Section A)

Vic- Welcome to this weeks edition of the Teachers forum. I am the host and this week we will be looking at
a year 7 student from Chieffly college In Mt Druitt. I welcome our panel today. Nikki Bryron her society and
culture teacher, the School counselor Eseta Vea, and Sunni Sohal a consultant to the school.

Nikkii- "“Kayla is a Year 7 student who is physically more mature than her peers. She excels in sports and
visual arts at school. She liked maths and science, but now often complains of forgetting class content and
not being able to keep up"

Vic- From the Biological perspective what comments would you make Sunni?

Sunni- Kayla is a early developing female at 12 yo, As suggested by Huang, Biro and Dorn (2009), the
biological changes at the adolescence age refers to the physical growth, where most of the children undergo a
growth spurt and develop primary and secondary sex characteristics. Archibald et al., 2003, states that the
during adolescent growth spurts, the arms and legs also lengthen and eventually become proportional to the
rest of their body. During adolescence, girls’ percentage of body fat will increase, relative to muscle mass.
This additional fat is deposited in their body’s midsection (hips, buttocks, and chest). Girls’ straight-lined,
square bodies become wider and broader at the hips, buttocks, and chest, forming the familiar hour-glass
shape of adult females. Often, teen girls feel uncomfortable or upset during this growth phase because of the
increase in body fat and the ‘asynchronicity’.

Vic- Thank you Sunni, From the perspective of memory, what comments could you make Esta?

Kayla- appears to be having problems with memory in maths and science. If we take the perspective of
Piaget, she may not be in the formal operational stage, so abstract concepts maybe challenging her working
Memory. Further characteristic of this stage is logical thinking, involving the relationship between complex
concepts.

Vic - Could you elaborate on the role of working memory?

Working memory has a limited capacity for 2-4 items of novel information. In Kaylas case the maths/science
material maybe highly taxing on her working memory. Therefore she is going to cognitive overload and not
transferring these concepts into the long term memory.

Vic Thanks Eseta , Nikki what comments would you add from the sociological perspectives?

Nikki- Just building on Sunni points on early development. This is a known risk factor for depressed mood,
negative body imagine, eating disorders, delinquency, conflict in the home and school environment.

Eseta -" Some students have said that she can be withdrawn and doesn’t share personal information. Other
staff members have mentioned that she sometimes doesn’t show up for class. You notice that she has
difficulties with peers of her own age and hangs around with older students who have been previously
reprimanded for using illicit drugs."

Vic- Nikki what comments would you add from the sociological perspectives?

Peer influence is a key component here. We know through the work of Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist Dr Jay
Giedd that peers under conditions of high arousal do not make the same decision as Adults.

Eesta - From the cognitive perspective, this maybe due to problems with the frontal lobe and executive
function. Adolescents are still cognitive changes in the brain.

Nikki " She has a supportive home environment however her parents have very limited English language
skills, and are struggling financially. She has said to you that she actually wants to do well at school and
hopefully do visual arts at university, but just needs more help.”

Eesta, SES and language barriers are risk factors for emotional turmoil in the home environment, '

Nikki- A key component here is that her motivation to do well at university and interest in visual arts.

Section B)

Vic- Sunny what would be your intervention based on her biological factors ?

In Kayla’ should be encouraged to view her body composition in a positive light: as yet another indication is
that they are becoming young women. While she may feel “fat” during this maturation process, it may be
helpful for them to understand that some additional body fat is necessary for woman to have healthy
pregnancies and in order to nurse babies. Moreover, emphasis should be given by the teachers on
Cooperative, Collaborative and Peer –assisted Learning as referred by Johnson, D.W., 1999.
The second most approach in Kayla’s case is that it is crucial to put her in the Social and Emotional
Learning program, where she learns about self management, self awareness, social awareness,
relationship skills and responsible decision making skills, as suggested by Collaborative for
Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning 2011 The social-emotional learning should be taught proactively,
instead of reactively. In addition, cooperative, collaborative and peer assisted learning is essential for
Kayla.
The third strategy can be that Jacquelunne S. Eccles in 1999 conducted a research regarding the out-of-
school programs such as fun social activities that highlight effort rather than competition.

Nikki- I advocate peer assisted learning. We can utilise peer influence to positively influence her behaviours.
Currently her peers are engaging in risky drug taking. If we were able to convert these peers, they could
positively influence Kayla. This consequence of high arousal. I would engage with the Arts teacher, as she
already is motivated in Visual Arts.

Eesta- From the cognitive perspective her motivation on visual arts is significant. As the brain is going
through synaptic pruning, skills that are practiced will be hard wired into the brain. If she intends to do Art in
university, it would be important to development these cognitive regions during adolescents. Multi Media
learning ( elaborate )

Section C

Vic- Eseta, how would you interpret the graph ?

Eseta - The Victorian burden study shows that 12-20 is the Everest period for developing mental disorders.
Implications as a school counsellor are ( elborate)

Vic- Sunni how would you interpret the graph?

Sunni- Adolescent is key period for genetic expression of disease

Eseta- The journal of affective disorders shows the adolescent often do not have early intervention for
emotional or psychological problems. Elaborate on early intervention/ role of the school to work holistic.

Sunni- The strengths of the proposed approaches in handling the Kayla’s case are that these approaches have
been suggested by the researchers, who have done the extensive researches in the similar fields. In addition
The SEL Programme is highly effective in strengthening the peer-student and student- teacher relationships,
and will strengthen her bonds with both her peers and teachers, which further will improve her academic
grades, as she is opportunistic and needs help. The out of school programmes can support the children's
confidence in their ability to become productive, positive members of their communities. The weaknesses
related to these approaches are that they are suitable only if taken from a biopsychosocial perspective, but
clearly ignore the other problems in Kayla’s case, such as financial problems, and language problems within
the family. These issues can be tackled, if viewed from some other angles.

Eseta- Previously I have stated that Kayla may not be in the formal operation stage, however given her
interest in Visual Art and her intention of pursuing her interest at University. This may demonstrate abstract
thinking, by inferential reasoning, given that she has already conceptualised pursuing Visual Arts at
University. Therefore in the school context, we make assumptions on Kayla's circumstances. This is one
negative aspect of our intervention. Whilst they are based on behavioral profiles. We cannot know with
clinical assurance of Kayla cognitive stage of development.

Nikki- The disadvantage of peer assisted intervention that it is also based on assumptions on Kayla. We have
evidence that the home circumstances places financial pressure and that she is having problems with peers,
as Sunni pointed out earlier, the cause maybe biological, however such a approach makes assumptions that
social factors are not the main reason. From the sociological perspective, we could focus on Kayla
motivation to pursue Visual Arts.

Esta- The idea that knowledge is constructed via social discourse is integral to the process of peers learning
from each other, reflecting the notion that social interaction facilitates more learning than that which would
occur by students learning on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). The benefits of peer learning are theorised to
include: better alignment between ‘teacher’ and student (‘cognitive congruence’); more meaningful
acquisition of knowledge (Falchikov, 2001; Ladyshewsky, Barrie, & Drake, 1998; Longfellow,
May, Burke, & Marks-Maran, 2008) . The disadvantage of peer assisted learning is it makes
assumptions that students have enough knowledge to be able to construct further learning. Direct
instruction maybe better suited to novice learners rather than having student try and problem solves.
In Kaylas context, because her peer age group, it maybe better suited for Kayla to learn through
direct teacher instruction.