THEORIES OF DEMOCRATIC TEACHING

RADOLF DREIKURS

DefinitionDicipline Mutual respect - motivates students to behave constructively because of their high sense of social interest.All humans have a primary need to belong and feel part of a group.All students desire to feel they have value and to feel they can contribute to the classroomNeed to belong the genuine goal of human social behavior.

Description Democratic teachers- traits of democratic teaching:leadership, friendliness, inviting nature, stimulation traits of ideas, cooperation, guidance, encouragement, acknowledgement, helpfulness and shared responsibilities

more likely to help students become self-disciplinedcentral focus was on constructive behavior rather than coercive disciplinedid not consider punishment as an effective method of discipline- humiliating and offensive

Why?

Involved both the teacher and student in the decision making processSense of understanding for the reasons behind rules and consequences.Through logical consequence, teacher gives choice to the students to change the behavior and teacher anticipates how the students respond.

When students are not able to gain their genuine goal ofbelonging they turn to a series of mistaken goals.

Gaining attention

Power seeking

Revenge seeking

Display inadequacy

Gaining attention

Does not have a sense of belongingFeels that they are not useful in the classroomEx- being disruptive and refuse to complete the work

Attention seeking pattern

Active-constructivePassive-constructiveActive-destructivePassive-destructive

Active-constructive

Cooperative and conform to expectations.Highly ambitious and willing to do almost anything with adult expectation in order to meet the teacher’s praise and recognition.Ex- very competitive, some students like to be teacher’s pet

Teacher should ignore the behavior so that the students will learn to associate attention with inappropriate behavior.

Passive-constructive

Receive attention through manipulating othersUse the power of persuasion in order to achieve their goal.

Active-destructive

Persistent in achieving their goals, they will not stop until they get the attention.Ex- bullying

Passive-destructive

Characterized as lazyPretend that they do not understand the task or the lesson.

Power seeking

Does not get attention from the parents or the teacher.Want to control othersEx- throwing tantrum, talk-backAttempting to control this misbehavior will only increase the power seeking behavior.

Revenge seeking

Seek revenge through behaviors such as defacing property, cheating or spreading lies.Students tend to take revenge when they feel that the teacher is being unfair to them. Ex- destroying their property and hurting people beside them.

Displays inadequacy

Students do not feel appreciated in the class.Ex- withdrawing and refusing to participate in classroom activities and overly sensitive.

Strategies

Identify the mistaken goal. Confront the mistaken goal. Avoiding power struggles with students. Positive 4 steps against revenge seeking behavior.Encourage students who display inadequacy.

Helping students reach their genuine goal of belonging.Provide a teaching environment that supports students’ sense of belonging.Come up with a set of classroom rules as a group.Support responsibility through freedom of choices in lesson plans.

Avoid power struggles and encourage students who display inadequacy.Encourage students rather than praise them.Provide students with logical consequences to “mistaken goals” to support responsibility and avoid punishment.

Encouragement vs praises

Encouragement – very specific, convey respect for student’s abilities and increase student confidence.Praises – is more general and only given when a task is well done.

Two types of consequences: logical and natural

Logical consequences - “ reasonable results that follow behavior either desirable or non-desirable.”if Marisa does not complete her work during class, she is required to do it for homework - know in advance the consequences of her misbehavior because as part of the classroom she helped formulate the consequences.

Natural consequences differ from logical consequences in the sense that the results following the behavior occur naturallyif Jonathan tips his chair backward and as a he result falls, leaving him hurt or embarrassed this would be a natural consequence because the hurt and embarrassment alone is sufficient consequence for his misbehavior.

Strength / weaknesses

Strength- Helping students gain a sense of belonging- Promote mutual respect- Learn to take responsible- More discipline - Caring classroom community

WeaknessesWeaknesses

- difficult for the teacher to identify and understand the students’ reason for misbehaving

- Teacher might not be able to respond properly- Teacher need to be very consistent and careful when

implementing the rules.- Extensive training is needed in order to implement this

model.

Practicality

Theories of Democratic Teaching is suitable to be practiced in the ESL Malaysian classroom. The issue regarding English is not as their first language need to be taken into consideration whereby the teacher need to gain their attention and interest to learn the language. Any disruptive behaviours, need to be addressed by the teacher so that the class is under control.

In class situation

Mr Fandi is teaching in the class whereas, a student is misbehaving. The boy named Charlie is disturbing his friends.

Strategies to overcome

As Democratic theory is being practice by Mr Fandi, he should encouraged Charlie to involved in the classroom activity.

Reference

Azizi, Jamaludin, Shahrin, Mohd. Ali, Raja Roslan, & Noordin. (2009). Discipline Problems among Secondary School Students in Johor Bahru, Malaysia: European. Journal of Social Sciences, 11 (4), 659 – 675, R., Ford, M., & Arthur, M., (2011). Classroom management: creating positive learning environment. Australia: Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited

Kohn. A., (2006). The nature of children (2nd ed.). USA: ASCD Publication.Krause. K., L., Bochner, S., & Duchesne, S.(2011). Educational Psychology (5th ed.). New York: The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc  Thomas, H., (1996). Seven Models of Discipline: Retrieved March 20, 2013, from http://www.humboldt.edu/~tha1/discip-options.html