Running Head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES STUDENT PROFILE

Individual Differences Student Profile

Jamie Hall
Tracey Meyerhoeffer
College of Southern Idaho
Education 205
Fall 2014

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Individual Differences Student Profile
Introduction
Bridge Academy educates sixty-four students year round. When one student leaves,
another one takes his/her spot. John West was a new student to Bridge Academy last school year,
2013-2014. He immediately made an impression on the staff who work for Bridge Academy. As
a result, staff members continually help John achieve his personal and educational goals.
Achieving these goals is not an easy task because John suffers from three very common
disorders referred to as ADD, or attention deficit disorder, ADHD, or attention-deficit
hyperactive disorder, and bipolar disorder. For John, remaining concentrated, or completing
any task is extremely difficult. For this individual differences student profile, I will examine
Johns physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental levels. Additionally, I will
include a summary of my findings and discuss what implications these findings may have for
John in the classroom.
General Information
John is a Caucasian male who is thirteen years and eight months old. His family consists
of his mother Brittany, his step-father Don, and his newborn sister Lucille. An average routine
for John is going to school from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. After he leaves school, he proceeds to go
home for the rest of the evening where he says he plays video games and interacts with his baby
sister. On weekends, John goes to his friends houses to play video games with them. Through
the summers, John enjoys camping, fishing, biking, and seeing his friends. Come bed time, his
mother makes him take his shower right before he goes to bed. When he is done showering, he
likes to drink sleepy-time tea and then go to bed. In all, he participates in all of the typical

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activities of a boy his age.
Physical Development
As I studied Johns physical appearance, I noticed that he was about four feet tall, with
green eyes and messy blonde hair. John is a smaller boy compared to the other eighth grade
males, his development seems to be behind the other boys his age. This could be from his diet as
he seems to be lacking nutrition in his daily food intake. For instance, he drinks soda and eats a
lot of junk food. John is right handed and is able to use every writing utensil. In all, I believe his
large and small muscle development is on par with his peers as he is able to write, play hacky
sack, and participate in football. Because he has a hearing and vision problem, he is placed
towards the front of the class.
Cognitive Development
Teachers who work with John every day report they have to use the scaffolding method
with John when teaching him because he doesnt understand most of the information.
Additionally, he lacks motivation to participate in group projects, yet succeeds as a fieldindependent learner. His grades in classes like English, Science, and Social Studies are
average, but his Art and Math test scores are above average with a percentile rank of thirty-five
out of sixty-four students. He excels in classes where he can work independently. In almost
every one of these classes when the teacher or another student talks, John blatantly interrupts
with no regard to anyone but himself, stuttering over his words until someone hears what he
wants to say. His misbehavior results in constant removal punishment because he refuses to
follow the rules and respect others. I can imagine that his disorders have a major effect on being
able to stay focused on behaving, or on the tasks at hand. After he refocuses and discusses the

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prevention of a future misbehavior, he is welcomed back into the class. One of his strengths is
accepting responsibility for the wrong behaviors for which he was punished. In sum, he exudes
signs of fitting level two of Kohlbergs theory where he tries to gain the approval of his
teachers and peers directly after he has misbehaved (Kohlberg, 2001. p. 78).
Socio-emotional Development
In class, at recess, and at lunch, John is alone most of the time. In fact, John is often
bullied. This may be due to the fact that John comes from a low-income family and doesnt fit in
with the popular group of children. There are many biases placed upon him for the way he
dresses, smells, and behaves amongst the other children. None of this seems to phase John. He is
very confident and has an endless number of stories to tell. At his age, he should fit in to the
identity crisis category (stage five) of Erik Ericksons psychosocial stages, but he doesnt
(Erickson, 2001. p. 90). John doesnt seem to fit the norm. Telling wild stories to all of his peers
to make them believe he is someone that he isnt is something that John does often. However, in
return, he receives attention from his peers, even though it is negative attention. The fact that his
peers comments are cruel seems to go right over his head. Truly, I believe he may have been
bullied so much in his life that he just tunes it out. In sum, I believe John is entirely too
comfortable with being mistreated.
Conclusion
Studying John for the past three months has made it very apparent that his ability to focus
and not blurt out the things that pop into his head is almost impossible. He needs direct attention
from the teacher in order to be successful. The classes in which teachers used scaffolding seem
to be where he excels the most. Generally, he is not at a typical level of development like his

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peers are. Physically, he is developmentally at the same standpoint as most of his peers though.
From a cognitive perspective, he needs help developing every day because he is far behind his
peers. Socio-emotionally, John exhibits signs of confidence far beyond his years; though this
could be denial and the covering of his true feelings. I am unsure of what the overly confident
attitude truly is. John succeeds strongly as an independent learner and I feel as if he should
continue working on his own because he is less distracted and completes more work this way. It
may be that he is able to completely concentrate without his peers around him giving him any
kind of attention. His work, grades, and attitude decline greatly when placed in a typical
classroom setting with the rest of his peers. The staff at Bridge Academy do the best that they
can to give John the individual attention that he so desperately requires. Continually providing
this for him, along with positive direction and persistent belief in his ability to succeed, John will
eventually matriculate to high school.

References
Parsons, R., Hinson, S., & Sardo-Brown, D. (2008). Educational psychology (1st ed.). Mason,
OH: Cengage Learning.