Helping School to Overcome at Risk Students: Some Experiences

Imanuel Hitipeuw, Cholis Sadijah, Wiwik Dwi Hastuti

State Uniiversity of Malang, Malang, Indonesia

Keywords: Educational assessment, At-risk students, Students with special needs

Abstract: Educational assessment is important for teachers to know their own students and not only depend on the

results solely from other experts. The experiences of the author in dealing with the students diagnosed as

having disabilities or special needs --- will be described in order to emphasize the important of the educational

assessments as a part of the whole processes in determining the problems of the students in the school. This

is a preliminary research about the at risk students. This was a survey research. Observation was used to

collect data. There were 4 subjects selected in this preliminary research. The objectives of this paper are to

describe some experiences of the author about at-risk students in elementary level, and also to give some

lessons learned from the schools.

1 INTRODUCTION

Students right now are called as the digital generation

and they exhibit different behaviours. When they still

young, they are surrounded by many things but

through gadgets. They can play football or tennis, but

not real physical football or tennis but through video

game. When they communicate and have many

friends, it does not mean that they have met them face

to face. So, they may be lack in social interaction

manner because they mostly work through gadget and

communicate through gadget. This situation shows

that teachers must improve their skills when facing

different generations (Clarke, 2012; Singer

Trakhman, Alexander and Silverman, 2018)

Students are individuals that come from different

background. They deserved to be equally treated.

Many statements supported the equality, but in the

level of implementation in schools, some teachers

may not know how to do that. And this is not about

they do not want to do. They may be fluent talk about

that matter but they may be lack what we call the

procedural knowledge (Eggen and Kauchak, 2010)

that focus on how to do the right things for the

students. So how to help this teachers to make them

capable help their own students --- is an important

step.

If individual differences are not considered in

planning and implementing teaching and learning,

students in the classroom may feel uneasy to stay in.

And if these students keep getting difficulties in

catching up with the classroom rules or activities,

then they will show problems. And in the end they

may not feel safe to be in the classroom. The

condition of the classroom will be perceived negative

and this may affect the learning and the behaviour of

the students. Students who do not know how to do

with the academic activities will try to do something

else. Because Human being is an active organism, if

they cannot learn, then they will do other things

called off-task behaviour (Green et al., 2012; Cooper,

Heron and Heward, 2013; Steel and Klingsieck,

2016).

Students with off-task behaviours, actually need

help, but for some teachers, they may be perceived as

trouble makers. Moreover, the students might be

perceived as rebellion against authority, and this in

turn, make certain teachers punished those students.

This punishment does not solve the problem but

creating more negative climate about the classroom

and the students may develop aggressive behaviours

(Alberto and Troutman, 2012; Cooper, Heron and

Heward, 2013).

In the condition where the students felt the

classroom not safe anymore, they may get difficulties

to develop themselves. And if they stay at the school,

they may end up with the label as Students with

Special Needs. With the label, some teachers might

perceive the problems of the students were not theirs

anymore, but special education teachers. This

condition leaves the children untreated and put them

in risk condition. And this condition make them

become at-risk children (Lee et al., 2015; Marbouti,

Diefes-Dux and Madhavan, 2016; Chaves-Sousa et

al., 2017).

246

Hitipeuw, I., Sadijah, C. and Hastuti, W.

Helping School to Overcome at Risk Students: Some Experiences.

DOI: 10.5220/0008410602460250

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation (ICLI 2018), pages 246-250

ISBN: 978-989-758-391-9

At-risk children need help. By creating positive

learning environment or positive climate for all

students, actually not only help typical students but

also atypical students such as at risk students. So, the

climate is important and it refers to the task of the

classroom teachers. Studies showed that positive

climate will lead the students to focus on learning

activities in the classroom and at the same time

students produce good behaviour and affect their

achievement (Wang, Haertel and Walberg, 1993;

Shinn, Walker and Stoner, 2002; Hardin, 2004). So,

how the teachers prepare the classroom activities and

how they implement are more important.

In Indonesian school contexts, especially in

elementary level, mostly other experts decided the

problems of the students. In this context, some school

teachers may accept what the results given from those

experts without assessing further about the condition

of the students. These kinds of practices in schools

may underestimate the important of educational

assessments needed to be done by the teachers.

