CHILD WELLNESS IN BAHRAIN SCHOOLA Documentary Case Study Project {ANOOD MUKHAIMER 20142965- SARA AL-SUBIEI 20133194- SEC: 03}TCPB352: Guiding and Managing the Learning of Young Children
PrefaceIn Guiding and Managing the Learning of YoungChildren (TCPB352) course that we had in our third yearin BTC we were required to do a documentary case studythat is to investigate and study the child wellness inBahrain school, and for this course assignment we havedecided that we will present the issues related to that casestudy in a flip book format, because we felt that in thisway we will provide more detailed information regardingthe aspects of the case study.The topics in that flip book are divided as following:1) Teacher’s Classroom2) Teacher’s Relationship with Children3) Teaching Strategy4) Educational Assessment5) School Curriculum6) School Environment7) Teacher wellness
8) Reflection (E-Portfolio)In each part we will state our own perspective views tostate wither these parts help in promoting the wellness ofthe children, and then we will state some suggestion forimprovement regarding that part.
Teacher’sClassroom
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A. Teacher’s ClassroomIn our point of view and according to what we have witness in theschools that we have been their earlier in our journey as students and asteacher candidates, we can say that the classrooms promotes childwellness differently in each aspect.The following is a list of the aspects, the explanation of how dose theclassroom promote child wellness and real experiential examples in theclassroom for each subject. Physical Wellness: in most of the schools and the classes that we have been there the activities and the schools programs helped in promoting the physical wellness of the children, e.g. there was a marathon day in most of the schools were all the school members including the administration will run around the school multiple times. Also, in the classroom some of the teachers ask the students to do some sport exercise as an ice breaker of the lesson. Moreover, there is a school committee that is concerned about the students’ physical wellness and they design special programs to improve it.
Cognitive Wellness: in most of the classrooms the teachers were focusing more on developing the students memory capacity specially the conceptual memory and they refer to the ability to recall the knowledge presented in the lesson wither it was abstract or applied ideas. However, some teachers were aware of developing some higher cognitive abilities and skills for example: critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills and beaning able to think collaboratively. That have been observed mostly in science and math classes were the teacher did design activities that gave the students the opportunity to take the responsibilities of their own learning and come up with the knowledge of the lesson which represent an important cognitive competency and it is becoming a self –regulated learner. Social Wellness: in most of the classrooms the emphasis is on developing that aspect was weak. However, in some classrooms there was implementation of some activities to increase the development of that aspect and the overall wellness of the students, e.g. there was parent meeting in the classroom and a festival day to introduce the cultures of the students in the school
and to help them socialize. Even though in some classrooms there were some major social problems one of them is bullying and the teachers weren’t aware of it also they weren’t able to solve or intervene with that problem if they were observing it in the correct way, they either shout or they would rather listen from one student ignoring the others or else they punish all the students. Emotional Wellness: almost in all classrooms the awareness of developing the children regarding that aspect was absent. The majority of the teachers weren’t aware of the minor influence of that wellness on the development of the students’ personality. They weren’t aware of how to develop that wellness either. Nevertheless, we have to say that we had observed some teachers that were able to implement some activities in their classrooms with their students that targeted their emotional wellness but we aren’t sure if they was doing that consciously or unconsciously,
e.g. the development of that wellness was present through reading some stories and asking the students about their feeling and the characters feeling in the story, they also did ask the students to imitate and express some of the characters feelings. Still the need to foster and promote that wellness is present. Communication Wellness: our experience in Bahrain schools conclude that the process of promoting the communication wellness of the students was mostly implemented unintentionally as a result of the regular teaching and learning activities because normally the teachers will promote that aspect of child wellness when they ask them to talk or write or read in order to accomplish an activity they have designed in their lesson plan. Moreover, minority of the teachers were putting effort in promoting that aspect of wellness as one of the aims that they wanted to reach by the end of the lesson that was present especially at language classes and lessons.
