Teaching/Discipline--Chapter 2 Questions

Teaching/Discipline Chapter 2

1. What is suggested as an important variable in being an effective teacher?

A teacher has intentions of teaching, and has the skills and knowledge to carry out those intentions.

2. List the three states in which children are considered to be born. Explain the teacher’s role in each. What is your position?

· The child is born good: the teacher’s responsibility is to not corrupt the child.

· The child is born bad: the teacher’s responsibility is to correct the child by teaching them good.

· The child is born neither good nor bad: the teacher’s responsibility is to teach the child good and correct negative associations.

· My position as a music educator would be to educate the students about what is good, similar to the third suggested way children are born, using the rehearsal setting as a guide. I should teach them how to properly hold and play an instrument, and the best techniques for playing and singing. In a behavioral sense, I should teach them to treat one another with respect and how to work as a team and individually in order to be effective performers.

3. Why is a traditional analysis of a child’s problem behavior often unproductive?

They may act differently in different situations. Testing does not address the problem but identifies the problem students as having said problem. It does not tell the teacher what problem they are dealing with, so they don’t know exactly how to handle it in every case.

6. What is a “special” child? What is special about all children? What should the teacher do with these special children?

Generally, a “special” child is one who is gifted or very intellectually talented or one who has physical and/or processing difficulties. All children are special because they are talented in some way and need many of the same things in order to succeed. With gifted children, I can give them additional opportunities, perhaps teaching or leadership tasks, during class. With students with special difficulties, I can do activities that give them opportunities to succeed.

7. Describe why some children may not want to learn. Explain why they are not just “born that way.” Provide an explanation of what can be done.

Although it may seem as though some children do not want to learn, the reality is they may just need some motivation, something that piques their curiosity or interest, or goals they can strive to reach. Other children are too comfortable and should be challenged to learn by using material that is useful and fun to them. They are not born not wanting to learn, but rather get distracted or bored in what they are doing. Encouraging their enthusiasm can do a lot for their learning, as well as giving them something to learn for and work toward.

8. Where does this analysis put the notion of motivation? Since motivation is typically referred to as an “inner” state, explain why unmotivated behavior is not explained this way.

Motivation must still be taught in problem students who may have gotten used to not necessarily having to do what is expected of them. Thought motivation is an “inner” state, it is something that can be learned. Teachers may choose to encourage motivation by making activities and learning a sort of “play” instead of a state of constant work.

9. Why is the capacity for work necessary? How is the capacity for work developed? Some people are industrious and some are lazy; how is this difference analyzed?

Work is necessary as it provides proof of efforts exerted and actually helps us learn. To develop it, teachers should stretch the length of time between rewards so the student will be motivated to seek long-term goals. As teacher, it is often a good idea to do this in creative ways to keep students engaged and motivated to do work and still continue to it in different ways even after it is not required. Industriousness and laziness are analyzed by the amount of work that is done. Work does not always have to yield a visible product, as it is often knowledge that is exhibited later on.