Teachers who do not know exactly the condition of

the students and the level of instruction of the students

--- may endanger the behavior and learning of the

students. These students will be at-risk because their

needs may not be met. And when others could

identify the problems of these students and recognize

their needs --- then their program will be such a

treatment for these students. And later on, these

students will be able to develop their potential. But if

no proper assessment and treatment, then these at-risk

students may end up becoming students with

disabilities.

And with inclusion movement since 2000s, all

children with special needs may attend the regular

schools. And since then, in certain schools the author

found some experiences that will be shared through

this article related to how the students so called at risk

treated at those schools. The author only focuses on

certain students who had been labelled and treated as

students with Special needs, but later on through

quick educational assessments and mini

interventions, the students show no disabilities. This

indicated the students just had problems in their

growth and development because the environment

previously did not support their needs correctly. So,

the objectives of this paper are to describe some

experiences of the author about at-risk students in

elementary level, and also to give some lessons

learned from the schools.

2 METHOD

A preliminary survey research was conducted. Data

were collected by using observation. Observation

were based on the experiences of the author in

schools. There were 4 at-risk subjects selected to be

reported in this preliminary research. They were from

different so called inclusive schools. The author

through sharing the experiences wants to emphasize

the important of educational assessments such as

curriculum based-assessment.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Based on the objectives of this paper, the author will

describe the results on (1) some experiences of the

author about at-risk students in elementary level, and

also to give some lessons learned from the schools.

3.1 Some Experiences

3.1.1 The Students from Regency Winning

Inclusive Award

This regency had an inclusive school as a model

described as the best inclusive primary school. When

the author was invited to observe and interact with the

school, teachers were so easily talking about their

students with special needs in their classrooms. One

of the classrooms was first grade where the author

was told that there were 5 students who identified

having disabilities. They were sitting on the back

rows as a group. Because the limited time the author

had, the study just focused on the supported

documents about the special needs of those students,

and then randomly took one student to be assessed

through probes, in order to know how to help him.

The author asked the student where his seat and

offered help to read the items in the worksheet

because the student was reported as having

intellectual disability and could not read. But after

each item was read, the student could chose the

correct answer without repeating the question. And he

did answer correctly all five items the author read. He

also can identify the answer through options a – b – c

– d.

After 5 consecutive items were answered

correctly, the author changed the strategy to know

more about his reading ability. After checking certain

familiar words with simple syllables patterns, such as

CV, CVC --- then move to more complex patterns

such as CCV, CCVC etc. Through this short time

interaction, the author found that the student can read

the alphabets, and words with simple syllable

patterns, but not the complex syllable patterns. So, the

Helping School to Overcome at Risk Students: Some Experiences

247

author then focused on teaching the complex ones and

in less than 30 minutes the student was amazed by his

own ability in reading.

The results showed that the collected data such as

IQ Test Score and the background of the student were

not enough. And this practices put those students as

at-risk. The school must also do educational

assessment to get the big picture of the student and

build the program based on the assessment.

3.1.2 One First Grader Diagnosed as ASD

In one school with international standard, the

counsellor and psychologist escorted the author to see

the first grade where one of its students was

diagnosed as Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The

student seat faced the wall of the back part the

classroom, so he would not be distract by his

classmates and other stimuli. But when the author

approached the student and tried to check the ASD

behaviours, it was found that the student might not

have the ASD, and the author arranged with

classroom teachers how to accommodate the needs of

this student and the rest of the class. The author also

asked the counsellor and psychologist for working

together with the teacher. After one month, this

student showed progressed as a normal or typical

student.

Again in this case, the school was lack of the

information gathered through educational

assessment. They were not familiar with educational

assessment, their program for the student just based

on non-educational assessments. This condition was

negative for the development of the student. With the

label of |ASD, he was categorized as at-risk student.

And if no appropriate assessment and treatment were

given, he could develop to be a student with

disability.

3.1.3 One Fourth Grader Diagnosed as

ASD, ADHD, and Took Medication for

Controlling His Behaviour

In one school, there was a new student following his

parents moved to another place. He was in the fourth

grade where one of his teacher is the former student

of the author. This teacher directly contacted the

author for discussing the student’s problems. And

through consultation with the author regarding this

student, she (the teacher) did small steps to further

identify what actually the student could do. In one

week, we found he was not as the label, but his

parents did not believe. But the teacher, through

consultation, continued working for helping the

student, and in two weeks later, the student parents

started to see the different and said “how much I have

to pay you” to the teacher. During these weeks he had

started to communicate fluently with the teacher, and

now with the whole classroom. And today, the

student, fifth grader, can speak well and present his

assignment in front of the class by using laptop and

projector. And no more tantrum or refused to do the

assignment, or avoid contact with others.

