Evaluating My Practise and students Learning

As I mentioned in my last post, everytime I try to approach my students to engage in learning activities these are some emotions I get:

Upset	Screaming	Stubbornness
Whinging	Non-compliance	Inappropriate Behaviour

Students were 

• Disengaged

They showed no or little interest in most learning activities provided for them.

• Unhappy 

They became unhappy and displayed negative behaviour. Behaviour specialist

has to get involve because of the increased in their inappropriate behaviour

Time lost

• Because students were not cognitively engaged. There is a time loss in trying to motivate them to show interest in the activities provided.

Because of what I have noticed in these students and faced in my classroom daily, my Inquiry this year to focus  on our School Wide Goal-Play based Learning.

“To Provide opportunities for my students to develop and increase their engagement through participating in play based learning activities” 

Did I change my Practise? 

Yes, Here are the changes I made.

Classroom setup I changed my classroom setup and created play stations To give my students opportunities to play throughout the day	Adapt Classroom Programme Taught Curriculum through play activities Play Activities were based on the students interest.	Four steps Procedures Approach When I taught a new skill, I tried to use this 4 step approach. Here are the 4 step procedures Step 1-1:1 teaching (staff and student) Step 2-1:2 (1 staff: 2 students). Step 3-1:1 (student and student) in a group with staff supervision Step 4-all students in a group for up to 5 minutes.
Implementing the “ENGAGE” programme into the daily routine Engage activities were implemented to our daily programme. Some Engage activities were adapted to suit the level of the students learning	Key Competencies focus. Relating to others Managing self Communication Participation and Contribution Thinking   Key competencies were reinforced throughout the day in different contexts.	Outdoor Activities Gardening-(Host school focus) Outdoor activities such as gardening included in the weekly programme.  Encouraged students to take part in simple activities such as digging, planting, weeding, watering the garden. Playground/Developmental Activities Ensure the children are getting their playground break. Developmental Activities set up daily.

What happens to the students Learning?

Did the change of my practice changed the students' learning outcomes?

Let's look at the Evidence of Data collected:

I used

• Teacher observation

• ‘More than words’ assessment

• Stages of Play retrieved from pathways organisation

• Piaget’s period of Cognitive Development

      Teacher Observation

Assessment tool- Teacher Observation	Before the intervention	After Intervention	Comparison
Teacher observation Target student  Dayten	Displayed Negative behaviour scream when a staff member tries to get into his space. “No” is the common response to given instructions. Runs outside the classroom when things were not happening in his way. Aggressively reacts to unwanted instructions. Bite was his first reaction if upset for any reason	Increased Positive behaviour can tolerate staff member entering his personal space Respond positively to the instruction given such as” OK, yes please”	Compliance and Calmer Is more aware of the people around him. Responds faster to the instruction given.  . A lot calmer and biting has no longer existed in term 3 and 4.
	Show little interest in activities. Not interested in any activities except for fiddling toys such as pieces of puzzles or small objects that he can hold in his hands.	Show Interest in a variety of activities Is now showing interests in a variety of activities such as marble run, building with wooden blocks, connect four, bouncing with a ball.	Increase engagement in activities. Can engage in the activities up to 10 minutes with adult support. Peer interaction has developed and is beginning to engage and show enjoyment in the activity.

Before Intervention and After Intervention images

                         Before Intervention-(Solitary play)

   After Intervention-(Parallel Play (2+ Years)

 My observation was based on the research studies below:  

More than words assessment -

1-Own agenda (Show what he wants or doesn’t want)

2-Requester (Intentionally ask for things he wants or doesn’t want)

3- Early Communicator (Connect with others by sharing Interests)

4-Partner (Have short conversation about many things)

Stages of Play

Unoccupied Play (Birth-3 Months) At this stage, babies are just making a lot of movements with their arms, legs, hands, feet, etc. They are learning about and discovering how their body moves.

Solitary Play (Birth-2 Years) This is the stage when a child plays alone. They are not interested in playing with others yet.

Parallel Play (2+ Years) When a child plays alongside or near others but does not play with them this stage is referred to as parallel play.

Associate Play (3-4 Years) When a child starts to interact with others during play, but there is not a large amount of interaction at this stage. A child might be doing an activity related to the kids around him but might not be interacting with another child. For example, kids might all be playing on the same piece of playground equipment but all doing different things like climbing, swinging, etc

Cooperative Play (4+ years) When a child plays together with others and has interest in both the activity and other children involved in playing they are participating in cooperative play.

Piaget Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensori-motor Birth -2 years (During this period, the little one learns about the world by using their senses to interact with their surroundings.)

Pre-operational 2-6 years (During this stage, children begin to engage in symbolic play and learn to manipulate symbols. Increased playing and pretending. For example, a child is able to use an object to represent something else, such as pretending a broom is a horse.

