SUBSCRIBE | SUBMIT
March 2009
Vol 6 No 3
BACK ISSUES

Current Issue » Cover Page Cover Story Harry & Rosemary Wong Columns Articles Features
Back Issues
Teachers.Net Gazette Vol.6 No.3 March 2009

Cover Story by Graysen Walles
Teachers are Brave
Somewhere in this country a drive-by was avoided, a robbery was reconsidered, or a suicide attempt was abandoned because a teacher was willing to show up and make a difference in the classroom, administrative office, after school activity, or at the home of a child.


Harry & Rosemary Wong: Effective Teaching
Assessing for Student Learning

Columns
»The 21st Century Teaching-Learning Environment - (Think Outside the Classroom Box)Hal Portner
»Why Do You Teach?Sue Gruber
»Educating Homeless ChildrenLeah Davies
»Old School Progress ReportsTodd R. Nelson
»Habit vs. Awareness for the 3 Practices and for the Hierarchy of Social DevelopmentMarvin Marshall
»The Busy Educator's Monthly FiveMarjan Glavac
»Dear Barbara - Advice for SubsBarbara Pressman
»Global Travel GuruJosette Bonafino
»Tool & ToysRick Morris

Articles
»Economic Relief for TeachersTeachers.Net
»Fifty Years of TeachingBill Page
»Strange SignsTim Newlin
»A Dozen Surefire Tips To Maximize Flexible Grouping and Small Group LearningSusan Fitzell
»Time to Reward YourselfAlan Haskvitz
»March 2009 Writing PromptsJames Wayne
»Using Photographs To Inspire Writing VHank Kellner
»What’s Wrong With Teacher Education In This Country?Howard Seeman
»“Slumdog Millionaire” Teaches About Education, TooDorothy Rich
»Teachers’ Role in Improving Students’ Thinking Skills: Moving beyond the ‘sage on the stage’Ambreen Ahmed

Features
»Apple Seeds: Inspiring QuotesBarb Stutesman
»Today Is... Daily CommemorationRon Victoria
»The Lighter Side of Teaching
»Teacher Blogs Showcase
»Liz Phillips' Printable Discipline Rubric
»Photo tour: 4th Grade Classroom
»Lessons, Resources and Theme Activities: March 2009
»Featured Lesson: Recognizing Bullying
»Modeling Guided Reading FAQ, Periodic Table of Videos – Fascinating Chemistry!, Carl Sagan - 4th Dimension Explanation, Parabolas in the Real World, Al Jolson sings - Brother Can You Spare a Dime?, Lovers’ Waltz - Casey Willis on violin, Meet Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
»Live on Teachers.Net: March 2009
»T-Netters Share Favorite Recipes
»Managing Hyperactive Students
»Newsdesk: Events & Opportunities for Teachers
»This Board’s For Me!


Advertisement

The Teachers.Net Gazette is a collaborative project
published by the Teachers.Net community
Editor in Chief: Kathleen Alape Carpenter
Layout Editor: Mary Miehl


Cover Story by Graysen Walles

Effective Teaching by Harry & Rosemary Wong

Contributors this month: Graysen Walles, Hal Portner, Sue Gruber, Leah Davies, Todd R. Nelson, Marvin Marshall, Marjan Glavac, Barbara Pressman, Josette Bonafino, Rick Morris, Bill Page, Tim Newlin, Susan Fitzell, Alan Haskvitz, James Wayne, Hank Kellner, Howard Seeman, Dorothy Rich, Ambreen Ahmed, Barb Stutesman, Ron Victoria, Liz Phillips, and YENDOR.

Submissions: click for Submission Guidelines

Advertising: contact Bob Reap


Subscribe for free home delivery


Howard Seeman

Archive | Biography | Resources | Discussion

What’s Wrong With Teacher Education In This Country?
by Howard Seeman, Ph.D.

Continued from page 1
March 1, 2009

Teachers are handcuffed to this professorial-chosen curriculum in order to get college credit, to get salary increments. They dare not buck the system or ask too many reality questions in their education classes that are "off the ivory tower curriculum" for fear of getting a low grade, no credit, and, thus, no salary raise.

Why don't we have more education professors who can teach the priorities of classroom management? Because their training is too conceptual. Unfortunately, teaching (and classroom management) is not just conceptual. Instead:
It is a Performance Art. It is not like learning chemistry formulas. Nor is it like learning what a car needs and then fixing it, no matter how good the (lesson) plan. It is also not like learning Math concepts and then plugging them in.

Instead:
teaching is more like learning the game of tennis:
first, how it is played; then actually practicing how to play it, with coaching; then, learning the strokes; until these become instinctive; and finally performing these skills interactively, with other players, on the spot.

Yes, it involves learning to reframe one's perceptions, as does a trained counselor listening to his clients; thus, educational psychology is useful. But, like the counselor, one must learn the appropriate responses, how to use one's personality, one's authentic responses in order to help. Notice:
"responses," "how to use…" performing!

Or, teaching is more like playing jazz piano:
where you learn concepts, practice reactions (e.g., learn to hear the chords), and then perform these responses spontaneously, interacting with the other musicians in such a way that you play with honest feeling in order to make "music" together.

Or, it is like learning lion taming! where you learn and practice spontaneous decisions, using your feelings, personality, intuition to deliver the appropriate, correct reactions when confronted with the myriad of responses of those to be trained - when that door opens, without having too much time to think.

Training teachers in this Performance Art is very important because without it, or with just theories for reframing perceptions, teachers will fall back into just teaching the way they were taught! And, some of these teachers have had some really bad teachers, and/or parents.

