1a. Based on the article, you are required to identify the issues discussed.

You
are also required to explain the issues and challenges faced by teachers in the
21st century.

The Article Journal which I read was Psycho-Educational Processes as

strategies for students presenting with emotional and behavioural disorder. This
article was written by Susan R. Anderson. The main issue involved in this article is
the use of suitable approach to help students with emotional and behavioural
disorder. This issue is similar with the field of emotional disturbance among the
students.

In this article, Susan Mentioned about the increase in cases of emotional

disturbance among students. The lack of understanding and empathy from teachers,
administrators and their peers are common trend in their life. According to Susan,
students with behavioural and emotional disorders might display some unique
characteristics.

First of all, these students tend to show attitudes which demonstrate violent
behaviours to others. They also have the tendency to want to lord it over others.
They will often physically abuse others and always cursing them. They also want to
take advantage of others and show no sign of regard to other peoples property. They
do not care about others whether they suffer or hurt. They are indifferent to other
peoples feelings and lack of apathy. There are some who will carry tales about their
friends and also to pass off their own blame on others. They tend to possess a
learning challenge which cannot be easily explained while being unable to have
friends, social or authority relationships, for more than a short period of time. These
unnatural behaviours and attitudes often became a reason for them to appear
generally unhappy at school. These behaviours caused them to feel isolated and
influenced their performance in education.

In her journal, she mentioned that emotional disturbance can be divided into
three groups. The first group is externalizing behaviour. This type of behaviour refer
to behavioural problem that are readily apparent from how childrens behaviour plays
out in their action and derive from the fact that the child is negatively reacting to
external situations. The second group is the internalizing behaviour. The behaviour
shown are contrast with externalizing behaviour and often show sighs where
becoming withdrawn and anxious. The third group is rare to happen but it is identified
as low incidence. The children will suffer schizophrenia where the child will face
serious difficulties with schoolwork and often live in special hospital.

Through her study about emotion disturbance she managed to come up with
an idea to solve the situation. The method she used was a combination of several
theories and it was proven effective.

The first model that she applied was Behavioural Modification Model. In this
model, the teacher selects the appropriate sample to offer the child as a starting task.
The teacher sees to the expansion of this task in order that the child reaches a
standard of functioning that is desired in the classroom. Finally, he or she offers
positive meaningful consequences for the acceptable behaviour.

The second model that she applied was the development sequence model.
This model focuses on the essential behaviours which all children must have in order
to achieve success in classroom. In this model, children must pay attention, respond,
follow instructions, explore the environment freely and conduct themselves
appropriately in relation to other. The learning of these behaviour occur during normal
course of development from infancy to school age. The children who suffer emotional
disorder need to learn to adapt the situation and behave as stated.

The third model she referred to was Bio-social model of children externalizing
behaviour. This model was conceptualised by Raine et al who focus on biological risk
factor. He believed that a child may inherit genes responsible for externalizing
behaviours from father and mother. In this theory she referred to the psychosocial
risk factor where the psychosocial factor can give rise to biological factor.
 Throughout the findings, she found that the challenges that were faced by
teachers caused by the teachers experience. Teacher showed signs of classifying
the problematic students as deviants and misreading the symptoms which leads to
everyone believe that it was pupils fault. A teacher should understand that the
individual needed treatment in order to address his problem and for adults to begin to
understand and help.

Next, she found that one of the challenges for the teacher in 21st century was
the training received at teachers college did not adequately prepare them to treat
students with emotional disorder. While they were taught the different behavioural
modification approaches, some were merely temporary fixes for the behaviours
encountered. Some students did not see the need to change as they were gaining
attention and power from other students. She mentioned that the Ministry of
Education should provide special education teachers in all schools to help teachers
work with students with special needs. Additionally, if the Ministry used the Task
Force Report commissioned, then they could make positive interventions.

