Educational strategies and class control: expectations, motivation, self-concept and social reinforcement

One of the most pressing problems that the teacher faces in the classroom are the behavioral alterations of the students, behavioral and attention deficits that deteriorate the climate of coexistence enormously making difficult the learning process of the class.

Psychologist and counselor Jose Antonio, cited before, suggests some concepts regarding this problem:
To start, the teacher expectations have to coincide with the students goals. There are three ways of creating expectations:

1. Adaptation of objectives.

1. Perception of autoefficiency.

1. Establishment of evaluation criteria.

Then, the crucial concept of motivation. To motivate is to direct the students' interests in a way that prioritizes the school task above other alternative activities which claim for attention. There are three kinds of motivation:

• Intrinsic motivation: It's the kind of motivation that appears when we do something we enjoy, when the task itself is the reward. Think of something you love to do - maybe video games, playing guitar, cooking, painting ... any activity that you enjoy and you never delay or avoid doing.

• Satisfaction and success motivation: motivation related in self-esteem: when we try to learn and we get a positive idea of ourselves, to help us continue our learning. It is the constant desire to excel, always guided by a positive spirit. Also centered in social value: the acceptance and approval is received by the people that students consider superior to them. 

• Extrinsic motivation: it comes from outside. It's the kind of motivation that leads us to do something that we don't like ... because we know that at the end there will be a reward. Think of things that make your life to achieve a particular goal: perhaps studying hard not because you like to study, but because you want to be graduated. Or maybe working in a boring job because you want to be paid.

Lack of motivation is one aspect that is often associated with school failure. An unmotivated student shows no interest in learning, knowledge seems useless and, therefore, rejects the ways of learning that the school offers. A motivated student, however, is more likely to achieve educational goals, because the effort involved in acquiring the skills school makes sense.

Then, the self-concept: a multi-dimensional construct that refers to an individual's perception of "self". opinions that influence the actions that we do, the effort devoted and what he/she has in mind when doing it. So, to help constructing self-esteem we have to:

• Relieve continued exposure to success or failure.

• Relativize success or failure.

• Understanding personal worth from the effort.

• Negative results does not indicate a failure.

• Learn from mistakes and to train the desire of improving.

• Consider realistic goals.

• Have a sense of personal acceptance.

And, finally, social reinforcements when a problem arises:

• Inmediaccy

• Concreteness

• Subjetivity

• Limited use

As punishing strategies, the best one could be the removal of pleasant stimuli.

Managing classroom conflicts - What to do

My English Didactics teacher Iñaqui once said that a teacher is not only a person who teaches, but also a judge, a psychologist, a counselor, a policeman... and more often than we think, teachers have to deal with conflicts within the class. 

And how shall we do this?

Quote by Franklin P. Jones

Jose Antonio, psychologist, teacher and counselor in Medico Pedro Herrero School (Alicante) shows us some strategies to resolve classroom conflicts.

The first thing to bear in mind is that conflicts have to be considered as a way of learning. When facing a problem in the classroom, the teacher has to:

• Look for the roots of such problem and try not to make it bigger than it is. 
• Adapt the strategies to the context and the teaching style.
• Create positive coexistence conditions.
• Act on principles.
• Use as easier procedures as possible (economy of papers, people, resources and time).
• Divide the teacher work equally.
• Change directions instead of changing behaviors.
• Find out the causes of the behaviors.
• Use punishing measures as a last resort.
• Depersonalize the conflicts by priorizing the collective rights, mentioning the classroom rules, establishing reciprocity relations.
• Bear in mind 3 essential keys: BEHAVIOR, CONSEQUENCE AND CONTEXT