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positive effect. However, it did not exceed a statistical validity threshold (p-value = 0.13).
Other negative statistically significant effects were visible when the teachers were accepting “Lack of clear educative aims to meet in classes 1-3” statement, and they amounted to: 0.18 for reading and -0.30 for the skill of solving text exercises. For the statement „Lack of experience exchange between 1-3 class teachers”, there was a significant negative effect for spelling. For „Lack of adequate cooperation with parents” statement, significant negative effects for algorithmical skills and solving text problems were observed.
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which is characterized by placing emphasis on the teaching process based on mechanical teaching of simple schemes and rules, which can be easily learned and verified. Educational pessimism shows level of belief in small intellectual abilities and knowledge of school children, whereas independence promotion is connected with a level of acceptance of a belief that in teaching process individual actions of pupils should be emphasized.
It is worth paying attention to intensification of educational pessimism among teachers working in schools, which obtain results below average – as much as nine (of ten) teachers get below average result, whereas some of them have a very strong conviction that children are characterized with low abilities.
Similar situation concerns formalism, although its scale is a little bit smaller. Seven teachers often are characterized with high level of formalism and educational pessimism.
On the other hand, teachers from these schools obtain results below average for promoting independency scale.
Belief in a statement that if the teacher did not explain something, then children do not know it, is shown in practice quite commonly, in all of the observed schools:
Bartek! What do you say?
How did you get it if it has not been introduced during a lesson yet? (2/4 fraction) I did not teach you how to multiply by 12. How do you know how to do it?
In order to do something, you have to wait for my instructions.
And you have to appropriately arrange the map. I will judge it, not you.
Open the notebooks. Don’t do anything. I will tell you and explain everything.
We have to glue the map to an empty sheet. I will show and say how.
It is one of the most typical characteristics of the observed classes. It is followed by other qualities – domineering and talkative teacher, children not intellectually active, repetitive schemes supplied by a teacher, and pupils not really interested in the lesson.
As a result, the start of education does not look very optimistic.
Creativity of school children?
In as much as 13 schools, lessons were lacking a part, in which pupils could be creative.
Signs of children’s creativity could be observed during 8 classes, on the remaining 70 actions of children were imitative.
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In effect, children were creative during 3.0% of classes as an average, that is slightly over one minute during a typical lesson. Again, they had more chances to be creative during lessons concerning language education, mainly as far as schools from the upper half are concerned.
They could:
write proverbs about friendship;
design machines, for example to create clouds, and write manuals;
write poems;
design and make posters inviting to visit Warsaw;
forecast and paint what Poland would look like in 50 years time;
show in drama scenes what they would like to bewitch for themselves and others if they had such a possibility;
design book cover.
During classes developing mathematical skills, only once children had a chance to show creative initiative – they were formulating various questions matching the wording of an exercise. It gives an average of 3 seconds of mathematical creativity per 45 minutes of a lesson.
Several times during the classes there were situations, which – probably - according to the teachers or authors of the textbooks, were supposed to give children a chance to act creatively. However, they did not fulfil their function because of excessive engagement of a teacher. Here are some examples:
We have there (in a textbook) a picture story. There are 6 pictures. And in a moment we will say what we see in these pictures. Have we got the books open?
What we see in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth picture? Let’s start from the first one.
Good. In the second?
Excuse me for a moment. (to a pupil, who describes the picture) Is everybody looking at the picture?
(the pupil continues)
Grzegorz described the pictures very well. I will distribute sheets of paper, on which you have sentences with a mixed sequence of the story’s events. You will do it very quickly, glue it to the notebook, but right now don’t glue anything, we will check sequence of events.
What is the first event?
Maybe let’s start with reading out all the events?
Pupil: The first one...
Oh, you are reading it in a correct sentence. Good. Do all of us have number one marked?
Second one, maybe somebody else. (pupils read successive events) ...
On the basis of the sequence of events we will tell the picture story. It will be quite easy exercise for you. (a pupil tells a story)
Speak up a little bit, please.
Very well, who also wants to tell this story? Wojtek. (the pupil tells it)
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(Children prepare a journal. The teacher collects materials prepared by them.)
I, guessing your suggestions, have prepared a colourful string and I will try to put everything in one piece.
I have already prepared the journal, we can show it to our mums at the meeting.
Children asking questions?
Pupils in the observed classes were very strongly “controlled” – their actions were mostly a reaction to the teachers’ actions. It is reflected in a form and frequency of spontaneous questions asked by school children (table 6). Spontaneous – that is formulated from the children's initiative.
Table 6: Number and frequency of spontaneous questions asked by the pupils during observed classes. Numbers characterising frequency inform how often a given type of questions was asked
During the observed classes, pupils asked:
Classes total Language education Mathematical
education
Schools total Lower part of the schools Upperpartof the schools Schools total Lower part of the schools Upperpartof the schools Schools total Lower part of the schools Upperpartof the schools
organization al questions
Number 407 207 200 221 119 102 186 88 98
Frequenc
y 8.7 8.6 8.7 9.3 9.0 9.7 7.9 8.2 7.6
questions for explanation, justification
Number 28 14 14 13 7 6 15 7 8
Frequenc
y 125.8 127.
