A classrooms environment and feel plays a role in students performance, achievement, motivation and self confidence. When students start a new school year they have a class of new/ old classmates, students will have to learn the new rules, and expectations too. The classmates, teacher and school will all have work together to create an environment where students have a bond to their friends, class and school. The social bonds the students make are are motivated to learn, and are performing at their highest. Newman (1992) identified clarity of purpose, fairness, personal teacher support, and successful experiences are four key aspects that teachers must model and support in order for a community to be formed in the class ( Motivation for Achievement; Alderman, Kay).
Clarity of purpose-
Students need to be aware of the purpose for the expectations in the class. Explain the opposite to students; what if there was no purpose and random rules where just made up because..... From personal experience I notice students take more responsibility for their learning and behavior when they understand the purpose.
Fairness-
It is important that teachers are fair at ll times, all students must have equal access. If there is a sense if unfairness felt students will fell left out and unequal to the other members in their class.
Teacher support-
Personal teacher support is essential, without support the student will lack motivation and not perform as well. Support is needed for students when they are having a difficult time, as well as someone to believe in them. The classroom needs someone to implement the "tone' for a social and positive class.
Successful Experiences-
Successful experiences in my opinion are very powerful to students. Students need to experience achievement and success often. The feeling of achievement reassures students of their capabilities, self efficacy and motivates the for more challenging tasks. If students do not experience achievement they lack the understanding about the purpose of working hard and effort.
When a community is established in the class students will feel equal, not intimidated or embarrassed about their mistakes, and are motivated about their learning. In order for a teacher and school to maintain a positive, safe community teachers must monitor groupings and make sure groups are fluid and diverse so students have a chance to work with everyone's abilities. When students create rules and consequences they feel more in charge and that they have a voice. Teachers need to provide students many opportunities where they have the freedom and competence to make choices. Without a positive social context in the class safe, healthy, and equal relationships will be lacking. The "feel" in a classroom is a good predictor whether or not their is a sense of community and motivation. Rafe (discussion/ week 5 Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire) is a teacher who models great strategies that promote a positive social complex in the class. Rafe is on YOU TUBE, which I recommend all teachers to view.
It's interesting how setting up a positive classroom environment relates to everything we've already learned about self-efficacy, attributions and goal setting. I think successful experiences are essential for motivating students. Success begets success. When students have a taste of success, they want even more, especially if they have a history of failure in school. It's the teacher's responsibility to provide support to the student so that they will be successful and students will feel safe taking risks. It's also important for the teacher to provide support in terms of helping students attribute their success to the amount of effort they put in. That way, students will make the connection between success and effort and want to work harder and harder for more success.
ReplyDeleteAs far as clarity of purpose and fairness goes, I think that relates to your classroom management of student behavior, but also to your instruction. Students need clear expectations for behavior and for their learning. They also need to be treated fairly in terms of their learning styles. Treating students fairly relates to providing punishments that are fair for all students, but it also applies to differentiation. Some students might need extra scaffolding to be successful and others might need to be pushed to go deeper. It’s interesting that being fair doesn’t mean treating all students the same.
Clarity of purpose and fairness really reminds me of the chapter on goal setting. In order for students to set goals and successfully meet them the goal has to be clear and fair for that student. In this way, when we teach students how to monitor their behavior by providing clarity of purpose and fairness, we are providing a bridge to how we treat them when we set goals for their learning.