Critical Analysis of Work: University English Unit Student Analysis

This report provides a critical analysis of a student's work, focusing on an English unit centered on the theme of 'trash' or 'garbage'. The analysis assesses the student's ability to understand complex ideas, considering various learning materials like stories, blogs, documentaries, and artwork. The report identifies instructional implications, including the development of complex idea comprehension, subject matter understanding, and optimal learning strategies. It emphasizes the need for tailored teaching methods, such as incorporating simple facts, motivating the student through trait theory, and employing cognitive and social cognitive motivational approaches. The justification of these implications draws upon cognitive motivation theory, social cognition, and humanistic learning principles to create an effective learning environment. The report also stresses the importance of personal development and reflective processes to enhance both individual and group learning outcomes, ultimately aiming to improve the student's overall performance and engagement within the unit.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
1. Analysis of unit concerning target student
The selected unit of work is option 1, English. The unit is concerning the effective
teaching and learning of English. The unit considers thematic enquiry through which the
students are to explore the concept of trash or garbage in the context of its usage in settings of
stories, blogs or articles as social or political topics (E4AC | Year 8 | Overview, 2019).
Moreover, garbage trash or rubbish as thematic documentaries or artwork would also be
explored.
This unit will be beneficial for the student as it would go on for over eight weeks. This is
a long time for Ethan Rajan to understand the various aspects related to the unit. At the same
time he can also develop some essential learning oriented behaviors during this significantly long
process. The unit is unique in its value proposition and would require efficient peer coordination
to be completed successful. Ethan is generally well received among his peers and can be a
strongly performing person in the context of the entire learning process. As per the information
available Ethan is able to remember facts but unable to effectively understand more complex
ideas. However, this unit would challenge him to understand deeper concepts related the unique
subject of “trash”. Hence, it would benefit him as on one hand the subject is very interesting and
on the other hand it would challenge him to undertake better learning activities. It can be said
than Ethan would have to challenge his own abilities for improving his learning.
There will be significant obstacles for Ethan in this learning process. Some of the crucial
barriers that are to be considered are the complex learning that the students need to engage in as
part of the unit. Ethan has some issues while learning complex ideas. Moreover, there are several
types of learning that would include texts such as novels, audio-visual documentaries,

2CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
photographic learning materials, articles, blogs, websites and media clips (E4AC | Year 8 |
Overview, 2019). To develop a combined solid understanding from all these essential resources
would be difficult for Ethan. Effective participation is important for Ethan; however, his
attention seeking behaviors can greatly limit his learning outcomes along with his close peers if
done throughout the unit sessions.
Ethan is good at mixing with his peers. Hence, he would be able to effectively participate
in the group assessments that are to be done in some of the course sessions. Additionally, having
good leadership skills would help Ethan to help his peers during the collaborative learning
processes. Ethan would find it easy to remember the facts about waste generation and waste
problems.
2. Significant instructional implications
Three significant instructional implications have to be identified and discussed to help in
understanding the learning prospects of Ethan in the given unit. Firstly, the instructional
implication would be Ethan’s development of the ability to learn complex ideas related to the
subject matter. Secondly, another significant instructional implication would be for Ethan to
develop significant understanding of the subject of the unit. The third important implication
would be for Ethan to develop an optimally effective learning that can help him to perform well
in the other units that he would engage in.
The teaching process would need to include effective understanding of the limitations
that affect the learning of the student. Hence, firstly it becomes important that a complete
understanding of the learning and developmental requirement of Ethan is effectively done. The
student should always focus on gaining better relationship standards with the student. The

3CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
student would need to be involved more through a systematic learning process (Abeysekera &
Dawson, 2015). The first instructional implication is to develop the student’s ability to learn
complex ideas. In order to achieve this the instructor need to first provide simple basic facts to
the learner. As the student is easily able to remember the basic facts it would be effective in
creating a significant learning base that can help to promote the other processes of learning.
Subsequently, the instructor has to help the student to apply the simple learning aspects to the
more complex ideas. Hence, the instructor would need to help the student to form ideas that can
benefit his optimal learning development. The second part is to help Ethan to develop significant
learning of the unit. In this Ethan needs to be motivated with the trait theory of motivation. This
would consider his personal traits to develop his overall understanding. Cognitive development
is very much required by the student to develop essential understanding of the subject matter.
Hence, focus should be on helping Ethan to search the meanings and understandings and
subsequently develop competence. The third learning implication that is focused is Ethan’s
optimal learning development. For this the approach needs to be based essentially on Social
cognitive motivational approach. Goals need to be set and self-evaluation should be imbibed
within the learner. The expectations and intended outcomes should be clearly stated to the
learner as he needs to develop essential learning oriented outlooks to achieve these outcomes.
The environmental factors should also be essentially considered as for this instructional
implication the student needs to have an effective developmental platform. More emphasis
would be provided to the development of the humanistic values. Hence, the focus will be on the
effective utilization of the humanistic learner value. The need for educating the whole person is
the requirement of the approaches. Through optimal development of the individual a better
learner can be created.

4CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
Motivation becomes very important in class as the student need to improve his individual
performance as well as his performance in the group. Hence special in class activities need to be
incorporated that focus on improving the performance level of the student. An important factor
would be to improve the learning centricity of the student. There should be extra class sessions
where the student is motivated to learn better. It is important that visual learning is effectively
incorporated within the course. As Ethan has problems with learning complex ideas the visual
description would help to develop better ideas in regards to the subject matter. Another idea
would be to help the student determine the essential study outcomes by himself. In essence the
student would develop an important outlook through the more engaging classroom sessions.
There should be more emphasis on group discussion sessions with positive involvement and
interruption by the teacher. This would enable all the students to provide their point of views in
class much effectively. It is important that development of the individual is focused on the level
of interactions the individual is being able to provide in class. If not satisfactory the approach
will focus on implementing more effective ways in which individual classroom participation can
be imporved.
3. Justification of instructional implications
Learner differences make it much difficult for the implementation of conventional
learning strategies in class. This is because conventional learning mechanisms focus on learning
that serves the larger portion of the learners that are more effectively learning oriented. Ashman
and Conway (2017) have opined that learners are affected by specific educational psychologies
that need to be essentially considered by instructors before they can implement strategies to help
them that are more effective. It is important to understand that the learners need significant
motivations other than the implementation of essential learning processes that help in their

5CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
optimal growth. The students need to develop essential capabilities that help in the formation of
better learning platforms (Qi et al., 2015).
The cognitive theory of motivation is a theory that guides all the essential approaches that
were described. The cognitive theory focuses on goal setting theory as a significant aspect. This
makes sure that there are specific goals that the student needs to achieve in order to take part in
motivated learning processes (Resnick, 2017). The goals help students to achieve significant
progress with regards to their essential growth. Hence, in this way the cognitive motivation
theory helps students to be better focused on the work that they do. The approach also
incorporates social cognition. Social cognition focuses on self-evaluations and goals for progress
measurement. This is very much important as this not only helps in developing better learning
oriented behavior and outlook but also at the same time improves the social development of the
individual. The triadic reciprocity is a very important concept that is to be utilized through the
approaches that have been selected. This concept concerns the factors of personal, behavioral
and environmental (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015). Hence, there is better scope for the optimal
development of the individual through this process.
The Humanist view of learning is a significant underlying idea that is being utilized in
case of the learning process that is being considered. The Humanist view of learning is based on
the theories provided by Abraham Maslow and Carol Rogers. The contrast with behaviorism is
that in this the complete individual is given preference over the development of learning. Hence,
a person is considered to be more important than all the behaviors combined (Lake, 2017). This
is an essential theory that guides the optimal progress of the individual. It is important to
understand that individuals are more motivated if all of their essential requirements are met
through the learning process. However, there is also the significant role of rewards in this

6CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
learning view. However, at the same time it is more important that the learner develop essential
values that help him to become an optimally efficient learner in the course that he is pursuing.
This approach is very important to create a very effective learning environment for the person as
this can help in the overall growth in the person throughout the unit. The personal development
would be effective as well as the cognitive and the value oriented development. A person is
approached as a whole. Hence, there does not remain any limited area concerning scope as per
this theory of learning. Bass, Fenwick & Sidebotham (2017) opine that reflective processes are
important in imbibing a spirit of personal and professional development among individuals. The
approaches that are utilized focuses on doing the same. It is important that the individual learns
to develop his own skills. This ensures that the individual is focused on learning and growing
more (Silva, Redondo & Cárdenas, 2018). The approaches that have been used are designed to
ensure the effective participation of both the learner and the instructor in a mutually beneficial
environment. The first instructional implication is to develop the student’s ability to learn
complex ideas. In order to achieve this the instructor need to first provide simple basic facts to
the learner. The focus is always on helping the learner to understand what he already knows and
put the same knowledge in the context of more complex aspects that are related to the same
learning aspect. The second part is to help the student to develop significant learning of the unit.
In this Ethan needs to be motivated with the trait theory of motivation. This would consider his
personal traits to develop his overall understanding. Here, humanistic learning approach plays a
vital part as all the individual’s characteristic traits are being considered. The third learning
implication that is focused is the learner’s optimal learning development. For this the approach
needs to be based essentially on Social cognitive motivational approach. The learner understands
his own self-developmental aspects while at the same time he engages in the social contexts.

7CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
This helps the learner to be a good individual learner as well as a motivated learner in a group
setting (Turner, Forstmann & Steyvers, 2019). In essence all the essential aspects that have been
discussed focus on helping the learner to become a self-sufficient motivated knowledge gatherer.
The approaches are inclined towards the better understanding of the processes that can not only
identify the limitations that affect the person but subsequently addressing those limitations to
enhance the abilities of the learner.

8CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
References
Abeysekera, L., & Dawson, P. (2015). Motivation and cognitive load in the flipped classroom:
definition, rationale and a call for research. Higher Education Research &
Development, 34(1), 1-14.
Ashman, A. F., & Conway, R. N. (2017). Using cognitive methods in the classroom. Routledge.
Bass, J., Fenwick, J., & Sidebotham, M. (2017). Development of a model of holistic reflection to
facilitate transformative learning in student midwives. Women and Birth, 30(3), 227-235.
E4AC | Year 8 | Overview. (2019). Retrieved from http://e4ac.edu.au/units/year-8/overview.html
Lake, R. W. (2017). A humanist perspective on knowledge for planning: Implications for theory,
research, and practice. Planning Theory and Practice, 18(2), 291-319.
Qi, Y., Song, Y. Z., Xiang, T., Zhang, H., Hospedales, T., Li, Y., & Guo, J. (2015). Making
better use of edges via perceptual grouping. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (pp. 1856-1865).
Resnick, L. B. (2017). Toward a cognitive theory of instruction. In Learning and motivation in
the classroom (pp. 5-38). Routledge.
Silva, W. F., Redondo, R. P., & Cárdenas, M. J. (2018). Intrinsic Motivation and its Association
with Cognitive, Actitudinal and Previous Knowledge Processes in Engineering Students.
Stillman, P. E., Shen, X., & Ferguson, M. J. (2018). How mouse-tracking can advance social
cognitive theory. Trends in cognitive sciences.

9CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK
Turner, B. M., Forstmann, B. U., & Steyvers, M. (2019). Motivation. In Joint Models of Neural
and Behavioral Data (pp. 1-12). Springer, Cham.