Collaborative relationship in School

BEd (Primary) – General Studies

Assignment Cover Sheet

Course Title:
Teachers and Teaching in Context (EDA3026-015E)

Lecturer(s):
Dr. CHOI Tae Hee

Collaboration relationship in school context

Due time/date: 16 December, 2013 Student Name: WONG Pak Wing HKIEd Student No: 10475693
Word Count: 2020 words

Signature of Marker:

__________________________

Date: _____________________

Signature of Moderator (if any):

_________________________

Date: ____________________

Introduction
This essay raises the awareness of how importance the communication process is in school environment. It aims to analysis the issue in two aspects, which start from the students, followed by the communication within teacher-self, and others colleagues at last. Within the specific dimension, it proposes some suggestions to with the references to the literature and the experience from the frontline in-service teachers in order to benefit all the pre-service teachers before their teaching practicum. The result of maintaining a good relationship would create a positive environment for students to learn. In short, this essay would address the key to forge the relationship which beneficial to the teaching and learning process.
Communication in classroom
Communication can never be omitted in the classroom as this is one of the ways teachers transmit knowledge to students. Despite the communication is important, it could not be achieved the best outcome if there is not a proper set of rules in the classroom. The following paragraph would illustrate on how rules could foster the communication in the classroom.
The characteristics of rules and how it function
Rules are a necessary tool as it could guarantee each student has the equal opportunities to express their thought as well as communicate among each other. Short, simple and direct rules are also the key features to help the teachers to control the unexpected situation in classroom. Brophy and Putuam (1979) suggested that rules could serve these functions in classroom, such as giving clear order to students, enhancing students’ participation during the learning process and prevention of problems in term of management. One of these criteria above could be expressed by the example stated by the NET teacher. He said his students would not panic when there is an unpredicted incident, fire drill for instance. He would use those instructions which students got used to hear from day one. The instructions are practised repetitively. Student should able to follow the instruction even the external environment is uncontrollable or in a chaos.
Setting up the rules with students at the first day of school
The NET teacher had introduced the rules from the very beginning of the semester to the students. He even spent first two whole lessons to demonstrate and practise the rules as a class. This teaching practise would be different from other teachers who teach major curriculum could merely spend several minutes or half of the lesson maximum for preparing the classroom rules as students and parents are striking for desirable academic results rather than rules or other valuable elements.
Moskowitz and Hayman (1976) did an observation about the first day of the school and conducted a survey at the end of the year with those students. The finding shows that the highly rated teachers would spend their first day of teaching as orientation and accommodating the environment for students rather than start the teaching process in a rapid speed.

