himself, opening
up to me. I believe the reason I handled it badly was because I didnt know how to handle it
without getting too involved. Secondly I would go observe other classes that Harry is in and
see how he interacts with the specialist teachers and to see if Professor Snapes theory holds
up, of that Harry sometimes abuses people trust and knowledge of the situation.
References:
Hanstede, M, Gidron, Y & Nyklicek I, 2008, The effects of a mindfulness intervention on
Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in a non-clinical student population, The Journal of
Nervous and Mental Disease, vol. 196, no. 10, pp. 776-780.

Jere, B 2004, Motivating students to learn (2
nd
ed.), The School Psychology, American
Psychological Association.
Kids Matter 2013, Depression: Suggestions for school staff, viewed 24 May 2014,
<www.kidsmatter.edu.au>
Mandinach, EB & Cline, HF, 2013 Classroom Dynamics: implementing a technology-based
learning environment, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey.
McMahon, T & ONeill G 2005, Student-Centred Learning: What Does it Mean for Students
and Lecturers?, Emerging Issues in the Practice of University Learning and Teaching, vol.
7, no. 1, pp. 27-36.
Ministry of Education, 2013 Teaching students with mental health disorders: depression,
British Columbia.
Reddy, R, Rhodes, JE, & Mulhall P 2003, The influence of teacher support on student
adjustment in the middle school years: A latent growth curve study, Development and
Psychopathology, vol. 15, pp. 119-138.
http://www.nsrfharmony.org/fac_equity/diversity_unity.pdf
Diversity within unity: essential principles for teaching and learning in a multicultural
society, by James A Banks.

http://jabfm.org/content/17/3/212.full

Department Education & Training Victoria (2005), Summary of the Principles of Teaching
and Learning, Melbourne, Department of Education and Training