Creating an Environment that Promotes Self-Esteem

H3 – Honor the classroom/school community as a milieu for learning.

While reading Richardson (2012) and Mitra (2012), I have been given a glimpse of a future where computers are the central figures in the classroom, and I have, therefore, recently found myself wondering what the teacher’s role is in the digital classroom, when computers, not teachers, represent the best possibility for differentiated instruction. To answer this question, I have reflected on the role the teacher has in creating a social environment that produces strong self-esteem in students and encourages active participation in both exploiting and enriching the environment (Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2014, p. 306). Rogers (n.d.) and Joyce, Weil and Calhoun (2014) present research that documents the effect teachers have on the

(Joyce et al., 2014, p.305)

social climate of the classroom. The research is abundantly clear: a teacher demonstrating high proficiency with interpersonal skills facilitates higher learning achievements for students (Rogers, n.d.). Students learn better when they have a positive social dynamic created by an active teacher who models effective social skills. It is the imitation phenomena at work; just as babies will stick out their tongues in imitation of an adult within an hour of birth, so will students imitate the behavior of the teacher in front of them (Medina, 2014, p.247). This ranges from minute social behaviors, such as polite speech, to character building habits of actively seeking out opportunities to learn from and educate others.

To sum it all up, the research evidence clearly indicates that when students’ feelings are responded to, when they are regarded as worthwhile human beings capable of self-direction, and when their teacher relates to them in a person-to-person manner, good things happen. To the Consortium researchers, it seems that children who are in person-centered classrooms learn some important things about themselves, which make it possible for them to grow more healthily and achieve more effectively. (Rogers, n.d., para. 10)

I believe self-esteem is created by actions of self and others. Self-esteem can be viewed as an object on an incline. The incline represents the environment the student is placed in and the shape of the object is the student’s response to environmental stimuli. The best scenario is when the student is an active participant in an active classroom. This creates a snowball effect where the two factors positively impact one another, like a round ball rolling down an incline. The two aspects are mutually beneficial. The reverse would be when a student with low self-esteem who is non-receptive to outside stimuli is in an adverse environment. This is similar to trying to move a square object up a hill.

As a teacher, I do not have control over the “shape” of my students’ self-esteem when they enter my class. What I can control is the slope of the incline, that is, the social environment. According to Joyce et al. the best way for me to do this is by actively seeking out professional development and bringing new ideas into the classroom (2014, p. 305-306). Additionally, I need to create an environment that demonstrates respect for the worth of each individual. Developing a discovery curriculum is the easiest way to do this because it affirms the students’ potential by allowing them to direct their own learning. Teacher’s add value to the digital classroom by creating an environment that foster’s positive self-esteem which, in turn, increases student success.

References

Joyce, B., Weil, M., and Calhoun, E. (2014). Models of teaching (9th ed.) [Yuzu Reader version]. Retrieved from: http://webreader.yuzu.com

Medina, J. (2014) Brain Rules: 12 priniciples for surviving and thriving at work, home, and school. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.

Mitra, S. (2012). Beyond the hole in the wall: Discover the power of self-organized learning. TED books. Kindle Edition.

Richardson, W. (2012) Why School?: How education must change when learning and information are everywhere. TED Conferences. Kindle Edition.

Rogers, C. (n.d.). Teacher Effects Research on Student Self-Concept [excerpt]. Retrieved from: https://mountainlightschool.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/sis-session-8-reading-rogers.pdf

Encouraging Collaboration by Restructuring the Classroom Environment

H3 – Honor the classroom/school community as a milieu for learning.

According to Dewey (2013), schools should be an extension of the home environment that foster collaboration to help students learn how to participate in the social life of the community. To achieve the best possible outcomes for social interaction, it is important that students feel comfortable, both emotionally and physically, in their learning environment. The typical high school classroom consists of rows of individual desks; the basic design of the classroom promotes separation, not collaboration. The place where most people are at ease socially tends to be at home with their families where they interact by balancing the needs of every member of the family community for the common good. In order to promote this sense of comfort and cooperation in the classroom, the physical environment should reflect that of the home.

I was inspired by Bunyi (n.d.) to stand in the middle of my living room and take a photo of each quadrant of the room. I analyzed the photos compiling a list of the most common objects. I found that lamps, plants, low tables, and frames were the most common objects found in my home. A secondary list included comfy seating options, pillows, and curtains. None of these household design features are found in the typical classroom, however I believe that I can easily add them to my own classroom.

Lighting design engineers (http://www.lighting.philips.com) are attempting to do innovative things with classroom lighting and research is showing that lighting has a significant effect on student learning outcomes (Research links, n.d.). While we are waiting for school budgets to include outfitting classrooms with the latest in lighting technology, I can at least supplement my classroom with various lamps to approximate the feel of a living room.