He expressed that even the primary 2 or 3 students needed to go over the same process again in the new academic year although they had learnt the rules from him in the first year. Edmund, Carolyn and Linda (1980) agree to the above as they claimed that the first day of school is all-important in determining the success of failure of the school year. One of the reasons for consuming such a long period of time is teacher would repeat the order again if any member in the group did not follow it. The whole group, or even the whole class need to go back to the step before, and do that order again. These could become a kind of peer pressure whilst anyone cannot follow the rules, the peer would understand they had to do the action again because of some member in the group did not follow the order. This could help students to remember what should they do and how should they behave when they enter the classroom. Alex and Barbara (1989) agree repeating the same behavior would be a solution for changing certain problematic pattern or behavior until a satisfactory results. Though the student didn’t do anything wrong but these repeating behavior could let the students realize if they do it wrong in the future, they have to do it again and again until the whole group can get it correctly. This message is more important than teaching knowledge or the rules itself.
Communication outside the classroom
In order to have the efficient communication and teaching in classroom environment, rules is a necessary item in every classroom. For communication outside the classroom, rules perhaps not able to take effect but conversations are necessary in the school environment. Since the NET teacher could only able to speak English, he claims that it is quite hard for students to use their second language to do communication with him. He cannot ask the students with a difficult sentence structure which students did not know before. He suggested that the teacher should think from the side of students. He would ask what the students had learnt and let the students talk rather than the teachers ask question to the students. Feng and Wayne (2007) concluded from other scholars that this approach could increase student’s participation and give more confidence when dealing with different cases. Furthermore, this could bring out the message to the students that learning is their own responsibilities, which also match the thought of the NET at particular sense.
Train up the students’ responsibilities through rules
He had stated two examples on how to build up students’ responsibilities on learning. Firstly, students should learn the knowledge for themselves. Teacher only serve as a facilitator in the teaching process. Leo Jones (2007) found that students tended to be dependent at first. Teachers should encourage students to initiate the work by using cooperative learning approach, such as working together or with solve the task with the assist of every student in the group. Leo Jones (2007) advised teachers should monitor the students’ process and do the follow-up work during and after the teaching process. Secondly, The NET teacher tends to send out the worksheet which could be rather easier to the students He pointed out this would help students to climb up the knowledge scaffolding from the fundamental level. He remarked students should go and get the books to read once they finished their worksheet but not only put their hands up and said they are finished, or students could choose to do an extra worksheet which taken from another place in the classroom. Candice, Kathleen, Matthew and Julianne(2004) agree offering a wide variety choices to students would promote autonomy and reinforce the sense of responsibility.
Communication with teachers (Teaccher-self and colleagues)
The NET teacher often does self-reflection before, during and after the lesson. The teacher would remain quiet and think for the lesson consciously before the lesson. Geneva and Kipchoge (2003) agreed that consciously doing self-reflection would improve the education outcome for students. However, there are some general obstacles such as the moral identification, “Teachers had to be good in anyplace and anywhere in order to be a good role model for students”. Though those statements are truth and should be pursued, this would be a pressure in some sense to the teachers who only work for a short period of time in school. The NET had told me that he had an experience about cannot fall asleep at night because of thinking too much about the lesson during daytime and caused him headache.
Two common problems related to teachers
Another common pressure usually faced by teachers, according to Choi and Tang (2005), is brought to the teacher from the rapid chaining society. Teachers should be the central authority in the classroom in the past, no matter in term of knowledge or the classroom management. However, with the development of the technology, teachers are not the authorities anymore because students could gain the knowledge from the internet. The author pointed out teacher would feel stressed when the teacher seems not able to control the classroom and feel worried in front of those students, especially when someone challenge the teacher whilst teaching. Moreover, teachers had prepared a number of teaching materials and lesson plan perhaps not up-to-date anymore because of the changing society. Teachers need to spend time on searching the most updated information and have to think of which is the best for presenting the knowledge to the students at the same time.
Meanwhile, some parents claims they know their children the best as they are also teacher when the children at home. They had been teaching their own children for a longer time than the teachers do. So they also think they are an expert on teaching and would like to give much opinion on how to teach their own kids in the classroom. This is a challenge to teacher as parents only have to teach or guide their own children at home, without considering the context or other elements; whereas teacher has to face at least 30 students in classroom and have to teach certain content of knowledge within the time limit. That is really a demanding task.
The above two is an example of the pressures which faced by teachers and the following paragraph would list out some possible suggestion from the literature.
Suggestion on how to deal with pressures from different dimensions
One of the methods to deal with the above problem suggested by Cochran and Lytle (2003) is sharing the thought about the lesson and class with the colleague who you feel comfortable. Teacher could invite the teachers who have much experience than him/her to ask about his/her thought to the lesson. The idea could be only a general impression to the lesson but must not be some professional ideas which tackle to the classroom management. This could be a reference for the teachers before seeking professional advice. Be his/her own teaching style to solve the problem. Not only follow to the suggest solving method from seniors could be a way out.
Seek professional help from seniors
Antonio, John and Minyi (2010) recommended four methods to deal with stress, especially work for the new teachers, one of them in the field of “help-seeking”, is consult the problem with the panel chair or the mentor in your school. Those teachers should have more experience in teaching and they probably faced such problem when they are new to school. Besides, you could also share your feeling about dealing with these problems; those senior staff especially in the management team should have the responsibility to help you from the burden.
One of the possible sharing place and time for the teacher is during the Parents’ Day. Students need to bring the parents back to school and get their academic report. Teachers could arrange a time with those parents if they would like to exchange their idea about what is the best teaching way to their child. Or teacher could write to the parents when there is not parents’ day. Of course this could bring much burden to the teachers. The most direct way to solve it should be talk to the parents face to face. These all are in the ‘communicating’ level from the Epstein 's typology of parent involvement. Berger (2000) claimed that using this method as communication could establish a clear two-way channel for communication with parents.
Conclusion
To conclude, this essay had been illustrating two main aspects on communication which helps pre-service teacher to grasp the basic idea. Talking to the student in the classroom is necessary for teacher. Using certain rules would help the process in a more fluent way and protect the benefits of other students. Simultaneously, teaching is not an easy job, self-reflection and peer communication could relieve the stress for a new teacher and help to bring the teaching into another level. Last but not least, this two communication patterns are only a start to the pre-service teacher to accommodate. The most crucial idea is how the teachers integrates these skills and experience into their own teaching style and utilize it as a common practice.
References
Alex M. & Barbara L. (1989). Changing problem behavior in schools. San Francisco, Calif. : Jossey-Bass Publishers