The third challenge was the academic responses and behaviour. In her
report, she compared two reflection of teachers where different students show
different responses and behaviour toward learning. However, these students showed
similar behavioural problems that would be exacerbated. The challenge for teacher is
to refer to each pupils behaviour and act accordingly.

Although the report she presented was successful with the use of several
theory, she did mention that there is a need for specialist to be involved in this solving
this problem. The participations of parents are crucial in making a better
improvement for these methods.
1b. Based on your knowledge and experience in school / practicum / through
your reading, identify the root cause of emotional disturbances that occur
among the students in schools. If you were a classroom teacher, what action
will you take to address the problem?

Generally, emotional disturbance is known as a condition exhibiting one or

more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked
degree that adversely affects a childs educational performance (National Alliance on
Mental Illness (NAMI), 2010). Emotional disturbances can affect an individual in
areas beyond the emotional. Depending on the specific mental disorder involved, a
persons physical, social, or cognitive skills may also be affected ( National Institute
of Mental Health (NIMH), 2010). According to National Alliance on Mental
Illness (NAMI), mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a persons
thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning (Center for
parent information and resourses, 2015). The main issue that was showed through
this article was the occurrence of students with this problem. The students were
facing emotional disorder.

Based on my experience in school, there was once I met a girl who faced
similar problem although I did not teach her. This incident occurred during my first
phase of practicum at SK Seremban Jaya. She was a year 1 transfer student who
just entered the school. During her first day, she started to smash the door and cried
outside of her classroom. She did not enter the classroom and shouted at the door.
The incident caught my attention and I had talks with her mother who had been there
for the whole time. Her mother told me that her daughter had problem where unseen
being often disturb her. However, the teachers in that school told me that the girl is
having emotional disturbance and she had been transferred from a few schools for
the last 2 month.

Through my studies, the cause of emotional disturbance is currently

unidentified. The reasons why such problems arise in a particular child are usually
difficult to identify precisely, and the disability is likely to be the result of multiple and
overlapping factors. However, there are a few areas which proven to contribute to
emotional disorder.

The first area is the field of biology. Biological factors are genetic,
biochemical, and neurological influences that interact and result in emotional
disabilities. Just as for many other disabilities, more and more biological and genetic
causes for emotional or behavioural disorders are being identified. All of them appear
to have biological bases that interact with other factors and may contribute to
emotional disturbances. For my student, her incident might relate to her genetic
factor which led her to unable to control her behaviour and cried outside the
classroom.

The next factor is home and community factor. Environment and culture are
the context in which behaviour unfolds. The environments shape and influence each
individual's growth and development, whether positively or negatively. Rarely does a
single negative experience lead to or aggravate emotional problems, but
combinations of poverty, abuse, neglect, parental stress, inconsistent expectations
and rules, confusion, and turmoil over long periods of time can do so. The lack of
supervision, erratic and punitive discipline, low rate of positive interactions, high rate
of negative interactions, lack of interest and concern, and poor adult role models can
also be considered as the factor. For the little girl, I was told that she is the only child
in her family. She rarely goes out of her room and usually accompanied by her
mother. The lack of interaction with outsiders could be one of the causes that made
her afraid of the environment and wished to stay at home. However, her mother
forced her to get to school. The different in environment caused her to suffer
emotional disorder and started to express her feeling on objects.

Besides that, I was told that she was also having problem with her father
where her father did not believe in her. Her mother told me that her daughter was
very special and she believed that some being is protecting her daughter. She told
me that her daughter was perfectly fine during a car accident where her daughters
head hit the window and the window breaks. However her father did not believe in
the spiritual world. Her father did not support her and often scold the girl. Therefore
the only person close to the girl was her mother. My belief was supported by Terri
Mauro as cited by Rashid Noriati (2010), family became an important factor where it
is the place the pupils built their behaviour. In her house, she was protected by her
mother and she was not able to adapt with the changes in the school.

