Ecology of Teaching
Good teachers... (pg. 241)
Organize the classroom environment to provide time and opportunity to learn
Involve the students in planning motivating learning activities
Communicate high expectations for students success
adapt leaning activities to the needs and abilities of students
Ensure success for students by providing guidance and support as they progress through the curriculum
Teacher characteristics and student learning: leadership style
"Know your students and respond accordingly"
"Communicate verbally"
"Relate to students positively"
"Be a role model"
"Be democratic"
"Be a collaborator"
"Be a mentor"
Teacher Characteristics and Student Leaning: Management Style
Manage the classroom with planning and preparation of instruction, so that inattention and boredom are prevented.
Teachers should have "with-it-ness", meaning that they respond to incidents quickly rather than waiting. They quash minor problems before they become major ones.
Well managed classrooms run by themselves, with the teacher spending more time teaching rather than dealing with behavioral problems.
Successful classroom managers are able to overlap, or deal with more than one activity at the same time.
Teacher Characteristics and Student Learning: Expectations
The way teachers expect students to act lead students to usually act that way.
Teachers expectations of students can be influenced by past records of achievement, SES, certain characteristics, cultural background, gender, personality, physical attractiveness, speech characteristics, and handwriting.
Teacher Characteristics and Student Learning: Gender
Research shows that student-teacher interaction tends to differ according to the gender of the student (gender of the teacher doesn't seem to matter)
Boys tend to have more interactions with the teachers than girls do. Teachers are more responsive to the disruptive behavior of boys than girls and are more likely to reprimand boys.
Boys tend to receive criticism for failing to obey the rules, whereas girls receive criticism based more on their performance.
Boys attribute their failure to do well with a lack of effort, girls attribute their failure to do well with lack of ability.
Teachers need to be trained to foster assertive and affiliative skills in both girls and boys.
Student Characteristics and Teacher Interaction: Ethnicity
Equitable treatment for all groups. Teachers must be sensitive to a students home background and language.
Generalized values of the macro culture
Emphasis on active mastery
Valuation of work ethic
Achieved status
Stress on assertiveness
Valuation of fairness
Emphasis on peer relationships
Generalized values of the micro culture could include: orientation toward extended family, fostering of sharing and group ownership, humility, observational learning and patience, respect, ascribed status
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Student Characteristics and Teacher Interaction: Learning Styles
Orientation toward persons/objects: children from collectively oriented families tend to be more oriented toward feelings and personal instruction and are more proficient at nonverbal communication.
Field dependence/independence: some children exhibit a holistic, concrete, social approach to learning.
Adapting teaching style to diverse learning styles means knowing how the children learn and Gardner's multiple intelligence.
Logical-mathematical, linguistics, body kinesthetic, musical, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist