The Psychological Atmosphere We Create In Our Classrooms

Writer(s): 
Adrian Underhill, International House Teacher Training, England

 

It has been said that "we teach what we are" or even that "we teach what is going on in us at the moment" (Postman & Weingartner, 1969). These provocative statements seem to suggest that the way we are in our classes, the way we feel, think and behave while teachiing, can have an effect on our learners every bit as important as the materials and techniques we use and the syllabus that guides us. Many teachers that I have worked with feel that this is possibly the case, yet that their training courses, practicums, and teaching literature have neither investigated these areas nor even recognised that such areas could be investigated. This in turn makes it difficult for teachers to formulate or articulate their often strong subjective impressions that their own mood, attitudes and personal presence have a more profound effect on the quality of learning that takes place in their classes than the techniques and materials they use.

During pre- and in-service training courses I sometimes ask my trainees to reflect on the teachers they themselves had when they were at school, and especially to reflect on the ones they had found to be either outstandingly good or outstandingly bad (from their own point of view). I ask them what they felt were the key characteristics of those teachers and how they had typically felt when working with them. The answers to these questions usually have as much to do with personal and interpersonal variables (such as warmth, respect, understanding, etc) as with technical variables (such as teaching techniques, methodology, training background, knowledge of topic, etc). Learners seem to know their teachers as much by the atmosphere they create as by their name, appearance, age, or topic.

These informal impressions are in broad agreement with my own classroom observations of hundreds of experienced and less experienced teachers. And similar conclusions seem to be reached by teacher trainer colleagues I talk to in almost any part of the world. The case can be summarised as follows: Two similar lesson plans, both competent and appropriate, at the same level and using the same materials, taught by two different teachers using the same kinds of techniques, can have a quite different outcome. And the variable seems to be the psychological learning atmosphere that is created by that teacher, that also seems to be an extension of that teacher. It's as if the learning atmosphere created by a teacher is as unique as their own signature, and that whatever they do in the class the atmosphere is going to be broadly similar.

Perhaps what I have said so far is nothing new, but the tacit conclusion that the teaching profession arrives at is that all these variables are a matter of the "teacher's personality", that personality is fixed and unchan geable, and that there is little we can do about it except to offset its effects with "personality proof" materials, techniques and curricula. What perhaps is new, and there are many others saying this apart from myself, is that these personal and interpersonal factors are not fixed, that they can be brought to awareness, observed, talked about, reflected on, practised and improved significantly. The only reason they appear to be fixed is that trainers do not see them as part of the training syllabus, that trainers themselves may lack these skills, or lack the confidence to help others develop them.

I suggest that warmth and genuineness can be practised as much as can dealing with errors, that empathy can be practised as much as can managing task-based activities, and that negotiating with classes can be developed as easily as can giving instructions All these things are susceptible to change once illuminated by light of awareness.

These are some of the areas that I work on when helping teachers to develop a more facilitative learning atmosphere in their classes: The quality of their own listening; the quality of their own speaking; their attitude to mistakes (both their own and their students'); their attitudes towards themselves and towards their learners; and the politics of their classrooms, that is their use of power and their willingness to share it where appropriate and possible.

I am going to work in these areas in my pre-conference workshop at JALT '97. I would be pleased to discuss these ideas further during the conference and to hear the views of other JALT members. Meanwhile I would like to leave you with some powerful self-observation questions that I have found very helpful in my own development.

People not pupils: Can I interact with class members as people rather than as pupils, and can I be more fully myself whi le also being a teacher? Can I listen not only to the language produced by a student but also to the person behind that language?

Faith in their ability: Am I willing to behave at least "as if" I have faith in their unbounded abilities to learn, create, retain, explore? Can I value, and show that I value, each person's effort as they make it, thereby encouraging them, not with praise, but with a genuine and interested attention? Instead of trying to please them can I make the conditions in which they begin to please themselves?

Let go of "anxious helpfulness": Can I be more concise and succinct in my speaking, reducing my torrential prattle, leaving slightly longer pauses, and letting go of that anxious helpfulness that can characterize teaching? After all, how helpful is my help? The more I do what the learners could do for themselves, the more I rob them of what they need to do.

Sharing power: Am I willing to share power where appropriate by inviting learners to participate in discussion and decision-making about what is studied and how it is studied? In granting their right to make decisions about things that affect them can I also grant them the right to make wrong decisions? Or can I only allow them to make the decisions I favour?

The good climate for giving and receiving feedback: Am I willing to listen, without needing to defend myself, to what they say about their learning and what they think of the way I help them? Can I regularly ask questions like: "How are you getting on? What would you like to do differently? What could make our activities more memorable?" At first they may not offer much since they are not used to such questions, but can I show that I am willing to value whatever they do say, and demonstrate that I too am a learner who is willing to take feedback into account.

Raising self-esteem: Since we learn better when we are feeling OK about ourselves, can I try to create a relationship between myself and the group in which they feel more positive towards themselves, in which they feel recognised and secure, and in which they can enjoy getting to know themselves as learners? And to facilitate this am I willing to undertake the lifelong project of learning to feel more OK with myself?

Relaxed alertness: Can I let go of unhelpful muscular and emotional tension in myself? Can I be less anxious about the outcome of the lesson and more able to be "with" what is happening right in front of me? Can I be less carried away by my expectations, and spend less energy wishing certain th Bings to happen, (e.g., I wish you would hurry up; I hope you are going to be correct; etc.).

Curiosity, playfulness, delight: Can I find it in me to respond to classroom events in a spontaneous rather than a routine way? Can I be intrigued and curious about what may happen, and then delighted by what does happen-- whatever it is? Can I be a student of learning even as I am teaching?

Gentle healthy humour: I don't want to be funny, or to make jokes that cover unease and cheapen the atmosphere, but I do want to be open to the gentle, natural and helpful humour that seems to bubble up when engagement increases and anxieties drop away. Such humour may or may not be expressed by laughter, but it brings an unmistakable lightness and can transform a lesson into a living event. How can I relate to myself, and then to the class, in a way that will allow this?

Adrian Underhill's workshop is sponsored by Heinemann ELT. Underhill is Director of International House Teacher Training, Hastings, U.K. His training team specialise in a wide range of short intensive courses for teachers from all over the world, offered throughout the year in Hastings. He works with teachers and trainers on personal and interpersonal skills development, humanistic education, management training and pronunciation teaching. He is the founder of the IATEFL Teacher Development Group and author of Sound Foundations: Living Phonology. He is editor of the Heinemann Teacher Development Series.