Psychology

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Psychology Education

• Classroom Management

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Last Week

• Special learners
• Gender bias in the classroom
• Ethnicity

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This week

• Classroom management
• Group formation in the classroom
• Motivational styles
• Leadership

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Schmuck and Schmuck, 1992

• brought together the social psychological
  research on group processes and how the classroom
  teacher can use this research.
• researched the effect of group processes on
  learners emotional adjustment and academic
  achievement.
• high levels of individual achievement go
  hand-in-hand with high levels of group support
  and cooperation (Glasser, 1990 Johnson and
  Johnson, 1984 Slavin, 1991)

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What is a group?

• GROUPNESS - quality that can describe a group
  on a continuum from a low or high. Classes can
  be placed on this continuum based on how much
  cohesiveness they possess.
• 3 properties contribute to making a classroom of
  learners a cohesive group
• (1) relationships (the interaction and
  interdependence of its members)
• (2) common goals and
• (3) a social structure

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Relationships

• Calonico and Calonico (1972)
• study of 3rd grade classrooms.
• the more learners worked together, shared and
  talked with one another
• during academic tasks, the stronger their
  feelings of friendship towards
• one another.
• Coming from the same neighbourhood, being in the
  classroom
• together, and playing with one another during
  play-time are no
• guarantee that learners will form friendships.

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Common goals

• Individuals who come together to achieve a
  common purpose are more likely to form a cohesive
  group than individuals who do not.
• Teachers who promote group cohesiveness should
  consider developing goals for the entire class to
  work towards.
• Schmuck and Schmuck (1988) propose 4 types of
  goals - task-group, task-individual,
  social-emotional group, and social-emotional
  individual. Higher individual achievement
  results when group goals are achieved.

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Social structure

• Refers to role sand functions assumed by members
  of a
• group. Such relationships can be
• (a) FORMAL - Raise you hand and wait until I
  ask before speaking, You can only see me during
  my office hour.
• (b) INFORMAL - individual personalities and the
  goals of the classroom are taken into
  consideration. For example, most teachers
  discourage learners from calling out, but a
  teacher may allow a less formal pattern of
  teacher-student talk during a group discussion to
  encourage student spontaneity.

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Effects of groups on their members

• group effects on learner achievement
• group effects on motivation
• group effects on self-concept
• group effects on emotion

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The social facilitation effect

• Sharan and Sharan (1976)- presence of others
  during the learning
• of complex intellectual tasks actually produced
  faster learning and
• better retention.
• Schmuck and Schmuck (1992)- only when leaner is
  working with others he/she knows and trusts.
• Cohen (1984 1986) Cohen and Intili(1981) Webb
  (1982) and Slavin
• (1984, 1990) - cooperative learning in groups
  produces higher levels of
• academic achievement across curriculum areas.
• Webb (1982) and Cohen (1986) - attribute the
  superiority of cooperative
• learning to the benefits of having to explain to
  others complex concepts in
• ones own words.

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Group effects on motivation

• Much of human motivation can be understood as
  attempts to fulfill basic human needs (Maslow,
  1943 Dreikurs, Grunwald, and Pepper, 1982
  Glasser, 1986).
• SOCIAL NEEDS - all individuals want to
  experience recognition, a sense of control over
  the environment and feel knowledgeable. -
  affiliation
• - power
• - achievement
• Schmuck and Schmuck (1992) - teachers should use
  this heightened motivation to achieve academic
  excellence.

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Group effects on the self-concept

• Mead (1934) and Cooley (1956) - individuals
  self-concept develops through his/her
  associations with other people.
• Mannheim (1957) - most dominant influence on her
  respondents (college students) self image came
  from their most immediate reference group - those
  with whom they lived.
• Schmuck and Schmuck (1992) and Argyus (1972) -
  low status learners with poor grades and few
  friends can lose self-esteem when they have few
  opportunities to experience psychological success
  from either adults or peers

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Group effects on emotions

• Many face-to-face interactions in a group
  involve emotional conflicts.
• Individuals generalise the feelings and patterns
  of interaction they learn at home to groups
  outside the family. This includes the
  willingness to share, cooperate and comply.
• Conflict and disagreement can easily arise as
  learners seek to learn how others feel about them
  and try to meet their own goals.

