Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Establishing a positive classroom climate


One of the most important facilitators of learning for any class is the classroom climate. This includes student attitudes (and teacher attitude), relationships between students and other students and between students and the teacher, acceptance and appreciation, respect for the rules, respect for other people, a sense of optimism, and a collective willingness work hard.
To have all of these things at once could be a challenge, so it is a culture that needs to be built piece by piece. The foundation of a positive culture is the relationships between the students and the teachers. In order to foster strong relationships, you need mutual respect, trust, and interest. Hopefully you also have mutual appreciation. It's important to start on a positive note for all of these area. People are not always 100% trustworthy, but it's better to start from a place of trust. Later, that may need to be modified, but it's always important to give as much trust as possible. For example, if someone cheats on my test, I will punish them on that grade, but I will also tell them that I believe in them and I still think they are a good student. As a teacher, we sometimes forget the pressure that some students have from the parents or other sources, so we may forget to be empathetic even for students that do something wrong.
The respect component is also extremely important. I'm not always the best at this, especially if I feel that a student has a bad attitude about learning or being in my class. Nevertheless, I'm trying to improve my consistency in respecting all students. The basic premise is that every student is a person and should not be treated as a product or a vessel for filling with knowledge. I show my respect by listening to my students feedback about my class, by sometimes allowing them to sit where they want even if they don't want to, and by always trying to speak respectfully to everyone. One time my students told me that I was giving them too much homework. I listened to them and I realized that they had a good point, considering how many classes they had and how much homework they could reasonably be expected to do in one day. So I told them I would modify my homework policy to make sure they didn't get too much in one day from me.
Mutual interest is also important and it's another area where I have to say that I haven't always been that great. In the book The Art and Science of Teaching by Robert Marzano, he suggests that you try to take a few minutes to talk with at least one student every day (p. 155-156). I don't necessarily agree with his method of randomly trying to run into different students, because it seems unreliable, but I like the idea of taking some time to talk to one student every day. Perhaps I will try to schedule time where I can talk to students and then have different students come to talk to me during that time. It's something to experiment with. I find that students are naturally interested in me, so I want to reciprocate by also being interested in them.
When it comes to relationships between students, in general the students in one class will like each other, but they will often dislike students in other classes. This is my observation at least. I believe this comes from the tendency to develop affinity for whatever group you are in and a dislike for other groups. Teachers can encourage students liking other students in their class by giving students opportunities to collaborate productively and by not pitting students against each other (for grades, for example). Teachers will have a harder time encouraging respect for other groups, but I believe it starts with modeling respect for all people. Schools in general can also foster a school spirit by having group activities or having projects that are done by mixed groups of students.
Unfortunately, even within classes, sometimes there will still be outcasts. This could take the form of bullying, shunning, ignoring, or some combination of the three. This can be very hard to combat. Bullying an evolutionary adaptive behavior practiced by many species. Most of the time bullies actually benefit from bullying (Volk et al, abstract), so tackling it is an uphill battle. Nevertheless, it can be productively addressed. Teachers can contribute to this effect by modeling empathy and respect. It will be more effective, however, if the issue is addressed in a school-wide effort.

One of the most effective ways to address bullying is to teach victims and potential victims (or everyone) how to be resilient (Kalman, 2014). The victims have control over their responses, especially if the bullying is subtle. This can also help them develop skills that will be useful for their whole life.
If the class if diverse, with students of different races, backgrounds, disabilities, or sexualities present, there is more of a potential for conflict or bullying. Teachers can proactively try to head this off by honoring people of diverse backgrounds, including historical figures, cultural figures, and people in the class or school. Teachers should also initiate a culture of shared inquiry, which can show that everyone in the class is valued (Teaching Tolerance, p. 10). Taking active steps to build a community of respect can also prevent many problems. Teachers can work with students to develop class rules, which students will then be more motivated to follow, because they feel invested in them. Incorporating material about respect, tolerance, inclusion, and diversity into the curriculum will also help students to develop a mind-set of respect for all (Teaching Tolerance, p. 11).
In general, a positive classroom climate begins with respect and trust. When that foundation is laid, the teacher can use that trust and respect to continue to improve the classroom climate. As long as it lasts, continuous improvement is possible.

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References:

Marzano, R. J. (2010). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Volk, A. A., Dane, A. V., Marini, Z. A., & Vaillancourt, T. (2015). Adolescent Bullying, Dating, and Mating. Evolutionary Psychology, 13(4), 147470491561390. doi:10.1177/1474704915613909

Kalman, I. (2014, May 30). Why Telling on Bullies Backfires. Retrieved April 08, 2018, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/resilience-bullying/201405/why-telling-bullies-backfires 
Teaching Tolerance (2016). Critical Practices for4 Anti-bias Education. tolerance.org

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