This critical reflection addresses both Standard 4.3 and 4.

4 as the Professional
development session allowed myself and my Supervising Teacher gain insight to
developing behaviour support plans and understanding strategies needed for
supporting positive behaviour. Attending this session helped to build my
Critical Incident Reflection 1 knowledge of practical approaches as well as understanding the importance of
working as a team with other colleagues.
Description

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend a Professional Development Day conducted by
the CECV on Positive Behaviour Support and Developing Behaviour Support Plans (BSP). Being
my first proper Professional Development Session, I made sure to be ready for a whole lot of
thinking and learning as well as being expectant of new ideas or concepts being introduced. The
speakers focused on how we can implement Behaviour Support Plans to assist student's who
need support in areas where they have particular needs as well as the notion of being able to cater
for different types of behaviours that we may find in our classrooms as teachers.
Interpretation
This learning situation was a positive experience, as it outlined theories such as the behaviour
principles previously explored in other units of work such as EDFD and gave an in-depth
understanding as well as a link to supporting documents such as the Behaviour Support plan. The
session was also useful as it allowed connections between theory and practice to be made with
many examples of different behaviours that we may interact with in our classrooms. It was also
interesting to observe how my Supervising Teacher was able to make a behaviour hypothesis of
one of the students within our classroom and the steps that needed to be achieved to properly
implement a behaviour support plan such as defining the function or thinking of a replacement
behaviour. Another interesting observation from attending this session was the team of
professionals who were working together to the deliver the understanding of positive behaviour
support and modelling of the BSP. Turney (1992) discusses effective communication and how the
notion of sharing of messages and attitudes are vital to teaching and learning. It was through this
team of experts that further evoked the significance behind building partnerships and sharing
knowledge between colleagues and how that is important for educators to have this support.
Outcome:
From this experience, I have gained an understanding of the significance of being able to attend
these professional development days and how it furthers our thinking and perspectives of our
classroom environment and how we manage it. The concept of moving form a reactive approach
towards a Proactive approach was a highlight of the session as it initiated my reflective thinking of
how I may react to my students in relation to my current placement. Another major insight was
ensuring students understand that this is about them and their learning and not about us. Teachers
play a huge role in supporting children's learning and cultivating their skills and knowledge but it is
also about students making their own choices and taking ownership of their learning.