Critical Incidents in Teaching Assignment Report

Critical Incidents in Teaching
Introduction.
My placement is in X school in an area of London. Ofsted rated the school as
good in 2018. It is a brand-new school opened in 2015 and consists of five
classes in total. The school has pupils aged four to nine, all of them belonging to
diverse cultural backgrounds. Majority of the pupils speak English as an
additional language in the school. However, pupils who are eligible for pupil
premium funding is below national average. The incident happened on the first
day back from the half term break. The children were sitting down on the carpet
prior to the commencement of the session. I had just started reading a book to
the children, when I heard a minor commotion. I looked up and saw child C
pointing at the children angrily and consistently shouting, “
stop looking at me!”.
When I told him, “
Stop it C, nobody is looking at you!”, he started to cry. I told
him to go and get a tissue. Later, by talking to him I found out that he was not
wearing the regular plain, dark navy school jumper, but instead a bright green
jumper with the picture of a red monster on it. This awareness made him
conscious of his surroundings.
Portfolio.
According to Gibbs (1998), to develop professionally and personally, it is
important to understand the internal aspects of an incident. I aim to explain the
incident and my reactions using Tripp’s (2012) approaches.
Description.
When I spoke to C he said, “
I lost my jumper and I am not wearing my school
jumper and they are looking at me, it makes me sad”. I told him, “
it is ok that
you are not wearing your jumper, sometimes I do not wear the same clothes as
miss B, or as you. And it is ok to be different as that is what makes us special”.
He responded saying “
ok, miss”. After the talk I had with him, I noticed he was
calmer than before but still very moody which is an unusual behaviour from C as
he is normally very enthusiastic. The next day, C came into the classroom with
the same jumper on. He sat down on the carpet quietly, still very moody and
gloomy. For an entire week, C continued wearing the same jumper, however he
displayed a change in behaviour on the third day. He showed a higher degree of

confidence and enthusiasm, something that has been missing for the past couple
of days in C. He also responded positively by smiling to other children who were
touching the monster on his jumper and complimenting it. He also seemed
happier than what he had been of late. From my preliminary analysis I reached
the conclusion that his behaviour was an aftereffect of his realisation of being
different. Wearing the different jumper meant he was not conforming to the
classroom norm, which might have resulted in a general lack of self-esteem.
Brooks (2012) states that children who have low self-esteem, generally tend to
react to other children and events instinctively based on appearance. Child C, in
this case, demonstrates adherence to this behaviour by reacting to the event in
the manner that he did, fuelled by the visually perceptible nuances of his
appearance.
The Thinking Strategies
From analysing the incident, the first aspect of aberrant behaviour that I can
observe, is C’s act of shouting at other children and drawing attention to himself.
This shows that C had the knowledge in his mind, that something was not fitting
the norm of the classroom. Therefore, he himself resorted to suggesting others
to stop looking at him, subtly hinting at the fact that his appearance was
something others would find non-conforming. He felt that his wearing a different
jumper would go unnoticed, but that would eventually contradict his feeling
different. Mathieson (2013) has stated that children with a low level of
confidence, tend to act up, in order to express their needs and emotions. C’s act
displays the onset of a potential defensive behaviour with respect to a perceived
act of future criticism or hostility, even though that act had not even happened.
Non-events
Tripp’s (2012) approach of non - events explains that we usually question
ourselves and say why something had happened but ignore the things that did
not happen. Seeing what did not happen helps understand the importance of
what had happened (Tripp 2012, p. 75).
After I asked Child C why he did what he did, C said that he doesn’t want people
looking at him. I said in an almost retorting tone that nobody is looking at him. At
that point he started crying and I had to ask him to get a tissue.
Plus, Minus and Interesting

If we implement the ‘Plus, Minus and Interesting’ strategy of Tripp, we end up
with the following:
Plus: I reinforced the idea in Child C that nobody is looking at him. When C
started crying, I asked him to get a tissue to give him free time.
Minus: I retorted at C which I should not have done because he is after all a five-
year-old child. My action came off as borderline aggressive which made C cry.
This might have hampered my trust and safety relationship with the other
children as well.
Rebuking C also could have impacted his already low self-esteem negatively,
which might lead to C being distant and resilient, unless proper damage control
measures are taken. Child C was moody and gloomy for the next few days.
Interesting: Child C triggered the incident by reacting to imaginary criticism by
his classmates. He drew attention to himself when he was shouting even though
he didn’t want the attention.
Alternatives, Possibilities and Choices.
Tripp's book advises teachers to think about alternative ways they could have
dealt with the situation as we tend to not bother creating the alternatives (Tripp,
2012, p. 75). I could have used the school behaviour policy (putting their name
up or down on a traffic light) used by the whole school. The reality is I was too
shocked in the moment to do this. In retrospect, although I could have referred
to the school behaviour policy, I felt that the situation needed active involvement
(rather than passive action) – which may have upset the child even more. In this
case, I felt that the traffic light behaviour chart would have only made this worse.
Another alternate tactic would have been to approach the child before the class
and ask about his different clothing. However, this tactic may have made it
worse by bringing attention to his difference rather than ignoring it and therefore
affecting his self-esteem. Furthermore, I did not notice that C was wearing a
different jumper at the very outset, nor could I have conjectured his insecurity or
anticipated his outburst.

Finally, I could have also told him that other children might also dress differently
sometimes, so it is fine.
Other points of views
In this approach, Tripp (2012, p. 75) suggests that it is crucial that we try to find
other points of view as there are always more than one point of views. When I
asked my mentor why he is acting this way, she said, “
ignore him, he is reacting
this way to seek attention”.
I asked the EYFs year lead on her opinion regarding C, she said that I should’ve
put his name down and asked him to go on 5 minute time out as he was being
very disruptive and we do not accept disruptive behaviour in our school
especially when they are being aggressive towards others just to get attention.
She also added that he normally does this, indicating that this behaviour is
expected of him.
The teaching assistant said, “
he struggles to express his emotions and he can’t
easily adapt to change due to that he becomes aggressive. In this case him not
wearing school jumper is a big change for him. Using the school behavioural
policy would have been good to do so that he understands that it is not
acceptable to take his anger out on others.”
Parts and qualities
This approach states that incidents can be looked at either as a compilation of
parts or a set of qualities (Tripp 2012).
Incident:
C’s outburst in class because of wearing a different outfit.
Parts: The child got upset about not wearing the right uniform. I reacted by
offering support to the child (showing my authority).
Qualities: The child got upset about being different. Varied beliefs that I as a
teacher hold about being different. Qualities I believe a teacher should have is
patience and being firm and remembering that pupils aren't just at school to
learn subjects; we should demonstrate that school teaches life lessons such as
individuality and acceptance of personal distinctions.