EDTS550 - Managing Confronting Behaviours and Critical Incidents in Educational Settings

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Unit rationale, description and aim

Teachers, especially those new to the profession, consistently perceive classroom management as a serious challenge. Dealing with students who demonstrate challenging and confronting behaviour is a major cause of teacher stress, burnout and job dissatisfaction. In addition, many teachers feel their training in classroom management is lacking particularly in their preparedness for responding appropriately to students who may be unpredictable, unco-operative and potentially violent.

This unit builds teacher’s skills in managing potentially stressful and confronting classroom behaviours. The unit firstly expands on the foundational communication, management and organisational skills that are essential for effective teaching and the establishment of positive classroom learning environments including the promotion of engagement, achievement and wellbeing for marginalized students. Participants will examine the philosophies and practical strategies for the short-term de-escalation of potentially critical incidents involving students who demonstrate challenging and confronting behaviour, as well as longer-term strategies for engaging students who regularly display disruptive behaviour in classroom and school settings. The learning experiences of this unit build the participant’s self-efficacy for managing potentially stressful and confronting classroom environments and individual students. The flow on effects of this increased self-efficacy include increased teacher resilience, decreased escalation of critical incidents, better engagement and relationships with challenging students and a better classroom experience for all.  

The aim of this unit is to provide current, and future teachers, with an opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills that will equip them to better manage potentially stressful and confronting classroom environments and de-escalate critical incidents involving individual students.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - HIGHLY ACCOMPLISHED

On successful completion of this unit, students should have gained evidence towards the following standards

Content

Topics will include:

Module 1

• A review of foundational skills, philosophies and strategies relevant to the establishment and maintenance of positive classroom learning environments including the promotion of student engagement, achievement and wellbeing.
• Factors that contribute to challenging and confronting behaviour in classroom and school contexts, including socio-cultural and socio-historical factors, family, community, school, class and teacher factors.
• Codes of ethics and conduct, and legislative requirements related to student well-being, safety and classroom management.
• A review of a selection of theories and models of classroom management.
• Preventative approaches versus reactive approaches to classroom management.

Module 2

• Critical incidents in classroom/school contexts.
• Philosophies and practical strategies for the short-term de-escalation of potentially critical incidents.
• Philosophies and practical strategies for engaging learners who regularly display unproductive, unco-operative and challenging behaviour in classroom settings (including trauma-informed pedagogical theories and practices).
• Networks of support and collaboration to manage challenging and confronting behaviour.
• Communication strategies following a critical incident.
• Self-care and managing personal safety.
• Teacher well-being and mental health.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit will be delivered online through a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning activities. The unit’s purpose is to build the participant’s skills and self-efficacy for managing potentially stressful and confronting situations. Therefore active participation in the learning process will be encouraged through self-directed and problem-based learning experiences. Through the adoption of a reflective approach, participants will be encouraged to critically analyse their own approaches and preferences in relation to the content of the unit and to consider the application of the theories and strategies encountered in this unit in their own classroom/school contexts. 

ACU uses a constructivist model of learning that recognises that participants assimilate new knowledge with their individually distinct pre-existing understandings and then can apply this new learning to tasks and problems to demonstrate competence. The learning and teaching strategy adopted in this unit reflects the constructivist model by encouraging participants to adopt a reflective approach that involves the critical analysis of their existing understandings and preferences in relation to the content of the unit. Active participation in the learning process will be encouraged through self-directed and problem-based learning experiences and scenarios. Participants will be encouraged to consider how the theories and strategies encountered in this unit might be assimilated with their existing practices and contexts in ways that lead to greater confidence for managing potentially stressful and confronting situations.

Teaching and learning approaches may include:

• Asynchronous online activities
• Reading materials – includes both directed reading for the unit as well as self-directed study materials
• Forums and discussion boards
• Recorded mini-lectures, presentations or podcasts
• Analysis of critical incidents
• Synchronous online activities
• Seminars – which include analysis of critical incidents, student-led discussions, role play
• Simulated critical incidents and interactions with students
• Collaborative and co-operative learning opportunities.

This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester.

Assessment strategy and rationale

The purpose of this unit is to build the participant’s skills and self-efficacy for managing potentially stressful and confronting behaviour and classroom environments. A blend of formative and summative assessment will be used build the participant’s self-efficacy for managing potentially stressful and confronting classroom environments and individual students who may be unpredictable, unco-operative and potentially violent. The two assessment tasks in this unit are authentic in that they require the participants to engage with realistic scenarios and craft responses that demonstrate their knowledge of the philosophies and practical strategies examined in this unit.

In order to pass this unit, students are required to demonstrate achievement of the unit learning outcomes by submitting all assessment tasks, obtaining a combined final mark of at least 50 per cent., and receiving a passing grade on Assessment Task 2.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Allison, S., & Tharby, A. (2015). Making every lesson count: Six principles to support great teaching and learning. Crown House Publishing

Charles, C. M. (2014). Building classroom discipline (11th ed.). Pearson.

Lemov, D. (2021). Teach like a champion 3.0: 63 techniques that put students on the path to college (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Grenny, J. (2021). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking with stakes are high (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Porter, L. (2014). A comprehensive guide to classroom management. Taylor & Francis.

Rogers, W. A. (2015). Classroom behaviour: A practical guide to effective teaching, behaviour management and colleague support (4th ed.). Sage.