Diffusing Power

This topic reminds me of some of the discussion in this blog - What is a “good teacher?” Mostly of the students like the “good teacher,” because of they give no homework, a good grade and less restriction to the students. On one hand, students get fully respect from teacher, they are allow to grow up in their own way, and they are more freedom. On the other hand, some children will take “good teacher” as an advantage, being lazy, do not do the work in the class and school at all, and even skip the class. Everybody knows that we should find a balance between it; however, how to find it and what is the balance between indulgent and tough teaching is very hard to tell. I remember when I was in high school, my classmate in the social class always complain about too much homework and difficult exams; and my teacher at that time accept their complain, did make the exam easier and lighter homework later. Nevertheless, I am in university now, there still a lot of complain about the professor’s teaching skill and the difficult assignments; however, my professor told us that “this is life, so do it!” In my professor’s opinion, my professor thinks it is your choice to either taking or drop the course, if you think you can do it, then take it, if not, then drop it. All the requirements are online; my professor can not guarantee that all the students will feel comfortable with taking this class. Also, it is university, we are university students, we are adult, so we know what we want, and we can make decision by ourselves instead of depending on others’ or outer effect.

For me, as a teacher, I would say that I have to play the main role in my classroom, and I have to have the power to control the whole classroom. However, I accept students’ complain suggestion or advice. I will my best to improve my teaching quality, and meet every student’s needs. Also, I will ask my students to obey my rule in the classroom, so we respect each other, and we learn from each other, and we grow up together.

Contract

As we discussed in our blog previously, being a worthy teacher, sometimes is much harder than it looks. As a teacher often with all the effort we put in to control the situation and generate a pleasant learning environment, we still cannot prevent some misbehaver. Sometimes teachers are not able to correct the misbehaviour with positive reinforcement or even discipline, so the last source for teacher would be formal contract. I believe formal contract is decent and is much better than punishment because contracts give the power to students and make them responsible to follow it. However, one important aspect of contract is that it should be about positive reinforcement that students receive. As Bennett and Smilanich discussed on Classroom Management “[a] final paragraph in the contract should emphasize the positive consequences being used, such as phone calls or positive notes, detailing appropriate behaviour, the reward system (if one is being used), and the offer for extra academic assistance”(p.300). As B&S suggest the contract should have a positive reinforcement.

Also, I think that contract should be in favour of the student. I strongly believe we need to design a contract in a way that the student wins. This will give the student the courage to try harder. Also the misbehaviour that we are writing in our contract has to be a direct and specific behaviour so it gives a better vision to the student of what behaviour we want him to change.

Teachers/Diffusing Power - Post by Helen

I remember a lecture I really connected with regarding the concepts of Power Over, Power With, Power To.  It all related to the dynamics of a classroom set-up with chairs in a horseshoe layout. 

Power Over:  The prof still had overall control of the discussion and was the facilitator.  She kept the discussion flowing and on track.

Power With:  The discussions were an invitation to speak freely and to recognize each other’s contributions but also having the permission to disagree or counter each other’s viewpoints.  The prf joined the discussion.  We could argue with or against the prof’s viewpoint.  In a sense we were all on the same level with the prof, such as King Arthur’s round table...however there was still that opening at the “top” the horseshoe where the prof was situated, which visually signified she still had the ultimate power in the classroom, and could step back into a Power Over mode if needed.    

Power To:  Here the prof stepped back completely and gave us free reign on the topic.  We self managed the discussion/activity.  The responsibility was to report back to the whole class and summarize our thoughts of the discussion.  This is where the prof would step back into her role of Power Over as we were each required to contribute a point about the discussion, although we had the opportunity to pass.  This was a large class and the process worked quite well. 

  The following is an excerpt from my own paper in a philosophy class.  It correlates with power diffusion because once a child has a developed language acquisition skills, this gives them a sense of agency over their environments and hence control in their lives as they can express their needs and wants. 

If a backyard dog is bored, it will dig holes, chew on anything it can find and bark incessantly.  It requires stimulation which includes company, either that of humans or other dogs.  In Dr. Levykh’s article, “Vygotsky’s Notions of Learning-Teaching and Development,” he states that Vygotsky makes a differentiation between lower and higher mental functions.  The aforementioned dog is a creature of, “lower mental functions (which) are natural and primitive.” (2)  However as a child grows he/she develops, “higher mental functions (which) are mediated by cultural tools and signs.” (3)  The dog can be taken to a dog park and run around happily with other dogs.  It is essentially playing and hence being stimulated, but it doesn’t learn anything new, nor is there a permanent change in its behaviour.  Once returned to its backyard, it will resume its bad habits.  A child though, if he/she plays with a group of children goes much beyond expending pent-up energy. 