Antonio J. C. , John K. & Minyi S. (2010). Resilience strategies for new teachers in high-needs areas. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, p.622-629

Berger, E. H. (2000). Parents as Partners in Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Publishing

Brophy J. E. & Putnam J. G. (1979). Classroom Management in the Elementary Grade. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press

Candice R. S. , Kathleen C. P. , Matthew, D. & Julianne C. T. (2004). Supporting Autonomy in the Classroom: Ways Teachers Encourage Student Decision Making and Ownership. Education Psychologist, 29, p97-110

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle. S.L. (1993). Inside/out-side: Teacher research and knowledge. New York: Teacher College Press

Edmund T. E. , Carolyn M. E. & Linda M. A. (1980). Effective Classroom Management at the Beginning of the School Year. The Elementary School Journal, 80, 220-231

Feng S. Din & Wayne F. Wheatley (2007). A Literature Review of the Student-Centered Teaching Approach: National Implications. National Forum of Teacher Education Journal, 17

Geneva G. & Kipchoge K. (2003). Developing Cultural Critical Consciousness and Self-Reflection in Pre-service Teacher Education. Theory into Practice, 42(3), p.182-187

Leo Jones (2007). The Student-Centered Classroom. USA: Cambridge University Press
Moskowitz G. and Hayman J. L. , (1976). Success Strategies of Inner-City Teachers: A Year-long Study. Journal of Education Research, 69, 283-89

Pik Lin Choi & Sylvia Yee Fan Tang (2005). Role management strategies of beginning teachers in Hong Kong, Teacher Development: An international journal of teachers ' professional development, 9:3, 369-387

Pik Lin Choi & Sylvia Yee Fan Tang (2009). Teacher commitment trends: Cases of Hong Kong teachers from 1997 to 2007, Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, p.767-777

References: Alex M. & Barbara L. (1989). Changing problem behavior in schools. San Francisco, Calif. : Jossey-Bass Publishers Antonio J Berger, E. H. (2000). Parents as Partners in Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Publishing Brophy J Candice R. S. , Kathleen C. P. , Matthew, D. & Julianne C. T. (2004). Supporting Autonomy in the Classroom: Ways Teachers Encourage Student Decision Making and Ownership. Education Psychologist, 29, p97-110 Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle Edmund T. E. , Carolyn M. E. & Linda M. A. (1980). Effective Classroom Management at the Beginning of the School Year. The Elementary School Journal, 80, 220-231 Feng S Geneva G. & Kipchoge K. (2003). Developing Cultural Critical Consciousness and Self-Reflection in Pre-service Teacher Education. Theory into Practice, 42(3), p.182-187 Leo Jones (2007) Moskowitz G. and Hayman J. L. , (1976). Success Strategies of Inner-City Teachers: A Year-long Study. Journal of Education Research, 69, 283-89 Pik Lin Choi & Sylvia Yee Fan Tang (2005) Pik Lin Choi & Sylvia Yee Fan Tang (2009). Teacher commitment trends: Cases of Hong Kong teachers from 1997 to 2007, Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, p.767-777