SchoolVision lighting (http://www.lighting.philips.com)

To create comfortable collaboration environments, seating options should be offered other than the traditional individual desk. Large tables are ideal for communicating during group activities. Also, yoga mats that can be rolled out on the floor with throw pillows allow students to relax in the same ways they might when working or reading at home (Cox, n.d.).

Framed artwork, lamp, and plants in classroom (Bunyi, n.d.)

Every single item that is hung on my walls at home – apart from one large world map – is inside a frame. Why would I not do the same for the wall art in my classroom? It is great to hang up a student’s work of art or project, but how much more special would it be to put it inside of a simple frame? This creates a sense of accomplishment for the student while at the same time helping the classroom to reflect a home-like atmosphere.

By making a few changes to the physical classroom environment so it more closely approximates the environment found in the typical home, students will begin to see the classroom as an extension of the larger community. When students are comfortable in their learning environment it fosters better collaboration and gives them practice working together toward a common goal.

References

Bunyi, A. (n.d.) 6 classroom design tips [Blog post]. Retrieved from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/6-classroom-design-tips#top

Cox, J. (n.d.) How to personalize your classroom to make it feel like home [Blog post]. Retrieved from: http://www.teachhub.com/how-personalize-your-classroom-make-it-feel-home

Dewey, J. (2013) My pedagogic creed. In, Collected writings on education: My pedagogic creed & the school and society & the child and the curriculum & moral principles in education & interest and effort in education & democracy and education (pp. 4-19) [Nookbook version]. Retrieved from: http://www.barnesandnoble.com (Original work published 1897)

Research links student concentration to classroom lighting [Article] (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.ies.org/LDA/E-newsletter/2011/August/newswire/110808-SV.cfm

EDU 6120 Final Paper

Achieving Balanced Instruction: How to Change our Instinctive Reliance on Received Knowledge

Question 2) Taking into consideration the three best ways by which we obtain knowledge (received, discovered, constructed), what are the implications for achieving proper balance in teaching and learning?

When people think of education, they often picture a teacher lecturing didactically at the front of a large class. While a beginning teacher is often cautioned to avoid this form of teaching, which can deaden student passions, there is nothing essentially wrong with received knowledge. Inert knowledge only becomes a hindrance to education when we fail to remember that it is but one of three key ways we can teach. In order to obtain a balance between received, discovered, and constructed knowledge, we must understand why teachers have a tendency to overuse didactic practices, and we must properly define what education consists of. This will be the foundational vantage point that will allow us to focus on community in the classroom and lesson plans that engage student interests.

Why is it that many great thinkers in education – from the Greek Aristotle, who extoled the active engagement in political life (n.d.), to the Roman Quintillion, who wrote that textbooks exhaust the lifeblood of the imagination (n.d.), to the British Whitehead, who cautioned us to “beware inert ideas” (1916, “Session 1 Readings,” para. 1) – have been forced to write specifically on the subject of limiting received knowledge that is not acted on, tested, and utilized? Because human instinct is to fear risk. Facilitating a discovery activity, such as asking students to discuss their interpretations of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short stories, certainly puts the teacher in a position of great risk: the outcome is unpredictable and failure could result. This fear of failure makes the controlled activity of lecturing about the facts needed for a passing grade an appealing and safe alternative, especially for inexperienced teachers. Tolstoy wrote that the “criterion of pedagogics is only liberty” (1860, “Session 8 readings, para. 21). Complete freedom from the historical shape of formal education is what allows students and teachers, alike, to make education exactly what it needs to be in their specific time and location in history.   However, people fear this type of freedom and so they turn to established, often didactic, pedagogical traditions.

A secondary reason why teachers tend to heavily rely on received knowledge when crafting lesson plans is that it requires the least amount of time. Compare the number of facts you can read in an encyclopedia in five minutes to the number of things you learn while playing an instrument for the same length of time. The former represents received knowledge, the latter, constructed knowledge. For teachers who are pressed to graduate students with basic factual knowledge in a wide variety of subjects, time cannot be valued highly enough. This includes time in class devoted to one particular subject and the additional time the teacher must put into each lesson that is centered on discovered or constructed learning – which require materials and additional forethought to compensate for their unpredictable nature. Once teachers understand why they avoid discovered and constructed knowledge in their lesson plans, because of their risky and lengthy nature, they can find appropriate solutions that lead them to a better balance with received knowledge. Solutions include borrowing from other master teachers’ successful lesson plans to shorten preparation time and identifying reasons that make engaging students a necessary priority.

