Critical incident reflection

Critical incident date:20/11/15

Description
During my maths lesson about statistics and data representations I was explaining the task to
students while they were seated on the floor. There were many students that were not
listening after explaining to the class that students needed to be good listeners and being
respectful of the person that is talking the students on the floor closest to me were still
talking. I decided to give students a warning and suggested to them if they could not make
good choices sitting next to their friends then I would have to move them. Throughout this
session this occurred quite frequently so I moved students to different tables so that they were
able to begin their work during the lesson.
Interpretation
This situation is critical to me as behaviour management is something that I have not
experienced much of. It is one of my goals as an area to improve and I think that this is an
important step in achieving this goal. In this situation for me this is important as it provides
some confidence in dealing with discipline in the classroom. Having behaviour management
experiences enables pre service teachers the opportunity to feel more prepared to manage
behaviours that can be challenging (ONeill & Stephenson, 2012). This is something that I
find a daunting task, as I dont like to tell students off. It is suggested that pre-service
teachers that have more confidence in their behaviour management skills are less likely to be
stressed (ONeill & Stephenson, 2012). Research has shown that the comfort level of
knowledge and understanding of the teacher to implement intervention strategies is depended
upon (Alvarez, 2007). Therefore affecting the use of the teachers intervention strategy in a
classroom based setting.
Outcome
From this incident I feel much more confident with being able to deal with challenging
behaviour and disruptions in the classroom. The way that I reacted to this incident provides
me with encouragement that I have the ability to deal with students challenging behaviour in
the classroom. As this was something I hadnt had much experience with I feel that the
outcome was successful as the students that I separated went from not having started to
almost finishing their work. To develop my professional knowledge, practice and engagement
I will set future goals to continue to develop other behaviour management techniques.
References
ONeill, S., & Stephenson, J. (2012). Does classroom management coursework influence preservice teachers perceived preparedness or confidence? Teaching and Teacher Education,
28(8), 1131-1143.
Alvarez, H. (2007) . The impact of teacher preparation on responses to student aggression in
the classroom. TeachingandTeacherEducation,23(7),11131126.