THEORIES IN CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT Democratic Teaching Rudolf Dreikurs What is teaching? By B.

O Smith (1961) i) "teaching is imparting knowledge or skill" ii) teaching is undertaking certain tasks or activities the intention of which is to induce learning By H.C. Morrison (1934) i) Teaching is an intimate contact between a more mature personality and a less mature one which is designed to further the education of the latter. By John Dewey i) one might as well say he has sold when no one has brought, as to say he has taught when no one has learned By Rabindra Nath Tagore i) A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame What is democratic? i) favouring or characterized by social equality Oxford Dictionaries What is Democratic Teaching? i) ii) iii) iv) Dreikurs believed all students desire to feel they have value and feel they can contribute to the classroom So teachers are sharing power with students and supporting them in managing their own behaviours. teachers don't control students, but instead seek to support them in their own behaviour change process. In Democratic classrooms and teaching styles mutual respect motivates students to behave constructively. This occurs out of their heightened sense of social interest. Dreikurs believed that when students are not able to gain their genuine goal of belonging they turn to a series of mistaken goals. Mistaken goals are defined as attention, power, revenge and inadequacy. This is when students misbehave. If the student fails to achieve the amount of recognition they desire or they do not have a sense of belonging, attempt to gain attention from peers and the teacher. When students are not satisfied with their attempt at gaining attention, they often seek power by refusing to do what a teacher asks. Finally they will withdraw themselves or refuse to participate in the classroom activities.

v) vi) vii)

viii) ix)

Three types of teachers i) ii) Autocratic Teacher Force their will on their students Take firm control and refuse to tolerate any deviation from the rules Force rather than motivate students to work and they punish those who refuse to conform. No humour or warmth in the class Permissive Teacher Ineffective when working with students Fails to realize how critical rules are in classroom Dont follow through on consequences. Need for students to develop self discipline is unimportant to them. They allow their students to behave as they wish. The result is general chaos and poor learning atmosphere.

iii)

Democratic Teacher Provide firm guidance but do not promote rebellion. Students are allowed to participate in making decisions about what is studied as well as in making rules. Help students understand that making decisions is firmly tied to responsibility. Students are allowed freedom, but they are expected to assume responsibility for what they do. Students are free to explore, discover, and choose their own way as they increasingly assume personal responsibility

Research indicates that a democratic approach is more effective, both for classroom management and student learning. Praise supports completion. Encouragement supports the process. Logical consequences produce better results than punishment. (video on why a teacher chooses democratic teaching) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oGo39WDm3J4

Essential Elements of a Democratic Classroom Proactive Teacher Discipline is based on mutual respect Cooperation is more important than competition Students help develop management plan Mutual trust Friendly atmosphere Class concerns are discussed - Class Meeting 4 Mistaken goals Attention Seeking (clowning, disturbing others, not paying attention, tapping with pencil) Power Struggle (show rebellious manner, disobey, refuse tocomplete their work, forgot to bring books) - Revenge Active (stealing, violence against property) Passive (Being sullen, morose, moody, or depressed, not co-operating in group)

Inadequacy(like to be alone, avoid group participation, avoid public presentation/work)

How to deal with 4 mistaken goals? Dreikurs suggested: To Identify the students mistaken goal. Being able to confront their students about their mistaken goal. Observe students and their reactions. Important to avoid power struggles with students. Redirect students. To examine strengths and acceptance. Give some encouragement to students who display inadequacy. (Even minimal efforts) 1) Dealing with Attention Seeking Behaviour Attention seeking children seem unable to tolerate being ignored. They prefer the pain of humiliation or other forms of punishments than to receiving no attention If they fail to receive the attention they desire they do things that cannot be ignored. When students behave unacceptably, teachers must ignore them. If their misbehaviour is consistently ignored, children will not learn to associate attention with inappropriate behaviour

2) Dealing with Power Seeking Behaviour Teachers are usually unprepared to avoid power struggles with students who threaten their authority and prestige. Teachers fight back to avoid letting students get the best of them. Teachers believe, they must avoid losing face at all costs One way to avoid power struggle is to make it necessary for misbehaving students to confront the whole class in the quest of power. Teachers also make sure that they dont give in to the demands of power seeking children. Teachers need to remember that they must not fight with students. They can often avoid power struggles simply by refusing to play the role of authoritarian.

