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Chapter 3: Exploring the Fundamental Components of the Classroom Environment

(Also Includes Previous Chapter 4)

From Transformative Classroom Management. By John Shindler. ©2008 Wiley Press

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In This Chapter

 

When we walk through any school and peer inside the many classrooms, we find that each exists as its own unique environment. It has its own feel, tone and “way things are done.” While much of the students’ overall experience comes as a result of our intended actions and plans, a substantial portion of what makes up the overall climate and experience of a class could be termed its implicit level or “hidden curriculum” (Eisner, 1984: Jackson, 1968).  Michael Haralambos (1991) defines the hidden curriculum as, “consisting of those things pupils learn through the experience of attending school rather than the stated educational objectives of such institutions.” The intentional or explicit level of schooling is made up of such factors as the stated rules and procedures, explicit expectations and the intended curriculum. By contrast, the implicit and commonly unconscious level is made up of such areas as the unwritten rules, implicit expectations, social systems, the way power is manifested and to a great degree the teacher simply “teaching who they are.”  In this chapter we will explore the nature and impact of this implicit and largely unconscious level of the classroom experience.

 

 

Chapter Reflection 3-a:

What is your reaction to the idea that there are implicit level factors operating in the classroom? “So what? So things happen that are not planned.” Or “I don’t understand them, so they can’t be very important.” As you proceed through the chapter you may better appreciate the power of this level of the classroom experience. And as it is with the laws of nature, they operate whether we understand them or not.

 

 

To begin to make sense of this dimension below the surface of any class, it might help to think about a trip down the hall of our local school. Let’s imagine that we choose to examine three comparable classrooms, once at the start of the school year, and then a couple months later. What are we likely to observe? If the classes are truly comparable (e.g., same grade and/or subject area) what we are likely to see are three classes that look very similar at the beginning of the term. As with any new group, the students will behave in a manner consistent with their experience and past expectations. But if we return in two months, it is very likely that we will observe three classes that look and feel dramatically different from one another.

 

 

Chapter Reflection 3-b: Do your own investigative research and observe a set of classes at the start of the year and then a few weeks later. What are the differences? How would you explain the causes? Is it the students, or the teacher?

 

 

 

What is the explanation for this difference? We could probably conclude the following:

 

1. In the long-term the experience of the students in any classroom (in most cases) will have more to do with implicit level factors than the explicitly stated wishes of the teacher. This experience is constructed and negotiated over time through the continuous interactions of the teacher and students.

2. The environment will be defined primarily by the teacher and only secondarily by the students. As Haim Ginott suggests, as the teacher “we create the weather” in the classroom.

3. The degree to which a class is more or less “intentional” as opposed to “accidental” is strongly related to the degree to which the teacher understands and is aware the implicitly operating aspects of the classroom environment.

Text Box: I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture, or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate, or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child is humanized or dehumanized. -Haim Ginott

 

If we were to classify the various factors within any class, there are those that are primarily explicit, such as the curriculum, the rules, and the explicit expectations, and those that are more implicit, such as the social frames, the way power is manifested, and to a great extent the teacher teaching “who they are.”  (see Figure 3.1).

 

Figure 3.1 Depicting the Explicit and Implicit levels of the Classroom Environment.

Degree to which area can be concretely evidenced.

Component of the Overall “Classroom Reality”

Relative Level of

Awareness

 

Explicit Level

The factors in our management that are obvious and concrete.

 

 

  • Explicitly expressed and promoted expectations
  • Intentional messages sent to students
  • Explicit rules and procedures (i.e., technical management)
  • Class Social Contract and/or Boundaries
  • Planned Curriculum

 

Sound

 

 


Mostly Deliberate and Overt. Processed and demonstrated on a conscious level*

 

 

 

 

Implicit Level

The “hidden curriculum” The factors in the class that are below the surface, but most often define the majority of the classroom environment.

 

 

§  Social Frames

§  How Power is manifested

§  Emotional Bank Account

§  Teacher Language

§  Teacher teaching “who they are” and what they value (e.g., default tendencies, self-image, parent tapes, world view)

§  Implicit Expectations

 

 

Potential above the level of awareness and managed intentionally

 

 

 

 

 

 


Potentially below the level of awareness and operating accidentally

* The methods practiced on this explicit level can also lead either up or down the effectiveness continuum depending on how sound they are (as discussed in the previous chapter).

 

Increasing the Degree to which Our Practices Promote an Intentional Classroom

The remaining chapters of the book will be devoted to examining how to successfully create an intentional classroom. Yet before we move into how to achieve results on a mostly explicit level, it will be valuable to explore how to be more effective and aware on the implicit level. While the typical class functions with a substantial lack of awareness of the underlying factors on this implicit level and how they operate, it does not necessarily have to be so. The more that we are able to develop an awareness of our classroom’s implicit level factors and take an intentional approach toward making them work to the benefit of the members of the class, the less accidental and more functional our class will be.