In order to improve teachers’ classroom in view of child wellness we suggest the following: Educate the teachers more about how to develop the student’s personality and the approaches to promote their wellness in all the five aspects, specially emotional and social wellness we choose these two aspects mainly because: the first aspect in our personal perspectives we view it as the major aspect that is because it connect all the aspect together and it has huge impact on the overall health and wellness of the child. Regarding the second aspect we choose it because it is not effectively or well promoted in our school communities as we explained earlier. The education process of the teachers in the field could be conducted through workshops and planned courses from the MOE. Requesting the teachers to relate and incorporate at least three aspects of the child wellness to the aims or the learning outcomes, when they plan to implement the lesson. Spread the awareness about the child wellness framework and how to promote all aspects included among the parents through
workshops and educational journals and give them chances to applyextracurricular activities that target specific aspect of child wellness.
Teacher’sRelationshipwith Children
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B. Teacher’s Relationship with ChildrenRegarding the teachers relationship with students mostly and based onour experiences in Bahrain schools we can say that it was affecting thechild wellness in a positive way in general even though not all of theteachers knew about child wellness framework, or how to intervene inorder to support the wellness of the students but they were able tobuild a relationship with their students that is not threatening and thatcan let the students feel that they are safe and valued which play amajor role in developing and supporting their wellness. However, insome rare situations the relationship between the teachers and thestudents didn’t even have a major positive impact on the childwellness, that could be analyzed as a result of mistrust between thestudents and the teachers or if there were a disconnection between thatcould be dealing with motivational problems or something other thanthat.
Another thing is that to determine if the teacher’s relationship willhave a positive influence on the students’ wellness we shouldinvestigate the teacher willingness to teach and her desire toward herprofession. Also, to conclude wither the relationship between theteacher and the students will promote the child wellness that dependson the teachers’ knowledge about these aspects also their beliefs andattitudes regarding that. Moreover, the teachers` relationship can havethe potential to be promoting the wellness of the students if and only ifit was positive, supportive relationship that allows students to feel saferand more secure in the school setting, make more positive connectionswith peers, and make greater academic gains which finally will resulton having more healthy developed students. for example, if the teacherrelationship with the students was positive and the students werefeeling safe with their teacher then if there was any problem that isintimidate him or her then the students will share that problem with
the teacher or the teacher will be able to observe that there issomething dealing with that student then she could intervene in orderto solve it and to keep the students well and healthy away from thethreatens.To improve teachers’ relationship with students in view of childwellness we suggest the following: The teachers have to establish a welcoming routine for the students to improve their relationship with the students. The teachers have to keep a record for each student to write in it the main behaviours of the students and some indictors of what they might like or dislike to get to know them more, and to monitor their development through it regarding all the aspect related to child wellness. The teachers must try and seek for opportunities to sit with and have positive discussion with the all of their students. Teachers should notice and mention the positive behaviours the students’ exhibit to foster their confidences. Teachers should develop the relationship with the students’ parents from the begging of the year in order to have positive and effective communication that aims to develop the students, and to be able to know more about the students through communicating with the parents asking them about their child and sharing the good news about their child. Teachers must create a supportive classroom environment. Were the students have to work together cooperatively, and make sure that each of them are feeling safe physically and emotionally and that they are respecting each other regardless of any thing.
Teachers should plan their instructions in a way that will ensure to have positive interaction between them and the students, e.g. plan for an extracurricular happy activity to implement with the students once a month just to have fun and play with them.