   One principle of Vygotsky’s Social Development theory is the acquisition of language.  Children show their understanding through many symbolic languages including drawing, sculpture, dramatic play and writing.  When they interact in pretend play with each other, they develop complex narratives.  “They begin to link object, actions, and language together in combinations and narrative sequences.” (4)  Vygotsky explores the language exchange with each other and inner speech; during play, children will nurture both.  Vygotsky believed that language develops from social interactions, for communication purposes. Later language ability becomes internalised as thought and “inner speech”.  Vygotsky sees "private speech" as a means for children to plan activities and strategies and therefore aid their development.  Language is therefore an accelerator to thinking and understanding.

I found the following regarding power in the classroom.  http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/112.pdf

THE BASES OF POWER

French and Raven's (1968) bases of power are all founded on the perceptions of

individuals over whom the power might be exerted. Although French and Raven

(1968) were not writing with the classroom as their intended focus, we will examine

these power bases in this context below.

Coercive Power. A teacher's coercive power is based on a student's expectations

that he/she will be punished by the teacher if he/she does not conform to the

teacher's influence attempt. The strength of the teacher's coercive power is contingent

upon the student's perception of how probable it is that the teacher will exact

punishment for non-conformance and the degree of negative consequences such

punishment would entail, minus the probability of punishment from other sources

(eg. from peers, the behavior itself, etc.) if the student does comply with the teacher's

influence attempt. It is important to note here that in environments where very

strong peer-group pressure against the teacher exists, the teacher may have no

coercive power at all, even though the teacher may be in a position to exert a high

degree of punishment.

Reward Power. A teacher's reward power is based on a student's perception of the

degree to which the teacher is in a position to provide reward to her/him for

complying with the teacher's influence attempt. Such rewards may involve providing

something positive (positive reinforcement) or removing something negative (negative

reinforcement). As was the case with coercive power, the strength of a teacher's

reward power is mediated by the possibility of receiving other rewards from other

sources as a function of non-compliance.

Although it is often not recognized, coercive and reward power essentially are the

flip sides of the same coin. Coercive power involves introducing something unpleasant

or removing something pleasant if the student fails to comply. Reward power

involves introducing something pleasant or removing something unpleasant if the

student does comply.

.

Legitimate Power. Legitimate power often is referred to as "assigned" power. It

stems from the assigned role of the teacher in the classroom. Legitimate power is

based on the student's perception that the teacher has the right to make certain

demands and requests as a function of her/his position as "teacher." This type of

power generally is most related to mundane matters, such as controlling classroom

time, determining what unit should be studied, regulating interaction, and the like. It

generally does not extend beyond the school environment into the private lives of

students. In some cases, however, this type of power is much broader. A prime

example is the coach who sets up training rules. Usually the athlete will comply with

these rules because they are seen as "legitimate" demands from this person because

of her/his role as coach. Similar demands from the art teacher likely would be

ignored.

Referent Power. The foundation of referent power is the student's identification

with the teacher. This type of power is based on the relationship between two people.

Specifically, it is based on the desire of the less powerful person (the student) to

identify with and please the more powerful person (teacher). The stronger the

student's attraction to and identification with the teacher, the stronger the teacher's

referent power.

Expert Power. Expert power stems from the student perceiving the teacher to be

competent and knowledgeable in specific areas. Most information taught in a

classroom is presented from a base of expert power. The ideas are not "proven" in an

objective sense. They are presented with the expectation they will be accepted by the

student. To the extent the student sees the teacher as competent and knowledgeable,

this expectation will be correct. French and Raven (1968) stress that the main impact

of expert power is change in an individual's cognitions. Any change in behavior is a

secondary result of that influence.

Is Learning always observable?

No, learning cannot be perfectly observable.
Children learn a lot of things in every moment. They can learn how to comfort their friends when they are in trouble, how to talk nicely to not hurt other's feeling or how to forgive friends. All these things happen during interacting with people arounds them. They are not always observable for teacher. Some parts such as student' learning progress in class can be observable but still, not perfecrtly.

What is Misbehavior?

Class environment can not be always perfact. Therefore, sometimes there are students who misbehave. At this point, misbehavior is behavior that disturb the class, such as whispering, tapping pencils, passing notes, ignoring teacher or getting up and walking around. I believe that there are always reason for students who misbehaves and it is very important for teacher to understand a misbehaving child and why he/she is misbehaving and if the child is struggling with a problem, it is teacher's duty to fin out the problem. Moreover, I think it is important for teacher to talk to the child face to face when they are alone, not infront of others.

