Building Classroom Communities at the University Level.

A course in human growth and learning is usually one of the first courses that students take in undergraduate teacher preparation, and it can provide multiple opportunities to explore the concept of community. It could be the course that unlocks the door to lifelong transformations--the course that helps preservice students decide, early on, whether they are really suited for a teaching career. Gordon Wells (2000) said, "[Transformation] is the chief purpose of education--that all who are involved should transform their capacities to act, think and feel in ways that contribute to the common good and enrich their own individual lives" (p. 1).

Using my academic background in community psychology and experiential education, I begin each class session with the goal of demonstrating how to build classroom communities. The logistics, the current local and larger social issues, and the blend of 25 or more individuals with unique agendas ensure that no two classroom communities will be the same.

Building Classroom Communities

I begin the human development and learning course with a student information survey, two self-assessments, and a self-assessment icebreaker. On the information survey, I gather objective and subjective data from students on their specific areas of study within education; their mailing and electronic addresses; their current academic and employment work loads; information about their families; and preferred learning style and specific learning needs. Next, I ask students to write an essay about why they want to be teachers and why they believe it is an appropriate career choice. Finally, they are asked to make a list of their top questions and concerns about pursuing a teaching career.

The information survey and the self-assessment tasks provide me with base line data on class composition and on the life and work experiences of class members; it also helps distinguish those whose interest in teaching has been long term, versus recently acquired. From this base line, I create and develop classroom activities that build community throughout the semester.

As an initial icebreaker and self-assessment, I ask the students to distinguish between the characteristics of a "best liked teacher" versus a "most effective" teacher. They explore these characteristics in small groups and then consider what kind of teacher they would like to be.

Themes of Behavior Management and School Violence. The themes arising from the students' concerns are almost unanimously external in nature, with behavior management, discipline, and school violence ahead of all others. Perhaps at this time in their teacher preparation, they are more likely to be struggling with questions about how they will be received than with how they intend to make a difference in children's learning. Many anticipate conflict, resistance, and unmanageable discipline problems.

I believe that it is misleading to ask students for feedback on their concerns and then do nothing with the information. Lederhouse (1998) suggests that teachers can begin to build peaceful classroom communities and generate a sense of empowerment by engaging students in dialogue and collaborative expression of fears and concerns. Rather than begin discussions on how to anticipate, or predict, violence and defiant behaviors, I encourage my students instead to imagine, anticipate, and predict fostering positive and interactive classroom communities. Consequently, finding ways to address their concerns and provide opportunites for transformation from negative to positive expectations becomes significantly more challenging.

Why Build Classroom Communities? Research on the sense of community and belonging is grounded in the concept of caring, one that recently has been widely researched. Teachers who care are thought to create and maintain family-like relationships, challenge students to have high expectations, and encourage self-expression (Behrends, 1996; Nistler, 1998; Ritschel, 1995). The notion that children cannot be taught until convinced that the teacher cares has been gaining in popularity among educators (Beck, 1999; Gilligan, 1982; Noddings, 1999; Perry, 1996; Sautter, 1991). Findley (1995) notes that communicating effectively, relating to students as learners, and balancing between self-centeredness and subject-centeredness are all components of excellence in teaching.

Bulach and Brown (1998) designed an instrument to measure the behaviors used by university teachers to create caring learning environments. The two most important categories of behaviors were the teacher's ability to reduce anxiety and willingness to listen. Knowing students as individuals contributes to creating a sense of community in the classroom (Bird, 1995). Thornton (1998) notes that while teachers cannot "fix" any child's past, they can ease negative life experiences and help children concentrate on learning by creating a safe and predictable environment, increasing their self-esteem, and teaching empowerment skills.

Some researchers propose that teacher educators can play a significant role in the initial empowerment of teachers as professionals and mentors (Grossman & Williston, 1999; Koop, 1994; Wells, 2000; Williams-Boyd, Skaggs, & Ayres, 2000). Wyett (1997), however, notes that American schools of education have failed to help teacher educators recognize the importance of being perceived as "real people" by their students.

