7. Teacher - student relationship (*) During the

7. Teacher - student relationship (*)
During the sixties and the seventies the programming strategy originating from in the
economic study field, spread over the western school systems, as a model which could
support the students accomplishments and maturation by special interests and behaviors.
Education methods based on programming targets were planned, meaning by «target»
what the student must learn to be, to know and what to do.
On the same assumption, that the learning process follows the same modalities in all
the students, the studying of taxonomy is also based. The Taxonomy of educational
objectives, elaborated by B.S. Bloom in collaboration with other scholars, is structured
in a hierarchical way, meaning that the achievement of the most simple objectives are
considered a conditio sine qua non for the more complex achievements.
Unlike Bloom, the American psychologist J.P. Guilford has considered that the mental activities are all homogeneous in terms of origin and level (Code system), while
Robert Gagnès in 1965 made a distinction between the higher mental activities and
those which, assuming there are others, would be incorporated.
Cooperative and workshop learning is another successful strategy for the accomplishment of cultural goals and learning didactic targets. The «working group» is more than
work «in a group», because it leads to a common production through task distribution.
It is important to stress the educational importance of the cooperative dimension of
learning and that of the lived experiences within the peer group as young people learn
easier through the imitation of peers. It has also been noted that the sharing of goals and
learning targets makes it easier or helps students that are less diligent and less skilled
to catch up, to the extent where they have the opportunity to offer to the working group
whatever help they can provide. For this reason, it is important that the activity done
in the workshop has a respectful pace for individual learning time.
The theme of the teacher-student communication was approached by Thomas Gordon.
The teacher must have some aptitude qualities as genuineness and spontaneity: if the
teacher has genuine behaviors, he can meet the student on a basis of mutual respect and
acceptance. The «effective teacher» adopts the «not-power language»: he listens to the
students; he guides the dialogues in order to remove the vices of the communication;
he adopts «support strategies»; he is able to keep the concentration of students in the
classroom; he manages any discomfort by minimizing the factors that cause stress and
anxiety; he knows how to observe his own teaching style and he can also evaluate the
efficacy; he knows how to solve inevitable situations of conflict and he can remove the
barriers that hinder the spirit of belonging to the class group; he finally promotes a climate
of cooperation in the classroom between autonomous and responsible people. During
the training it was explained to teachers that the school is the reciprocity environment
in which students-peers form a group and cooperate with adults.
(*) © Copyright Edizioni Simone S.p.A. Il brano è tratto dal volume 526/4, Competenze linguistiche (Inglese) - Concorso a Cattedre 2012.