TeachingStrategy
C. Teaching Strategy:In our point of view, we think that the teaching strategies could be apromoter of the child wellness if they were targeting the students as thecentre of the learning.In that case the students will have the time to explore and discover theknowledge by them self’s which can foster their cognitive wellness asthey will have the opportunity to think critically and analyse the datathey have. Also, if the teaching strategies were fostering positiveinteractions among the students then it will help in fostering theirsocial and communication wellness as they will have the chance topractice, learn, acquire and develop some important skills related tothese aspects of the wellness, e.g. in a group work activity the studentswill learn and develop some problem solving skills as well as the skillsneeded to be effective member in a group like being helpful andsharing the group responsibilities.Another aspect of child wellness that could be promoted through theteaching strategies which is physical wellness, that is if the teacherimplemented some strategies that include the use of movement or askthe students to use concrete materials, similar to what is usedcommonly in math classes in Bahrain which is the mathematicalcubes, these cubes can promote the physical wellness of the students asthey depends on mastering a certain level of motor skills in order toconnect them to each other’s.
Regarding the emotional aspect its bit difficult to use a teachingstrategy that foster it effectively. However, it is still could beimplemented and an example of a teaching strategy that could be usedin order to emphasise the emotional wellness is the six thinking hatsstrategy that strategy develop the overall wellness of the students andthe red hat specially deals with the emotional part. Another, teachingstrategy is role playing that strategy could be used to let the studentsbe on others shoe and develop their emotional intelligence that dealswith being able to understand how they feel as well as how others feeland how to manage, express that feeling. In most of the Bahrainiclassrooms that we had been there, there was an effective use of thatrole play strategy especially in language classes.In order to improve the teaching strategy in view of child wellness wesuggest the following: When planning teachers should think about integrating multiple developmental domains and using a strategy that can improve the development of the children in at least three aspect of the whole five aspect of child wellness. Teachers should educate themselves more about the Holistic education which is an effort to cultivate the development of the whole human being. And they must search about approaches that
could be implemented in their own classrooms taking into considerations the different needs of their students. Teachers should think outside of the box and come up with their own strategies that fit their classroom context and that is based on their knowledge about their students. Teachers must be aware of the classroom environment and if it allows them to apply some different strategies appropriately.
EducationaAssessment
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D.Educational AssessmentThe educational assessment can be used in order to promote the childwellness. However, that’s need acknowledging some efficientinformation related to the assessment forms and the child wellness.The educational assessment can be used in different forms that willensure to boost the wellness of the students for example it can beimplemented in an effective way that help in fostering the cognitivewellness that’s it true if the assessment items were constructed in a waythat require effective mind and thinking processes in order to answerthem. Also, the assessment could be implemented to emphasises onthe development of communication, cognitive and emotional wellnessif it was applied in the form of portfolio assessment were the studentshave to communicate with their partners verbally to present theirwork, and participate in the process of assessing themselves which willprovide them with an opportunity to express their feeling and talkabout the challenges and their learning.Another form of educational assessment that can be used in order todevelop the wellness of the students which is performance assessment,it is a form of testing that requires students to perform a task ratherthan select an answer from a ready-made list. That form of assessment
targets all aspect of wellness as the students will be asked to physicallyaccomplish a task designed by the teacher, while accomplishing thetask the students willhave to use higher levelsof thinking to come upwith the conclusion or arespond to that task.The other two aspectsthat will be present is thesocial and the emotionalaspects of the childwellness, these aspectswill be present as the students will socialize with their classmates inorder to complete the assessment and they will get the chance toexpress and use their emotional intelligences skills to deal with theirpartners.In order to improve the educational assessment in view of childwellness we suggest the following: Teachers should avoid applying only traditional paper- pencil testing, and try to implement other forms of educational assessment in the classroom. Teachers must include the students in the process of assessing their own performance that is because it helps in developing the students in a positive effective manner. Teachers should read the data of the assessment result and they should be able to analyse that data and relate it to the child
wellness also they should be able to come up with an inference ofthe students situation based on what they have observed of thestudents behaviours exhibited while they were testing and basedon their records.