Classroom Strategies That Build Communities

Demonstrate the Process of a Democratic Classroom. First, we must demonstrate the process of a democratic classroom that values collaboration, dreams, and differences. By presenting a syllabus that broadly outlines course topics and assignments, I invite students to help design the structure and pace of the class. I schedule a target date for the first assessment, but students may delay the exam for a brief time until they are certain they have mastered the material. I also include a "Make Me an Offer" clause on significant class assignments in order to be respectful of their creativity and areas of academic interest.

I practice and model the role of teacher as facilitator, suggesting that a democratic classroom gives us all the responsibility to be actively engaged in the process of the class. I encourage students to explore and share their images of the best elements of their own future classrooms. I guide that process by asking students: What does a community functioning at its best look like? What images do you see when you imagine the best elements of your own future classrooms? Which of those images would you like to see demonstrated and achieved through this current classroom experience?

Communities function more efficiently and cooperatively when their members develop and agree upon mutual goals, guidelines, and standards of behavior. I instruct half of the class to create a list of rules that will guide the community. I then ask the remaining half of the class to begin building community guidelines that: 1) assume all individuals are good people who desire positive experiences, and 2) are formulated in terms of positive actions and affirmations rather than roadblocks and "don'ts." (Neither group knows the other's task.) Once both groups have reported back to the full class, students see and hear an immediate and striking difference in the tone and potential direction of the community.

Treat the Students With Respect. Typical undergraduates must balance academic work in several courses with employment, family responsibilities, and social life. We must treat students' experiences, values, and beliefs with respect. If they don't believe that we respect the places from which they have come, they will not trust us to guide them beyond those experiences. We cannot develop a community without providing a foundation for concern and similar values.

I typically follow the discussion of learning goals for the course with an exploration of shared values by asking the students to imagine what is in it for them. Guiding them is the question: What would have to happen in this class for you to make the following three statements at the end of the semester? 1) I participated in this experience and felt good about it; 2) I'll miss being familiar with all of you as well, and miss the support I found in coming here on a regular basis; and 3) I will look forward to seeing each of you on campus in future courses.

Provide a Safe Base for Conversation. Students will enter into a discussion of community when they become comfortable with the instructor and the classroom environment. Initially, it might mean making sure that every individual speaks five words out loud, simply to become comfortable with the sound of his/ her voice among the group. The students sometimes need reminding that they are opting to become classroom teachers, not private tutors.

I encourage active participation in class discussions by creating a problem-solving scenario of a future class, where one-fourth of their own pupils resist participating. In a safe and comfortable environment, students will share their own reasons for non-participation; perhaps through this process of reflection and prediction, they will arrive at ways to encourage future pupils' participation. In a classroom community that relies heavily on the process of using reflective strategies, all members are engaged in learning from each other and bring varying degrees of experience and insight.

Model Emotional Support. Model supportiveness and encourage students to provide support for each other. Ask them to chat with each other and name a couple of difficult issues they think their pupils might bring to class on any given day. Create lists from this brainstorming and ask students to tell about a time when they themselves might have experienced any of those issues. Select an everyday issue, such as "car trouble," and inquire who among them can sympathize with that problem. Sharing helps develop supportive networks, encourages students to feel less alone, and helps them empathize with others.

Encourage Real Conversations. I find it beneficial to take time at the beginning of each class to hang back a little and avoid being driven by the need to accomplish absolutely everything on the day's lesson plan; otherwise, some of the most valuable lessons are lost. I have seen teachers so committed to covering a chunk of information that they fail to use practical illustrations from current events to demonstrate multidisciplinary applications of information.

Try to model opportunities for students to gain information from each other, rather than avoiding issues they may find uncomfortable. For example, ask the female student who wears a head covering about her religious affiliation; ask the student with multiple body piercings if s / he is sometimes presumed to be making a statement; ask the class to speculate about whether one is involuntarily making a statement when he or she is the only student of color in a class. These kinds of questions send the message that it is okay to be curious, as long as one is respectful. Questioning each other encourages real conversations, and, in turn, inspires self-disclosure and participation.

