Poster

1)                  Be interactive

“Alfred(1930), Rudolf(1968), Thomas(1974) and Maurice (1992) exemplify theorists who emphasised the role of the school in preparing students to live in a democratic society through the sharing of power between teachers and students.” Teachers will be able to understand their students more and the teaching materials can be adjusted to fit the student’s needs.

2)                  Positive classroom environment

Alfie Kohn’s emphasis on “developing caring, supportive classrooms in which students are able to pursue topics of interest in depth” (Charles, 2005) is very important as it will affect students’ engagement in the classroom as well as their motivation in learning.

3)                  Rules

Outline the rules and regulations during the early days of class and demand certain expectations to be met such as punctuality, respect for each other, teamwork, assignment deadline etc. As Andrea (2006) stated, “clarify rules so that students fully understand your expectations from the beginning.”

4)                  Reinforcing point 3!

Andrea (2006) stated, “By enforcing rules consistently will allow students to feel comfortable knowing that your behaviour and responses are predictable.” Once students understand our behaviour and are able to predict our responses as a consequence of their behaviours, they will be more aware and the class will be much easier to be managed.

5)                  Lesson plans

Tyler’s objective model comprises of four steps in lesson planning: 1) statement of the objectives; 2) selection of the experiences that will develop the objectives; 3) determination of how the experiences will best be enacted to meet the objectives; 4) evaluation of the students’ achievement of the objectives. (Churchill, 2011) Lesson plans are able to provide clear guidance of the process of teaching and also expectations of student’s learning progress.

6)                  Draw boundaries

Set clear boundaries so that students are certain about acceptable classroom behaviours. As a teacher, I am there primarily to teach, be their role model and secondarily, their friend. (Andrea, 2006) If students are unclear of such boundaries, it will lead them to misbehave and end up uncontrollable.

7)                  Set goals

Setting goals will motivate students in learning as they will understand what and why they are given the appointed tasks. (Churchill, 2011) If the goals are achievable and deemed challenging, this will not only promote students’ engagement in their studies, but also promote continuous self-learning/improvement. When students complete a task, they will become more confident and gain interest in that particular subject, seemingly a positive feedback loop.

8)                  Circle time

Andrew and Pamela (2000) quoted, “circle time can help young people develop skills such as listening and empathising; it can promote respect for others and self-esteem; it is a forum within which the nature and effects of bullying can be considered; and it can be used to develop an anti-bullying code to which all members of the school community have contributed.”

9)                  Be a role model

Bandura (1977) stated “people learn to behave in moral or immoral ways primarily by observing others – particularly parents, caregivers and significant others such as teachers and peers.” (Krause, 2010) Naturally as a teacher, we have to be well-behaved in front of the students and try to guide them in building self-esteem and self-efficacy.

10)            To teach in routines

Andrea (2006) stated, “Use routines for all classroom activities so students know what to do at all time.” Using routines in the classroom will undeniably increase students’ comfort level in the class, making the classroom environment their ‘comfort zone’.

Ed Foundation: comments

I have commented on John and Ty's blog posts.

Ed Foundation 2nd post

I will focus on Jane’s scenario in my second blog post. Jane was excited and full of enthusiasm at the beginning of her teaching’s career. However on reaching the end of her first year she was struggling to control her students. Students’ misbehaviour has a negative impact on her preparation for lessons, both physically and mentally. Furthermore, the overheard conversation of some parents at the club saying that ‘she just doesn’t give them any work that interesting for them’ has strongly demotivated her and rendered her hard work for the students to be in vain.

Below are some ideas that can help Jane in motivating her students and reorganise her classroom order. 

1)      Groupwork: Jane can divide her students into smaller discussion groups. In that sense Jane will have better control over smaller number of students in clusters and will be able to guide and attempt to fit her teaching to everyone’s needs. As for her students, they will benefit from their exchange of ideas and learn from each other as different students originate from different backgrounds. As Michael Reynolds (1994, Pg17) stated, “a group of people could make prior experience available for learning, could generate fresh material through experiential activities and could provide a forum for collective decision making about the content and direction of learning and development.”

2)      Rules: it will be good if Jane is able to lay out her personal classroom’s rules at the beginning of the school term and warn the students of the consequences if such rules are broken. This method will provide the students a very concise picture of what is to be expected and prohibited when a class is running. Students will be well aware of the boundaries set up in the classroom. As Andrea M. Babkie (2006) stated, “clarify rules so that students fully understand your expectations from the beginning. Make sure the rules are clear, simple, number no more than five, and are stated in a positive format. In other words, tell students what to do rather than what not to do. This allows for a focus on praise rather than on punishment.”

3)      Encourage students to get along with each other: It is common to have a wide diversity of students in a classroom, with florid cultural backgrounds commonly observed. It is thus very important to help students to get along with each other especially for those who come from suburban areas. At the beginning of each lesson, Jane can suggest the students to self introduce when she is taking the roll. With this method, Jane will not only know them better, but also will help overcome the natural restraint between teacher and students. Or as mentioned before, Jane can divide students into smaller groups for the students to exercise teamwork and learn to communicate and co-operate with each other. As Jill Hadfield (1992,Pgs 24) stated, “the group may be strangers to each other; they may also be nervous, worried, lacking in confidence, unsure of their capabilities, and wondering what they have let themselves in for.” It is very important for the teacher to “break the ice” between students and try to incorporate a sense of belonging for the class in every student. 

