This is the second in a series of three blogs I'm planning to write about setting positive limits in the classroom.
Can you tell the difference between the words authoritative and authoritarian?
If you can, which definition best describes your teaching?
Below are both definitions according to the Collins Cobuild Dictionary for Advanced Learners,
Authoritative: a person who has a lot of knowledge of a particular subject. They give an impression of power and are likely to be obeyed.
Authoritarian: a person who controls everything rather than letting people decide things for themselves.
Most of us are likely to overfly both categories for a while depending on the teaching situation and/or context.
We may feel the need to be authoritarian when people misbehave or bully their classmates, for example.
We will hopefully feel our own natural authority and be authoritative in any regular class where rapport has been built and the rules of the game are clear.
However we choose to behave, it’s important to have a clear idea of when to set limits and draw boundaries.
Limits will sometimes feel suffocating and may even leave us with a tiny space to circulate. However, delimiting the learning arena will protect the people who interact inside it.
A teacher who is controlling a 100% of the time is bound to pollute his/her class with his/her impossible demands and expectations.
I used to attend a class where the teacher had a lot of insights into her subject. She expected everyone to respond the way she wanted. Discussion was inadmissible. She never listened to us. Making mistakes was out of the question.
We worked really hard to pass her exams. We ended up learning about her subject but at the expense of our confidence.
As opposed to that type of teacher, a teacher who’s authoritative will be confident enough to delegate, to share ideas, to involve his/her learners. (S)he will clearly understand that setting positive limits and respecting those of their students’ will turn out to be empowering. Students will feel acknowledged and respected within a necessary supportive frame.
“There is no way to categorize all teaching under headings; many teachers will find elements of each category that are true for them…However, this simple categorization may help us reflect on what type of teaching we have mostly experienced and what kind of teacher we see ourselves as being now or in the future” (Jim Scriviner)
Have you got any anecdotes you would like to share?
Many thanks! Georgina
Georgina Hudson blogs by Georgina Hudson are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Comments
"A teacher who is controlling a 100% of the time is bound to pollute his/her class with his/her impossible demands and expectations".
How is it inevitable that controlling teachers are "bound" to POLLUTE ( emotive language ) their classes? What pollution are we talking about ? Are you not allowing your one bad experience to cloud your judgement ?
I have had several highly controlling teachers with similarly high expectations. I would not describe their demands as "impossible", and it did not automatically lead to a loss in confidence. Why do you assume that controlling teachers automatically become "impossible" ?
Similarly, I have had very controlling teachers who had very low expectations of me, and I did well despite their efforts. Obviously, I feel I would have done better if they had shown me support and encouragement, but that is another question.
Culturally, some students expect their teacher to be "controlling". There is no easy answer to this dilemma.
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your comments. It's always positive to receive feedback. I guess culturally some students expect their teacher to be controlling.
I was not referring to strictness when I wrote my blog. I particularly enjoyed the classes where teachers were simply strict because they wanted the best out of us.
I was referring to "controlling"/"authoritarian" teachers who are critical of students, controlling everything students do rather than letting people decide by themselves.
I like to be challenged to think by myself rather than being lectured. I enjoy interaction with my students. I know I'm the authority figure in the classroom but that's different.
I'm a little surprised by the tone of your comment. You know, the capital letter when you quoted me (pollute) and suggesting that one bad experience (that was just a clear example I have had many) clouded my judgement. But then again, we belong to different cultures. I'm Anglo-Argentine.
My judgement is in excellent health Michael. Thank you for caring.
I am not sure what is meant by polluting the classroom. There are times when I am authoritative as well as authoritarian. When it comes to student safety, it is non negotiable and I can be quite rigid. There are other times when I love to share power with students so that they can make decisions.
The truth is that we have to live in a world with all types of people. We have to interact and work with and for all personality types. It is important that students learn to adapt to the circumstances. I have had supervisors who were too much of either type and never found balance. I chose to work with these people in the particular educational setting because I felt that I had something to learn and they had something to teach me.
It is important that we prepare students to be productive citizens and productive citizens adapt to their environment and learn to thrive under all circumstances.
Darleana McHenry Ed.D.
This is an interesting debate and to my mind, it all boils down to striking the right balance.
I do agree on the point that the definition of "controlling" is bound to depend not only on cultural issues, but also on personal ones, starting off from what kind of relationship with we have /have had with our parents and other figures that represent authority, previous schooling experiences, reaction to limit setting, personality traits, the culture of the country and a long list of etcs. The topic is quite wide-encompassing.
Having said this, it is true that sometimes, very controlling teachers may suffocate all sense of initiative int he students, stifling their risk taking, which I find to be extremely counterproductive in the classroom since students have to be encouraged to take risks if they are to learn to communicate. And if a teacher is 100% controlling, this attitude will be a hindrance rather than stimulus to good results. Students´reactions to this might vary, I personally, the word "personally" being operative, suffered a very controlling teacher at teachers+s training college who wanted to mould her students into what she thought student´s were supposed to be. She used to be rude, demand only answers to her questions following what she had taught (so much for free thinking) and even chastised an obese classmate who had a very deep laugh, yelled at her when she laughed out loud since "Anglo-Saxons don´t laugh." and she even expected most of us, who are of Italian descent, to refrain from using our hands to punctuate our verbal communication. If that was not controlling, what was it? Well, it had a very negative impact on practically all of us. Some of us rebelled against it, some others simply withered and I saw many classmates being reduced to tears, their egos crushed. My self. confidence suffered a lot during that period, and anyone taking lessons with that teacher in Instituto Superior del Profesorado Joaquin V Gonzalez in Buenos Aires in the early 90´s may bear me out on this one. it may be an extreme case, but this is a plain example of the very controlling kind of teacher Ms Hudson was referring to.