Concrete Operational 7-11 years (your child is beginning to think logically and rationally, but they tend to be limited to thinking about physical objects)

Formal Operational 12 yrs to adulthood. (As adolescents enter this stage, they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner by manipulating ideas in their head, without any dependence on concrete manipulation)

     

                              This video helps to understand and value the studied that Piaget and Vygotsky 

                               (2 cognitive Psychologist)     Piaget Vs Vygotsky 

Describing the changed of my Practice.

1-School Wide Goal

Our school wide goal  for this year is “Play based Learning” This helps me to shift my focus and implement play-based learning.

Therefore My Inquiry is based on our school wide goal

•  “To  provide opportunities for my students to increase their attention, engagement and participation through play based learning.”

2-Professional Reading and Professional Development

Participating in professional development and professional reading about play based learning and Neurodiversity helped me change  my practise. 

• To change my ‘disability mindset’ and focus on their strengths, abilities, interests and not their weaknesses.

• If I Focus on their strengths and embrace it through play-based learning, there is a possibility for these students to engage positively and succeed in their learning.  

3-Observation and Reflection on students performances

Working in a Special School for many years has helped me to change my practise. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, everytime I tried to approach my students to engage in a work task, I often get

• Whinging

• No sign of interest 

• unhappy 

• screaming 

• non-compliance

• inappropriate behaviour such as biting.

My hypothesis is:

IF I ...use what motivates my students to learn THEN...my students will eng

age longer.

IF I….give lots of opportunities for my students to practise the skills in a play-based learning approach

THEN my students will be happier to take part in a group situation.

IF I …..slow down and work on smaller and achievable steps THEN...my students are likely to engage and achieve the bigger goal.

What are the changes that I made?

First-Classroom Set up

• Setup-I changed my classroom setup to give my students opportunities to play.

• Resourcing- I ensure that all the students have something to play with.

• Support- Most of my students are still at the solitary play stage. This is the stage when a child prefers to play alone. They are not often interested in playing with others yet. (This is the stage where staff has to initiate and model play - support but do not take over : follow the child leads )

I changed my classroom by setting up these different stations to give my students opportunities to access play activities throughout the day. The activities set up are based on curriculum learning areas.

These activities are not packed away at the end of the day.

Stations set up such as:

Writing station

Fiddling Station

Building Station

Sensory Station

Role Play Station

• Slum through play activities. 

Second-Adapt Classroom Programme

•   Teach the curriculum through play activities. 

 I changed my programme and focused more on providing learning activities through play.

Here are pictures of some activities we did with the students after our  shared reading.

We printed images of the characters in the story to make stick puppets. The students loved to play with these puppets. They stayed focused for a longer period of time. Some students tried to make their puppets talk, some enjoyed walking and moving the puppets here and there and some students just love to look 

at the pictures!!                    

• Provide Play activities of their interests to motivate them to engage. 

I used their preferred activities or items as a tool for my teaching such as bouncing a ball on a number card to help recognise them, Use marbles and cardboard tube to motivate them to attend the learning activity, Using mirror in Maths to develop number knowledge.

Third-Four Step Procedures Approach

When teaching new skills I must use a 4 step procedures approach.

Here are the 4 step procedures

Step 1-1:1 teaching (student and staff)

Step 2-1:2 (student and student) with staff support.

Step 3-1:1 (student and student) in a group with staff supervision

Step 4-all students in a group for up to 5 minutes.

When I teach a new skill, I must use this 4 steps approach.

In step 1- The student is getting full support from the teacher to engage and participate in the new learning.

In step 2- The student is now aware and becomes familiar with the new skill/learning taught in step 1. The student needs to maintain their engagement while the teacher teaches to another students.

In step 3- When the teacher is supervising the students and the students are applying the skills/learning and maintaining engagement during the session.

In Step 4-Maintaining engagement in a group situation.

Can the students still engage while in a group situation?

My target students find it hard to engage in a group situation. This is a big step for them and they still need numerous prompts to stay in a group activity if it's longer than 5 minutes. My target students are not quite at this level yet. However, they can join in as part of the group but they are not engaging in the learning activity.                                              

Fourth-Implement “ENGAGE” to my Classroom Programme

Engagement activities are integrated into my daily programme. Some of these activities are beyond the students capability. Therefore, I have to adapt the activity to suit the needs of my students. I also have to apply my 4 step procedures when teaching these new activities.

5-Outdoor Activities-Gardening/ Explore Nature

Give them opportunities to explore nature and develop their creativity.

6-Key Competencies Focus

Reinforce the Key Competencies-Relating to others,Managing self,Thinking-problem solving,Language-Communication into daily learning.