The purpose of this section is to critically analyze a student by the name Nina. In that connection, we will assess her personal characteristics and unique needs that need to be identified. To start with, Nina is a 7-year old 1rst grade student. She attends Dos Rios Elementary School in Fort Collins, CO. Her parents are Tim and Jess who take care of all her needs along with other siblings. Nina has an older brother called Max aged 11 years. Max is currently in his 6th grade. The most amazing thing about Nina’s family is her twin sister Autumn. Most twin children tend to have similar characteristics. However, Nina and her twin sister autumn have different characteristics and different abilities to execute ideas both at home and school. Her father operates a major corporation in Denver. He also has the ability to deal with issues on special education. His possess vast knowledge of special practice and law (Marylene, 2014). This is a great advantage to Nina and her Siblings. Another aspect the favors Nina is her mother Jess. She is a licensed special educator will experience from many schools dealing with special education.
Nina is a child with a disability. In that connection, her education system is different from that of normal children. She receives special education services from special education facilities such as primary disability of a specific learning disability. She also receives services from the secondary disability of speech or language disability. These two facilities are very important to Nina and other children living with a disability. For this reason, her parents decided to enlighten themselves with knowledge and expertise in special education so that they can take care of Nina (Maslow, 2013). In addition to her education, Nina’s primary language is English.
Parents with normal children may not bother to identify changes that occur in their children simply because their children are healthy and normal. For the case of Nina, her parents have shared with us that she has behaved as a little adult from the moment she started walking. Just like her brother Max and her twin sister Autumn, Nina receives special education services so as to enable her to comprehend issues in the education system that the currently the key to success in life (Northouse, 2015). One of the mysterious character portrayed by Nina is her ability to make friends. She like caring for other children and especially from neighboring homes. According to her mother Jess, Nina has a mature disposition that propels her to help her family members whenever she finds it necessary. This also motivates her brother and twin sister.
Nina possesses several characteristic and strengths which motivates her to achieve her very best in her education. First, Nina is a friendly girl and she enjoys being a helper. Her parents asserted to the team that she enjoys helping family members with activities at home. He also enjoys helping other children at school and at home. Majority of neighboring children like being associated with Nina due to her friendship and desire to assist them (Puttee, Vitale & Laing, 2011). This fact proves that Nina is much responsible as compared to her peers. Being responsible beyond her peers make her peers to have trust in her. They tend to strengthen friendship with her so as to benefit from her responsible traits.
Another important trait that Nina display is her devotion to her studies. Her parents told the team that she spends much of her time in education programs and studies. Everything she attempts is based on knowledge achieved through education (Richard, 2013). Nina enjoys reading and computing mathematical problems. She also requested her parents to invite a tutor who would assist her in her studies. This is a clear indicator that Nina is devoted to her studies.
As much as she knows much than her peers, Nina is always ready to learn new ideas in her education system. The desire to learn propel her in discovering new information. She may end up innovating new skills in her educational journey. Again, Nina has a special talent for promoting love and compassion. She enjoys helping others out of a sense of love and compassion. This characteristic is a clear indicator that she is motivated intrinsically. Through intrinsic motivation, Nina is propelled towards assisting other children at home and in school. She doesn’t bother on extrinsic motivation when extending her service of love and compassion.
Her parents told the team that doesn’t annoy adults. She respects adults just like the way she respects her parents. Therefore, her desire to please adults maintain a very interpersonal relationship between Nina and adults. In her education, Nina will not shy away from her inability to comprehend concepts taught. She will seek out assistance in case she fails to understand concepts taught, assignments and directions (Kanungo & Manuel, 2014). Nina acts as a team player at home. She takes care of her learning exercise. She also assists her twin sister with her studies at home. This makes her sister feel motivated towards achieving more in her education.
The last concept about Nina is her ability to organize her belongings. In that connection, her belonging is well presented, arranged and stored. This makes her very presentable to people. A lot of people say that her way of doing things is much greater than the majority of her peers. Again, her memory is the school is remarkable (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). She remembers much of the content well lesson to lesson. In addition to her ability to comprehend contents, Nina has remarkable observation skills such that, she identifies clues in the text and can use them to make conclusions.