The other issue I concerned was the attitude of the teachers in that school. In
that school, the teacher did not care for her and labelled her as problematic. I
believed school environment is also a cause for emotional disturbance. In that
school, the teachers did not try to help the girl. They directly labelled her as
problematic and did not care for her. Her mother had to stay outside the class holding
her daughter for hours. The little girl was having her own lesson given by her mother.
The teachers ignored her and kept rushing through the syllabus. I believed that the
attitude of teachers in that school played a role in causing the emotional disturbance
in that child.

If I was a classroom teacher for her, I will take a few actions to address to her
matter. First of all, I will set some consistency rules, expectations, and consequences
for the whole class. According to Woolfolk (2013), another possibility that has proved
helpful to these students is by structuring the environment by minimizing visual and
auditory simulations and establishes clear boundaries between areas where different
behaviours are expected. This idea was to help the girl to understand that her
behaviour were not suitable for the situations. I would try to help her to adapt with the
new surroundings and get used to it.

Next, I will set up a positive school climate. I will try to set a comfortable
classroom climate to ease my pupils. The change is environment was hard for that
girl. She had to leave her house and start to social with kids around her age. Her
emotional disturbance could have been started with the change in environment.
Therefore I will change the classroom setting to make her feel comfortable. If I was
able to create a classroom environment like her room, she would have fewer
disturbances.
 Last but not least, I will be aware of the culture sensitivity. She is a Chinese
and spoke Chinese. That is her culture in her daily life. However, the school that she
entered was Sekolah Kebangsaan which she is the first Chinese student who steps
into the school. The difference in culture was very distinctive. She was not able to
adapt to the new culture and afraid of it. Therefore I will start with introducing her new
culture and train her to adapt with the new situations. This process will take a longer
time but it will ease her in the future. She had to adapt the new culture because she
was the new member who enters the school.

To sum up, I believe that the cause of emotional disturbance is not entirely the
fault of a pupil. Pupils are still young and fragile. We as an adult must learn the
proper way of handling the situations. Parents and teachers must work together in
order to help these pupils. In the situation during my first practicum, I found that there
was no cooperation given from the teachers. The teachers chose to ignore the child
and focus on the syllabus. I believe that the teachers should have made con afford in
helping the girl to adapt to her new environment. With a proper help from the parents
I believe that the pupils will be able to recover from her problem.
2.0) Evaluate and supervise the users of ICT in teaching and learning is an
important role played by school administrators. This is to ensure that the skills
and abilities of teachers to meet the standards as set out in the policy
document the use of new technologies is increasing, so the school should be
willing to change.

(Rusmini, 2005)

If you were the headmaster in the school, discuss the innovative teaching and
learning practices in the classroom that you can implement to meet the
challenges of the 21st century.

The on-going, unprecedented growth of information and communication

technology (ICT), coupled with the globalisation of the economy, has created a huge
challenge for education. The implementation of ICT is in the forefront of education
reforms locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. USA, Denmark, Japan,
Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, for example, have drawn up master
plans for developing ICT in education. As a developing country, we must also involve
ICT in the education in order to prepare our future generations to be able to compete
with other nations.

It is interesting to also note some recent related research conducted by

Stephen Harris (2008) that five principals of schools where outstanding results were
being achieved were relentless in their quest for enhanced student outcomes. He
stated that they constantly remind students, staff and the community that the core
purpose of the school is teaching and learning. Principals who brought out the best in
their teachers and students were those who were not afraid of change. Rather than
attempting to keep change at bay, these principals expose the school to the
opportunities and pressures brought by change. This statement reminds me of the
importance of the role as a headmaster to help the change in school. Our traditional
teaching and learning must be changed in order to help the pupils to be prepared for
the futures challenges. Therefore, changes must be done in order to achieve a
greater result.

If I was the headmaster in the school, I have a few innovative teaching and
learning practices in the classroom which I will implement to meet the challenges of
21st century.