Since teaching is a Performance Art, then we must face the uncomfortable fact that the most powerful tool in the classroom is not, e.g. the blackboard or even the computer, but the teacher's personality. That is why Johnny can be a brat in period 3, then an angel in period 4. He did not change when the bell rang, his teacher did!

This is an uncomfortable fact for some because this means that good teacher training requires teachers to look at their feelings, not just their attainment of cognitive knowledge, or methods. A math teacher who knows his math, even many good methods for teaching it, still falls apart if he cannot manage his class. And he cannot if his personality's interactive-responses, his performance, creates an adversarial relationship with his students.

Thus, teachers need to look at their over-reactions, biases, inappropriate responses, displaced anger, and miscalled discipline problems. They need to learn how to correct these, practice appropriate responses:
fairness, how to keep track of promises, warnings, systematic rewards, be properly assertive, and identify the causes of correctly identified disruptive behaviors. For a very few, this art of teaching comes naturally. Unfortunately, these few "naturals" know very little about why what they do works, nor how to transfer what they do naturally to others.

Thus, we need to analyze what is "natural" for some, and turn these intangibles – into tangible, trainable, transferable knowledge and skills for new teachers and troubled veteran teachers. We can.

What are some of the crucial skills of this performance art? Here is one, which is also another reason why it is so difficult to train teachers:
Congruence. We have not been able to help teachers with the performance art of teaching because you cannot just tell teachers what to do, e.g., when Johnny does x. If a teacher does not respond congruently, authentically, is not being herself, real, honest,… whatever she tries, will be ineffective. Carl Rogers:
"When a person delivers a message that does not really match his/her feelings, that person is being incongruent."

For example, a teacher who yells:
"I am NOT angry with you!!" is being incongruent. Or, who looks bored while saying:
“The civil war was very important.” Or, seems really not to be behind the rule:
“If you call out again, you will, ah, get, ah, an assignment…soon.” In other words, an incongruent teacher is phony; he has not really figured out how he feels, or what he really believes in. He seems to be acting like the TEACHER, from some kind of tape recorder in his head. Instead, we need to, and can, train teachers NOT how to be the TEACHER, but how to incorporate their real selves into their teaching so that they can be professionally person-al.

Real, authentic, self aware, congruent teacherpersons tend to have more rapport with their students. Congruent teachers have fewer discipline problems. When someone tries to be a class clown in this congruent teacher's class, the other students tend to say to this class clown:
"Hey, cool it; she is trying to teach us something!" We need to train teachers at being congruent, that helps establish this rapport with students. We need to help them with how to put their real person into their teacher, and how to practice this. We can.

Thus, we cannot train teachers in classroom management by just giving them a recipe of what to do when… If we have them do what is incongruent for them, the students will see they are wearing a "mask" and will try to rip off this phony masked set of responses. One of the key causes of disruptive classroom behavior is when a teacher is incongruent regarding:
classroom rules, warnings, promises, subject matter delivery, and his general interaction with his students.

How can we help teachers with the specifics of what to do in the classroom and at the same time, support their congruence?

We need to give teachers guidelines for effective rules, and suggested procedures for homework, warnings, rewards, handling cursing, but, not tell them exactly what to say or do. Then, we need to give them training exercises in these areas, exercises where they can find the responses that feel right for them, and then practice these, within helpful guidelines. We need to help them practice, simulate and role play these tailored-to-themselves suggestions, so they may be effective and still be themselves. We can.

Also, school administrators need to be mindful that they should not ask teachers to enforce rules that their teachers feel incongruent with. Thus, they need to allow teachers to participate in the formation of school rules. Or, at least, they need to take the time to explain to teachers the rationale behind such rules in order to enlist the authentic backing of the school’s staff. Furthermore, they need to go out of their way to back teachers' rules in their classrooms, assuming that the teachers are "correct," before declared guilty by a complaining parent.

Article continued on next page



» More Gazette articles...




About Howard Seeman...

Howard Seeman, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus, Lehman College, C.U.N.Y., author of Preventing Classroom Discipline Problems, 3rd Ed. [Rowman/Littlefield Publishers], and Instructor/Consultant at:
www.ClassroomManagementOnline.com

Dr. Seeman, Professor Emeritus of Lehman College, City Univ. of New York, has taught classroom management, educational psychology, course-content methods, and supervised teachers and student teachers since 1970. His book, Preventing Classroom Discipline Problems; A Classroom Management Handbook is now in its 3rd edition, with its own companion training Video and CD. His book is used in over 400 school districts, coast to coast in the U.S., and internationally, in over 30 countries. He has also published over 20 articles in professional journals on education, counseling, philosophy, and psychology, and recently has been a major contributor to online education publications and resources.

Dr. Seeman also holds Certification for Training in School Violence Prevention and Intervention.

Dr. Seeman has been interviewed on various radio-talk shows and has been the keynote speaker at numerous national education conferences. He has given over 50 workshops and lectures throughout the U.S. on classroom management, prevention of disruptive behavior, and emotional education. He was a visiting professor in Japan from 1990 to 1992.

Prior to being a professor and consultant, Dr. Seeman was a camp director for ten years, co-directed a camp for emotionally disturbed children, worked in children's shelters, and taught in the New York City public schools as a licensed substitute teacher, and full-time High School English and Social Studies teacher.

Prof. Seeman has taught this course:
"Preventing Discipline Problems and Classroom Management" for over 25 years, now online!

Click here for more information about Prof. Seeman


Howard Seeman Articles on Teachers.Net...
Related Resources & Discussions on Teachers.Net...

#