Researching Teaching and Learning assessment 1

By James Cauz
Student number 17833253

Chosen Article: Establishing positive relationships with secondary gifted students and
students with emotional/behavioural disorders: giving these diverse learners what they
need. Capern and Hammond (2014)

Chosen kla: Food Technology

Introduction:
The main topic in the chosen article is the relationship between teachers and students who are
either gifted or suffer from emotional/behavioural disorder (EBD), EBD students show signs
of difficulty in learning class content or lack of paying attention in class, these student in
particular are more likely to become juvenile delinquency, are at high risk of leaving school
or not graduating. This article briefly goes into the connection between the bottom and top
students and how the effects of positive teacher student relationships can lead to these
students achieving higher grades and even graduating. Although the study done by the
authors of this article wasn’t very broad, only covering 58 gifted students and 40 EBD
students from 6 different secondary school in western Australia, the authors also backed up
their findings with other studies done throughout Australia and overseas. In all the studies
even the ones done overseas it showed a common factor that positive relationships do have a
positive effect on grades, classroom work and attitude towards school life in general, each of
these studies where prompted to find ways on keeping the gifted students mind active and
promoting their learning but also keeping EBD students in school and assisting them to
achieve passing grades and graduation as the end goal.

KLA relevance:
While the issue of gifted and EBD students can be an issue for every key learning area
(KLA), there isn’t really any specific KLA that these issue would be more relevant towards.
But with that being said as it is a broad issue all teachers must help to assist or deal with these
issues for all KLA’s. One of the main concerns within the article is how can teachers build a
positive relationship with these students without overstepping and guidelines, in the article it
mentioned that there are 8 variables a teacher must look out for to build these positive
relationships and they are, “non-directivity, empathy, warmth, encouragement of higher order
thinking, encouraging learning, adapting to differences, genuineness, and learner-centred
beliefs”, Capern and Hammond (2014). With the understanding these variables they could be
applied in the chosen KLA of food technology by asking these students both gifted and EBD
to assist in organising class practicals or participating in open discussions using higher order
thinking boosting their self-esteem and achieving a better understanding of class lessons.
Critical summary:
From all the studies done both by the original authors and back up findings, it did cover a
range of different students, locations, cultural backgrounds, sexes and countries, it did show
that the one constant was a positive relationship built between students and their teacher had
a positive influence on better grades and attitudes at school. There was a mention in the
article of a teaching method used predominantly on African America and economically
disadvantaged students in America, which was strict and had control over their students
which gained positive relationships. But it mentioned that if that same strict method was used
on middle class Caucasian students it wouldn’t be seen as positive and would most probably
have a negative effect of the students. The authors used these situations to inforce that there
isn’t just one method that should or can be used to gain positive relationships between
students and teachers, also as teacher it is up to us to decide which method to use and how to
present it professionally to gain these positive relationships with the students. Throughout all
the studies done it mentioned that while building these positive relationships the students
actually showed more class involvement and admitted to likely class content from the
teachers they had achieved the positive relationships with, it even showed that students with
EBD showed more involvement, higher grades and more participation in class.

One of the more interesting aspects of this article was how they just didn’t focus on gifted vs
EBD student but each case individually and saw if there could be any connection or way of
dealing with both issues with one teaching method or if each student with these issues would
need their own case by case teaching style. In the article it showed that gifted students had
put more emphasis on behaviours that helped them academically, the EBD students
emphasised that caring, understanding, patience and support behaviours assisted more
towards their learning but in both cases it was agreed that positive relationships with their
teacher was good for their education and admired the teacher more which in turn pushed the
students to achieve better grades.

While this study did show a lot of data collection and referencing to supporting studies, did it
mainly focus on quantitative or qualitative research to show its findings? Looking deep into
this article it can be seen that that both types of research are used, for the quantitative
research it can be seen with the improvement of student grades when the application of
positive relationships between students and teacher are created, as for qualitative research
looks at the students individually case by case basis and their outlook on the effect of positive
relationships with their teacher and how these relationships are assisting in better grades and
attitude at school.

