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Case Study on Effectiveness James Francis University of New England

EDU 615 Dr Akerman December 17th, 2011

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Introduction
For the purposes of privacy, I will change the name of the student being studied for this case study. I will refer to him as Dan. Dan is an 11th grade student at the Pioneer Charter School of Science (hereto referred to as PCSS) in Everett, MA. Academically, Dan is very strong. He is able to pass tests with relative ease and is able to grasp complex notions easily. He also plays on the PCSS soccer team as one of the star players. As a student amongst his peers, he is well liked, and is often seen as someone with a sense of humor. In class, Dan is disruptive and often a problem. He constantly questions the teachers, and only rarely for actual information. Much of his motivation seems to stem from his desire to gain a laugh, and needs to get to the next laugh to make himself happy. Dan often has verbal arguments with his teachers, and is often given demerit points for this bad behavior. In his 9th grade year, Dan finished the year with more then 10 demerit points, his 10th grade year he finished with exactly 10, and in his current year (11th grade), he has none. Dan also always stops short of doing something egregious enough to merit being sent out of the classroom. Over the last three years that I have known Dan, his level of maturity has progressed, though not necessarily to the level of an 11th grade student. When I first met Dan, he was in 9th grade. He always seemed eager to jump into a full blown argument with a teacher, and he seemed to have an issue sitting still. Since then, he has settled down, and his desire to have an argument seems to have gone down.

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Observations
In my observations of Dan, there were several distinct behaviors that I have seen. The four classroom observations will be in chronological order, and will span three years. They are as follows: Observation 1: This is one of my earliest memories of Dan. I began working at PCSS in the fall of 2009. While I had been teaching private violin lessons and was a substitute teacher for a time, this was my first experience as a classroom teacher. Several weeks into teaching, PCSS underwent school-wide testing. This was used to place students into their appropriate level classes, and to prepare students for state mandated testing later on in the school year. As a brand new teacher, I was given the task of substituting for absent teachers. One teacher at that time was very sick, so they were out for the whole of testing. As it turns out, Dan was in that class. During testing times, we call for complete silence until the tests are over and done with. Dan had an issue sitting still and would constantly ask questions about the classroom he was in. He would ask why the walls were painted a certain way, or why the art room had stools and not regular chairs. At this point, I was a new teacher and was unfamiliar with the discipline point system at our school. I attempted to come down on him strongly as a teacher. As I would come to realize later, this is what Dan wanted. He thrived on conflict with a teacher, and knew how much he could push without getting too much into trouble. After a few days of dealing with questions that had nothing to do with anything, and constant reminders to sit down and be quiet, testing was over and I no longer had to watch over Dan.

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Observation 2: In the first year I was teaching at PCSS, I had to share a classroom with another teacher. This was due to a lack of space in the rest of the school. However, the following year, some changes were made, and expansions happened, and I was given my own classroom. To go along with my own classroom was also my own advisory (homeroom). Dan happened to be one of the students in my 10th grade advisory. We meet with our advisory students three times a day. Once at the beginning of the day in the school gymnasium to take attendance and collect cell phones, once after 3rd period for a time of D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) program, and finally just before 8th period for a time of silent study hall. The D.E.A.R. Program was instituted at PCSS during the winter of 2010/2011. Needless to say, it was a big adjustment for many students. Dan was no different. He tended to enjoy causing a disruption during the program by asking for various things (a different stool because the one he was sitting on was too grey for his taste, or wondering why he couldn't read his book while he was holding it upside down). According to the PCSS disciplinary system, we give out demerit points for bad behavior, so it was quite easy to give him points when it got out of control. However, that never seemed to stop him. One particular day I remember having to speak with him. It was in March of 2011. All of the 10th grade students in that class were reading silently. Just prior to the end of the class, Dan decided it would be funny to jump up, make ridiculous noises and dance around his table. Just as I called out he was getting demerit points, his fellow students started laughing and the bell rang. He got out the door before I got a chance to stop and question him. The only other thing I could do was refer him to the Dean of Students at our school who was responsible for discipline. After she had met with him, he came up to me and could not seem to understand why I had gotten him in trouble. At which point I told him exactly what he did and why he got himself into trouble. The final action he made was storming off in a huff, muttering under his breath how unfair things were.

