TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY- SAN MARCOS CI 3325: THE SOCIAL CONTEXTS OF SCHOOLS

THE SOCIAL CONTEXTS OF SCHOOLS Discuss in groups of two: (2 minutes please)  In your former and current classrooms what strategies do teachers use to manage their classes?  On a piece of paper write down 10 words/ phrases that describe effective classroom management.  Keep the list for later.

A: CHANGING SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTS  The social contexts of schools changes with the developmental level of students  Preschool setting: protected environment whose boundary is the classroom  Elementary school: classroom still major context, but is more social unit than preschool  Middle/ junior high schools setting : the school environment increases in complexity and scope…. Social unit extends to the beyond classroom to the whole school, diverse students population, greater mix of female and male teachers.  Adolescents: social behavior is heavily weighted toward peers, extracurricular activities, clubs, and community.  Secondary school: students aware the school is a social system ad they conform and adapt, but sometimes the challenge it.

B:CLASSROOM CLIMATE AND MANAGEMENT  Strategies for creating positive classroom environment: (1). Authoritative strategy, and (2). Effectively managing the group’s activities.  Authoritative strategy of classroom management involves: Encouraging the students to be independent thinkers and doers but effectively monitoring them. Engage the students in considerable give-and-take and show a caring attitude toward them, declare limits when necessary Clarify rules and regulations, establish standards for input from the students

B:CLASSROOM CLIMATE AND MANAGEMENT  Authoritative strategy is not authoritarian nor permissive. Authoritarian strategy: restrictive, punitive, mainly focuses on keeping order than on learning and instruction, lays firm limits and control, little verbal exchange As a result… passive students not active learners, they do not initiate activities, express anxiety about social comparison, have poor communication skills

B:CLASSROOM CLIMATE AND MANAGEMENT Permissive strategy of classroom management: offers students considerable autonomy but offers them little support for developing learning skills or managing their behavior. As a result… students have inadequate academic skills and low self-control

B:CLASSROOM CLIMATE AND MANAGEMENT  Past research has found great benefits of authoritative strategy to be: Helps students become active Helps students be self-regulated learners

B:CLASSROOM CLIMATE AND MANAGEMENT  Group activity: Effective teachers: what should you do? Group activity…. Discuss the strategies one can adopt to be an effective teacher; one who can keep the class as whole working together and oriented towards classroom tasks?

B:CLASSROOM CLIMATE AND MANAGEMENT  Each student requested to come up with 10 most important and common words / phrases on how to manage classroom climate and behavior of adolescent students. Consult with one other group to reduce the common words to 3 if possible. Bring the list of the three words to the computer desk when you are done. We will WORDLE UP those words and see what the whole class thinks!!

B:CLASSROOM CLIMATE AND MANAGEMENT Have clear rules and procedure Organized group work Closely monitoring and pacing classroom activities Handling misbehavior Keep students busy with appropriately challenging tasks Have activities which keep them absorbed and motivated Note: secondary schools have more disciplinary problems and challenging management issues, students reason more than in lower levels and thus need well reasoned out rules and regulations

C: PERSON-ENVIRONMENT FIT  To avoid negative changes associated with adolescent development the following are some strategies should be adopted to match the school environment with adolescent’s needs: Students are seeking more autonomy so encourage independent thinking and initiative Students are seeking more independence from the parents and need support from other adults so… engage the students more, talk to them Students are becoming more self-conscious, so… avoid increased emphasis on grades and other competitive comparisons In large schools more should be done to create a sense of community by creating opportunities for personal interactions

C: PERSON-ENVIRONMENT FIT Write on a piece of paper your thoughts on: 1. Should the school settings be more personal? 2. More formal? 3. More intrinsically challenging to the adolescents? 4. Write down the five common words from WORDLE.

Thanks! Questions?