Despite her remarkable strengths and characteristics, Nina has unique needs that need to be identified and addressed. First, we realize that she was referred to the RTI/MTSS (STAR) process by her first grade (current) homeroom teacher. Her teacher realized that Nina had the inability to comprehend mathematical problems. In her studies, her teacher identified that Nina has a delay process in solving a math problem. Her skills in math are not good as compared to other strengths. To prove this assertion, Nina has been receiving daily intensive Tier 2 and Tier 3 (Hughes, 2008). These Tires are based on reading and math interventions. This was spotted by her teacher since the start of her first-grade year.
However, other skills in reading other disciples in her education tend to be similar as compared to other peers. The only discrepancy arises in her math skills as compared to her peers. Her peers demonstrate remarkable progress in math skill, unlike Nina who demonstrates an inability to process math problems. Her delays in math skills is a clear indicator that she requires special education despite the access to the research-based interventions. In that connection, her teacher found it relevant to refer Nina for assessment so as to determine eligibility for special education services in the areas of Math Calculation and Problem Solving (Harland, 2014). This will enable Nina to achieve more in her education system if she will be able to improve her mathematical skills.
Lastly, Nina displays socializing behavior. This particular behavior is causing others to be off-task during individual and group instruction. The problem is much discovered when carrying out math problems. According to general education, Mrs. Braxton, the rate at which Nina distracts her peers is alarming. Mrs. Braxton doesn’t know how to address Nina’s behavior. She finds it difficult to have Nina in a class of normal children. According to her assessment, Mrs. Braxton finds it better to relocate Nina to a special education facility for close observation and instruction.
Data regarding Nina’s behavior was collected from several individuals through the interview. Come of individuals interviewed regarding Nina’s case include her mother, her father, Mrs. Braxton and her current teacher.
Interview with Jess, Nina’s Mother on 21st January 2018. According to Nina’s mother, the report indicates that Nina is a unique child with a certain strength that cannot be compared with her peers. Jess says in the interview that Nina is an attractive child who performs certain activities with ease. Some of the activities that Nina enjoy most include playing piano from her father’s music room. Jess said that Nina started expressing interests in music when she was 2 years old. She used to enjoy the sound produced by the piano. At her current age, Nina has the ability to play music using the piano instrument. This is a skill that many people including adult have not managed to achieve in their lifetime (Gioia, Corley & Hamilton, 2013). Thus Jess realized that Nina has a talent despite her low skills in solving mathematical problems. Jess says that the education system should offer equal chances to children with other talents even if their mathematical skills are in question. There should be diversification in the education system. However, Nina’s mother was not comfortable with some behaviors portrayed by Nina at school. Nina has been disrupting her peers at school during individual work and group work. Grabbing the attention of other children during learning sessions should be addressed by teachers to avoid low performance in school.
Interview with Nina’s current teacher held on 22nd January 2018. This interview was held to determine how Nina has respondent to special education services being offered by her current teacher. The report indicates that there has been a remarkable improvement on how Nina is responding to a mathematical problem that the teacher is assessing Nina. However, the teacher said that more and repeated study mathematical tests should be subjected to Nina until she grasps the content fully. She finally understands the content being taught. Then major concert is time taken by Nina to understand the content. She takes a lot of time to comprehend the mathematical concept. This is a clear indicator that Nina’s mathematical skills are poor and need to be enlightened (Gok & Gok, 2016). Again, the interview revealed that Nina disrupts other children in class in cases where they are mixed in a room. Children are attracted to her behaviors thus making learning unbearable.
Interview with Autumn, Nina’s twin sister held on 23rd January 2018. The purpose of this interview was to determine how Nina behave at home when she is with other siblings and friend. Her twin sister said that Nina enjoys being together with her siblings, parents, and friends. Autumn admits that Nina assists her and their brother Max in their studies on other disciplines apart from math. When it comes to math, Nina demonstrates very low esteem and interests (Verboncu & Condurache, 2016). She is very happy when she helps her siblings with other disciplines. This is a clear indicator that a lot needs to be done so as to facilitate Nina in her math skills. Nina also has a close relationship with neighboring children that initiate a long-term friendship with her neighbors.
