Middle Years of Schooling – Educ 5269

Assignment 2 – Essay
#110200784

Introduction

The focus of this essay is to investigate the strategies and pedagogical practices that teachers should
implement to address the learning and social needs of their adolescent students. The strategies and
pedagogical practices presented in this essay, will be focused on the middle years of schooling with
some relation to the learning area of Health and Physical Education. This essay will review current
literature and statistics that address the learning and social needs of middle years students.

Learning and Social needs of middle years learners

Throughout their middle schooling journey, students will embark on a range of individualised
experiences and changes. These experiences and changes will occur throughout different stages of
the student’s development (Pendergast, 2017). Although these students are unique with many
differences in personality traits and characteristics, they share similar learning and social needs for
an adequate academic education. A learning need can be described as an important learning tool
that students desire in order to grasp their academic potential (Pendergast 2017) Social needs relate
to the desire of belonging, feeling a sense of love and affection amongst friends, family and peers
(Pendergast, 2017, p. 81). These social needs are developed and sustained through relationships
with a variety of people within the school community and abroad. Social skills are competencies that
can be taught and developed through explicit teaching, experiences and opportunities (Pendergast,
2017, p.81). The ability to develop these social skills through the middle years should not be
overlooked when teaching and should be at the forefront of planning curriculum for middle years
students. All students can benefit from the inclusion of social and emotional learning, as these skills
integrate the cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects of learning (Pendergast, 2017, p. 82). Two
of the most important social needs of middle years learners are the relationships they have with
their teachers and also with their peers. As student’s develop through the middle years, their social
construct moves from primarily being family focused, to being more dependent on the relationships
they possess with peer’s, staff and other people within the community (Gavidia-Payne et al. 2014)

Pendergast (2017), address the importance of considering the learning and social needs of students
when designing curriculum. Considering these needs when planning the curriculum will help
maximise the academic potential of students (Pendergast 2017). A range of teaching pedagogies and
practices should be implemented in the planning of the curriculum to meet the learning and social
needs of students. A range of practices and pedagogies will be reviewed throughout this paper.
Educational Engagement

A key learning need of middle years students is engagement. Educational engagement can be
described as being cognitively, behaviourally and emotionally interested in a learning activity, with a
high sense of concentration, interest and satisfaction when undertaking an activity (Fredricks 2005).
Pendergast (2017) acknowledges that engagement is one of the most important learning needs for
students. They discuss the positive impact that educational engagement has on academic results,
student health and wellbeing and behavioural management. The middle years of schooling is a
testing time for many students as they transition from children to adolescents. Through this period
of life, the amount of physical, psychosocial, emotional and cognitive changes that occur are second
only to the changes that occur in the first two years of life (Pendergast, 2017, p.29). It is common for
students within the middle years of schooling to feel alienated and disinterested in class (Hattam &
Sullivan 2016). It is important for teachers to minimise this by engaging students to the best of their
ability. There are near countless factors that have an impact on student engagement. Gibbs and
Poskitt (2010) identified eight interrelated factors which influence student engagement. They
provide a more in-depth insight into the significance that each factor plays in promoting student
engagement. Of the eight factors, the most effective pedagogical approaches are; relationships with
teachers and other students, motivation and interest in learning, goal orientation and academic self-
regulation. The three other factors that influence student engagement but are less significant are’
relational learning, personal agency and disposition to be a learner (Pendergast 2017).

