12/25/2015

How to criticize – 3 rules on the art of persuasion

Many a time, criticism turns out to be the most accessible tool for an educator (whether he is a parent or a teacher) whenever he wants to change the student's behavior. When we criticize, we touch somebody on a raw spot and most of the times the outcome may be the opposite of what we wanted. Perhaps it's better to focus on praising people, on the way we can make people feel better whenever their behavior is satisfactory, rather than repeatedly penalizing their negative conduct.
Nonetheless criticism sometimes appears to be the only handy solution. But if we still need to criticize, it is advisable to identify a series of elements that should be taken into consideration. We must not forget that people don't like being criticized and that is why we ought to consider those undertones, those elements that can help us not step into a situation worse than the one before.
1.      It is useful to criticize the behavior and not the person. Don't say "You are mean!", but "This thing you are doing is wrong." A man can indeed change his behavior if he is driven enough to do so, but he can't change completely!
2.      Criticism must be confidential. Other people should not witness criticism and the person in question should not be pointed at as the "negative example". A man will accept criticism more easily if he doesn't bear the weight of being watched, which can make him feel a negative sensation of pressure.
3.      When we criticize we must control our nonverbal behavior. There is no need to emphasize the negative elements using a cold and contentious tone. We shouldn't frown or take an aggressive stance (such as standing with arms akimbo). On the contrary, we should have a positive attitude (pay attention however not to smile, as you could confuse your child: he won't know anymore if you are upset with him or you just pretend to be). There are though other elements that can be used successfully when criticizing: for instance, a friendly touch on the arm can be helpful. This gesture will improve communication and will make criticism more easily to be accepted and dealt with. Here are three probative experiments:
a)      As a human rule, touching provides a fertile framework for developing a positive attitude. R. V. Joule and L. Beavois conducted an experiment for that purpose. Inside a campus, an experimenter asked different students to give him directions to a certain destination. Some of them were "accidentally" touched on the arm and some of them not. All the students in question showed him the way to his destination. A little further, another experimenter asked the same students for a similar favor. It was noted that 40% of the students who had been touched on the arm agreed to guide the latter experimenter, compared to only 5% of those who hadn't been touched.
b)      In another experiment, Whitcher and Fisher noted that out of a number of patients who had been explained how their surgery would come off, the ones who had been lightly touched on their arm by the nurse showed beneficial effects like: they understood the given information better, they were less stressed and they perceived the entire hospitalization more positively than those who hadn't been touched.


c)      At last, Wheldall, Bevan and Shortall conducted an experiment of great pedagogical significance. These researchers noted that the students who were lightly touched on the arm by the teacher while they were being praised showed 60% less undisciplined behavior and 20% more involvement in the given tasks than the students who were praised without being touched.


Above all, we must always remember the purpose of our criticism, which is to change a certain behavior in our child / student and not to feel satisfied after he has done something that hurt or annoyed us. 

2/07/2015

Humour in Education

The issue of humor in education is as old as Adam, nevertheless it is permanently re-examined and updated.
Beyond the principles of a modern and student-centred school, for several educators (and even for some parents), the classical image of school is one that embodies absolute seriousness (while the image of the learning effort doesn’t seem to have much in common with a class that laughs or with students that always keep a smile on their faces).
Many a time, humour in a school activity is confounded with superficiality (I even heard at some point how a parent, being revolted against the laughing sounds that came from his child’s class, pointed out: ʽIs this school or amusement?ʼ)

1/25/2015

When is happening a crisis situation in teacher`s career?

This is a comparative analysis regarding teacher`s needs for training. One item is related to the period when a crisis may occur.

Which was the period of time during your career when most frequent crisis situation happened/occurred?
                                                                         Research 2000       Research 2010
a. In the first year:                                                  33,23%                 49%
b. Between 1 and 3 years                                       26,00%                 27,9%
c. Between 4 and 8 years                                       11, 35%                 10%
d. Between 9 and 15 years                                     12,45%                    5%
e. Between 16 and 20 years                                     6,59%                     2,7%
f. Over 20 years                                                      11,38%                   5,4%







1/10/2015

Do colors influence us? What a teacher / a parent must know

An educator (either a parent or a teacher) must take into consideration several elements of the environment surrounding his child. Some of these can have a great impact on him, even though they might be harder to seize upon. I remember an episode that I saw last summer in a park. 
Two children were running down an alley (it was a race, they wanted to know who was faster). The child who won didn’t seem neither stronger nor more athletic than the one who lost. I noticed him though due to his glowing red T-shirt (for that matter, his face was also quite red at the end of the race). I then remembered an interesting experiment which showed that nothing happens by chance and that colors have a serious influence upon our lives. Hill and Barton studied the Olympics playoffs and noticed that those who were wearing the red T-shirt during the game (boxing, wrestling etc.) had 50% more wins than those wearing the blue T-shirt. Then again, the T-shirts were balloted before every confrontation. Red (the color of blood and aggressiveness) worked both as an activator for the one wearing it and as an inhibitor for the opponent. The opposite happened with blue, the color of relaxation, which also symbolizes calmness, unity and leisure.

1/04/2015

Guide for motivating teachers (II)

Excerpt from my book - Motivation for teaching career, Bucharest University Publishing House, 2010 (see entire book in the right column of site)


Exercise 5

What do I need to be more motivated?
Some things are obvious and there can be said that each of us knows very well the things necessary to feel motivated. Generally that is true but this thing happens only at the level of fundamental motives. But your motivation profile is far from being made up only by two-three aspects. We are rather talking about a complex network of elements; the main ones are more difficult to be dealt with because their position in the conscious zone proves the fact that even if you knew what leads in a decrease in your motivation, you have not had the opportunity so far to overcome this state of the art.
In return, the less obvious reasons, which were unconscious as such, have more chances to be solved. Think about the following analogy: the case of shareholders’ general meeting in a firm. You want to convince the meeting, but you have few chances to do so at the level of the main shareholders. However, the “small” shareholders, with little power by themselves can influence the balance of votes for your proposal if they are individually convinced. In the same way, even if the main motivators cannot be solved there is still a chance to support your motivation by listing a more extended enumeration of attractive elements for the teacher career. 


10 things that motivate me to be a teacher: