The role of teachers in elementary classroom social dynamics

1. The role of teachers in elementary classroom social dynamics Scott D. Gest Human Development & Family Studies Penn State

2. Collaborators • Penn State • Tom Farmer • Rebecca Madill • Kathleen Zadzora • Deborah Temkin • Rachel Abenavoli • Gwen Kreamer • Larissa Witmer • Kristen Granger • U of Illinois • Philip Rodkin • Travis Wilson • Hae-Jeong Ahn • Ramin Karimpour • Jennifer Heinhorst Funding: William T. Grant & Spencer Foundations Institute of Education Sciences

3. “It is common knowledge that the success of a teacher…depends as much on the social atmosphere he [or she] creates as on his [or her] mastering…the laws of learning....Still, the psychologist who has spent an immense amount of time studying learning curves has left the problems of social management in education almost entirely to the practitioner, who is forced to base his [or her] procedure on the primitive method of trial and error, or upon a peculiar mix of philosophy and instinct.” - Kurt Lewin (1943, p. 115)

4. -- Norman Gronlund, Sociometry in the Classroom, 1959

5. What role, if any, should teachers play in managing children’s social relationships in the classroom? • “Oh that starts from Day 1, I think it’s very important.” • “I think the teacher’s a role model, and I think you have to go to children who might have issues and discuss with them why they’re not getting along, what a particular issues might be and see whether it might be resolved….” • “The love. We need to show more love to show children how to respect us and one another and themselves. Out of books, out of everything that we have to teach our children, it’s not books, it’s love.” • “I think I should lead by example. Only interfere when I see that there might be an issue that could hurt one of the students. I like to, honestly, I like to step back and deal with it pretty much unless it’s an issue that needs interference.”

6. How does your role in children’s relationships fit with your instructional objectives? • If there’s a lot of conflict in the classroom there won’t be a lot of learning. So it’s very closely related – can’t separate one from the other. You have to have a positive atmosphere to have a good learning atmosphere. • I think it’s important because those children that would never respond or are afraid to respond for fear of being poked fun at or going to have the wrong answer. I’ve let myself have the wrong answer sometimes so they could see that you’re going get wrong answers sometimes.

7. How much time should you spend on this relative to other ways you might spend your time? • I think it’s an all-day thing for me. I don’t think I could teach and not do it, to tell you the truth. It’s an ongoing thing for me. • I think at the beginning of the year I spent more time dealing with relationships and possible conflicts. But toward the end of the year we’ve got an established routine where it’s not quite as major an issue.

8. Progress in understanding classroom social dynamics • We know much more about individual-student-level patterns • connections between individual-level behavior & adjustment • We know much less about classroom-level dynamics • Teachers are generally mediocre judges of students’ friendships and social status • What classroom peer relationship patterns are associated with positive student outcomes? • What can teachers do to promote optimal peer relationship patterns?

9. Conceptual Model Classroom Child -- 2 sites, 5 years, at the end of the day over 200 1st/3rd/5th grade classrooms -- 3 waves per year; multimethod design • General Teaching Practices • Instructional support • Classroom organization • Emotional support • Network-related • Teaching Practices • Peer network knowledge • Grouping practices • Managing status & agg • Classroom Peer Ecology • Cohesiveness • Status Hierarchies • Behavioral norms • Youth Outcomes • Achievement • Aggression, victimization • School bonding

10. Teacher knowledge of peer networks • Generally not great, but huge variations • Correlation between teacher-reported and peer-reported friendships & groups • Median r = .35 - .45 • Maximum r = .70 - .80 • Minimum r = .00 - .10

11. Cohesiveness (1)friendship reciprocity is higher in classrooms observed to be emotionally supporitve

12. Cohesiveness (2) • Students express more positive sentiments toward one another (i.e., greater ratio of liking:disliking nominations) in classrooms in which teachers • place a very strong emphasis on separating students displaying behavior problems • report a high level of sympathy and support for shy-withdrawn students

13. Egalitarian vs. Hierarchical Groups Bulldogs win Red Devils lose (Sherif, 1956, Scientific American p. 57)

14. Status Hierarchies • Girls’ status hierarchies are less extreme – the status system is more egalitarian -- in classrooms where teachers report that they use grouping strategies (e.g., seating charts) to: • promote new friendships • promote academic diversity

15. Behavioral Norms (1)peer social sanctions for behaviors vary across classrooms

16. Interrelations among norms & status hierarchies:Aggressors are more popular in hierarchical peer ecologies Garandeau, Ahn, & Rodkin (Dev Psych, in press)

17. Some next steps • Learn how teachers think about these issues • In their own words • Rating the importance and use of different management strategies • Example: seating charts • Consider individual-differences in how students adapt in different classroom contexts • Build toward professional development intervention: • increase ‘attunement’ to network dynamics • Increase use of ‘best practices’