 

Examining the Implicit Level of the Overall Classroom Environment

Exploring the most fundamental components of the implicit level of the classroom environment it makes sense to begin where it all begins with us, the teacher – teaching “who we are.” This will be followed by how our words effect the class, the social “frames” that operate in the class, the principle of the emotional bank account, the way that power is manifested, and the many ways that social or indirect learning takes place in any learning environment.

 

We Teach Who We Are

It is said that, “we teach who we are.” If we recall our years of schooling and reflect on what we learned in each class, we would have to agree that as much of what we learned was related to “who” our teachers were, as it was to “what” we studied. Recall the array of teachers who you have had in the past. What do you recall about them? What stands out in your memory?  A reasonable guess is that what you remember is more related to who they were as a person than what they were trying to teach you. In fact, who they were taught you a lot. In some cases, it was how to be a good person or the kind of teacher you wish to be, or in some cases it was qualities that you have tried to avoid exhibiting, and/or what not to do as a teacher. Our teachers taught us something about being human. Some teachers we respected, some we felt sorry for. Some inspired us to learn, and some seemed to us to be bent on killing whatever interest we had in learning. In a very tangible way we are continuously teaching our values, culture, biases, politics, cognitive style, and a whole lifetime of mental conditioning in addition to our intended curriculum. No matter what we want our students to care about and what we want them to focus on, the truth is that they are continuously learning from “who we are.” Or more accurately, “what our conditioning expresses about us when we teach.”

 

Becoming Self-Aware of My “Default Tendencies” and “Unconscious Conditioning”

If I am unaware of my default preferences or mental conditioning or unconscious tendencies, then I am essentially engaging in teaching unaware of a whole host of things that I am teaching to my students. And in my own way, I am very predictable. I will have tendencies, biases, values, and patterns that will significantly influence my teaching. Is this a problem? The answer is usually yes. Commonly, unconsciousness leads to behavior we regret later. The more aware we are, the less predictable, and the less aware, the more predictable. What is the problem with being a product of our conditioning and hardwired preferences that lead to predictable and knee-jerk reactive tendencies?  The short answer is that our students are penalized.  The long answer will become increasingly apparent as you read further into the book. Most classroom management problem conditions are manufactured by the teacher. And that teacher usually has very good intentions.  So, if most of us have good intentions but still create endless problems for ourselves, good intentions must not be sufficient. Successful teaching that includes effective classroom management must require a substantial level of self-awareness. Moreover, the higher the quality of our self-awareness the more focused our intentions can become. There are countless domains of our thinking and behavior that are useful to become more aware of, and as you read on you may discover some, but in this section, we will focus on four of those areas – 1) self-concept, 2) cognitive style, 3) stored away parent tapes, and 4) world view.

 
1. Self-Concept: Why Would Students Want to Be Like Me or Care about the Subject that I am Teaching?

If I like myself, does that count for something? Conversely, if I don’t really like myself, what difference does that make to my teaching performance? The fact is that in many subtle and unconscious ways, we are perpetually teaching our self-concept and level of self-respect. Moreover, research shows that how we feel about (and ultimately treat) our students will inevitably be a reflection of how we feel about ourselves (Friedman & Farber, 1992). And simply put, we will be better teachers if we like our students.  If we feel good on the inside, it will show on the outside in a thousand ways that we may not even be aware of, but our students likely are.

 

In addition, if we like and demonstrate a love of learning and enthusiasm for the material we are teaching, it will rub off on students. Cabello & Terrell (1994) found that when teachers were more enthusiastic about what they were teaching, students learned more. 

 

 

Chapter Reflection 3-c Recall the teachers who have engendered the highest amount of love and respect from you. Were they the teachers with the largest personalities? Or the teachers who thought they were the coolest? Or was it a teacher who expressed a care and/or respect for you as a person?

 

2. Cognitive Style: Examining Our Default Preferences

Research into Cognitive Preference (also called Personality Type, Learning Style, or Temperament Type) demonstrates that teachers’ values are strongly predicted by their type on various cognitive dimensions. In a very real way “we teach our cognitive type.” Myers, McCaulley, Quenk, and Hammer (1998) found that if teachers did nothing to alter their teaching – that is when they resorted to their “default” tendencies, the students who were less like them by cognitive preference were less successful, enjoyed the class less and actually received lower grades, while the student who were more like them felt more successful and received better grades. Conversely, if the teacher was aware of their cognitive style default tendencies and actively worked to be more responsive to the diversity of their students’ needs the students who differed from them in cognitive type approached the success and enjoyment of the students who were like them.  Simply put, this is another dimension of teaching in which unconsciousness leads to the penalization of students. And just as we penalize those students who are culturally different from us when we are not aware of our biases, we penalize those students who are cognitively different from us when our lack of awareness leads to our defaulting to our hardwired tendencies. Appendix X explores the relationship between learning style and classroom management in more detail.

