A Prof Goes to Middle School
Sandy Brownscombe, Ed.D.
Eastern Mennonite University
Health and Physical Activity Institute
James Madison University
Wednesday July 27, 2005
They don’t care until they know
you know who they are!!!
How do we help students develop responsible
behaviors?
How do students know that we care?
Reminders of things you do everyday that help
to build community and to help students know
that you care and are trustworthy.
Ways to help your students have a good day
with the substitute teacher.
The Real Questions are:
What can I do to develop a caring and
trustworthy relationship with each of my
students?
Will my student’s that need to develop a
healthy lifestyle trust me enough to risk
making a change?
Does anyone care?
In schools today…we hear many students
complain that "nobody cares." When we talk
with teachers in the same schools, we may
be convinced that these teachers do care
and care deeply in the virtue sense. But
something has gone badly wrong. People
who are trying to care and people who want
to care have been unable to form caring
relations. (Noddings, 2002, p. 88)
Definitions: Caring
"an activity of relationship, of seeing
and responding to need, taking care
of the world by sustaining the web of
connection so that no one is left
alone" (Gilligan, 1982, p. 62).
Definitions: Caring Teacher
"one who regularly establishes caring relations-not merely as one who possess certain virtues"
(Noddings, 2001, p. 103).
"A caring teacher directs his or her energy to
care for students in the form of taking action(s)-the actions required to meet the unfilled needs
of the students" (Lisle, 2001, p. 140).
Definitions: Caring Teacher
Caring teachers view students as more
important than their subject matter but
understand that their task as teachers is
to provide an environment where students
can learn specific content knowledge as
they develop as caring people (Noddings,
1984, 1992).
Definitions: Caring Teacher
Caring teachers develop relationships with
students, listen to students, create a
warm atmosphere, know students as
individuals, show empathy, and meet the
academic and emotional needs of their
students. (Brownscombe, 2004)
Definitions: Caring Pedagogy
“Caring pedagogy involves meaningful
and authentic relationships between
teachers and students that nurture growth
and facilitate learning. In 'being there'
together, regarding the other as present
and deserving respect in a way that
transforms both" (Paul and Colucci, 2000,
p. 61).
Definitions: Caring Learning Environments
Caring learning environments allow
students to feel safe, make mistakes, and
work collaboratively with others while the
teachers in these classrooms make
connections to students prior learning,
interests, and are culturally responsive to
their students.
Descriptors of Caring Teachers
Intuitive
Observant
Listener
Empathic
Sensitive
Patient
Open-minded
Flexible
Supportive
Understanding
Available
Encourager
Stable
Sensitive
Behaviors Used by Teachers to Create
Caring Learning Communities
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
the ability to reduce anxiety
the willingness to listen
the rewarding of appropriate behaviors
being a friend
the appropriate use of positive and
negative criticism
(Bulach, Brown, and Potter, 1998)
Research Says
Teachers demonstrate an ethic of care
in their classrooms by the way they
interact with students in and outside
of the classroom and through their
personal attributes (Bosworth, 1995).
Classroom Observation Guide: Actions
1.
2.
3.
4.
Actively listens to students
Makes eye contact with students
Helps students with homework
Varies instruction to meet the needs
of individual students
5. Provides clear explanations of
assignments
6. Checks for understanding
Classroom Observation Guide: Actions
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Provides students with necessary materials
Displays students' work
Adjusts the schedule
Maintains a safe learning environment
Applies consistent classroom management
Spends time outside of class with students
Collaborates with colleagues
Classroom Observation Guide: Words
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Calls students by name
Uses a positive communication style
Expresses high expectations for all students
Asks students' their opinion
Recognizes students for individual achievement
in and out of class
6. Communicates with parents
Demonstration of Caring
Instruction--interactions between the
teacher and student(s) and student to
student that related directly to the
academic structure and requirements of
the classroom
Demonstration of Caring
Classroom Management-the interaction between
a teacher and student(s) that does not relate
directly to the instructional process
Non-classroom Activities-interaction outside of a
student's regularly scheduled instructional time
with the teacher
Instruction
Classroom
management
Non-classroom
activities
Actively listens to students
X
X
X
Makes eye contact with
students
X
X
X
Helps students with
homework
X
Varies instruction to meet
the needs of individual
students
X
X
Provides clear explanations
of assignments
X
X
Checks for understanding
X
Actions Category
X
Actions Category
Instruction
Classroom
management
Non-classroom
activities
Provides students w/ necessary
materials
X
Displays students’ work
X
Adjusts the schedule
X
Maintains a safe learning
environment
X
X
Applies consistent classroom
management
X
X
Spends time outside of class
with students
X
X
Collaborates with colleagues
X
X
X
Instruction
Classroom
management
Calls students by name
X
X
Uses a positive communication
style
X
X
Expresses high expectations for
all students
X
X
Asks students’ their opinion
X
X
Recognizes students for
individual achievement in and
out of class
X
X
Communicates with parents
X
Words Category
Non-classroom
activities
X
Trusting What You Know: The High
Stakes of Classroom Relationships
Our deepest hope for our children is that
they will construct knowledge in school
about themselves, their community, and
the world that is robust, resilient, and
creative…The theory continues: for
children to develop trustworthy
knowledge, they must learn in the context
of trustworthy relationships.