What is Worthy Teaching

What is Worthy Teaching?

What is Worthy Teaching? To be a good teacher, this is an important question that I have to think about deeply. At school, children majorly learn about academic skills that students will need for their career in the future. When I say academic skills, they are skills that children learn in their Math class, English class, History class, or science class. The academic skills that children would get from these classes, help widen their knowledge. However, there are other important lessons that good teachers must teach to the children. In my opinion the most important and worthy teaching is that not being judgmental on others. Everyone is different. All of us have different appearance, different characteristics and some people needs special care. However, it is easy for young children (or even grown men) to judge people just by their appearance or other tiny parts of the other and they become prejudice. Also, nowadays, we are living in a globalized world. Therefore, children also have to be more adaptable and acceptable on different cultures to live this world better and more efficiently. It can lead children to live different life in the future when we teach them the difference between each one of people and teach them to be more adaptable for that fact and most importantly, not to be judgmental on others, but love each others no matter what. I think we are now living in a world that love is so limited. People are busy to fence themselves but not love. I do not want children to live the same way. Therefore I believe the most important lesson to teach them is to express their love and share what they have and to forgive eachother.

Contracts

Portfolio focus: What would my contract frame be? 
Topic: Are contracts possible as effective classroom management for all learning styles? 


From reading other posts, I get the idea that contracts are a good thing.
I have not considered using contracts in my own teaching but seeing from the examples brought up by the others in class it seems it should be something to consider.


As informal contracts has been brought up I believe that having this empowering with the student will be very healthy.  
Since students are usually told what to do and what not to do, by empowering them with contracts it will be giving them more control of their own studies.  


Be it with disruptive students or 'normal' students, giving them this responsibility students can feel the consequences of their actions. When t hey agree to something and they support the issue, if they were to fail, they will actually know the feeling of 'failing themselves'. 


Students can be more attuned to their own bodies and minds.  With contracts they can see their own progression and what they struggle with.


I think that contracts themselves are suitable for all styles of learning.  What is IN the contracts will differ from one learning style to another.  
All contracts should be different because no one student is the same as the one beside them.


This is a lot of work and the fact that i never had seen or heard about contracts may be due to the time consumption this takes.


But iI believe teachers should work their butts off and help their students.
Contracts will help students improve and exceed expectations.  
Teachers can get to know their students on a personal level when contracts are being written up and teachers can see what troubles and distractions students have.


Contracts equates more time which then can be a chance for teacher-student relations to get deeper.

Contracts: An effective tool when used with care and compassion.

In my work supporting students with disabilities I have made ample use of informal contracts. It has been part of developing therapeutic rapport with my students, to establish clear and reasonable expectations and follow through with accountability. I have found this approach lays a healthy bedrock of trust between myself and the students I support. The process of mutually working out reasonable behaviour expectations builds rapport and provides great opportunity for self-knowledge and self-assessment. Moreover, when those expectations are violated there is a rich opportunity to demonstrate deep care for the student. Far from reactively coming down hard, or rigidly applying the letter of the law, this is an opportunity to gently explore together the reasons why the student violated his behaviour contract.
The informal contract is a helpful tool that I will continue using regularly as a teacher.

I have never used a contract with an entire class (though I have established clear rules and held students accountable). I was intrigued by Helen’s helpful suggestion a few classes back to develop this contract together with the students. This empowers students to take responsibility for their behaviours and to own the class culture themselves. I will take this approach when I have my own class to care for. We will understand our contract as guidelines and I hope to develop a way to recognize the exemplary complement to any prohibited negative behaviours. (Perhaps using Patrick’s idea and giving students with personalities inclined to rule keeping, the duty of recognizing at day’s end students who stand out for following the class contract well.)
I am open to meeting more severe, ongoing, dangerous behaviours with a formal contract that would result in detentions, at home suspensions, or other punishments. However I have given it some thought since our last blog topic, and at this stage I think I would choose to ‘punish myself’ every time a student is punished for violating a formal contract. This is not as gory as it sounds. :) If a student is suspended, as part of the contract I would agree to spend the evening without any entertainments or some such thing. This would be part of the formal contractual arrangement established between the student(s) and myself.
The purpose is NOT to guilt trip the violating student. It is simply one way to demonstrate my own deep care and commitment to work out a solution cooperatively in relationship with my students. It is a concrete demonstration of compassion (“com-” means “together”, “passion” means “to suffer”). If I expect communal care and compassion from my students, I have to be prepared to make co-suffering sacrifices as their teacher. Teachers teach who they are.

-Mark Northey