Good Cop, Bad Cop: The
Roles of Authority
and Professionalism in
the Classroom
English 90CS
Panel #4
Taylor Bloom, Kirsten Walther,
Grace Shin, Krystal Mak
Good Cop, Bad Cop
• The Pink Panther (2006): Good Cop, Bad Cop
Google Images: “Strict
Teacher”
Google Images:
“Friendly Teacher”
Fastwrite
• Reflect on the second fastwrite of the semester—to
describe a teacher who was significant in your life.
Would that teacher fall into the “strict” category, the
“friendly” category, or a balance of the two?
Real-Life Situation
• After having reflected upon the definitions and
connotations of “strict” and “friendly” teaching styles,
discuss the appropriate levels of authority and
friendship within the classroom, stemming from your
own experiences.
The Importance of
Maintaining a Balance
• Journal of Educational Psychology findings
• Both are necessary:
• Strict
• To maintain equality in giving grades
• To gain respect and maintain authority over students
• Friendly
• To make students feel respected and understood
Compare and
contrast
• Consider Miss Rain in Push, Mr. Wicher in Push, Amy
in The Writing Class, and Mr. Keating in Dead Poet’s
Society
• What types of power do the teachers exert?
• Are they successful?
• Why or why not? Complicating factors…
Complicating
Factors
• Socioeconomic status
• Teacher’s age
• Gender relations
• Student behavior/willingness to learn
• Teacher’s appearance
Complicating Factors:
Socioeconomic Status
• Lack of access to proper educational resources
• Inherently low expectations (administration,
community)
• More at-risk for delinquency, teen pregnancy, etc.
• Lack the proper academic home environment
• How does this change the appropriate teaching style?
Complicating Factors:
Teacher’s Age
• Younger teachers
• More authoritative
• Compensate for lack of experience
• Older teachers
• Less authoritative
• Authority based on respect/trust
• How does this change the appropriate teaching style?
Complicating Factors:
Teacher’s Age cont’d.
• Samba et al. 2003
• Study of 160 science teachers at a secondary school in
Benue state, Nigeria
• Measure the rate of utilization of 19 different teaching
strategies
• Conclusions:
• “gap that could be created by age and experience”
• Older, more experienced teachers: higher utilization of
teaching strategies such as discussions, demonstrations,
problem solving, etc.
• Younger, less experienced teachers: lower rate of utilization
Complicating Factors:
Gender Relations
• Paper centers on the importance of a professor
establishing authority according to the gender of
students
• Different motives behind using certain methods, such
as being very strict or repressing emotion in the
classroom
• To what extent should a teacher employ both tough
and soft love in the classroom?
• STANDARDS OF EVALUATION
• NOT AN EITHER/OR SITUATION
Complicating Factors: Student
Behavior/Willingness to Learn
• Student is unwilling to learn
• How does this change the appropriate teaching style?
Complicating Factors:
Teacher’s Appearance
• Teachers come in a variety of shapes, forms, and sizes;
though the ideal would be for a student to be open to
all of these forms, this is not always the case—at least
initially.
• First impressions count
• Up the Down Staircase
• Freedom Writers
• First impressions are just that—eventually the substance
will either support or counter these impressions