First of all, I will start with preparing the school facilities to meet the standard
required for my innovation. My innovation requires the use of facilities such as
computers and internet. However, I noticed that all the school I went during my
practicum have limited computers and the internet was poor. Furthermore, most of
the computers could not function properly. The facilities in schools were limited and
not suitable for my innovation. Thus I will start with preparing proper facilities which
can help my innovation. The facilities which I will prepare will be extra computers and
a better internet. I will try to get sponsors from Non-Government Organisations
(NGO) to help me in enhancing pupils education. With the budget I gained from the
sponsors, I will select computers which suit the pupils in term of function and cost. I
will not select the computers with over rated specs because we will not be using it for
online game. A normal computer will be able to allow the pupils to surf the internet.

Next, I will start my first innovation by preparing free internet caf service in
school. The function of this innovation was to allow the pupils to use the computer lab
after the school. I will not collect money from the pupils because I want to motivate
them to participate in the online learning. In the preparation for this innovation, I will
set clear rules and make certain precautions. First of all, this service starts after the
school hours, which means my pupils will not be able to surf the internet during their
lesson. This will prevent the pupils from playing truant by loitering in the computer
lab. Next I will set complicated internet security to prevent my pupils from surfing web
which are not relevant such as online games, Facebook and pornography. I believe
with the proper preparation, the pupils will be able to make use of my innovation to
help their study.
 Besides that, I will also form a community among the teachers to create a
learning portal. This idea was taken from Stephen Harris (2008) where he proposed
the use of Learn Portal to help the students to study. In this innovation, I will work
together with teachers to create a learning portal which suits out curriculum. We will
search for the contents in our curriculum standard and organise it in the portal.
Therefore, the students can do their revision after the school. The preparation of free
internet caf in school was to help the poor students in having a chance to learn
using computer. This will benefit all the pupils if we are able to create a great learning
portal.

Other than that, I will also hold a competition which requires the pupils to
prepare online portfolio and present it in the portal we prepared. This competition will
be held annually where the pupils will have to prepare a portfolio with different
subjects to submit. The evaluation will be made based on the content and the
efficiency in using the ICT. This is a competition designed for pupils in year 4, 5 and 6
because I believe that the task are suitable for pupils with higher maturity compared
to pupils in year 1,2 and 3. In the task, every pupil will also have to search of extra
information attached it in their e-portfolio. This will be able to promote the culture of
extra curriculum learning among the pupils. By the end of the year, five winners will
be selected from every year. The total winner will be 15 pupils. The reward I plan to
prepare for the pupils involve some useful gadgets, however, this will be decided
based on the budget we have in the future.

Besides promoting self-study among students, I will promote the use of ICT in
every classroom. I will prepare LCD projectors for every teacher. The teacher will
have to take good care of the projectors and learn to preserve it. This LCD will be
used in their lessons. The use of laptops will allow my pupils to learn better through
the use of internet or video. They will be able to get a better understanding of the
content. Besides that, I will also make routines for every class to use the computer
lab I prepared. Each and every teacher will have to bring their pupils to the lab when
the period is scheduled to be conducted in the lab. I will personally make surveys to
make sure that the teachers are using the facilities I prepared and my pupils were
given chance to interact with the computers.
 Last but not least, I will prepare in house training for all the teachers to learn
about ICT. I will request all my teachers to sacrifice some of their time to learn the
use of ICT. I noticed that some of the teachers were not committed to use ICT during
my practicums. Thus, I will ask them to spend a day of their weekend in school to
learn how to use the ICT in school. This lesson will also include the preserve of the
LCD projector and laptop to make sure that the facilities I prepared will not go waste
in time.

In a nut shell, I believe that a principle is the leader for agent of change.
Changes will not be done without and hurdle. If the teachers keep on remaining in
their comfort zone, the pupils will not be able to get a better chance for learning
through the use of ICT. Therefore, I will lead my teachers to change for the better of
pupils.
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