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The stages of group formation

• Stage I FORMING -Resolving concerns about
  acceptance and responsibilities
• Stage II STORMING- Resolving concerns about
  shared influence
• Stage III NORMING- Resolving concerns about how
  work gets done
• Stage IV PERFORMING - Resolving concerns about
  freedom, control and self-regulation

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Stage I- FORMING

• Two issues - (1) finding their place in the
  social structure
• (2) Finding out what is expected of them
• Testing (Froyen, 1993) - learners engage in
  specific
• behaviours to see what kind of reaction they get
  from
• teachers and peers.
• Putnam and Burke (1992) - teachers should engage
• learners in activities during the first few weeks
  of school
• that help them trust one another and feel as
  members of a
• group.

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Stage II- STORMING

• Test of limits of commitments to rules and
  procedure (Froyen, 1993)
• challenges to academic expectations and rules in
  order to establish the
• conditions under which they do and do not apply.
• DISTANCING - in any situations when the leader
  establishes authority
• by virtue of his/her position rather than by
  their competence or
• credibility.
• CENTERING - learners start to question how they
  will be personally
• benefit from being a group member. The idea of
  fairness.

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Stage III- NORMING

• Acceptance of academic expectations, procedures,
  and
• rules for how the group will function as well as
  the roles
• and functions of the various members.
• NORMS - shared expectations of group members
• regarding how they should think, feel, and
  behave. They
• are the principal regulators of group behaviour
  (Zimbardo,
• 1992).
• Group behaviour that is primarily focused on
  academic
• achievement.

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Stage IV - PERFORMING

• The principal concern of the group at this stage
  is
• establishing its independence.
• Characterized by learners wanting to show that
  they can do
• some things independently of the teacher.
• Teacher should focus less on classroom control
  and much
• more on teaching the group how to set priorities.
• Devote more time to modeling to students

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Leadership

• EXPERT POWER - students see teachers as competent
  to knowledgeable about certain topics
• REFERENT POWER - teachers whom they like and
  respect. Such teachers are seen as trustworthy,
  fair, and concerned about them.
• LEGITIMATE POWER - some roles carry with them
  influence and authority by their very nature.
  Influence is conferred by the role itself.
• REWARD POWER - individuals in positions of
  authority are able to reward the people whom they
  lead. Rewards can take the form of privileges
  and approval.
• COERCIVE POWER - teachers are in loco
  parentis. i.e., with the same authority as the
  parent. Consequently, schools can punish
  students who defy authority or leadership of the
  teacher by using techniques such as suspension
  and expulsion.

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Expectations

• Self-fulfilling prophecy - how expectations tend
  to confirm themselves (Cooper, 1979).
• Large group settings encourage the expectancy
  effect.
• Rist (1970) - class of ghetto children. tigers
  cardinals and clowns.
• Gage and Berliner (1988) several biases in the
  ways teachers interact with learners. Teachers
  interact more with a) those at the front of the
  class b) nicer-looking students c) more able
  students and d) non-minority students.
• EVERY teachers showed some bias in these
  categories.
• Schmuck and Schmuck (1992)- sometimes biases can
  become so strong that students change their
  behaviour significantly.

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How can teachers influence classroom norms?

• Important role in determining whether learners
  achieve academic and
• social goals. A teacher must know how to
  influence the development
• of classroom norms and to identify how to alter
  existing ones.
• Here are some suggestions (Borich and Thombari,
  1998)
• -explain to the class the concept of a group
  norm. over time, a teacher should add and delete
  norms.
• - conduct discussions of class norms and
  encourage learners to talk among themselves about
  them.
• -appoint or elect a class council to make
  recommendations for improving class climate and
  productivity.
• - provide a model of the respect, consistency
  and responsibility for learners that you want
  them to exhibit.