(Raider-Roth, 2005, p. 18)
Trusting What You Know: The High
Stakes of Classroom Relationships
Sixth graders reveal the complexity and power
inherent in the relationships of school
School is as much a product of what knowledge
feels safe to share as it is a product of what
they know
How trust between and among teachers,
students, and parents in school intersect with
the kind of internal trust that students must
construct in order to learn effectively
(Raider-Roth, 2005, p. 5-6)
In constructing this trust in self and others, they
act politically by sharing and suppressing
knowledge based on their understandings of
classroom relationships. They astutely identify
ruptures in relationships that undermine the
very trust they are trying to build. They detect
such breaks in relationship by monitoring
behaviors such as teachers’ responsiveness.
(Raider-Roth, 2005, p. 6)
Four central features of a trustworthy
teaching-learning relationship
the teacher’s capacity to be connected to
the student
the teacher’s genuine interest in nurturing
students’ own ideas
collaborative study on the part of teacher
and student
an environment in which trust can prevail
(Raider-Roth, 2005, p. 29-30)
Biggest Surprise of the Study
Was the repeated return to the ideas of
“telling the truth” and “lying”
Students as young as six introduced this
idea.
“Telling the truth” seems to be an
indicator of relational struggle with the
teacher
(Raider-Roth, 2005, p. 123)
Two Strands Regarding Truth
Being true to self: the effort to adequately
represent what they know about
themselves
Disclosure and the selection of truths that
will be honored and received by those
around them: students describe telling
partial truths or choosing which truth to
tell
(Raider-Roth, 2005, p. 124-125)
Getting It Right
In this study, “getting it right” is a key cue that
suggest that the students are wrestling with the
ways their self-perceptions match up with their
teachers’ perceptions of their work and learning.
Telling the truth is a necessary next step in
which they decide how much of their internal
reality to share. This decision is heavily
dependent on their understandings of their
teachers’ expectations and experiences of them.
(Raider-Roth, 2005, p. 132)
Challenges for Teachers
To craft an understanding of children that
allows for multiple truths, that allows
them to see students as students see
themselves, as their parents see them, as
their peers see them.
To have classrooms where trusting
relationships are built.
(Raider-Roth, 2005, p. 134, 168)
So What Does a Physical
Educator Say?
According to Judith Rink (2006)
Teaching is largely about affect: adults who
are caring and concerned professionals
have a responsibility to:
help students learn and
promote students’ personal growth as
individuals and as responsible, selfdirected members of society.
Through the manner in which they
interact with students, teachers can
communicate a professional and
supportive relationship with students that
says, ‘I care.’
Rink Suggests the Following
Ways to Share Yourself
1. Learn students’ names and use them.
2. Be enthusiastic and positive about what your
are doing.
3. Project a caring attitude toward all students.
4. Reinforce basic and shared beliefs of honesty,
tolerance, respect, risk taking, and effort by
modeling these behaviors, as well as
reinforcing them when they occur in the class.
Rink Suggests the Following
Ways to Share Yourself
5. Do not reinforce behavior destructive to self or
others by doing nothing about it.
6. Do not allow yourself to become threatened
by student misbehavior.
7. Make it a practice to intentionally treat all
students equitably. Develop an awareness of
your patterns of communication to different
students.
8. Learn to be a good listener and observer of
student responses.
9. Chart your life for personal growth.
The Real Questions are:
What can I do to develop a caring and
trustworthy relationship with each of my
students?
Will my student’s that need to develop a
healthy lifestyle trust me enough to risk
making a change?
Discussion
What can we do?
How can we help each other and our
students to develop responsible
behaviors?
???
References
Brownscombe, S. L. (2004). Infusing An Ethic Of
Care In A P-12 Learning Community: A Case
Study Of Second And Third-Year Teachers.
Unpublished Dissertation, Argosy
University/Sarasota. Florida.
Raider-Roth, M. B. (2005). Trusting what you
know: The high stakes of classroom
relationships. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Rink, J. E. (2006). Teaching physical education
for learning (5th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.
It Takes a Community to Be a
Successful Substitute!!!
Have a folder with all of the critical information
in visible location
Details, details and more details--much of what
you do is routine and comfortable.
Let the substitute know when they need to take
charge and when to give way to your colleague.
Individual lesson plans need details and what
you did yesterday would be helpful.
Leave DETAILED notes
Attendance policies and procedures for
each class.
Locker room coverage: who, what time,
what if the other classes do not return on
time--what do I do with the boys?
Lock down drills, fire drills--is the
information available in the gym?
Sandy Brownscombe, Ed. D.
Eastern Mennonite University
Professor of Teacher Education and
Physical Education
Harrisonburg, VA
Email: brownscs@emu.edu
Phone: 540-432-4368