To begin, teachers must define for themselves what education truly is. I propose a definition of education that is not centered on teaching children to memorize a body of knowledge; in the overwhelming information age of the 21^st century, such a task is as daunting as it is unachievable. Rather, education is training students to be socially responsible critical thinkers who are prepared for whatever the future may hold. Dewey, writing over one hundred years ago, summarized:

With the advent of democracy and modern industrial conditions, it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now…. To prepare [students] for the future life means to give [them] command of [themselves]; it means so to train [them] that [they] will have the full and ready use of all [their] capacities. (2013b/1897, p.7)

Education is not solely the pursuit of academic knowledge. It is preparing students to engage in society in meaningful and productive ways through the awakening of their intelligence.

This perspective on education provides the framework for classroom activities that balance the three types of obtaining knowledge because the teacher is focused on treating the class as a micro-community. Activities will be centered on cooperative tasks that engage individual’s strengths and overcome weaknesses for the betterment of the group. Quintillion pointed out that group learning stimulates students through competition, peer imitation, friendship, and behavior standards (n.d., book I, section I).  This creates an energetic, supportive, and dynamic learning environment.

Finally, the teacher is able to engage students in discovered and constructed learning when lesson plans relate to their students’ lives outside of the classroom. While many authors assert that student’s interests should be the basis for subject matter studied in class, Herbart went so far as to lay out a structured lesson plan that specifically links each step, from presenting the new material to generalizing and applying it, to student’s actual experiences (1913/1841). This is why teachers who know their students – their cultures, their families, and their passions – excel and become master teachers. Schooling should contain the substance of real life; life is fun, challenging, unexpected, and rewarding.

There are significant issues facing the coming generations, from the new multi-dimensional chaos of social media to potentially global environmental catastrophes. With such an unpredictable future ahead, memorizing a received body of facts is not a sufficient education. Students today must be shaped into critical thinkers by teachers who are willing to risk failure and who take the time to plan lessons centered on discovered and constructed knowledge.  It is with good reason that the educational leaders of history have cautioned teachers against relying on the safety of received knowledge, as it rarely ignites their students’ passion for learning. If teachers truly know their community of students, they will be assured that their lessons will actively engage each student in constructing new knowledge that brings the student closer to achieving success in our changing world.

Moral Philosophy in Education: Live Together Responsibly

Question 3) Of all the individuals and philosophies we have discussed during this course, select one or two whose ideas have influenced you the most. What are those ideas, and what relevance do they have to your own philosophy?

Great thinkers throughout history have reflected on and actively participated in education, showing each new generation of teachers a pathway towards creating a well-rounded educational philosophy. John Dewey’s concisely worded reflections on the social nature of education and the consequent morals that are to be found in the formal education process have completed changed my own moral philosophy for education. Before Dewey, I could not reconcile how to teach my private beliefs regarding how we should treat one another, which stem from my Christian faith, with my firm belief in the American doctrine of the separation of church and state. Dewey has given me a way to teach morals in a secular classroom and deepened my view of one of the major goals of education: responsible citizenship in our communities.

John Dewey looked at the complex nature of the world in the late nineteenth century through the eyes of an evolutionist and saw that all life wanted to renew itself endlessly. He believed that societies at all levels – families, neighborhoods, countries – renewed themselves by training each new generation in the accumulated knowledge, culture, and traditions of that society. Dewey argued that, “All education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race” (2013b/1897, p.5), and the best way for children to learn was to actively participate in the occupations and daily tasks of adults. In a simple society, this is possible through apprenticeship training. However, Dewey was a pragmatist who understood that our civilization has reached a point where it has become impossible for children to learn the enormous amount of information we have amassed by sitting at the knees of the their elders listening to stories.   A child today who enters into apprenticeship training is able to grasp only a tiny portion of the totality of our culture and knowledge. Instead, we require formalized education, wherein schools represent a simplified model of the greater society, that can provide students exposure to the full spectrum of our culture and history. Dewey suggested that schools be crafted to showcase the best of society, eliminating whatever does not contribute to a brighter future, in a progression of complexity that is easy for children to assimilate (2013a/1909, p.245).

Because Dewey constructed his entire philosophy of education on the social nature of humanity, his vision of morality is also founded in communal life. He believed all we need to learn about morals is found in the social interactions of a community. Our actions are informed by previous social interactions, and we, in turn, choose our actions based on how they will affect others. In schools, we have the opportunity to focus and refine the environment and activities that encourage students to accumulate a habit of correct behavior towards others. The end goal is that students will live successfully in community with others and contribute to the betterment of society as a whole. Dewey believed that you cannot separate the inner consciousness from outward action; our morals are not just our beliefs or just our actions. Rather, they are our personal interests in action (Dewey, 2013a/1909, p.559-63). People will always act in accordance with their interests, so it is necessary to train them to value the welfare of other individuals and the community.   Simply put, moral training is achieved in the structured community of the classroom, where the teacher guides students in proper everyday social interactions (Dewey, 2013b/1897, p.5).