In short, the school needs to learn how to do

specific educational assessments to know the

condition and instructional level of the student in

order to prevent the failure in instruction. So, the

results from other non-educational experts can be

combined with the school’s educational assessment

results. Seems that in Indonesian setting, this has to

be promoted at the National Level.

3.1.4 One Student Finally Sent to the School

for Autism

The young boy, 7 years old, was rejected from many

schools because of the tantrum he always showed and

had been diagnosed as ASD, ADHD and could not

read. In short, all of the schools suggested previously

he attended made referral to this school because they

could not handle the problems of the students

anymore. But the teachers of the school for Autism

rejected to accept him. And the school administrator

reported to the headmaster who always told the

administrator to accept all students, especially those

rejected. So, the headmaster met with all his teachers

and let them realize that the potential to learn from

various student is important, and promised them that

in a few days the headmaster would join the class in

order to know more how to help the student.

When the headmaster entered the classroom, the

student was off task. After offering him, if he liked

papers and pencils and crayons, he moved reluctantly

to take a seat. He started to do something with the

paper. He wrote words but so large and caused the

paper teared. Next, I gave him some papers, and told

him to write or do what he liked with them. Then 2

more papers were written with good hand writing. It

revealed that the student had a potential to learn and

fast, and also showed long concentration, and

understand the instruction and ready to work together.

The next day, his teacher approached the

headmaster that she wants to teach the student. And

at the end of the school year, the student showed huge

progress as a normal student. His parents then moved

him to the regular school until now.

Sometimes, the teachers in special schools still

could not see the potential of the students. They

focused more on the problem of the students. From

ICLI 2018 - 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation

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this we need also to have a headmaster that also

capable to do educational assessments.

3.2 The Lesson Learned

Based on the stories above, the author suspects that

these are still going on in the field. These conditions

indicate that the results from screening and diagnose

done by experts outside the school contexts about the

condition of the suspected students --- must be

combined with the results done by the school experts

such as teachers, counsellors or special education

teachers, and school psychology. The decision about

the condition of the student, for now, should come

from various experts as a team from related

disciplines, including teachers. This means that

schools need to improve their involvement in making

decision about the condition of their own students ---

either at-risk or special needs’ students.

The consequence if the data collected for giving

label to the students is not enough, it may jeopardize

the students’ life. If the students’ teachers are curious

about their problems, they may be ended up with

good results, but if not, those students will be at risk

in their school lives and may end up as children with

special needs (Phungsuk, Viriyavejakul and

Ratanaolarn, 2017).

Also there are some teachers are not equipped

with the skills and knowledge on classroom

management, and this may create problems that later

may risk the student’s potential. Potential Ability is

important to be understood by the teachers because

what those students can do not reflect the total

potential of the students but only the actual or

performance ability(Berk, 2003; Eggen and Kauchak,

2010). Fail to recognize the potential ability of the

students may create instructional problems that later

could deteriorate achievement and behavior of the

students. So, the knowledge about the potential ability

of the students are important when working with

students who having academic and social problems.

Because what schools mostly talk are about the actual

or performance ability.

All overcomers in these time mostly the new

teachers with passion to keep seeking help for the

students. So, how to upgrade the teachers knowledge

is a crucial and should be done periodically. Teachers

with enough knowledge and skills shall manage their

classroom well and those teachers will show affection

toward the students’ struggling (Shinn, Walker and

Stoner, 2002; Learning, 2005). This means that

educational assessments done by the teachers also

should be encouraged.

Pre-service and in-service training programs need

to introduce about the curriculum-based

measurement, and classroom management --- in order

to support education for all, especially for inclusive

classroom. Indonesia that consists of many islands,

tribes, languages, and belief systems is important to

be considered carefully when experts and teachers

want to do assessments. The assessors need to be

aware of the diversities in the background of the

students when diagnosing or assessing the students.

4 CONCLUSIONS

From the results, the experiences with at-risk students

showed that the schools were lack of skills and

knowledge on how to do educational assessments.

The lesson learned from the experiences that the

schools may need to pursue knowledge and skills

about educational assessments, classroom

management and behaviour strategies. With all these

skills and knowledge, schools can work properly to

prevent students’ failure.

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