By the third week I could see from reflecting on my actions that I needed to focus on how I communicate with the students as some of them are close in age to me and I can be slightly under confident at times. For example, there are times when I struggle to manage negative behavior or how to handle situations with a participant who has an eating disorder. Therefore, I studied positive behavior management strategies using literature and lectures and seminars to incorporate into this weeks session.
Reflecting in action this week forced me to improve my communication skills when coaching, as at the beginning of the session the children didn’t listen to the instructions properly and spoke over me frequently when I was delivering the instructions and demonstrations. Consequently, I decided to employ a rule using an antecedent approach to try and prevent this behavior from occurring each session I taught. So, in the event of anyone not paying proper attention they would undertake a series of intensive drills, independently with the other coach, for the remainder of the lesson. The reason I decided to apply this rule was because reflecting on action has taught myself that the participants dislike training on their own as opposed to in pairs. Additionally, the research I did in lectures informed me that unpleasant consequences develop, maintain and increase positive behavior and to make this technique effective the consequences must be consistent.