6
123.
9
157.
9
152.
4
164.
3 97.9 102.7 93.6
other substantial questions
Number 86 48 38 55 31 24 31 17 14
Frequenc
y 40.9 37.2 45.7 37.3 34.4 411 47.4 42.3 53.5
Classes lasting time (in
minutes) 3521 1786 1735 2053 1067 986 1468 719 749
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As it can be seen, children ask organizational questions most often – their frequency is very similar, despite type of school and classes. During a typical lesson lasting forty- five minutes, about 5 such questions are asked.
Other questions seem to illustrate a level of children’s helplessness and teachers’
dominance level:
Do we glue it at the beginning of the textbook? Can we glue it now?
Are we first solving it and then gluing, or first gluing and then solving?
Are we writing?
When we write these sentences, do we start from the new line?
Is it a new sentence?
Can I colour it with markers?
Miss, do I have to write it here?
Can I mark it this way?
Miss, can I do calculations on this sheet of paper?
And can we sign it?
Miss, where do we sign it?
Will we need a pencil?
Do I have to write in pencil?
What do I have to write here?
Miss, and here the result?
Do we write here or not?
Here minus sign?
Can I use a marker?
A large group of questions is connected with a willingness to grab attention and additionally it shows boredom of the pupils:
If I finished writing, can I go out?
And what to do if somebody finished rewriting?
Can I start the second page?
Can we read the exercise?
Can we start doing calculations? (“No” – says the teacher) Can we do the next one?
Do we have to do number four as well?
Can we do number four?
Can I draw something?
Can we start writing?
Can we do it alone? (the teacher does not react) And if somebody finished?
Miss, can I draw a mushroom?
Miss, what to do if I finished number five?
And what do we have to do now?
Rarely school children asked substantial questions, that is connected directly with a topic of the lesson.
Clarification or justification questions were rare – during the whole research process there were only 28 of them. Small number of these questions appeared despite school types – they were appearing one time per 126 minutes of the classes. And only some
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teachers were trying to give a comprehensive answer. In 59 of 78 observed lessons, none of such questions were asked. At the end it is worth emphasizing the fact that on 37 of 78 observed classes, that is on the half of them!, school children were asking only organizational questions.
References
M. Dąbrowski, M. Żytko (red), Badanie umiejętności podstawowych uczniów klas trzecich szkoły podstawowej. Konteksty szkolnych osiągnięć uczniów. Raport z badań ilościowych, CKE, Warszawa 2008.
M. Dąbrowski (red), Trzecioklasista i jego nauczyciel. Raport z badań ilościowych.CKE, Warszawa 2009.
M. Dagiel, M. Żytko (red), Nauczyciel kształcenia zintegrowanego 2008 – raport z badań. CKE, Warszawa 2009.
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S
ECONDARYT
EACHERE
DUCATION116
THE TEACHER’S DUAL AWARENESS- ABOUT BEING ”MET” OR ABOUT MEETING “THAT SOMETHING”
HELLE BJERRESGAARD
University College South, Denmark
ABSTRACT
The pupils’ quotations in this article come from the survey, 2004: “Signalement af den gode og effective underviser – eleverne har ordet” (“Description of the skilled and efficient teacher – the pupils have the floor”) involving pupils from lower and upper secondary school.
Although pupils know that they go to school to learn something, their starting point is
“themselves”: “I´m OK” or “I´m good enough”. The teacher’s starting point is her intention of teaching. Creating an effective learning environment the teacher need to be attentive to the intentions of the pupils, especially when there is a lack of merging.
In Denmark teachers have a triple focus in teaching: the pupils’ academic standard, their socialization and their democratic upbringing, with the general objective of strengthening the capability of the individual pupil, to live her life in a society of high complexity.
To teach is so to say “Someone who wants to make a difference with somebody else”
and asking the question what it is you want to do, leads on to the question how to do this. Traditionally the answers from teachers become a range of pedagogical-methodical principles, where I believe that they tend to play down the most crucial one: The observation of her own interaction with her pupils.
Recognition must be followed up by structure
As the leader of the class the teacher is responsible for the quality of relations. I mean that she is responsible for inviting the pupil to the kind of cooperation which is characterized by mutual respect and recognition. The latter concept is often referred to at present and yet there is much doubt about its substance. “Is everything supposed to be equally well?”, “Are you not allowed to criticize at all?”
I see the appreciative idea of pedagogy as an ongoing process.
As a starting point teacher and pupil recognize that “the other” has a right to experience things the way she does. The appreciative approach therefore becomes a way of meeting other people, which requires that you basically are willing to distinguish between the
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experiences, and the acts of the participants. The idea is that acts may be criticized and affected in a desirable direction, without depriving the person her self-esteem.
The teacher should not have to worry about whether or not democracy in her class, suffers from the fact that she is the main decision maker during a school day. The pupils’ comprehension of the teacher is that she controls the class, and provides the subject with its substance.
The teacher more or less becomes the embodiment of her subject – for better or worse.
The teacher’s involvement, her will power and capability of teaching her subject is being revealed by the pupils the instant she enters the classroom.