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Promoting Group Cohesiveness

• Some ideas for promoting diverse friendship
  patterns out of which
• group cohesiveness can develop
• -construct a bulletin board around the theme of
  friendship.
• -have students write a brief bibliography about
  themselves and make them available for all
  learners to read.
• - have students form a friendship circle in which
  they pass around some thing they have made ( a
  toy, model, tool).
• - place names of students in a box. Have each
  learner select a name and become pals with this
  person. At regular intervals, each student
  selects a name and adds it to his/her list of
  pals.
• - publish a student directory of hobbies, jobs,
  career aspirations, etc.
• - form groups that purposefully mix learners of
  different backgrounds.

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Problem solving

• Teachers must be prepared to deal with group
  conflict in order to establish a productive group
  life in the classroom.
• 3 types of conflict
• 1) arising out of problems that learners bring
  to the classroom
• 2) when learners choose not to accept classroom
  rules or abide by classroom norms.
• 3) arises out of natural processes of group
  development. i.e, Limit testing.

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Motivation to learn an attributionist perspective

• Motivational style develops from teachers and
  childrens perceptions of the environment in
  which they work.
• Ames (1987) it is the systematic, qualitative
  response that individuals make to situations in
  which they judge success or failure to be
  possible. These perceptions are held to
  determine the style of the individuals
  motivation.

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Learned Helplessness

• Some children believe they are not clever enough
  to succeed on task and rapidly give up.
• Because they attribute failure to lack of
  ability, their expectation of success rapidly
  declines they do not believe there us any point
  trying (Dweck and Wortman, 1982).

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Self-worth motivation

• Children who believe they are clever enough to
  succeed on a task but do not want to risk
  failure.
• Because being clever, successful or popular is
  important to their self-esteem they avoid
  situations in which their image of themselves may
  be threatened

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How does motivational style become established?

• Children do not behave in same way with all
  teachers a child may appear successful and
  highly motivated in one subject but show signs of
  learned helplessness or self-worth protection in
  other classes.
• Nicholls (1984) motivational style crystallises
  around the age of 11. Could be due to
  developmental and organisational changes.

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Two implications for Secondary school teachers.

• (1) As pupils get older they become more
  sensitive to school organisation which,
  intentionally or otherwise, identify them as
  successes or failures
• (2) Teaching methods that rely on formal
  instruction do little to encourage pupils to see
  themselves as having responsibility for their own
  learning.

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Childrens strategies (motivational styles) have
a parallel in those of their teachers.

• Learned helplessness is reflected in comments
  like hes just not bright, and thats all there
  is to it, or he problem is her parents and we
  cant change them.
• Self-worth motivation (self-worth protection) is
  reflected in comments like I could do
  something for jenny but it wouldnt be fair on
  the others to give her so much time, or I
  could do something for Peter but it would be
  undermined by parental indifference, or theres
  no point.

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Changing and/or maintaining motivational style

• Diener and Dweck (1978)the implication of their
  work is that children who feel that they have
  some control over their own learning are likely
  to develop a sense of responsibility for it.
• Doyle (1984, 1986) children are likely to take
  risks if they see their teacher as some-one who
  helps them to achieve mastery in spite of the
  difficulties.
• Metacognitive skills give children a feeling of
  involvement in and responsibility for their work,
  which are incompatible with the restrictions on
  development implicit in learned helplessness and
  self-worth motivation.

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Changing the motivational style of teachers.

• Why important to change?
• It is reasonable to suppose that developments in
  pupil performance reflect developments in
  teachers motivation.
• Not much research on motivational style of
  teachers, let alone on ways of changing them.
• It is likely that it responds to the quality of
  leadership ad support from colleagues, and to the
  unclear concept of school climate.
• Crucial importance of Head

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Implications of the Galloway studies (Galloway
1986 Galloway et al., 1986)

• Not suggesting that if all teachers enrol for
  post-experience degree or diploma courses that
  the nations educational problems would be
  solved. But there are 2 implications
• (a) advanced professional study may promote the
  model of the self-evaluating, questioning teacher
  that is implicit in so much of what discussed on
  this module
• (b) this approach to teaching from senior staff
  promotes a positive motivational style, not only
  in the senior teachers themselves, but also in
  their colleagues and in pupils.

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Next Week

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