Again, Nina was observed on 24th January 2018 in a classroom where certain activities were being performed. During this observation, certain behaviors were recorded as Nina demonstrated her inability to concentrate in the classroom. She also created a lot of disruption by grabbing the attention of other children in the classroom. When asked to do independent math work, Socializing Behavior is noted where Nina walks around classroom talking to peers. As a consequence, students stop completing work, receives peer attention and redirected by the teacher to sit down. This form of disruption is not for normal children. Nina needs to be referred to special education services so as to resolve his problem.
Moreover, there was a review of Nina’s cumulative file that was provided by her current teacher. It was also presented by Mrs. Braxton. This file indicates excellent performance at kindergarten to the first-grade level in all academic areas. However, as time progresses, Nina demonstrated a slight change that progressively resulted in certain behaviors. Nina receives many academic instructions in limited working teams that are set via core replacement curriculums (Donald & James, 2005). In that connection, Nina has demonstrated very low success that is primarily associated with behavior issues. Nina has difficulty solving simple mathematical problems, maintaining attention to tasks and classroom routines as well as grabbing the attention of other students in the classroom. In many instances, Nina was frequently subjected to diplomacy actions for aggressive behavior toward her peers. These aggressive behaviors were initiated by her inability to solve mathematical problems when everybody else is comfortably resolving mathematical problems.
3.1 Data Analysis Sheet
There is three error pattern that can be used to address narrative and hypothesis in the case of Nina.
Student: Nina
Team Members: Special education teacher, Jess (Nina’s mother), Mrs. Braxton (Nina’s general education) and Tim (Nina’s father)
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Has problem staying on task when combined with other students within her peers. * Result to aggression during large group activities such as group work to compute mathematical problems. * Experiences challenges in a large group, less structured atmospheres such as art and music. |
Error Pattern I * Nina makes errors in mathematical concepts by confusing subtraction and addition. Error Pattern II * Nina is unable to find the missing number that when added to the given number. This indicates low mathematical skills. Error Pattern III *Nina is unable to decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in various ways (London, 2014). |
This is a clear indicator that students are not paying enough attention to teachers when concepts are being described. * The student disrupt others so that they cannot concentrate in the classroom. * Blurts out answers, both correct and incorrect. * Has a difficult time listening quietly, wiggles, tap objects or makes silly noises. |
Rushes through work to be the first finished regardless of whether the work is correct or not. * Frequently jumps out of the seat for a variety of reasons that create disruption in the classroom. |
Tries to make other students laugh during teacher instruction. * Has a difficult time staying in the seat and listening to teacher instruction. * Becomes withdrawn when given corrective feedback. * Becomes angry with classmates when embarrassed. |
Struggles in a small group or peer-paired settings. * Makes fun of other students. * Pokes or pinches other students when the teacher is not looking. * Steals teacher and other student’s belongings. * Lies about details of altercations when asked by the teacher to explain what happened. |
Doesn’t like to correct work. * Doesn’t respond well to corrective feedback. * Negative reports from teacher to mother. |
Based on my assessment, Nina appears to have 3 identifiable error patterns. In that connection, the first error pattern appears on how to use mathematical symbols for addition and subtraction. For example, when Nina is provided with practice sheet containing mathematical problems on addition and subtraction, she solves all of the problems as though they were additional problems. This is a clear indicator that her math skills are fully affected by the inability to comprehend mathematical signs and symbol. Again, this may be either a procedural problem that indicates that Nina is simply not reading the sign correctly as well as lack of content recall, or a conceptual problem if she does not understand the idea of removing objects to “take away.”