You might say and you would be right, that I am offering only a partial and subjective view, but I did find that attitude on the part of my teacher to be demoralizing, not unlike a "pollutant" as Ms Hudson defines this. Hence I do not begrudge the use of the term. I leave it to the author´s freedom of choice.
However, I do agree on the point that personal and cultural traits might have a lot to say on this, that it is not easy to define "controlling" vs the evil of "Laissez-faire" but on the whole, I believe the article was about striking the right balance between a necessary degree of control, teacher´s authority and knowledge and fostering student´s initiative.
Thanks it is really nice
Dear Michael
I usually read Ms Georgina Hudson's blogs with great delight.
One thing is to say what you feel about the subject and the other is to judge it's author.
You've clearly passed judgement on Georgina when you said "Are you not allowing your one bad experience to cloud your judgement ?"
If you enjoy classes where the teachers are authoritarian is alright. I think the whole point in Georgina Hudson's blog is different. It's about setting boundaries which are positive.
One thing is to be demanding and another quite different is to become a dictator.
I remember my last maths teacher. We were so afraid of her we wouldn´t dare move. She was extremely short-sighted so, if you happened to drop your pen, you would simply pretend to write! I passed the subject though I learnt nothing. I used to love maths and get straight A´s with my previous teacher. I just got lucky but 75% of the class did not.
Our not learning just proves what Pat Wolfe, Ed. D., wrote in one of her articles. I quote: “Emotion is a primary catalyst in the learning process. Some of the most important findings from neuroscience have elucidated the role of emotion in learning and memory. Two small but powerful structures deep within in each hemisphere called the amygdala regulate our emotional responses, which have the ability to either impede or enhance learning. On the one hand, for survival purposes, our brains are hard-wired to pay attention to and remember those experiences with an emotional component. Emotional responses, however, can have the opposite effect if situations contain elements that a person perceives to be threatening. In these situations, the amygdala starts a chain of physiological responses (commonly called the fight or flight response) to ready the body for action. Under these conditions, emotion is dominant over cognition and the rational/thinking part of the brain is less efficient. The environment must be physically and psychologically safe for learning to occur.”
I whole-heartily agree with Ms Hudson when she says “I like to be challenged to think by myself rather than being lectured.” That is exactly what did not happen with my last maths teacher. She would not let us think.
If we are to prepare students to be productive citizens so they can adapt to their environment and learn to thrive under all circumstances, as Ms McHenry says, we have to let them think.
Thank you Darleana for your thorough answer.
I said "pollute" metaphorically to refer to a classroom environment which is tense, not very clear, etc. due to very stiff and strict rules in the classroom which don't invite students to think by themselves.
I go along with you 100%. There are times when I'm authoritative as well as authoritarian. It's exactly what I tried to convey on the blog.
I feel, and it's just my humble point of view, that a teacher who displays a controlling behaviour as their way of teaching may have a negative impact on some of their students, esp. the ones who may feel afraid in class.
It's necessary to be authoritarian when it comes to students' safety, respect, limits.
Flexibility is key in every situation. Striking a happy balance may prove challenging and rewarding at the same time.
Many thanks again! Georgina
Thank you, Ms Terrone. I really appreciate the energy and time you spent on sharing your ideas with us. As I said to Ms Darleana before it all boils down to striking the right balance.
Flexibility is key in most situations. It is not easy to define "controlling" vs the evil of "Laissez-faire", as you clearly pointed out.
It's true that the article was about striking the right balance between a necessary degree of control, teacher´s authority and knowledge and fostering student´s initiative.
It feels like your experience at Instituto Superior del Profesorado Joaquin V Gonzalez in Buenos Aires was really demoralizing. I guess the word "polluting", which I used to portray a teacher whose behaviour is controlling a 100% of the time, turned out to be quite baffling. Demoralizing sounds much better.
The topic is quite wide-encompassing as you said and the whole purpose was to get feedback to question our teaching and try to see if we need to adjust something or go on the way we're doing things.
Many thanks for your insights into the topic Ms Terrone.
As a school-girl ,I couldn´t learn anything whenever I had an authoritarian teacher ( I have a lot of anecdotes concerning this topic)
As an adult I hate dealing with authoritarian human beings too.
On the one hand, I think authoritarian teachers might stifle the language learning process in some cases. When it comes to teaching young learners or very shy or introverted people you have to be careful. Here the way you treat them is all-important!!!!!!!!The reinforcement of their self -esteem gurantees their learning.
On the other hand, whenever you encounter misbehaviour or ill-will you will have to rely on your common sense and set the rules. To my viewpoint, laizzez-faire teachers do not contribute to the teaching-learning process.