Chapter 7

Ecology of Teaching
Child/Family/School/Community Linkages
 Teacher
Characteristics

The Hats You Wear

©2010 Cengage Learning.

All Rights Reserved.
Teaching as a Multifaceted Career
 A Teacher is a:
 Scientist and Scholar
 Craftsman
 Politician
 Advocate/friend
 Artist
 Managers
 Leaders
 facilitator
 Teacher and Teacher’s Job
 Understand
 children’s needs, interests, and
abilities
 feel empathy for children’s fears of
failure.

 Encourage children to:

 explore,
 satisfy their natural curiosity,
 love learning- so much that it
becomes part of their lives forever.
TEACHER’S ROLE AS LEADERS

 Leadership style affects

interactions within the group.
 facilitator guides the
participation of children in their
own learning.
 facilitates children’s capacities
to reach their full potential.
©2010 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
 Teacher’s Role as Leaders/Mentor?

 Three leadership styles:

 authoritarian (dictate);
 democratic (authoritative); and
 laissez-faire (permissive).
 Socialization Outcomes:
 Authoritarian => more aggressive
 Authoritative => work together, cooperative
 Permissive => Insecurities
Research suggest that children
develop cognitive learning styles
based on what they learn from
family and friends.

Ecology of Teaching
Curriculum for Micro and Macro :
 Cooperative  Independent Learning

 Global Teach  Analytical Teaching

 Collectivistic
 Individualistic

 “At Risk”
 Resiliency
 OUTCOMES OF DIFFERENT
CLASSROOM CONTEXTS

INFLUENCES ON TEACHING
Goal Structures and Organization

1. Cooperative – students work

together to accomplish shared goals.
2. Competitive – students work against
each other to achieve goals that only a
few students can attain.
3. Individualized – one student’s
achievement of a goal is unrelated to
other student’s achievement of a goal.
Gardner’s Theory of
Multiple Intelligences

©2010 Cengage Learning.

All Rights Reserved.
At-risk and Resilient

Student Identification and

Assessment
 For children who are “at risk” for
developing a disability.

 Conditions include the following:

 Biological (premature birth, genetic
predispositions, serious illness; M.R.)
 Established (already known)
 Environmental (low SES, poverty)
 Children who could develop a disability (prenatal:
drug exposure; perinatal: health care)
 Children prenatally exposed to drugs are more
likely to have motor and cognitive problems.
 Inclusion
 The law specifies that “reasonable
accommodations” be made
according to the disability a person
has.
 Children prenatally exposed to
drugs are more likely to have motor
and cognitive problems.

 “Risk” refers to endangerment

POVERTY, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, AND VIOLENCE

Contributing to Risk: Refers to endangerment

• Alcohol – prenatal exposure as well as
growing up in an alcoholic home can
negatively impact a child’s ability to learn.
• Violence –in families includes child
maltreatment and exposure to domestic
violence.
• Poverty -impacts a child’s preparedness
for school
 Resiliency

With the information I had at the time,

I made the best decision I could.
From “risk” to “resilience.”
 Resilience refers to the ability to
recover from, or adjust easily to,
misfortune or change.

 Parents, schools, community

services, and others can help
children develop into healthy,
contributing adults by working
together to build a socially
nourishing environment.
Toward Resiliency
 Children who were found to be resilient
against negative developmental outcomes
were those who had established a bond
with an adult caregiver or mentor.

 Must develop linkages with schools and

communities to avail children of many
possible supportive adults and potential
mentors.
Resiliency for Children
 Specifically, when families get involved in
school, their children will:
 get better grades and test scores;
 graduate from high school at higher rates;
 are more likely to go on to higher education;
 behave more positively; and
 are more achievement-oriented.
 Empowerment
 When you approach conflict, you
have two choices:
 Change the situation,

problem, etc.
 Or the way you view it, by

considerer the situation from

another person’s point of view.
How can parent be involvement?

 1) Decision making- determining

school programs and policies;
 2) Participation- working in the
classroom as paid and
volunteering instructional
assistants;
 3) Partnership-providing home
guidance to their children to
support learning.
 Already discussed in chapter 6
Readiness to Learn
 Readiness encompasses health,
nutrition, and social/emotional factors.
 Families can enable children by
 Nurturing
 Communicating
 Encouraging learning
 Becoming involved in school
 Already discussed in chapter 6
 Anecdotal records
Checklists
Time Samples
Measurements of Behavior
(frequency, antecedents, consequences)

Assessment Methods
(What/how are you thinking?)
How do Students Learn?
 What makes them “At-risk” or Resilient?

 How do Learning Styles help or hinder?

 How does parent involvement help?

 What programs help students learn?

 How does classroom organization and

structure help students learn?