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SchCurric
hoolculum
E. School CurriculumRegarding the development of the child wellness through the school curriculums wehave concluded that the school curriculums dose help in promoting all the aspects ofthe child wellness in general. However, the process of promoting the aspects ofwellness is separated and don’t follow a specific integratedplan in some situations, because some curriculums or subjectsalways focus on the information that they want the students tolearn it, and other implemented school curriculums focus onsocial, emotion, physical and cognitive wellness that is alsoaffected with how the teacher knowledge and how does sheview and implement the curriculum. To clarify more and forexample in the science curriculum, the focus mostly is onpromoting the cognitive wellness and in developing somescientific abilities in the students, as to what we have observedin the process of teaching the pollution lesson in our last TPexperiences, first the teacher was asking the students some questions related to thedifferent levels of bloom taxonomy.Also, she was encouraging the students to think in order to solve some real problemsthat deal with the environment. Moreover, in the classroom the teacher encouragesthe students to think creatively by asking them to discuss their ideas within groupsabout the pollution through drawing and creating claymodels, which target the development of the social,physical and communication wellness. Besides, this isrelated to the mind system in developing their brain andsenses capabilities because the students will use theconcrete materials and they will represent the informationthat they learn it by using these materials. Then after theycreate it they should present it in front of their classmates,so they will have to stimulate and processes theinformation in order to discuss the ideas. Then the teacher
asks them to think about the impacts of the pollution on the society and theenvironment. Then the teacher asks the students to think at higher order levels byinquiring them to come up with some suggestions to solve this problem. At the endthe teacher asks a higher order question for the students which develops theircognitive thinking, the question is if you have a chance to create and apply some lowsin the kingdom of Bahrain related to the pollution what you will create to save ourcountry from the pollution (Cognitive wellness).As a clarification to what we have stated earlier about theschool curriculums that focus on specific aspects of thechild wellness and overlook the other aspects, we will givethe following examples based on what we have observedand experienced in Bahraini schools. To start with wehave noticed that in the Social and Islamic studiessubjects, the main focus is on developing the student’semotional, social and communication wellness as most of the lessons in these subjects talk always about the relationships between the family members, how to deal with the family members, e.g. there is a lesson in the social studies subject titled (My family members) which talks about the collaboration between the family members, and enhance the students morals and emotions to value, love, respect their family members and cooperate with them.Also in some lessons in the Islamic studies subject the focus was revolves aroundteaching the students how to socialize with others, encourage them to be aware abouttheir relationship and how to deal with people around them and how to be aneffective member in the communities and the reasons to be like that. And for examplethere is a lesson entitled (neighborhood and neighbors rights), we have observed thislesson in our third teaching practice experience that have took place in a cycle one
class were the teacher was educating the students about the Islamic driven rights thatis related to the neighbors, in that lesson the teacher was not only delivering theinformation to the students about the rights of the seventh neighbor and the fact thatwe should communicate with the people around us, respect them, help them whenthey are need a help, rather than that she exceeded that to stimulate the students andencourage them to think more about that recommendations and why we would wantto implement them. Also, the teacher did give the students different situations thatthey may have encounter it in real live situation with their neighbor she did say to thestudents: imagine if your neighbor house was in fire and they are asking you to helpthem, would you help them, why and how? (In that case the teacher uses the students’imagination and encourages them to solve a problem and this is related cognitivethinking which is develops their cognitive wellness and their social andcommunication wellness as that situation was related toa social context.Furthermore, we have seen another teacher who wasemphasizing on the communication emotional andsocial child wellness, as she was telling the students andasking them the following questions often in herlessons: Do you play and communicate with thechildren who are living near to your home? How? Doyou love and respect them? Talk about your favoritegame or any situation you have experienced with them.In addition to that, she gave the students the freedom totalk and express their thought and tell their experiencesand stories after the holidays or the weekends. Another school curriculum we would talk about is the math curriculum most of the teachers were connecting the math curriculum and the main cognitive concepts related to it with the physical wellness. For example, to teach the students about the numbers line and the numbers between and before or after
certain number a teacher draw a line on the floor of the classroom using sticky tapeand ask the students some questions e.g. what is the number that is between #1 and#3 ? , in order to answer the students should jump toThe right answers and stand behind it. Another example of integrating those twoaspects of wellness is the usage of the concert mathematical cubes and othermathematical tools that are provided in every classroom within the cycle one classesas a step implemented by the Bahrain numeration strategy that is designed by theministry of the education.In order to improve the school curriculum in the view of child wellness we suggest thefollowing: Teachers should relate all the aspects of the child wellness and never let any lesson in any curriculum without focusing on the all aspects if the child wellness, even if the information in the curriculum does not cover all the aspect but as cycle one teachers we should create an activities and questions which are related to the lesson and develops the child wellness. For example let them at the end of the lesson imagine things happens to solve it especially the students in this age have a good imagination, or the teacher can let them think creatively and let them build a model or draw, or let them act what did they learn in groups and after that activity let them talk and reflect to give you their feedback about the lesson, by