Throughout the study done by the authors and supporting studies it looked at providing
evidence showing that the methods used were properly done to make show that all the results
shown in all cases were as viable as possible which did show in the results, showing that all
the studies had common trend of increasing grades with positive relationships. But in the case
of gifted students and students with EBD each one had to be looked at individually to work
out the best solution in building these relationships with the students and that it had to be had
gradually to achieve a lasting effect on school work and grades. While in majority of cases
the connection with improved grades and positive relationships was high there will also be
limitations for the teacher to make a connection with a student depending on whether they are
willing to build a relationship, which in effect can lead to those students still failing or
dropping out even with all the effects of the teacher. So even though the studies showed a
positive connection and improvement with gifted and EBD students there will be a student
who for some reason doesn’t want the help or think they need it, which in turn the teacher
needs to deal with that issue from a different perspective or angle.

Lesson Plan/Activity:
So as the KLA chosen is food technology the lesson plan chosen was a practical cooking
lesson as seen in the appendix, this lesson was from Greystanes high school stage 5 students.
The lesson is made up of 2 parts the practical making of a delicious lasagne which most
students whether being gifted, normal or EBD would enjoy making and eating but also to
finish off the lesson an few questions to help the students understand the lesson being taught
in this practical and better under topic area that’s being covered. While the recipe is very easy
to understand and follow making it easy to achieve even for the EBD students the
questionnaire that follows does need some higher order thinking which could lead to less
interaction with the EBD students. While both activities would be simple to follow and
answer for gifted students pairing them up with EBD could assist in both their learning while
the gifted would help the EBD student answer the questions, the gifted student also gets a
better understanding of topic knowledge and gains the skill of helping a peer student keeping
the mind active. As mentioned in the article EBD students do generally close up or walk
away when things get hard or can’t understand what is happening, when this happens maybe
a one on one assistance with the teacher will help break down that walk or help the EBD to
keep trying on the questions giving them support along the way and knowing when to stop
pushing before the EBD completely breaks down.

Within this article it did examine the issues and benefits of positive relationships between
teachers and their students being gifted, normal or EBD, it showed in most studies that there
were noticeable improvement within students who had built these relationship compared to
student who hadn’t. The biggest limitation was the students themselves and their willingness
to try and build a relationship with their teachers but also in which method the teacher used to
build these relationships with the students. In summary as a teacher it shows that every
student is different and while some want to learn and build on their education, some student
do not and it is at this point the teacher needs to use their pedagogical knowledge to assist
those students to get back on track and aim for good grades, but building and understanding
students is a pedagogy teacher build over time and same with positive relationships with
studets.
References:
Capern, T., & Hammond, L. (2014). Establishing positive relationships with secondary gifted students
and students with emotional/behavioural disorders: Giving these diverse learners what they
need. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(4), 3.

Lesson plan reference:

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/secondary/technology/7_10/food/course
_plans_units/Greystanes_High_School/index.htm
Appendix:
Stage 5 Food Technology: Food trends
Practical work: Functional properties of food

Lasagne
Ingredients (between 2)
8 pre-cooked lasagne sheets Béchamel sauce:
Bolognese sauce: 40g butter
1 tablespoon oil 40g flour
1 onion 500ml milk
1 clove garlic
400g mince
1 tablespoon tomato paste
500ml tomato puree
1 tin tomato pieces 1 teaspoon chopped parsley salt and pepper 1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Method for Bolognese sauce

1. Heat oil in a saucepan and sweat the onion.
2. Add the garlic and mince and fry quickly until all the meat is coloured.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes. Then add the puree and tomato pieces,
parsle, salt and pepper and cook over a simmering heat for 15–20 minutes.
Method for Béchamel sauce
1. Melt butter in a saucepan.
2. Add the flour and mix well over a moderate heat, stirring all the time.
3. Add milk slowly and stir with a wooden spoon to make a silky smooth sauce. Stir
constantly until it thickens.
Method for preparing the Lasagne
1. Select a heatproof serving dish and grease the bottom and sides.
2. Spread a layer of Bolognese sauce in the dish and cover with the lasagne sheets.
3. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and spread a layer of the Béchamel sauce. Sprinkle
with Parmesan cheese.
4. Cover the cheese with lasagne and add another layer of the Bolognese sauce.
5. Repeat the process to use up the ingredients, but make the last layer Béchamel sauce.
6. Sprinkle with grated cheese.
7. Bake in an oven at 190C for 20–30 minutes.

Activity questions for the Lasagne practical

¾ What structural change has the mincemeat undergone?
¾ What proteins are found in the mincemeat?
¾ What factor has contributed to the change in the mincemeat?
¾ Why has the red mincemeat turned brown?
¾ What type of carbohydrate is found in the flour used in the béchamel sauce?
¾ What factor has contributed to the change in the sauce?