Managing the Learning Environment

Sullivan (2019), showed that there is a direct correlation between student disengagement and
student misbehaviour. Managing the behaviour of students is a task that all teachers face on a day
to day basis. There are many theories, practices and pedagogies that are useful for managing
student behaviour. ‘prevention of student indiscipline is a key ingredient to successful engagement
in learning.’ (Mcdonald, 2013, p.109). Mcdonald (2013) deliberates the concept of the ‘three phase
positive learning framework’. The article highlights the importance of not only preparing the learning
environment, but also preparing the type of learning and classroom we aspire to have throughout
the school year. The first phase of the positive learning framework relates to establishing class
norms, expectations, rules and procedures at the beginning of the school year. It is important to
include students in this first phase, as it is their learning environment too. If they present
appropriate rules and expectations, they can then be held accountable throughout the school year
and reflect on their behaviour in class. The second phase refers to the quality of each lesson and
how the learning is conveyed to the students. As a teacher, it is important to run every lesson to the
highest quality possible. It is important to differentiate lesson’s by using a range of practices. Some
effective practices that teachers can use are; higher order thinking strategies, integrated curricula,
co-operative and collaborative learning and parental involvement in student learning. Differentiating
teaching practices and instructions will minimise lesson’s constantly advantaging students with
specific learning styles over others. The third phase displays the notion that behaviour management
should be kept to a minimum to avoid class disruption. This minimalistic approach aims to reduce
the disruption to lesson flow and other students in the class who are not misbehaving. The
application of this positive learning framework, would be a beneficial way of managing the learning
needs of middle years students by increasing engagement, differentiating lessons and managing
student misbehaviour.

Teacher-student relationship

As mentioned previously, the relationship that a student has with their teacher is one of the most
significant social needs influencing the education of middle year students. A study of 2,079 students
from 18 high schools discovered that there was an increase in classroom engagement when the
student had a positive relationship with the teacher (Martin, A & Collie, R 2018). This positive
student-teacher relationship can be directly related to an increase in academic achievement
(Pendergast, 2017, p.87). This highlights the importance of maintaining a positive relationship with
students to enhance their academic potential. Gibbs and Poskiit (2010) constructed an article
discussing eight interrelated factors that influence student engagement. Out of the eight factors
mentioned, the relationship between a teacher and student was listed as the most important.
Sullivan (2019), present the view that students desire to be known by their teacher, they like to be
acknowledged and feel a sense of belonging in the classroom. As student’s are developing
throughout their middle schooling journey, their self-concept is regularly challenged and changing
(Gavidia-Payne et al. 2014, p. 122)The relationship that a student has with their teacher, plays a
large role in the formation of a students self-concept and their wellbeing as they experience wider
domains of social influence (Harter 1999)· An optimal student-teacher relationship involves the
teacher displaying interest and concern for the student by providing emotional support, acceptance,
responsiveness, involvement and structure (Gavidia-Payne, 2014, p. 125). In the learning area of
Health and Physical Education, this relationship is as important as in any other subject. A study
conducted by Newberry (2010), suggests two strategies that teachers can do to build a positive
relationship with their students. These include showing an interest in their everyday life and by
going above and beyond to help their students succeed. As a HPE teacher, this could be achieved by
asking students how their sport went on the weekend, or running an extra session on a sporting
activity after school hours. These simple yet effective strategies will promote a positive student-
teacher relationship, which will address a significant social need of middle years students. (Newberry
2010).

Strong student relationships

As mentioned previously, the middle years of schooling is a time full of psychosocial, behavioural
and physical development. It is a time were students not only feel alienated from their schoolwork,
but also from friends and family (Pendergast 2017). As students move through their middle
schooling, social allegiances begin to move from being predominately family focused to being more
influenced by one’s peer groups. This change of focus requires the adaptation of being able to
develop and sustain more complex relationships. It is important for students to develop appropriate
social and emotional skills during this time. Some examples of these skills are understanding,
reflection, self-control, problem-solving and cooperation, and to know how to act appropriately in a
range of social situations (Pendergast, 2017, p.81). Teaching appropriate social and emotional skills
is a complex task. There is no one specific way of teaching these skills. There are advocates for both
an experiential approach, where students participate in more active methods of learning, such as
role play and hands on activities, and a more direct approach, where students are directly taught
necesssary social and emotional skills (Pendergast, 2017, p.82). Although there is not a standalone
way of teaching necessary social and emotional skills, a study conducted by Durlak et al. (2010)
reviewed current programs aimed at improving the social and emotional skills of students. They
discovered that successful programs were designed around a four-step approach using the acronym
SAFE (Pendergast, 2017, p.82). The four steps include using a sequenced approach to skills
development, using active learning to provide students opportunities to practice developing these
skills, focusing on social and emotional learning and finally explicitly targeting specific social and
emotional skills (Payton et al. 2008). It is important for a middle year’s teacher to implement this
four-step approach when designing curriculum, to ensure that they appropriately and effectively
improve the social and emotional skills of students in their class.

