Module 18: Blog Post 2

Watch the (quite vintage) videos below. You can skip through if you like.

What elements do you see that are controlled by the teacher or centered around students? (specify which)

In the second video, almost every element is teacher-controlled. Although she appreciates good student behavior, she complains and points out every single undesired behavior. I know that it is important to teach discipline in the classroom, but she probably makes students feel that they must do every single thing right or they will be noticed for it. Since the students are at a young age, they are still learning and adapting to new classroom behaviors and expectations. This tight control over the students may encourage them to continue these undesired behaviors in the classroom or the teacher may lose their interest completely. Something she does let students control is raising their hands and answering questions. Allowing students to give feedback is important, but when she does call on the students, she is yelling at other students while the student is still answering questions. I think in this scenario, the teacher should give more control to the students and STOP being so controlling over the students.

In the first video, I feel the teacher creates a good balance of control she has over students and control she gives to them. By allowing students to work among themselves and learn from others creates a positive learning environment where the students have control and the control is centered around them. When the teacher calls the students back together to discuss what they did as a group, indicates the teacher still has control over the classroom and guides the learning in the classroom, but still allows the students to explore through their own experiences. I think the way the teacher set up this learning environment is great tool teachers should often used.

What kind of motivation or learning differences would you expect from each class and why?

I feel in the second video, students would be less motivated to learn. With the teacher constantly knit-picking each thing a child does that is not "perfect" negatively impacts the learning environment. By giving the students very little control, will greater discourage motivation. In the first video, by allowing the students to have more control, it will help encourage motivation and create a positive learning environment. Allowing the students to share, learn, and discuss trials-and-err0rs with one another positively impacts students education.