ESE 633 – Week 1 – Assignment – Assessing Conflict Styles

Assessing Conflict Styles

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Assessing Conflict Styles

In a classroom setting, the students have different personalities and abilities with some students performing better than others. Because of the different personalities among the students, their behaviors also are different hence perform differently in different areas. In order to meet the needs of the different students in the classroom, a teacher who is a leader of the students should employ different strategies. These strategies will help the students to benefit from the learning. A leader in education should therefore ensure that the needs and rights of all the students are protected by helping them in their different problems and also listening to their view points.

Leadership

As the special educator, my main aim is to find solution to Andy case by finding solution that is generally accepted by all the group members. One of the things to start with in finding an agreeable solution to the Andy problem is to give Andy’s teacher a chance to give a brief explanation of Andy’s performance and behavior in class and also to give his suggestion on the solution that he thinks will best fit Andy. From this, all the team members will get to understand the current situation of Andy in the classroom.

 The next thing is that, I will give my own opinion on the solution that I think will best fit Andy. Also, I will give an explanation as to why it is important for the teacher to form teaching strategies that will meet the needs of all the students in the classroom. After that, I will give chance to assistant principle so as to give his opinion on what he thinks will be the best solution for Andy’s case based on the description given about Andy’s current situation in class.  After hearing opinions from all the team members, I will analyze the various opinions and see common opinions that most of the members support as the best solutions will give. And based on the different opinions given by the team members, an agreeable solution will be reached.

Roles

Within the meeting, each member has a role to play. Without all the three members present, finding solution to the Andy’s case may not be possible. The role of the assistant principal in the meeting is to play administrative role. The assistant principle represent the school administration in hearing Andy’s case from the math teacher as well as listening to the opinions on the solution that may help in solving Andy’s problem in math class. The reason why the principle is participating in the meeting is to hear the reason why Andy is failing in math class unlike in the other classes. The assistant principle will listen to opinion from the math teacher on what he thinks might help Andy to improve in math. At the same time, he will listen from the special educator on what might be the solution to the Andy’s problems as well as listen to the teaching strategies that may help Andy overcome learning problem in math and behavioral problems in class. Forming best strategies when teaching students with different needs will boost their performances in various subjects and classes (Fiedler, 2000).

The presence of the assistant principle in the meeting adds some value to the meeting. The value that he adds to the meeting is that, his presence makes the meeting official and it also shows that the school administration is concern with the rights of the students and also willing to listen to the complaints and opinions of the teachers. An active school administration is the one that is concern with the rights of the students as well as the one that is willing to listen to the complaints and opinions of the teachers (Biediger-Collins, 2000).

Conflict Management

From the self-assessment, the kind of management style that I have is the competing management style. In this type of management style, a person is assertive in the way he behaves. The assertive behavior is aimed at achieving the goals without necessarily cooperating with the other parties with the expectation of benefiting another party. In the case presented, the conflict management that I possess will be of importance in finding the solution to Andy’s case since the management style will help Andy in improving in math class. This style will ensure that, math teacher implement the initial strategies that I had given in order to see if Andy will improve in math performance as well as improvement in behavior.

Despite the math teacher claiming that he does not have time for implementing the strategies, he should be forced to implement it for the benefit of Andy who has some problems in class. The implementation of the strategy will ensure that all the students in the classroom are not discriminated and the needs of all the students are met.  Implementing the strategy will help in understanding if there is any improvement in Andy’s case, and if there is there is no improvement, some other alternatives is developed.  Competing management style is important since there is need to take quick actions in order to help Andy in his current situation.

The conflict management style can also be a weakness in looking for a solution in Andy’s case. The reason is that, since the style involves being assertive in making decisions and taking actions, there is no cooperating with other parties.  Forcing the teacher to implement strategies may not work since the teacher may not implement strategies as expected. The teacher may consider it as interference of his profession or may have been viewed as unskillful in his field of expertise.

Perspective

In finding solution to the Andy’s case, there is a disagreement between the math teacher and the special educator. the disagreement of the math teacher come about because of having insufficient time for implementing strategies as well as lacking skills for teaching students with special needs. Although he had been given strategies by the special educator, he could not implement since he lacked skills foe teaching students with special needs.  According to Biediger-Collins (2000), teaching students without possessing relevant skills in special education may not yield good results even if the best strategies are provided in time.

From the Andy’s case, the teacher denies that he has not implement the strategies since he does not have the time. He claims that he does not have any time for extra planning since the only time that he has is used for planning for different math classes as well as grading math papers for all the classes that he teaches. The reason why he claims not to have implemented the strategies is because of his professional role as a regular school teacher. The math teacher feels that his professional knowledge is only applicable with the students who do not have special needs. This feeling therefore made him to reject the request of the special educator to implement the strategies that may help Andy in improving in math class as well as in improving in his behavior. The math teacher feels that if he continues teaching Andy, he is going to fail again like he had done before.  

Plan

Creating a plan that can help Andy in his situation is important. The plan will help to improve in his math performance as well as in his behavior. As the special educator, one way of providing tools that can help Andy to be successful in mathematics is by offering training to the math teacher on how to handle students with special needs. In this, offering training to math teacher will help in equipping him with the relevant skills in special education; skills that will help Andy to improve and become successful in math class. Through trainings, teachers are able to be equipped with the relevant skills that help the students to excel in different subject areas (Lussier, 2008).

On the other hand, the assistant principal will help in providing tools for Andy through convincing the principle to buy relevant teaching materials that can be used in teaching math. When the necessary teaching material is purchased by the administration and implemented in teaching, the performance of Andy in mathematics will improve. Fiedler (2000) argued that, using different teaching materials when giving instructions to the students will help them improve in their performance since all the requirements that meet their needs are present.

On the other hand, math teacher can help in providing tools for Andy to be successful in math by creating an outline of what is needed to be covered. The outline that is to be provided by the teacher will help the team members in deciding if the content of the topics to be covered are arranged in a progressive  way, that is, from simple and moving towards more complex tasks. This therefore will help Andy in becoming successful in math.

Timeline

TEAM MEMBERS
TIME
INFORMATION TO BE BROUGHT TO THE TABLE
Assistant Principle
16th August, 2015
The information will include: Information from the administration about when the teaching material will be bought.
Special Educator
16th August, 2015
The information will include: When the training of the math teacher will began as well as the topics that will be covered during the training session.
Math Teacher
16th August, 2015
The information will include: An outline of the topics that are supposed to be covered in teaching math.

References

Biediger-Collins, A. R. (2000). Communication and conflict management styles as perceived by special education directors and their subordinates in Region XX ESC in Texas.

Fiedler, C. R. (2000). Making a difference: Advocacy competencies for special education professionals. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Lussier, R. N. (2008). Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, skill development. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.