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Observation 3: One of the new programs that PCSS offered for music this academic year is a class in guitar. This class is structured very differently than a majority of other classes. There are no lectures, and there are no discussions. It is also not an ensemble instrumental practice. Each student is given a packet to work through, which contains chords, chord progressions, scales, and songs. When a student feels they are ready, they may perform something from the packet for the teacher. If the teacher (myself in this case) feels they have proven sufficient practice and are able to perform the piece to a satisfactory level, the student's packet is signed off in the appropriate space. Every student begins the course with an F. Each signature is worth 1/3 of a letter grade, and the grade is determined by the number of signatures. Dan is a current student in this class. Dan has a natural musical ability, and is able to perform and grasp musical concepts far quicker than the rest of his classmates. He had previously had piano experience, and is a fantastic player. When we first started guitar, I noticed that he was able to pick up chords and chord structures far quicker then everyone else. It seemed only natural to make him one of my assistants in the class, and let him teach some of his fellow classmates. Sure enough, not only did he pick up the packet and master everything he needed to, but he was able to teach everyone else around him what to do. One specific event comes to mind. Every couple of weeks, I have the students perform for the whole class. We circle the chairs up, and while everyone is silent, one or a group of students perform for the rest of the class. I had decided to let several students, including Dan, work together and perform together. The two other students in this group were students who did not have a natural musical ability, and seemed to almost scorn the practice time. Come performance time, I was nervous to see exactly how they were going to treat the performance. Not only did they perform Jingle Bells extremely well on the guitar, but from that point on, those students seemed to jump at the chance to practice and

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perform. Dan has continued to work with those students up to the present, and they continue to put on fantastic performances.

Observation 4: My final observation happened during the week I was writing this case study. Dan is in my Introduction to Music Theory class that I teach. Up until this point, Dan has been difficult, but bearable. He has shown a marked improvement from his younger years, but still has much to work on. This particular class is mostly lecture based with several composition projects that the students must accomplish. We had been in open discussion on a topic that was particularly difficult for some students to manage (harmonic progressions and chordal inversions) when Dan started his normal behavior of questioning everything I was saying. The last few weeks had been particularly stressful to me, so I came down harder on Dan than I normally would. I told him in a firm voice that unless he had something constructive to say, he shouldn't say anything or run the risk of getting himself kicked out of classes. As it turns out, that shut him down completely. He not only stopped saying anything, but he stopped doing work. We were doing a review which I knew he already had mastered, so I didn't say anything. At the end of the class, he seemed to look for validation from me by asking if he was being good by 'not speaking at all'. I then informed him that while I was happy he didn't interrupt me, I wasn't happy that he didn't do any work. He once again went silent and said nothing. The following day during class, I noticed a complete change in his behavior, he was quiet, respectful, and helpful to his fellow classmates. He didn't seek any laughter from his peers by asking questions he already knew the answer to, but rather answered questions from his peers when they were struggling. I gave him the opportunity to use a piano in the classroom to help with his composition, and

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he used it once again to help his fellow classmates. At the end of class, I told him that the way he behaved in that class was exactly what I was looking for, and I thanked him for it. He smiled, and continued helping everyone in that class.

Effective Strategies
Dan has made an interesting study choice for the last several weeks. He has exhibited all of the traits that I have made mention in my four observations. Of the choices of motivational theory, there were two that I decided to observe and apply in recent practice with Dan. They are using the theory of Goal-Oriented Motivation with emphasis on Mastery-Approach, and the Social-cognitive theory. First, I decided to observe Dan from a Social-cognitive approach. According to this theory model, much of the actions people make are thought of prior to actually acting on those actions (Conner & Norman, p. 128). In addition, it also states that the sense of self validation is further confirmed when verbal persuasion is applied (Conner & Norman, p. 130). After observing Dan for a while, it does seem like he plans to disrupt class especially if he does not like the topic at hand. He also seems to act differently based on the teacher and the teacher's mood. Then, I examined Dan as having a Task/Ego based goal oriented motivation. One thing I noticed from all of the encounters I had with him is that when he truly understands an approach, he does not feel fully validated until someone in authority (such as myself) tells him that he has done well and mastered the concept. In addition, he will also decide to master a song after hearing someone else perform it well, the goal being to perform better than that person (Yates).

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For this particular student, I have noticed that the Task/Ego approach tends to describe him the best. Dan. He is a student who tends to think only about his own performance, and tries to perform better then anyone else to make himself feel better. I do also believe this is why he tends to do well at competitive sports that are not completely team based. I would recommend to the other teachers who are having performance based activities to base their grading on individual performance. In this way, Dan does not have the opportunity to compete with anyone but himself. Tiered instruction would work very well in this manner. Difficult material is given for the more advanced students, and not as difficult material for the students who need a little more help.

Conclusions
After reflecting on all of the material at hand, I believe I can come to a strong conclusion that will help me motivate other students. There will always be a student who I cannot teach effectively. Our styles will always conflict. To combat this, I have noticed that tiered instruction works extremely well to cover the majority of the types of learners. I have also learned that having a large amount of patience helps to improve the difficult situations that may arise in class.
As for Dan, that remains to be seen. As he gets older, Dan has gotten more mature, but not necessarily to the level of where it should be. As he continues through our school, he will continue to progress and mature. I anticipate always having issues with them, but I do also anticipate that he will continue to get easier to handle and deal with. As I become a better teacher, handling students like Dan will become easier to do.

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References
Conner, M., & Norman, P. (2005). Predicting Health Behaviour: Research and Practice with Social Cognition Models. (2nd ed.). New York. Yates, S. M. (2000). Task involvement and ego orientation in mathematics achievement: A three year follow-up. Issues in Educational Research, 10(1), 77-91.