asking them a question did you like the lesson? Do you enjoy it? This will ensure their development regarding all the aspects of their wellness. That the teachers should cooperate with each other’s in order to set a plan that target the curriculums taught to cycle one students to relate the knowledge, activities, the assessment and everything that is connected to the school curriculum with the students wellness and finding the relations between the wellness regarding all the aspects (physical, cognitive, emotional, social and communication) and each curriculum. Besides, the plan should include detailed approaches to explain how the development of the wellness will take place within the process of teaching and learning that curriculum. The teachers should educate themselves and read more about the developmental stages of the learners and they should have basic understanding of the child wellness framework.
SchEnviron
hoolnment
The school environment does support different aspect of the child wellness, for example and at the classroom level the environment encourage the students to create relationships between the students as they are required to work within group to create some project, that help in developing the students regarding the cognitive, social and communication aspects. Also, the school administration organize an activitybetween the classes to clean their classroom and there are some teachers andadministration members who visit the classrooms to observe the students in theirclassroom, were the students work collaboratively to design their classroom and keepit clean. After observing the classrooms the administration members who areresponsible on that project reward the wining classrooms in the morning assemblyeach month. We did observe that this activity help in promoting the child wellness asthe students were communicating with each other’s, socializing and helping eachother’s to reach the desired goal, that activity helped in cresting as schoolenvironment were the students felt as they belong to their class.Another thing is that most of the schools arrange morning activities that areconducted sometimes before the morning assembly or otherwise during the morningassembly e.g. the early bird story time, the collective breakfast time activity were theschool administrators arrange the activity that all the students in the school will settogether and eat their breakfast. And actually that was helping a lot in helping thestudents develop first physically as the teachers wereeducating the students about the health benefits ofeating good breakfast and they were giving all thestudents some dates and milk as an opportunity todevelop some healthy habits in them, that was alsorelated to the cognitive and the social wellness, as thestudents were receiving some information,socializing with each other’s and feeling important,
belonging and valued from the school. Moreover, most of the schools organize a walk day and for the last TP experience the walk day was in the Mondays and the whole school should walk around the school this is to develop the physical wellness. Also in the break time the administration require each teacher from each specialization to work and design activities during that time for the students, some teachers did use it to implement some cognitive and physical games for the students e.g. in the TP schools that we have been earlier they have conducted enjoyable math games, that are based on playing and having fun during that time but also learning and developing their personalities and wellness. Also the last TP school that we have been their did organize a free morning to let any group of the students say happy birthday to their friend or share their feeling in front of their classmate in the classroom at the begging of the day rather than attending the morning assembly, which help to promote the students wellness specially regarding the emotional and communication aspect. Another thing is that the schools also help in developing the physical aspect of the students’ wellness through letting them do some exercise on the morning assembly. To improve the school environment in the view of child wellness we suggest the followings: That the administration of the school should design and creates games related to the cognitive, communication, emotional, physical, social wellness during the recess. The school should make a data about the students at the begging of the school year and at the end of the year after they apply their plan in developing the students wellness to see if the students devolved in the aimed aspect of wellness
that was targeted through the conducted activities and to have basic knowledge about what aspect of wellness need to be emphasized on more also to know what could be changed and edited more in the next courses that is related to the activities that have been conducted in the school. At the end of the course the school should organize a day to go around the class to ask the students about their opinions and their feeling of the activities that they participated in it on the break time. For example ask the students some questions like: When you play a game in the break time did you meet other students from another class and meet a new student and talk together? Have you enjoyed playing these games? Did you learn new things or information? Did you feel happy about it? What do you suggest for the next year activities? Respect the students and take the students' suggestions into consideration and work on it. The school administrator should understand and use the mind system frame work when they are designing the activities as well as for the child wellness frame work so that the designed activities will be knowledge based, for example they should create activities that allow the students to use their senses and to keep the students processing, programming and stimulating the information’s while communicating with others.
