Term Paper on Critical Incidents Occurred Between Teacher and Child or Among Children

Critical Incidents
Critical incidents are the metaphors of incidents or situations, which require that a member in the communication make some type of decision. Most of the situations could occur to any individual; they do not require that there be intercultural communication as there is with society assimilators. “Person critical incidents do not require as much time as person culture capsules or individual culture assimilators; it is probably most effective to have all the critical incidents presented at one time be about the same cultural issue. Students have to be given the opportunity to see how their decision and reasoning compare and contrast with the decisions and reasoning of native members of the target culture” (Hendrickson, 24). Three critical incidents are therefore stated below in the light of afore mentioned definition/interpretation.
 

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Incident Relating Cheating:
John complained to his teacher about Smith copying other students’ work during class and even formed partnerships with others in the room for test days. On checking of teacher, Mr. Smith, denied all guilt although he always concentrated on cheating rather than working, and spent time, finding out how to cheat rather than how to study. The teacher got frustrated on learning about the activity, but was unable to catch the student cheating.

Discussion; What Went Well or Bad?
What went wrong was that the teacher became angry and disturbed when he failed to handle cheating situation. Similarly other students’ confidence in the teaching-testing system was destroyed. More over on failing of teacher other students were likely to be encouraged to cheat as well. The positive thing, what happened on other hand was that the problem of student was identified, as he wanted to be successful in school, but did not believe that he was capable of achieving without cheating. More over the student needed to assert him and wanted to be responsible for his academic performance. The student’s strong need to be successful was also identified.

Lessons Learnt
The root of the problem lied in the fact that this student was aware of what was expected, so the student resorted to cheating to succeed. Punishment for cheating therefore could have forced him to be a more careful cheater in the future. It was learnt that if you are uncertain, but suspect that a particular student had cheated, work out the utmost tact and tact in handling this student. It was also felt that first, decide whether teacher wants to punish the student or change the behavior Changing the behavior will be a wiser choice. Reaction to cheating should be carefully analyzed by weighing the effects on student and rest of class. Grabbing of paper, tearing it up, and throwing it away before talking to the student should be avoided at all cost.
 

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Incident Relating Quarrel (Rudeness)
The second incident is concerning Mr. Michael, a student of grade 7, who on fine morning behaved very rudely with the teacher when the latter wanted to know about the home work of the former. The student was in the habit of ignoring other students, letting other down, he was inconsiderate in big and small ways—about big and small matters and talked back, disregarded requests, and acted superior than others, treated teachers as insignificant. His attitude used to be overtly rude or through a look, sneer, or other form of nonverbal communication looked as independent, or able to stand on his own two feet, and gave an impression as he didn’t need any one.

Discussion; What Went Well or Bad?
The incident of behaving rudely with the teacher was seen by the others as cruelty in its ugliest form. The other bad points observed in Mr. Michael were that teacher and classmates alike felt insignificant, others were degraded in their presence, as if they weren’t even there, they were totally rejected, and treated as non persons. The ill effect was that student-student as well as teacher-student relationships were broken down and the fear was developing that the teacher and classmates might not retaliate. The blessing in disguise, in this case lied in the fact that the student’s complexes were identified. The student frankly protected him by being rude and keeping people away through rudeness and avoiding to exposing himself. The student’s desire to be somebody was identified which because of low self-esteem was felt very inadequate. The result was that he sought the status through negative behavior—rudeness. It will be worthwhile to mention here an another dimension of the student’s behavior that he was found involved in the acts of show off, as well which might have resulted from either a feeling of inferiority or a false sense of superiority. The same student t brags, shows how high he can jump, demonstrates intelligence over others, and does anything he can do to show superiority. He likes to perform in presence of opposite sex, makes quick responses to all stimuli and behaves in self centered and inconsiderate of others.

Lessons Learnt
The lessons learnt will be seen in the back drop of message from Mr. Pam, who suggested; “In a professional faculty such as education it is crucial to negotiate the gap between theory and practice; to bring the two worlds of schooling and education closer together” (Whitty, Pam, 1996) problematic student wanted more attention than needed. The student’s showing off allows him to brag without being contradicted or tested. The reason of his rudeness is also similar to his reason of showing off, and when this child doesn’t get any attention. It makes him feel worse.

References
Dr Lynn E. Hendrickson, Department of Linguistics Brigham Young University, Retrieved from; (Last Updated: Saturday, January 24, 1998) http://humanities.byu.edu/classes/ling577lh/culture.html

Whitty, Pam (1996) "Academic Wisdom & Practical Action" in Learning for the Workplace - Nordic & Canadian Perspectives Ministry of Education, Finland (June)

 

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