4)      Motivation: Goals can be set for students to target. It will be good if Jane can discuss the goals with her students and be opened to any suggestions. Students will be motivated if they are able to visualise the goals. Providing confidence to students by positive reinforcement will definitely help the students in making further progress. Instead of short term rewards, setting a goal will provide a long term motivation for the students. 

5)      Circle time:  Another method is using ‘circle time’. Jane can use ‘circle time’ during the discussion. As Andrew Mellor and Pamela Munn (2000, Pg. 3) stated, “circle time can help young people develop skills such as listening and empathising; it can promote respect for others and self-esteem; it is a forum within which the nature and effects of bullying can be considered; and it can be used to develop an anti-bullying code to which all members of the school community have contributed.”

References:

1)      Renolds M. (1994), Groupwork in Education and Training: Ideas in Practice, Kogan Page, UK, Pg. 15 – 28

2)      Babkie A.M. (2006), Be Proactive in Managing Classroom Behaviour, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.canberra.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b656af4c-23d0-49ee-b3da-b9efebfc1400%40sessionmgr113&vid=2&hid=111

3)      Hadfield J. (1992), Classroom Dynamics, Oxford, UK, Pg.24

4)      Churchil R., Ferguson P., Godinho S., Johnson N.F., Keddie A., Letts W., Mackay J., McGill M., Moss J., Nagel M.C., Nicholson P. and Vick M. (2011), Teaching Making A Difference, John Wiley & Sons, Australia. Pg. 115 - 128

5)      Mellor A. and Munn P. (2000), Circle Time, Anti-bullying network.

https://docutek.canberra.edu.au/eres/docs/28884/circle_time.pdf

Comments 1

Dear Phil,

Hi, I have commented on Zach and Ty's post. Thanks.

Winnie

Ed Foundation Post 1

I have read through those 5 scenarios which based on different situations and I found that Tracy’s case was quite reflected on the new teacher’s expectation and the outcome. 

Before entering the school to teach as a proper teacher, I believed that all of us (including Tracy) have already thought about what kind of teacher do I want to be and how could I pass my knowledge to my students. We all would like to try to use the technique and the knowledge we have learned from the university and hopefully could apply those to our way of teaching. We would be very optimistic and have lots of plans for students and expected that our students could learn from us and have some contributions for the nation. Nevertheless, in the reality of the life we have to face on the pressure from the school, the society, the parents even the students. 

There are some hypotheses we might face on in our future which are as shown as below:

1.         1)  Pressure from the school:  Some of the schools might fight for the fame within the community area. In order to fight for the reputation, the principle might allocate more pressure on the teachers and set a target for teachers to reach. For example, students’ result has to get at least 85% distinction in a specific subject. Sometimes, there is also an award for the teacher who has reached the target. As a result, this might cause the tension between colleagues. Instead of enjoying teaching, they have to compete with each other and always find a way to reach the target.

2.             2)   Pressure from society: Some private schools in rural or remote area might suffer from inadequate fund resources. Hence, teachers have to lead the students to ask for donation from the neighbourhood. Some people might think that this is not professional and the responsibility for the teacher is teaching while student is studying but not raising fund for the school. People might feel less confidence by sending their child to the school as they think that the school might has less facilities and teaching resources. As a result, teachers have to do better in order to maintain the reputation of the particular school.

3.               3)  Pressure from parents: In this century, parents are very concerned about their child’s learning procedure. Sometimes, they would be interfere teacher’s teaching method and hopefully teacher could follow their instructions on how to teach their child. Other than that, if the students do something inappropriate and receive some punishment such as tidying up the classroom or copy the text for 5 times, their parents would come to the teacher and forbid the teacher for punishing their child. In this situation, students would become more and more disorganized as they could do whatever they like to but without receiving any punishment. 

4      Pressure from students: Students in a classroom could be divided into two categories: Students concentrate on their studies; students’ not engaging on what teacher teaches in class. They will do whatever they like to do such as chit-chatting with the students next to them or reading other subject’s material, and so on. In the latter case, teacher has to find more solutions to guide them and making sure they will back on track.

For my own philosophy in this case, I will always reminding myself the purpose for me to work as a teacher and I could not feel frustrated because of the reality I am facing on. Everything has its double edge sword: the pressure could make a people feeling fear and frustrated; on the other hand it could also motivate one to be optimistic and find a way to cope with the pressure. For the pressure of school and the society, it can help us to enhance our teaching skill and also improve our knowledge in order to reach the target which has been set up by the principle. It will be helpful if we could understand the difficulty that students might be facing on and the reasons for them to lure attention away from their studies. Start from this point, we could be able to find solutions and help them get through it. I believe that if a teacher is full of responsibilities, willingness to devote their time on students and really engaging on teaching, their students would be able to feel the passion and getting themselves on the right track. I believe that it does not really important to compete with others, but the only enemy is I myself. I have to keep telling myself that I would do better on the next day and always stay optimistic.