Teacwelln
chers’ness
In our third TP experience we have been with our cooperative teachers and we have dealt and observe how different teachers may take care of their wellness and be aware of it or not below we will explain furthermore and give examples. Most of the teachers were promoting their Physical wellness by caring of her health and body. One of the teachers has a morning routine for herself to develop the physical wellness, she was always walking around the school before the first period and that teacher was always eating her breakfast (healthy food) to strength her muscles and to have energy for teaching the students and to reduce the disease. Moreover, that teacher was engaging in doing physical activities during the lesson with the students. For example, in the morning routine the students have a morning exercise she was engaged with the students and do the exercise with them. Emotional Wellness: the teacher was promoting her emotional wellness by taking care of herself, she always tries to reduce the stress, be comfortable and belong to the classroom and the school. The teacher was expressing her feeling appropriately without any restraints .Also, the teacher accept her mistakes and the feedback from other teachers to learn from her mistakes. Moreover, the teacher often reminds herself to stay positive. That teacher was working a lot in this wellness she tries to keep herself always positive, smiling in the classroom and for her students and other teachers. Social wellness: The teacher was promoting her social wellness by attending and participating in the school event. Also, she attends to the teacher meeting and celebrates with them. For example the teacher did prepared a small party for another teacher because she came back to school after a long holiday. Moreover, the teacher always works collaboratively with other teachers and shares her
experience and the funny situations and stories with the students. That teacher often helps the other teachers to build a good relationship with them. The teacher was focusing on the social wellness because it was increasing her self-esteem, especially when she was having a lot of relations in the school she will feel comfortable and belonging to the school. Cognitive wellness: The teacher was promoting her cognitive wellness by encouraging herself to come up with new ideas and to create a module about the lesson that she can use it for explaining the lesson. Also, the teacher always tries to design a creative activity that they should think creatively to do it. For example the teacher is always searching about a questions that is need to think and analyzing .Moreover, the teacher always motivates herself to come up with a new ideas and exploring a new thing which is related to the lesson. Also, The teacher always keeps herself to find out suitable solutions if there is a problem. For example, when the teacher reads a story and there is a problem, she guesses what will happen next, to use her imagination and at the end of the story she tries to create other end for the story. Communication wellness: The teacher was promoting her social wellness by giving herself a chance to communicate with other teachers and the student's parents outside the school by using he’s up. To improve the teachers ‘wellness, we suggest the followings: To give the teachers workshops that talk about the influence of the teacher wellness on the students to educate them more regarding that aspect and to raise the awareness between the teachers on the effect of their wellness on the students wellness and performance.
Regarding the emotional wellness we suggest that the teachers need to be aware of how they should express and manage their emotions in front of the students, they could educate themselves through reading educational articles and books that will guide them in knowing more about emotional wellness. We encourage the schools to have a social and emotional consular to the teachers also not only the students because as we know a healthy teacher means a healthy students, the role of the counselor should be implemented effectively and the consoler must have a record for each teacher in the school to study her situation and to work on promoting her wellness.
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