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Hi Sophia!
“Slowly and kindly” is a way of teaching that resonates with me as well. I think the importance of encouraging words is often underestimated and I understand that many teachers (just like Ms. McLaughlin) do not have the time to use that approach with all students. However, as you said, kindness and praise go a long way and may play a huge role in the students’ sense of self-efficacy. As a future teacher, I think a lot about having a balance of providing support and personalized praise/feedback to all students AND not overworking myself and ending up burnt up by the end of my first semester. I think the role of a tutor is unique in a sense that you typically work with students one-on-one or in small groups, which does allow you to truly bond with the students. That’s why I have appreciated this experience throughout the term. However, I also anticipate that being a classroom teacher (or even a sub) will require a lot of change, adjustment, and trial and error. Anyhow, thank you for your post! It is very thought-provoking.
Hi Angela,
Your reiteration of Delpit’s point that “many of our children have internalized all of the negative stereotypes inherent in our society’s views of black people” reminded me of another one of her points. I believe that in her article Multiplication is for White People Delpit uses the analogy of Californians becoming smog-breather simply due to living in California, not by choice. In Delpit analogy, racism is asking to smoke. As members of society the way it exists now, we are all racism-breathers; we are all exposed to the culture of racism, whether we want it or not. I agree with you that to counteract that we need to be intentional and hyper-aware of it. School-wide conversations about it might be helpful, and I am sure there are other ways to bring racism-breathing to the attention of the public. Anywho, I think you are bringing up a very important point that is certainly worth reiterating and coming back to.
Hi Shaw!
I really like your idea of letting the students work out the problems in pairs. I understand how that might be time-consuming in the class, but I also believe that it would hold tremendous benefits for the students’ understanding of the material. In my experience, I learn best when I arrive at the answer myself instead of simply being reveled the answer. I think the though process and being aware of it is critical to education generally and the development of critical thinking more specifically. I am sure that eventually the students would all arrive at the same answer and asking just one student to explain it does save up the precious class time, but I really do agree with you that some students would have benefited greatly from getting the chance to work on the problems with a partner. Also, I really wish Mrs. Talbot worked more on providing some intrinsic motivation for the students. The class I described in my blog entry also lacked that, and I think that focusing only on the extrinsic rewards can be detrimental to learning and retaining the information long-term.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I am totally with you on seeing the advantages (and shortcomings) of both approaches! I was just writing in my post that going strictly with the behaviorist perspective seems a bit disheartening and robotic, but I have a hard time denying that conditioning is real and effective. I think the biggest advantage of behaviorism for me is actually neobehaviorism because I am big believer in modeling our own behavior after the behavior of others we either interact with or care a lot about. Thinking and decision-making, however, are also of huge importance to my learning, so I guess I have to partially side with both of them.
Your observation that all the classroom “helpers” or “assistant teachers” you have seen so far are female is very interesting. I personally work at the Student Service Center (SSC) that main function of which is to help the students that somehow have fallen behind. The SSC has several branches (catching up on school credits, doing assignments, quiet study time, etc), but every single one of those branches is run by a female supervisor/administrator. The only male authority figure at the SSC is the promise fellow, Sebastian. I find that interesting in terms of traditional gender roles because females are typically associated with compassion, nurturing, and providing help. I a not sure what the implication of this would be for the school or the students, but I have also noticed that the “helper” role is more often than not assigned to females at the High School.
You make a good point that some students being more motivated than others may be the result of certain differences in development that occurred during the industry vs inferiority stage. I also work at SSC, and I have certainly noticed that some students are happy to do their to work, while others have to be nudged by Ms. Battaglia to complete their assignments. Since industry vs inferiority falls into schools age (6-12 years old), I presume that most of this crisis is aided by the environment at school (i.e. teacher’s praise). However, I do wonder how much a student’s home life would play into successfully overcoming this crisis. Ms. Battaglia mentioned to me that some of the students who come to SSC have unstable home environments. So this makes me wonder if industry vs inferiority stage was distorted/skewed by those students’ families, who did not provide them with reward and/or attention for their accomplishments. Thank you for brining this up! It’s a super interesting concept to consider.
I also work at the SSC, and I totally understand the challenge of getting the students to ask you for help! Last week Ms. Battaglia had to basically “assign” students to me, but this week some students came up to me on their own and asked to work with them. I guess it just takes time!
I really appreciated your point about language and its place in Vygotsky’s theory. I sometimes find myself using excessively complicated words/concepts when helping a student, and I have to actively remind myself that they may not have the same toolbox as I do being a college student. However, I find it hard to know just how much simplification they need because there have been times when I would catch myself using a difficult concept with a students and try to explain it, but they would interrupt me saying “I know what you mean. You don’t have to explain.” So that’s just something I still need to work on, which I guess relates to figuring out the students’ ZPD.
I totally relate to the first visit being a little awkward. I work in the tutoring center rather than in a classroom, but still for the first half an hour of my time there, I felt quite out of place. However, when I finally got to meet the center’s supervisor, she showed me around and emphasized the importance of connecting with the students on a personal level in order for them to ask me for academic help. They just have to get comfortable with you first. I took her advice and started conversations with a few students at the tutoring center. It helped me feel more connected to the place and hopefully in the future they will come to me with questions! I know it’s a little harder to do in a classroom setting, but I found that advice quite reassuring and I am certain that the students will warm up to you soon!