 

 

Chapter Reflection 3-d: Recall a teacher in whose class you thrived. If you were to identify his/her cognitive style, would you say that you were similar? Do you think that had anything to do with the affinity and comfort you felt?

 

 

3. Accessing our Parent Tapes

It is common to be teaching and hear our own parent’s voice come out of us. For some of us this is mostly a positive experience, but for many of us, it can be disturbing.  We assumed that we would not make any of the mistakes our parents made. We need to first resist the temptation to feel guilty or resentful of our parents. Next, we need to simply recognize that what we might refer to as our “parent conditioning tapes” are in there, often in the form of mental scripts. Some of the most common negative parent conditioning tapes include the following:

 

As we become more familiar with these tapes in our heads, we need to learn to identify the triggers that lead us to react. Triggers include being worn down, feeling inadequate or insecure, or when our students bring the same problems to us that we brought to our parents. Finally we need to recognize that we are not determined by this past conditioning. Being aware of it and the triggers that set it off allow us to be more intentional rather than unconscious and reactive. The remainder of the book should give you ideas for how to be more intentional in your practice, and Chapter 16 explores pathways to creating greater levels of consciousness and self-awareness.

 

 

Chapter Reflection 3-e: What are some of the parent tapes that you find yourself reproducing in your class and/or relationships?

 

 

4. Examining our World View

What are my basic assumptions about young people? What motivates them? What do they need? What characterizes the world that they are entering?  Our answers to these questions will have a profound effect on how we teach. Moreover, it is likely that our “world view” will define how we approach classroom management. If we have a dark view of human nature, we will expect the worst from our students. If we have a hopeful view of human nature, we will maintain faith in our students. This book does not endeavor to answer the questions of human nature, but it is a certainty that what you believe to be true about the basic nature of your students will define your classroom. Many teachers maintain a hostile view of the world. And their classes take on those qualities of coldness, competitiveness, and antagonism. The idea behind their basic philosophy is that if it’s a cruel world out there, we might as well get used to it. Whether this is an accurate reflection of the world or not, the result is the penalization of the students in this type of class. If our job is to create high functioning students, we will not get there unless we create a school world that meets their personal and learning needs and fosters a psychology of success (see Chapter 7). Moreover, we need to recognize that “the real world” is made each day in our classroom. We are manufacturing the future by every act that we make as a teacher.

Text Box: Examining the Use of the Term the “Real World” of Schools Frequently, we hear teachers use the phrase, the “real world,” as in “that idea sounds nice, but it would not work in the real world.” On first listening, it sounds like it is coming from the voice of experience. They have been around the proverbial teaching “block” and can attest to how the “real world” works. But like the term “it works,” (discussed in Chapter 2) we need to listen carefully to the messages beneath the words. It may seem harmless on the surface, but in essence they are instructing us to adopt their world-view. And it is certainly a convincing rhetorical device. If someone states, “Boy, my students have a hard time being honest in class,” we might think, “Gosh, that teacher is struggling with that issue in their class. Good luck to them.” However, if one declares, “In the real world people will lie anytime they get the chance,” we can come away convinced that it is a fact, and moreover that we should stop trusting our current students and any of those that we teach in the future. The truth is that a) the real world is rarely defined by adages that include the phrase the “real world,” b) the use of the term the “real world” usually indicates a world-view that has been jaded and is fundamentally dysfunctional, and c) students are likely paying the price for it. We examine this term in detail in Appendix J.

 

Chapter Reflection 3-f: Recall the last time you heard a teacher make a suggestion to you that included the phrase “the real world.” What was the context? In your estimation, what did the suggestion assume about the nature of students?

 

 

Teacher Language and Message Sub-Text

It has been said that words define our reality (Devitt & Sterling, 1999).  We need words to explain what is.  Herbert Kohl (2002) suggests that everything that is said and how it is said is significant and that “small things – comments, questions, responses, phrases, tone- often make a big difference in students’ attitudes, not merely toward their teacher, but toward what their teacher teaches.”The use of language in the classroom is a powerful influence and defines the very nature of how we make meaning of what is going on.  This idea may sound very abstract, but examine the language in any classroom.  As you listen and observe, ask yourself these questions; “What is the purpose of the language used?” “What emotional climate is being created by the use of the language?” “Is the language used consistent with the non-verbal messages being sent?” In essence, “What is the sub-text of the speech?” When you examine the words spoken by each of the three teachers represented in exercise 3.1 below, assume that they all possess a desire for roughly the same explicit outcomes. Yet, as you read their words, would you predict that their language exchanges would produce similar classroom environments?