Encourage Students To Challenge Themselves and Each Other. Instructors can challenge ideas, beliefs, and values in order to encourage students' deeper reflection into the issues and their true meaning. We can help students see the holes in their logic or their conflicting messages by being honest with them and pointing out our own fallacies. Recently, a student described an occasion when her sister received a second visit from child protective services because of a phone call placed by a "busybody" neighbor. The neighbor was concerned about why the sister's 3-year-old child was once again playing alone on the easement of a busy street just before rush hour traffic. The student, convinced that her sister was a model of good parenting, was outraged that social services responded to such a "frivolous" complaint. Loyalty to one's sister aside, the issue was the student's complete insistence that, as a result of the experience, she would never contact social services, no matter what she witnessed. While she remained resistant to my point that as a teacher she would have a duty to act in the scenario being described, her classmates were able to provide other examples and scenarios to help her recognize the potential danger of her reasoning.

Ask Students To Design Meaningful and Interesting Tasks. Call on students to design their own alternative assessments, group projects, and group examinations that focus on group responsibility, and that support individual mastery of the material. I also ask them to design fair assessments that demonstrate their knowledge of the material in ways that are more interesting and less stressful than "typical" college examinations. This is difficult because they do not have experience with designing exams, yet it is important because it enhances their formal operational thinking. Encourage and reward your students when they show signs of mutual helping, division of labor, and collaboration on group goals. Group problem-solving or fact-finding exams, as well as simulated case studies, can be enormously successful in motivating students to work collaboratively.

Summary

When preservice teachers have formed a deep bond with classmates, as well as a belief that a classroom community can be as good as envisioned, they begin to entertain the concept of transformation and its possibilities. Why not begin with the belief that the only choice is to foster participation in a common good? Having experienced a classroom community in which they are expected to get to know each others' names, goals, learning styles, challenges, and values, teachers are more likely to create such classrooms in the future.

References

Beck, L. (1999). Metaphors of educational community: An analysis of the images that reflect and influence scholarship and practice. Educational Administration Quarterly, 35(1), 13-45.

Behrends, M. K. P. (1996). Categories of caring in urban minority schools of choice: High school seniors' perspectives. Dissertation Abstracts International, 57(06A), 242. (University Microfilms No. AA196-33925)

Bird, L. B. (1995). Creating your own classroom community. Different ways of knowing. Strategies for teaching and learning professional library. Santa Monica, CA: Galef Institute.

Bulach, C., & Brown, C. P. (1998). Behaviors that create a caring learning community. Journal for a Just and Caring Education, 4(4), 441-453.

Findley, B. F. (1995). Teaching excellence: A reflective paradigm. Community College Journal, 65(4), 26-29.

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Grossman, S., & Williston, J. (1999). Constructing a framework for linking course content and the learning process for teacher education students. Childhood Education, 75, 102-105.

Koop, A. J. (1994). Empowering teacher educators: A process of transition. Paper presented at the 24th Annual Conference of the Australian Teacher Education, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Lederhouse, J. N. (1998). You will be safe here. Educational Leadership, 56(1), 51-54.

Nistler, R. J. (1998). Preservice teachers, sixth graders and instructors use dialogue journals to extend their classroom communities. Reading Horizons, 38(3), 203-216.

Noddings, N. (1999). Renewing democracy in schools. Phi Delta Kapan, 80(8), 579-583.

Perry, C.M. (1996). Caring in context: Sense of community and belonging. School Community Journal, 6(2), 71-78.

Ritschel, R. E. (1995). The classroom as community. Community College Journal, 65(4), 16-19.

Sautter, R. C. (1991). Writing as a community building activity. School Community Journal, 1(1), 21-26.

Thornton, C. (1998). Needed: Responsive teachers. Momentum, 29(2), 77-79.

Wells, G. (Ed). (2000). Talk, text and inquiry. New York: TeachersCollegePress. Available online: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca / ~gwells / tti.intro.html [June 13, 2000].

Williams-Boyd, P., Skaggs, K., & Ayres, L. (2000). Marriage in the middle: The art and craft of teaching early adolescents. Childhood Education, 76, 236-239.

Wyett, J. L. (1997, February). New teachers for a new mission: Democratic classrooms. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Teacher Educators, Washington, DC.

Caroline A. Gould is Assistant Professor, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti.