Unit rationale, description and aim
Teachers, especially those new to the profession, consistently perceive classroom management as a serious challenge. Dealing with students who demonstrate challenging and confronting behaviour is a major cause of teacher stress, burnout, job dissatisfaction. In addition, many teachers feel their training in classroom management is lacking particularly in their preparedness for responding appropriately to students who may be unpredictable, uncooperative, and potentially violent.
This microcredential builds on the participant’s existing knowledge and skills in managing potentially stressful and confronting classroom behaviours that were explored in the prerequisite microcredential, UNMC501Managing Confronting Behaviour in Educational Settings. Through this microcredential, participants will examine the philosophies and practical strategies for:
- the short-term de-escalation of potentially critical incidents involving challenging and confronting behaviour in classrooms or other educational settings
- long-term approaches for engaging students who regularly display challenging behaviour in classrooms or other educational settings.
This microcredential will provide opportunities for participants to apply and practice their knowledge and skills in the areas listed above through the examination of scenarios that involve confronting and challenging behaviour.
The aim of this microcredential is to build the participant’s skills and self-efficacy for managing potentially stressful and confronting classroom environments and individual students.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Critically analyse strategies for engaging student...
Learning Outcome 01
Apply and critically appraise a range of philosoph...
Learning Outcome 02
Content
Topics will include:
- Critical incidents in classroom/school contexts.
- Philosophies and practical strategies for the short-term de-escalation of potentially critical incidents.
- Philosophies and practical strategies for engaging learners who regularly display unproductive, unco-operative and challenging behaviour in classroom settings (including trauma-informed pedagogical theories and practices).
- Networks of support and collaboration to manage challenging and confronting behaviour.
- Communication strategies following a critical incident.
- Self-care and managing personal safety.
- Teacher wellbeing and mental health.
Assessment strategy and rationale
The purpose of this microcredential is to build the participant’s skills and self-efficacy for managing potentially stressful and confronting behaviour and classroom environments. A blend of formative and summative assessment will be used build the participant’s self-efficacy for managing potentially stressful and confronting classroom environments and individual students who may be unpredictable, unco-operative and potentially violent.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1 Option 1 : Application/reflect...
Assessment Task 1
Option 1: Application/reflection via current context.
Apply strategies in response to a student who regularly demonstrated challenging and/or confronting behaviour in your current educational setting. Provide a short description of the context and behavioural issues being addressed. Then reflect on the effectiveness of the applied strategies and follow-up actions, appraising student responses including student and staff well-being and safety.
Option 2: Application/reflection via scenario.
You will be provided with a scenario that involves a student who regularly demonstrates challenging and/or confronting behaviour in an educational setting. Provide a response to this scenario that includes:
- A short description of the context and behavioural issues being addressed;
- An explanation of proposed strategies that could be adopted to respond to the demonstrated behaviour;
A reflective analysis of the potential effectiveness including student and staff well-being and safety.
50%
Assessment Task 2: Assessment: Simulation and Cri...
Assessment Task 2: Assessment: Simulation and Critical Reflection
Part A
Working in a simulated environment, you will be presented with a student who is exhibiting some form of challenging behaviour. You need to interact with the student to resolve the situation. (5-10 mins).
Part B
Provide a summary of the simulated experience, including the context and nature of the misbehaviour, the student involved and the strategies you applied.
Provide a critically reflective appraisal of your applied strategies and their effectiveness in de-escalating the incident.
A reflective analysis of the potential effectiveness of the applied strategies and follow-up actions, appraising potential student responses including student and staff well-being and safety.
You will be provided with a scenario that involves a potential critical incident. Critically appraise two approaches that could be deployed in the context of the scenario to support the positive management of the situation.
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This microcredential is delivered online through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning activities. It is designed to build participants’ knowledge, skills, confidence, and self-efficacy in managing potentially stressful and confronting situations in educational settings.
Consistent with ACU’s constructivist approach to learning, participants will draw on their existing knowledge and experiences to develop new understandings and apply these to authentic professional contexts. Learning activities encourage critical reflection on current practices, beliefs, and responses to challenging situations, enabling participants to evaluate and refine their approaches.
Active engagement is fostered through self-directed learning, scenario-based activities, and problem-solving tasks that promote the application of theory to practice. Participants will critically examine a range of evidence-informed philosophies and strategies and consider how these can be integrated into their own educational contexts to support effective responses to challenging and confronting behaviours, while enhancing student and staff well-being and safety.
Teaching and learning approaches may include:
- Asynchronous online activities
- Reading materials – includes both directed reading for the microcredential as well as self-directed study materials
- Forums and discussion boards
- Recorded mini-lectures, presentations or podcasts
- Analysis of critical incidents
- Synchronous online activities
- Seminars – which include analysis of critical incidents, student-led discussions, role play
- Simulated critical incidents and interactions with students
- Collaborative and co-operative learning opportunities.
This microcredential has been designed to ensure that participants undertake approximately 75 hours of learning, including engagement with learning resources, learning activities, assessment tasks, and independent study. The learning activities and assessments are structured to support participants in achieving the learning outcomes and demonstrating the required standard of performance. To maximise their learning experience and successfully complete the microcredential, participants are expected to actively engage in all learning activities and assessment requirements.