Teachers Role in the Life of a Child - Article Analysis Essay

Introduction

Teachers play a vital role in the life of a child since they have a significant contribution to early childhood development. The teachers should, therefore, have the best methods and knowledge about how to teach and develop a child's mental capacity for both children with and without disabilities. The teachers should be able to utilize the resources that schools offer especially to help children with emotional and behavioral problems. This paper summarizes an research about the teacher's knowledge on evidence-based interventions and available school resources for children with emotional and behavioral issues.

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The article highlights the lack of knowledge by teachers to support the children with emotional and behavioral problems. Most teachers have not heard of nine out of ten evidence-based interventions which is perturbing considering that they are the same people who are expected to assist the children as they cope with their situation (Stormont, Rienke, Herman, 2011). They researched teachers to find out their knowledge on means that would help improve the status of these children. The study questioned teachers on the several tactics that were used in teaching and offering maximum support in childcare for those with the problems and also educate them on the new programs that seemed helpful in such a situation. The results were that most of the teachers only knew one or two resources that helped children with these problems. This is a disadvantage to the children as they have no means to develop and cope with their problems.

The article was composed by a group of researchers who mainly dealt with the issue about children's emotional and behavioral problems. The survey was carried out in several districts in Missouri, and it examines the different techniques that were used by teachers to help those children with emotional and behavioral problems. The study is presented objectively as the writer makes their judgment based on facts and results of the study. The authors of the article also avoided giving their personal views about the topic and only used the first person narratives when highlighting the methods they used and quoting facts that they found out in the exercise. The authors also explained the results using tables which made it easier to evaluate and understand their findings. The results of the study are described in detail and suggestions are offered to the problem in the discussion part of the paper.

The survey noted that some of the schools use methods that are not helpful to the children. The researchers come to this decision after they evaluated the fact that most schools did not have evidence that showed how the methods implemented impacted the life of the children (Walker, 2004). The lack of results for such methods acts to highly disadvantage them since the main reason for using them is to achieve the best results. The teachers are supposed to take into account any improvements that the children with difficulties have otherwise the method that they use will seem useless.

The main aims of the work are to reveal the means that are used in helping children with emotional and behavioral problems. It aims at finding the different methods that are commonly used out of the total number of means that exist. It also focuses on introducing ways that are not common in schools as a means to improve the care and offer solutions to children's problems. The study is successful in revealing the most commonly used method- PBIS which most of the tutors are prone to using. The article also offers alternative methods that can be used to attain the same results in problem-solving such as PATHS, good behavior game among others.

The research uses interviews to find out the methods that are used by the tutors. This is especially helpful since the information has a lower risk of being interpreted unlike other means such as questionnaires which may open space for misleading information. The researchers question several educators over the phone or email. They offered incentives to encourage more tutors to participate, and in their research, about 50% of them complied and offered their help on the matter. They also used tables in the presentation of their work and divided their work into several sections where each highlighted a particular portion of the research. This arrangement is helpful in the comprehensive understanding of the work.

The survey does not take into account that some of the tutors did not offer enough information within the time scope that they interviewed them. The tutors also lacked a general opinion that the public has toward using certain methods. The research was also carried out over phone calls which is not an effective method to find out the ways that most teachers used. This assumption does not have much effect on the research since most of the information appeared truthful as the educators did not have any benefit from offering wrong information.

The research reveals that most of the educators do not know about the many means that can be used to help children with emotional and behavioral problems. This is evident since most of the tutors are only aware of one method of problem-solving- Positive Behavior Intervention Solving (PBIS). This method mainly aims at eliminating poor behavior in children (Bradshaw, Koth, Bevans, Lalongo, Leaf, 2008). The subjects to the research only show little or no knowledge on other means to solve the problem. Alternative methods include PATHS which helps in the emotional development of children. It is also evident that most teachers do not know that their schools have the required resources that aid in child development. Most schools did not offer assessment programs for children to identify those who have emotional and behavioral problems. An example of such an assessment is the particular day class which is aimed at identifying children who are not benefitting from the means used in behavior and emotional improvement (Morrison, Furlong, Smith, 1994). The article also argues that the teachers should at least be exposed to different types of solutions so that they may have a variety of options to choose from in case one method fails. The authors make a reasonable interpretation of the data that they collect in the field and come up with a table showing that only 10% of teachers know about using other methods apart from PBIS. The results of this work are persuasive and make it clear that the tutors are not inclined to solving behavioral and emotional problems in children.

The work is presented in order of sections that were involved in the research. The abstract and introduction sway a reader into believing that the tutors lack means to cope with the problem at hand. This is the primary purpose of the work since it serves to identify the shortage of methods used to correct the children. There is also the fact that the results are tabulated for easier understanding. This presentation makes it easier to study and compare the results of the experiment. This method is useful in choosing which side the authors of the article are in support.

The article is very engaging since it gives very logical explanations about the topic at hand backed up with citations from previous researches. The job also uses tables to help compare the data which helps in understanding the text. The article also explains the trends in the education sector such as the introduction of new methods of teaching (Horner et al., 2009). This is an additional benefit to the learner since it offers a lot of information needed in understanding the aspect that the authors want to put forward.

Conclusion

It is essential to develop a child in the best situations because it marks the beginning of their educational journey. Teachers should ensure that they know a variety of methods that are useful in helping children with emotional and behavioral issues. This makes it easier for them to switch from one mode to another in case the previous one does not deliver the expected results.

References

Bradshaw, C. P., Koth, C. W., Bevans, K. B., Ialongo, N., & Leaf, P. J. (2008). The impact of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) on the organizational health of elementary schools. School Psychology Quarterly, 23(4), 462.

Horner, R. H., Sugai, G., Smolkowski, K., Eber, L., Nakasato, J., Todd, A. W., et al. (2009). A

Morrison, G. M., Furlong, M. J., & Smith, G. (1994). Factors associated with the experience of school violence among general education, leadership class, opportunity class, and special day class pupils. Education and treatment of children, 356-369.

randomized, wait-list controlled effectiveness trial assessing school-wide positive behavior support in elementary schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 11, 133-144.

Stormont, M. Rienke, W. Herman, K. (2011). Teachers Knowledge of Evidence-Based Interventions and Available School Resources for Children with Emotional and Behavioral Problems. Springer Science+Business Media, 138-147.

Walker, H. M. (2004). Commentary: Use of evidence-based interventions in schools: Where we've been, where we are, and where we need to go. School Psychology Review, 33(3), 398.