As Peter, told me two weeks after his start at upper secondary school:
Well I had a really good English teacher at lower secondary and I intended to choose English as my major subject. Then I met the English teacher …and now I have chosen chemistry!
Not that the pupils are demanding much:
There is no such thing as a special recipe for how to act as a good teacher. It depends - but as long as you try to be mostly positive and take an interest in the subject you teach, then I suppose that’s it. It’s liking your job, that makes the difference, says Anne.
The teacher may solve her pedagogical paradox – to be in charge and control the events without destroying the pupils’ initiative and commitment – by viewing herself as part of the tuition and therefore also open to assessment. Self assessment on the basis of pupils’
feedback, may supply the teacher with the kind of information which is out of reach through her academic standard, namely an answer to the question: How do pupils see teachers facilitate their teaching?
The teacher-pupil cooperation represents a complementary reciprocity – a kind of appreciative dialectics – including both a general presence of the teacher and an interest in the individual pupil.
… if only the teacher is considerate and tries to appear positive, it is as if it helps, I think.
In such situations you feel much more like taking part, than if they just sit there looking as if they would rather be at home, Mette says.
My Civics teacher, when you talk to him, you can see that he is able to – well, usually a teacher has one way of teaching. But this teacher has a way for each individual, in which he gives information and instructions. He can see through people which is really good. It really is as if he knows me – well, knows me the school way, yes that’s it , says Robert
The asymmetric distribution of roles lay down the framework for the encounter between teacher and pupils, and they accept, or better, need the teacher as their learning leader.
But the learning is situated in strong relations founded in respect.
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I learn a lot from my English teacher. But I don’t know if it has to do with her being young and having lived for some time in England, and that I learn English very easily. So we are good at cooperating – teacher – pupil – in the sense that we have different strong sides, and therefore compliment each other. We get along very well in the longs run, let me say it like this that you cooperate with the teacher, Anton tells.
The teachers dual awareness
The same instant the teacher meets the pupil, the pupil meets the subject. The learning process of the pupils will then be kick-started by the teacher’s introduction which is expected to be clear and committed.
Good teachers have a considerable interest in what they
do… and they really involve themselves with their task, says Robert.
A good teacher knows how to explain things in many different ways, in case you don’t understand … there really are teachers who, you know when you don’t quite understand what they say, they just use the same explanation all over again. And perhaps they just talk louder… and you know that doesn’t really work at all, Mette tells.
Teachers who enter the class room, sit down by their desk saying: You may start with this and that… and then just keep seated and let us do the work, ehh… I mean, they do not teach their subject well. A good teacher is someone who not only knows the rules of a language or of mathematics… but who also come to your desk to help you if you need it and who helps everybody, Anton and many others need awareness.
The dual awareness is about identifying the teacher with her material and about being able to stage it, so that it will be available to the pupils as an appropriate disturbance.
Several studies show that the teacher’s conduct – especially during the first 5 to 10 minutes of a lesson – is crucial to the peace to work in the class room. The Danish psychologist Jan Tønnesvang describes it like this:
“Teachers must together and individually strive to develop a personally rooted working style and teaching style…(…)meaning that the teacher as a person must be placed in the centre of her professional competence. The term teaching style referred to by Tønnesvang is what the pupils call the teacher’s charisma:
When they say something you are interested in or if you just like the way they are extremely well, their entire charisma, it makes a big difference. If they act alive and vivid or like someone who really is involved in what they say, then you are much more likely to listen to them. Or those who know a lot about their field of work, and know how to use examples in their conversations, Mette says.
No teacher has yet managed to get me hooked on German, and well … that is for one thing because I am not interested in the subject … and on the other hand I don’t know if I had taken much interest in mathematics, if I hadn’t had such great teachers. But it is good to
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have a great teacher from the very beginning… so that you are absorbed in the subject straight away , Peter has experienced.
The teachers personality
Peter tells us about his meeting with ”the it” that catches his attention. He can not find the right words to explain that it is the teacher’s personality which catches him. Robert explain it in the presence of the teacher: …looks directly into my eyes and is seriously committed, as he says.
Studies also show examples of the opposite effect, that pupils find the teacher’s personality an obstacle to their learning.
If a teacher enters the class room in a grumpy mood, she has one of those days, then her class reacts like … well like nothing matters – I mean, fuck that, Lene describes.
You may say that the teacher uses her personality as a working tool, and it is vital to stress that it is her professional personality that is on duty. This emphasis contains a break with the former opinion of the conflict between being professional, and being personal or private. I believe that this separation is false, and that the separation should be between privacy and professionalism. This facilitates the comprehension of the positions on which the participants involved in the actual teaching is acting. The pupil is a pupil and not a child, friend or consumer of school and the teacher is the pupil’s professional adult, not a friend or mother. The proportion of conscious on subconscious communication is 1:9; this is an important reason why the teacher must reflect on her own actions and communication: If I want to be able to ….; then I must work with….Which means that she must correct her performance in those cases, where the private person “takes over” from the professional teacher in an undesirable way.
The reflection might be done as a feedforward- feedback