Dewey’s philosophy of education has had a profound impact on my personal moral philosophy. His belief that morality consists of living in community resonates with my belief that God has placed on us the responsibility to care for one another through actions here on earth in the immediate now. Love one another; live together successfully. They are two ways to say the same thing. I believe, along with Dewey, that education “is a process of living and not a preparation for future living” (2013b/1897, p.8). The way we communicate during a group project in a secondary classroom is living in community. It is not just practice for the boardroom and future careers. I have the responsibility, as the moral guide in the classroom, to initiate activities that will stimulate my students to interact considerately, thinking of others first.

My new moral philosophy of education is like a pair of lens that changes how I view all aspects of my lesson planning. Values and morals are not to be treated as separate subjects; they are to be incorporated into each day and unit, whether I am teaching English, history or math. For example, I instinctively value the use of time at the beginning of class to reflect on recent events in the lives of my students, but without a foundation for why this is time well spent, I can see myself cutting that activity from the lesson plan in the press to ensure my students are learning as many facts as possible. Because I now understand that sharing as a group encourages students to practice oral communication and responsive listening, and engenders a feeling of community within the class, I can align this with my new philosophy that learning to live in community is moral training and has intrinsic value.

Since I now believe that moral education is rooted in learning to live responsibly in society, it is also important that I understand what are the values of our society. As Dewey put it: common, community, communication – there is a reason they all share the same etymology (2013/1909, p.230). The beliefs we hold in common lead to community and community is achieved through communication. The Architecture of Moral Education presents the uniquely American values around which I can focus classroom activities to help students to propagate our culture: service, honesty, civility, kindness, participation, and commitment (Scheuerman, n.d.). How can I best communicate these values to my students? When you understand that all of these values are incorporated into living socially, it is easy to shape lesson plans around engaging students and encouraging them to act for the benefit of others. For example, students have the responsibility to show civility and kindness when listening to others in class discussions, and they can demonstrate service to others by sharing lecture notes with someone who was absent.

The opportunities are endless to stimulate students to act out our shared American values, but these opportunities only become visible when I view my lesson plans through the lens of my philosophy of moral education. Since my personal morals are driven by my faith, I never would have been able to articulate a plan for teaching morals in a secular classroom without compromising the separation of church and state. However, my vision of morality, which necessitates showing love to one another, aligns with Dewey’s philosophy. Dewey and I both believe that humans are meant to live cooperatively in a society that continually renews itself through teaching the younger generation our culture’s values and accumulated wealth of knowledge. Dewey and I are both progressivists at heart: we believe that moral actions now can bring about a better world here on earth. Dewey put the responsibility on the teacher, saying that every teacher “is a social servant set apart for the…securing of the right social growth….In this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God” (2013b/1897, p.19). This is a challenging responsibility, but one that I embrace fully as an educator.

References

Aristotle (n.d.). Nicomachean ethics, book I. In, Scheuerman, R. (n.d.). Edu 6120: Foundations of American education: Session 2: Paideia and panhellism—the Greek experience [Lecture notes]. Retrieved from: http://mountainlightschool.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/session-2-paideia1.pdf

Dewey, J. (2013a). Moral Principles in education. In, Collected writings on education: My pedagogic creed & the school and society & the child and the curriculum & moral principles in education & interest and effort in education & democracy and education (pp. 139-572) [Nookbook version]. (Original work published 1909) Retrieved from: http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Dewey, J. (2013b). My pedagogic creed. In, Collected writings on education: My pedagogic creed & the school and society & the child and the curriculum & moral principles in education & interest and effort in education & democracy and education (pp. 4-19) [Nookbook version]. (Original work published 1897) Retrieved from: http://www.barnesandnoble.com

Herbart, J. F. (1913). Outlines of educational doctrine (A. F. Lange, Trans.). New York, NY: MacMillan Co. (Original work published 1841). Retrieved from: http://books.google.com

Quintillion (n.d.). The institutes of oratory. In, Scheuerman, R. (n.d.) Edu 6120: Foundations: Session 4: The Roman way and traditional values [Lecture notes]. Retrieved from: http://mountainlightschool.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/session-4-rome1.pdf

Scheuerman, R. (n.d.). Edu 6120: Foundations of American education: Session 2: Paideia and panhellism—the Greek experience [Lecture notes]. Retrieved from: http://mountainlightschool.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/session-2-paideia1.pdf

Tolstoy, L. (1860). On popular education. In, Scheuerman, R. (n.d.). Edu 6120: Foundations: Session 8: Progressivism and Intellectual Development [Lecture notes]. Retrieved from: http://mountainlightschool.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/session-8-progressivism1.pdf

Whitehead, A. N. (1916). The aims of education. In, Scheuerman, R. (n.d.). Edu 6120: Foundations: Session 1: The goals and means of effective education [Lecture notes]. Retrieved from: http://mountainlightschool.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/session-1-goals1.pdf