No. 599, November 17, 2008

Leadership in the classroom

Rules in the classroom

We expect our teacher or educator to teach us. If they are competent enough we will learn, we believe. In reality this is not always so. The pupil must also be willing to learn if learning is to take place.

This is a dilemma for the teacher. The pupil or participant expects that learning is the teachers job, but the teacher knows that no results will be attained unless the pupil engages in the subject. Sure, lots can be accomplished with brilliant presentation skills, variations in pedagogy and good rapport. But this might still not win everyone.

A way to solve the dilemma is to create a form of contract with the participants:

• The teacher asks the pupils or participants to share their expectations of their teacher. Then the teacher tells the pupils what he or she expects of the pupils. This can be followed by a constructive discussion about reasonable rules. The discussion can result in a contract about everybody’s responsibility.
  
  
• An other less challenging way is for the teacher to share positively the learning results he or she can offer the group. Then the teacher states the conditions for this to happen. These conditions can be both rules of an open type such as "please ask questions", "be yourself" or "it is okay to make mistakes". It can also be more restrictive rules such as "speak only one at a time", "keep times" and "turn off your cell phones".

Every teacher needs to be clear with their leadership style and their expectations of their pupils. Otherwise the pupils will follow the expressed or unexpressed rules of their last strong teacher, which may not give good results with you.

Whenever more than a handful of people gather together to do something, some form of agreements are usually necessary for collaboration to function. As the leader in the classroom you need to express these rules and get them accepted if you are to successfully lead the group toward your common learning goal.

Creative regards! Jonas Himmelstrand

© 2008 Strategies to Learn & Grow Newsletter • Printable version