March 31, 2010

Education is Progressive Part 15: Empowering Students

Last week, I had a troubling experience while administering an exam in one of my classes, one that drives many teachers into a hissy fit, but fails to perturb me. I noticed one of my better students in the class, staring at a nearby student, then realized that the reason she was doing that was because he had his class notes out. I went to check it out, and reminded him that class notes are not allowed on exams, and mentioned that perhaps he did not know that, as I may not have made that clear. While I was over there, I noticed two gals who are friends, also with the notes of one of them out. I told them to put their notes away, and the one closer to me said something to the effect that she was about to do that, since she heard me talking to the other student.

The student who alerted me to the problem wrote a note on her test stating that she wished I wouldn't let these students "get away with" using their notes on the test, and that the gal who spoke with me "flipped me off" after I turned around. I did not have much room to reply to her on her exam, but I wanted to write something. After scoring her exam, I wrote that I could easily compose a ten page response to her, but in the space given, I would mention several points, which I paraphrase here:

1. My occasional tentative experience with open note/open book exams has shown me that they don't really help the students get better scores. What helps them get better scores on their exams is paying attention in class, taking good notes, and studying, so that they won't have to search for answers during the exam, which is very time consuming and inefficient;

2. Many of these students may be used to open book/open note exams, the way that high schools are run in this area these days, so they may honestly expect my exams to be that way. They probably weren't trying to cheat, in my opinion. (It was too obvious to be a serious cheating attempt.) In any case, I use the innocent until proven guilty principle;

3. I feel one of my strengths is that I provide a calm, rational, caring role model for students who may not have that at home. Many of my students have probably been raised on welfare, by single moms, or irrational, flighty, or emotionally harsh parents. Unfortunately, that is pretty much the reality of the community where I live, and probably much of the United States. I concluded that I choose a loving approach to teaching over harshness and anger.

After returning the exams, the student who wrote the note seemed to understand and agree with my point of view.

I should mention here that the reason I don't have open note or open book tests is that this is not the way things are done at universities, and I hope to help give as many of my students as possible the training they will need in order to go on to university and be successful students. Another reason is that students need to build up their long term memory for information presented in class. It is not because I think using the book or notes unfairly helps students during exams. In fact, I encourage them to use their notes and book, before exams as much as they please. By the way, the results of the exam were that, the student who alerted me to the note-using had an "A" on the exam, and the 3 students in question had a "C," a "D" and an "F" on the exam, even after "curving" the exam. A year ago, I had a course in which a group of 4 students with possible ADHD were chatterboxes, even during exams, which gave some of the other students the impression that they were cheating. As a result, I repeatedly warned these students to be quiet during exams and concentrate on their work, which never seemed to effect their behavior. In fact, they might have been discussing some of the questions inappropriately during the exam, but it never seemed to help their scores. As I recall, 3 of them had "Fs" as their final grades for the course, and the other, a "D." They probably would have done better on the tests if they had concentrated on doing their tests instead of talking.

There are two psychological approaches which have great application to teaching, in my opinion. One is the behaviorist principle of "shaping," along with the behaviorist principle of "modeling" good behavior. The other is the humanistic principle of unconditional positive regard. Shaping is the process of rewarding successive approximations to a desired, complex behavior with the aim of eventually training individuals to perform the complex behavior, first described by B. F. Skinner. Unconditional positive regard is the attitude advocated by Carl Rogers as the primary means to facilitate self-actualization. It means something like trusting in and having confidence in someone, that the person will do something good for society as a result of the person's natural desire to develop his or her own capacities and talents as a good person. Also helpful in facilitating self-actualization are empathy, honesty and being a good listener. These principles are essentially the basis for Rogers' Client Centered Therapy, which is the most popular psychotherapy technique worldwide, but they have many other applications as well, including the teaching endeavor, and relationships in general.

We cannot expect all students to have well-shaped behaviors, such as good test taking skills, paper writing skills, or classroom behavior, but teachers can help shape such behaviors over time. In fact, the grading process is essentially a way of shaping a student's behavior and exam responses, a process which continues as long as the student continues to go to school. Meanwhile, perhaps even more important than the shaping process, is the caring attitude of the teacher toward the students, modeling unconditional positive regard, empathy, honesty and listening skills, as Rogers described. While the teacher of a single course in a students' life may not be a big influence, one never knows. I believe there are cases where a teacher has a major positive impact on a student's life, not so much because of the teacher's teaching, but because of the life lessons taught by the teacher, and the teacher's caring attitude. Certainly, as a whole, teachers are an important influence, hopefully a positive one. Applying these humanistic techniques for the facilitation of self-actualization, is a way of empowering students. The self-actualization process is essentially a process of empowering people, allowing them to make good decisions, using their free-will. Shaping is the process of showing people the way, using reinforcement, and encouraging people to follow the lead of the teacher. The teacher not only reinforces correct behavior and responses, but models them as well.

A well adjusted person is one who exhibits both good socialization and individuation. Individuation is a psychological term for a person who has developed productive individual talents as a person, and a healthy personality. Education is not only about knowledge acquisition, learning how to acquire knowledge, or encouraging creativity; it is also about socialization in a broad sense, and individuation in a positive, prosocial direction. That is, education is about the dual tasks of shaping students' futures, while empowering them to make good decisions and develop their capacity to be good, caring people. Both are needed; empowerment without self-discipline, adequate knowledge or prosocial concern is a dangerous thing, but empowerment combined with self-discipline, good knowledge and prosocial concern is a wonderful, essentially progressive thing, and a blueprint to success in life.