In that connection, I decided to formulate a hypothesis that a conceptual error that indicates that Nina she does not yet appear to understand how to manipulate numbers. In order to support this hypothesis, I subject Nina another error pattern so as to further determine her math skills. The error pattern indicates that Nina is unable to find the missing number that when added to the given number. This indicates low mathematical skills (Ballantyne, 2007). In that connection, the first error pattern is supported this error pattern on math skills demonstrated by Nina. Lastly, the third error pattern indicates that Nina is unable to decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in various ways. These error patterns can be combined with a single hypothesis as indicated below.
Hypothesis may be tested to determine whether the above error patterns results in low performance in class as demonstrated by Nina inability to comprehend mathematical calculation and mathematical problems. The hypothesis can be formulated as follow.
Hypothesis: Nina low performance and low skills in the mathematical calculation are attributed to three error patterns. That is, Student makes errors in mathematical concepts by confusing subtraction and addition, students are unable to decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in various ways and Students are unable to find the missing number that when added to the given number. This indicates low mathematical skills. In that connection, a hypothesis can be tested to determine the decision for the hypothesis.
Based on student’s behaviors, we can make Nina be a representative for the hypothesis. She portrayed different behaviors that resulted in the above errors. First, Nina tries to make other students laugh during teacher instruction which interferes with her ability to concentrate in class. She also struggles in a small group or peer-paired settings which limit her from learning from her peers in mathematical concepts. Finally, she frequently jumps out of the seat for a variety of reasons that create disruption in the classroom (McGregor, 2012). This takes much of her time and she fails to concentrate on what the teacher is teaching at that moment. From the results of the hypothesis and three error pattern, it is clear that Nina needs special attention so as to propel her math skills. She really concentrates on a class during a math lesson. A special education service is appropriate to assist Nina in recovering from her behaviors.
The decision of Mrs. Braxton to refer Nina to a special education facility has become successful since the last assessment indicates the progress made by Nina on mathematical skills. Her mathematical skills have improved ever since she was subjected to special attention (Arnold, 2010). Her parents have also worked tirelessly to see Nina progressively upgrading her math skills like normal children. Her classroom behaviors are also likely to be eradicated. Her current teacher has tried to enlighten Nina on some of the reasons behind her low performance in mathematical calculation and how to solve mathematical problems. The assessment from special education services indicates that the above three error patterns will be overcome as long as Nina ability to concentrate in class will improve.
References
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Ballantyne, T. (2007). Capacity. Spectra.
Donald, C.H., & James W.F (2005). “Are You Sure You Have a Strategy?” Academy of Management Executive 19, no. 4: 51–62.
Gioia, D. A., Corley, K. G., & Hamilton, A. L. (2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: on the Gioia methodology Notes. Organizational Research Method. Sage publishers.
Gok, T., & Gok, O. (2016). Methodology of Research. In Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching. Pearson publication.
Harland, T. (2014). Learning about case study methodology to research higher education. Higher Education Research & Development. McGraw-Hill Education.
Hughes, D. (2008). The Ultimate Supply Teacher’s Handbook. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Kanungo, R.N., & Manuel, M. (2014). Work Motivation: Models for Developing Countries. Sage Publication put.
London, M. (2014). Career barriers: How people experience, overcome and avoid failure. London: Psychology Press.
Marylene, G. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Work Engagement, Motivation and Self-Determination Theory. OUP USA.
Maslow, A.H. (2013). A Theory of Human Motivation. Start Publishing LLC.
McGregor, D. (2012). The Human Side of Enterprise. New York, 21.
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. London: Sage publications.
Puttee, C., Vitale, C. & Laing, G. (2011). Eight Dialogues on Business Ethics: Aspects of Ethical Behavior in the Corporate Sector. E-Journal of Social & Behavioral Research in Business. 2(2), 1-17.
Richard, A. (2013). Job Satisfaction from Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory Perspective. Grin publishing.
Richard, A.B., & Mitchell, W. (2012). Strategic Management. The journal of strategic management society. Wiley-Blackwell. Pg. 123-143.
Shapiro, J.P. & Stefkovich, J.A., (2016). Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Abingdon: Routledge.
Verboncu, I, & Condurache, A. (2016). ‘Diagnostics vs. SWOT Analysis’, Review of International Comparative Management International, 17(2), 114-122.
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