3) Dealing With Revenge Seeking Behaviour Revenge is usually the motive in children who arem convinced that they are right and can do whatever they please. They often try to hurt others and feel that those who try to stop them are their enemies. It is difficult to reason with these children as they rarely accept the responsibility for the destructive relationships they have with teachers and classmates Helping such children is a delicate matter. Teachers can enlist the help of other class members, but they should do so with care Teachers need to encourage the class to be more positive Revenge seeking children are likely in the beginning to be antagonistic in the face of friendliness and kindness, even after trust seems developing they may put everyone into test by doing something outrageous. When they do children whose help has been seek should be encouraged not to reject their revengeful peers and to not accept their behaviours as well.

4) Dealing with Displays of Inadequacy Students who display inadequacy do so for one of the following reasons They are overly ambitious They are over competitive They are over sensitive to pressure Teachers must learn never to give up on students who believe themselves to be inadequate. They must provide these students an abundance of support and encouragement. Encouragement is specially needed when students make mistakes. These students need to feel successful and accepted for what they are.

Preventing Discipline Problems 1) Encouragement instead of praises Encouragement Vs Praise Encouragement -Focuses on the effort rather than the achievement. Nice try I can tell you are working hard is an encouraging phrase. Praise -Focuses on the level of accomplishment or achievement What a great job you did on your homework!

2) Logical consequences instead of punishment Approaches /Strategies i) ii) Provide lessons with social interest in mind. Provide a teaching environment that supports students sense of belonging by involving students in decisions that affect their school lives. Come up with a set of classroom rules as a group. Support responsibility through freedom of choices in lesson plans. Avoid power struggles and encourage students who display inadequacy. Encourage students rather than praise them. Avoid misbehaviour in a classroom by using words of encouragement, which convey respect for students abilities. Provide students with logical consequences to mistaken goals to support responsibility and avoid punishment. e.g. students should take part in deciding what consequences should be given when behaviour agreements are broken. This way it gives them a sense of understanding for the reasons behind rules and consequences. focus must be on constructive behaviour rather than coercive discipline.

iii) iv) v) vi) vii)

viii)

ix)

Strengths
Promotes a degree of autonomy for students It incorporates a preventive approach to discipline It help students to understand why they behave as they do. Helps students learn correct behaviour Promotes mutual respect between teachers and students Relies on logical consequences instead of arbitrary punishments and systematic reinforcement Helps teachers focus on causes for behaviour before they take action

Weaknesses
Teachers have trouble determining the actual motives of their students Students may not admit their real motives, either because they believe that their motives are unacceptable or because they do not know what they are. Teachers find it difficult to respond to students in a non controlling way. Teachers may have a problem dealing with the complexity of engaging in a dialogue with their students All students may not understand the goals, rules and expectations as the teacher does

Examples of Logical Consequences: 1)If students write on the walls, they can either clean them or pay the janitor to clean them. 2)Students who fight during recess may be barred from recess until they provide the teacher with a plan outlining how they propose to avoid fighting. 3)If students disturb others, they maybe isolated from the group until they agree to disturb the class no longer. 4)If students are late for class, they may be directed either to come on time or to wait at the door until they receive a signal that their late arrival will no longer disturb the class.

Democratic education places a great trust in the students and they, more often than not, rise to the challenge. In the process, the students become more mature, self-disciplined, and intrinsically motivated, seeing the value of learning above and beyond its instrumentality in getting a "good job" (Bhave, 1996; Labaree, 1997).

REFERENCES
http://www.tolerance.org/supplement/democratic-classrooms http://smgaza.iweb.bsu.edu/portfolio/resources/Classroom-Mgmt-Chart.pdf http://web.uvic.ca/~gtreloar/Prosocial%20ED%20408/Lessons/Lesson%206%20support/Rudolf%20Dreikurs.pdf http://www.newfoundations.com/Morrison.html http://www.scribd.com/doc/17722580/Lect-10-11-Rudolf-Dreikurs http://www.slashdocs.com/nxspxw/theories-of-democratic-teaching.html (you can refer to this slides)