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“Any teacher who wants to, can make a difference” (Anon. cited B, Rogers 2007) this implies that teachers have to consciously make an effort to make that difference; they have to take on responsibilities to satisfying the individual pupil’s needs. In theory, one must implement behavioural management strategies, focus on inclusion and the Every Child Matters agenda (E.C.M.). From my own experiences, I know that this is not always the case and so in this assignment I hope to analyse both theory and practice of the teacher’s main roles and responsibilities to assess my own professional development needs. Firstly, behavioural management strategies have been in practice since at least 1911 when Thorndike expressed his “law of effect” which suggests that the more praise or punishment one receives for an action the stronger the association with the experience. Nowadays, teaching is highly influenced by behaviour management strategies. Many teachers try to implement a constructive sequence of events rather than a destructive sequence of events to avoid disruption to the whole class. This may mean choosing to deal with the event quietly once the children are working. Constructivism is an effective model used to demonstrate why children must have differentiated tasks to challenge all pupils, despite their ability. Piaget (1950) suggests that children have stages of cognitive development and though there are guidelines as to when the learners will develop from one stage to another there are often children who develop later than the average representation. This is an important aspect of teaching as E.C.M. (2009) states that children should enjoy and achieve. Some gifted and talented (T.a.G.) students may find general class work to simple and as a consequence will not feel like they have achieved anything by completing it. Whereas, children with learning difficulties may find the same task too difficult and may not be able to complete it. Similarly, teachers must differentiate their teaching styles to embrace different learning styles. Learning styles are different for everyone, there are not just kinaesthetic, audio and visual learning styles, (although these are the three most common associated with children’s learning) learning styles can be focused on the solitary or social aspect of a child. Some children prefer to work alone; others will prefer to work in groups. As a teacher it is vital that all the children get to experience different learning styles simply by trying different types of activities. Carol Moore (1991) states that the classroom environment can have an effect on the amount of learning that occurs. E.C.M. (2009) provides evidence that children will make a positive contribution when they feel comfortable and safe in their working environment. It is the teacher’s responsibility to provide this environment. Children work best when there is respect, support, a friendly atmosphere, little disruption to their learning, exciting lesson plans that are flexible and a chance to achieve. Skidmore (2004) states that teachers should be “identifying, assessing and reviewing the needs of individual children”. Therefore teachers also have to be aware of potential barriers to learning and must have ways to eliminate them. These barriers could be physical, emotional or academic, but many interact and fit in two or possibly three of the categories. Inclusion is an ideology in which all barriers to learning are removed, providing a high quality learning experience. This idea is not relatively new but the procedure changed with the introduction of Special Educational Needs (S.E.N) students into mainstream schools. In my experience, I have recently been on two exemplar days to school X and school Y. The two schools had many differences and I was able to see different approaches to the responsibility the teachers held. School X was recently built and aimed to recognise the differing learning needs and styles of pupils and support this. In the year 6 class, children were able to text their response to a picture stimulus to the interactive whiteboard and then further develop their points with class discussion. This incorporates both styles of social interaction as they are allowed to solitarily submit their answer and then socially discuss their class responses. Also, in the year 1 class I observed, the children had a range of activities and then were split into small groups in which they could explore all the activity stations. Also, embedded in the schools ethos is to promote respect, equal opportunity and celebrate success and diversity. This linked into their behaviour management scheme. Children were rarely punished but highly praised continually and there was a lot of emphasis in the year 6 class that the answers couldn’t be wrong. In addition, the school had created a scheme of adventure based learning in which social, emotional or behavioural issues were addressed to remove the barrier to learning and promote the idea of inclusion. Although some of the activities can be seen as dangerous “life is not risk free and a child has to experience risk to learn” (Sherriff, 2009) Even younger children were given independence, in the nursery the children were allowed to decide when they wanted a nap by choosing to go and get their blankets. In contrast, in the school Y nursery the children were mothered and this was to an extent reflected through key stage one. This poses the question: Is it the teacher’s responsibility to mother the child' Or should the child be allowed to grow independently' From what I have seen the child should be allowed to act independently with support from the staff, receiving the best of both worlds. Furthermore, in school Y the school had not adapted the positive praise behaviour management system. A child was disciplined, then the child acted in a negative way throughout the lesson, constantly being told off and disrupting others learning. Continuing, the children at school Y were practising for the Christmas play but at the same time some year 1 students were taken out to work on writing Christmas cards and decorating them in groups of two. This obviously is providing individual support for those who need it for their writing. This may provide some children with a more relaxed learning environment. In conclusion, the theory of what a teacher’s responsibilities are in relation to meeting individual pupil’s needs can be implemented in many ways but unfortunately from what I have seen it is not always applied in an obvious manner. Therefore, my personal target to achieve my personal development needs is to gain and record evidence in my portfolio of professional development of QCA standard Q.19 which demonstrates “effective personalised provision for those they teach”. Bibliography Moore, C (1992) Learning styles – Classroom adaptation. Piaget, J. (1950) The psychology of intelligence. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Rogers, B. (2007) Behaviour management. London: Paul Chapman publishing Sherriff, T. (2009) Welcome Handout Skidmore, D. (2004) Inclusion the dynamic of school development. Berkshire: Open University Press Thorndike, E.L. (First published 1911) Human Learning and Social Order V.2 England: Kessinger Publishing Unknown (2009) Every child matters : http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/strategy/strategyandgovernance/everychildmatters/everychildmatters [accessed 11/12/09]