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise 3.1

First, examine the following teacher language patterns.  Second, classify and then develop a label for the types of language that are occurring in each case. Use any words you feel best for your labels. Next, as you reflect on each set of phrases attempt to characterize the classroom climate that would be manufactured by the use of each of these hypothetical language patterns.

 

Teacher A:

·         (After handing out an assignment) “I don’t want to see all the sloppy papers that I saw the last time.”

·         “Stop talking or I will . . .”

·         (After a wrong answer) “No, you guys aren’t getting this.”

·         (Sarcastic responses on a regular basis)

·         “I told you guys to get to work.”

·         “When are we ever going to learn?”

 

I’d label this language _________________

The effect on the classroom climate (and/or socially constructed reality) would be ___.

 

 

Teacher B:

·         (Gives directions and students are still talking) “Listen to me!”

·         “There is too much noise in the room.”

·         (After directions are given, and students were not paying attention, and they do not do what the teacher wants) “OK, I told you to keep the glue in the box until you get your paper ready,” (as students are still not listening). “Put the glue away I said!”

 

I’d label this language _________________

The effect on the classroom climate (and/or socially constructed reality) would be __.

 

 

 

Teacher C:

·         “Take a look at this group, see how they . . . that is a good example of the process we are looking for.”

·         “I know it is almost lunchtime, but I need you to stay with it for 15 more minutes.”

·         (After some students were not attentive to directions) “Someone was talking, I think I will start the directions over, I need 100% attention.”

·         (After an incorrect answer) “OK, you seemed to be doing . . . and that would be right for that process, but what we were looking for was . . ., given that do you want to try again?”

·         (After a poor effort) “We have got to do a better job with this than last time.  We need to get this stuff down by this week.  We will need to have it for the test next week and for your projects.”

 

I’d label this language _________________

The effect on the classroom climate (and/or socially constructed reality) would be___.

 

Reflecting on the Language of Each of the Three Teachers

Before we explore the language of each teacher, it is useful to recall that you did not know a great deal about any of these three teachers depicted in exercise 3.1. You only had a small number of words from each of their classes. What could possibly be inferred from such a small amount of information? First, I am guessing that you inferred a great deal. Second, I will wager that your assessment was on the mark.

 

When asked to characterize the words of Teacher A, I would guess that you used terms such as negative, hostile, condescending, antagonistic and threatening. I also bet that you described the climate with words such as combative, hostile, depressed, and non-motivational. If so, you would be correct. The climate in this actual class was quite antagonistic. Some students chose to withdraw, while others took the challenge and chose to engage the teacher in a power struggle. If we were to classify this teachers language on the management style matrix, it would fall into the category of a 4-Style.

 

If we examine some of the phrases more closely we can recognize why it was not difficult to see the eventual negative environment that was created by the teacher.

·         “Stop talking or I will . . .” – This is a classic example of a threat. In essence, a threat sends two very ineffective messages. First, “I am hostile and unsafe.” Second, “I am too weak or lazy to take any meaningful action.”

·         I don’t want to see all the sloppy papers that I saw the last time.” – We could refer to this phrase as an example of “chronicling failure.” This is when the teacher points out to the students their past inadequate performance in a weak attempt to promote positive behavior in the future.  While this is very common, like many other forms of negative recognition, as we will discuss in the next chapter, it has no positive value. It is past-oriented, does nothing to help support future behavior, is weak and hostile.

·         “When are we ever going to learn?” – This phrase is a put-down. Like threats, put-downs show that the teacher is hostile, yet too weak to take constructive action.  Even when said in jest, put-downs have a price. Humor can be a wonderful asset, but victimizing humor can work against building a safe emotional climate.

 

The descriptors that you used to characterize the language of Teacher B likely included words such as passive, timid, anxious, chaotic, frustrated and ineffective. Teacher B’s words reflected a distinct lack of a sense of legitimate authority. Like Teacher A, they put misguided faith in the use of negative recognition to achieve results. Yet, the passive nature of this teachers approach would best be classified as 3-Style. This passivity can be seen in teacher B’s words. The phrase “Listen to me!” could best be described as a plea. It implies a lack of an operating set of explicit boundaries or social contract. He/she is making the appeal, in so many words, of “listen to me if you respect me.” This teachers efforts demonstrated that relying on implied desire for respect rather than clear expectations typically results in frustration and disappointment.