Co-operative and collaborative learning

Co-operative and collaborative learning can be an effective way of developing the social and
emotional skills of students. These ways of learning require students to work together in pairs or
small groups to develop their learning (Pendergast, 2017, p.240). Although collaborative and co-
operative learning have some differences, they can both be used to achieve a common goal of social
and emotional development. “In a two-year study on science achievement, students reported that
working together was fun and had the added benefit of improving students’ social skills and social
inclusion within the class (Pendergast, 2017, p.246). When working in groups, students are required
to undertake roles, share thoughts and feelings, and interpret the thoughts of other members. These
are some of the responsibilities that students will develop through this learning. When organising
students into groups, it is important to make them heterogeneous and flexible to ensure that
students are working with a variety of personalities (Pendergast 2017). Having this diversity of
student groupings will help to reflect the real world. Students must work with peers who they may
not be close friends with or share similar views with. This may provoke a clash of personalities
(Pendergast 2017). Students must work together through these differences to put the success of the
group first. This will provide students opportunity to develop emotionally and socially as it reflects
what may happen outside of school in places like the workplace, board meetings or conversation
with friends and family. Collaborative learning has also been found to enhance students critical
thinking and problem-solving skills. The use of higher order thinking strategies in collaborative
learning will encourage the use of critical thinking and problem-solving skills which will improve the
quality of their academic work (Pendergast, 2017, p.246).

Conclusion

In conclusion of this paper, it can be stated that the social and learning needs of middle years
students should not be overlooked as a teacher. There are a variety of practices and pedagogies
which teachers should implement in their classrooms to address the needs of their students. It is
important for teachers to appropriately plan their lessons to include the practices and pedagogies
review throughout this paper. Engaging students in the lesson should be the main priority for
teachers, educating middle years students. Forming positive relationships with students,
differentiating learning in the classroom, developing social and emotional skills, implementing higher
order thinking strategies and using a range of behavioural management strategies are some of the
pedagogies discussed in this paper that teachers should implement in their lessons to cater for the
needs of their students.
References:

Durlak, J et al. 2010, A Meta‐Analysis of After‐School Programs That Seek to Promote Personal and
Social Skills in Children and Adolescents, American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 45, no. 3,
pp. 117-134.

Fredricks, J & McColskey, W, 2012. The measurement of student engagement: A comparative

Gavidia-Payne, S et al. 2014, Children’s self-concept: parental school engagement and student–
teacher relationships in rural and urban Australia, Social Psychology of Education, vol. 18, pp. 121-
136.

Gibbs, R & Poskitt, J 2010, Student engagement in the Middle Years of Schooling (years 7-10): A
literature review, Ministry of Education New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand

Harter, S 1999, Distinguished contributions in psychology. The construction of the self: A

Hattam, R & Sullivan, A 2016, ‘Promoting pedagogies of engagement in secondary schools:

Martin, A & Collie, R 2018, Teacher–student relationships and students’ engagement in high school:
Does the number of negative and positive relationships with teachers matter? Journal of Educational
Psychology.

Mcdonald, T 2013, Proactive teacher behaviours. In Classroom management: engaging students in

Newberry, M 2010, Identified phases in the building and maintaining of positive teacher-student
relationships, Teaching and Teacher Education, vol.26, no. 8. pp 1695-1703.

Payton, J et al. 2008, The Positive Impact of Social and Emotional Learning for Kindergarten to
Eighth-Grade Students, Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning, Chicago.

Pendergast, D et al. 2017, Teaching middle years: rethinking curriculum, pedagogy and assessment,
Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin

Sullivan, A 2019, Middle Years of Schooling: EDUC 5269, lecture recording 6 May 2019, University of
South Australia, viewed 17 May 2019, < https://lo.unisa.edu.au/local/unisamedia/lrs.php?
id=16636&sesskey=gPGtqocVfa&lrsrequest=z
%2FuAtoo1vXn4femV3fc2HQiCTYI0uQxNXXp3DpNcaBA%3D>