Classroom Instruction and Balancing Cultures

A classroom culture will be formed whether the teacher wants it or not. A specific character of the classroom culture will emerge whether the teacher is consciously affecting it or not. Culture is an aspect of the classroom that will be born once the interactions among students and with the teacher begin.

As time goes by, some classrooms may have a competitive culture while others may have a collaborative one. Some classrooms will have a structured culture while others may have a more lenient one. Is a collaborative culture better than a competitive one? Is a structured culture better than a lenient one? How will a teacher choose? The teacher need not choose between these opposing cultures. In fact, the teacher must strive to maintain a balance between extreme cultures.

There are numerous classroom cultures as there are numerous philosophies, teaching strategies, and discipline techniques. But to provide the teacher an idea of how to balance cultures in the classroom, here are three examples.

• Competition versus collaboration – The popular cooperative learning philosophy of teaching emphasize the positive effects of collaboration. A collaborative culture in the classroom is promoted by teaching techniques such as STAD and TGT. And a collaborative culture in classroom instruction encourages students to be socially responsible. The students help and support each other. But there is a danger of allowing good students to underachieve. There is no need to show one’s best. That is why a sense of competition must be incorporated in the classroom instruction. Competition provides the challenge needed by students to outdo a previous performance and to come up with a better essay.
• Structured versus Lenient – A highly-structured culture in the classroom has been criticized for stifling the creativity of the learners. A structured culture is usually led by an authoritarian teacher who is perceived to wield the greatest and only power in the classroom. As a result, the students strive to please the teacher and meaningful learning is forgotten. However, at the other end of the spectrum, a lenient classroom culture may provide too much free will in which the students’ learning become askew because there is no direction coming from the teacher. In balancing these two opposite cultures, the teacher must endeavor to create a learning community. The learning community abides by a certain general structure but there is more than enough space for the students to develop their creativity. In such a learning community, the students trusts the teacher’s judgment but are also allowed to provide a different opinion.
• Protectiveness versus Accountability – When handling younger learners, it is easy and understandable for the teacher to become overly protective. Thus, there are many rules to follow as well as numerous rigid steps to take inside the classroom. But a classroom culture in which the teacher’s protectiveness eclipses the learners’ chances to become responsible will develop over-dependence. Therefore, the teacher must reduce the protectiveness and must inject a sense of accountability on the part of the students. The students must develop a sense of responsibility in an environment where the teacher willingly accepts mistakes.