DEMOCRATIC TEACHING (RUDOLF DREIKURS)

What is DEMOCRATIC TEACHING ?

Democratic teaching style ( neither autocratic nor permissive)
Autocratic : -Restrictive and firm limits, -One-way communication -Teacher have control on students Permissive : - Offers students autonomy and freedom to control the class - teachers less care and provide little support for managing students behaviour.

DEMOCRATIC : Teacher and students work together to form a dynamic classroom. provide firm guidance and leadership by establishing rules and consequences. support internal motivation and responsibility
Proposed by Rudolf Dreikurs

Example of democratic teaching style : CLASSROOM MEETING

PURPOSE : Open classroom meetings create a context for developing empathy and group membership EXAMPLE : Group discussions provide the teacher with : An opportunity to help the children understand themselves to change their concept of themselves and others which will eventually change their motivations from hostile to cooperative living
IMPORTANCE IN FUTURE: Pupils learn how to contribute later to society as a whole.

Key Concepts of Dreikurss Theory

Mistaken goals
Attention-getting Power-seeking Revenge Helplessness (feelings of inadequacy)

Logical consequences

Classroom rules Implement logical consequences rather than punishments. Use punishment only when all logical consequences have been exhausted

Encouragement rather than praise

1) Mistaken goals
Factors :
1) Lack of social acceptance 2) Do not feel a sense of belonging 3) Discouragement that is arising from failure to meet the need to belong

How to overcome the mistaken goals?

STRATEGIES :
Ascertain pupils motives. Help pupils exchange his mistaken goals for useful ones. Avoid power struggles and encourage pupils who display inadequacy. Provide lessons with social interest in mind. Provide a teaching environment that supports pupils sense of belonging. Come up with a set of classroom rules as a group. Support responsibility through freedom of choices in lesson plans.

Behavior A student writes on a school desk. A student destroys anothers property.

Logical Consequence The student must clean the desk. The student (not the parent) must pay for the property. The student does the work during recess or before/after school.

A student refuses to complete assignments during class.

3) Encouragement rather than praise

WHY ?
Encouragement corresponds well to childrens goals. Children seek approval and encouragement is a legitimate way to do it. Encouragement focuses on effort rather than achievement, so it gives positive feedback to children who are trying hard but may be unsuccessful. Encouragement motivates them to continue trying whereas praise focuses on the level of achievement.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF DEMOCRATIC TEACHING

STRENGTHS
Provide firm guidance and leadership by establishing rules and consequences. Promotes mutual respect between teachers and students Focus on student relationships, feelings, thoughts and behaviours Students understand that consequences follow behavior, they are then free to choose behavior that will attain their legitimate needs. Help pupils to seek self recognition and self determintation promote a high degree of autonomy and responsibility

WEAKNESSES
Some pupils may not understand goals and rules set. Difficulty determining pupils motives. (hide/ deny) Autocractic/ permissive teacher are hard to accept democratic way. teachers may not have the training to recognise complex motives for behaving in particular ways and may make naive judgements. may be very difcult to enact in the face of very challenging students Hard to endorse when lack of acceptance or support from other school community members

PRACTICALITY MALAYSIAN ESL CLASSROOM

SITUATION : Mr. Veejaya is a new teacher in the school. He is teaching Mathematics in 6 Usaha and also the new classrooms teacher of the class. There are few pupils in the class like to make noise and do not have any interest to study. As a new teacher, this situation creates many problems to Mr. Veejaya in his teaching and learning process.

WAYS TO OVERCOME
Mr.Veejayas pupils strive to be the centre of attention. This case study focuses on the first and fourth goal of misbehavior which is attention getting and feeling of inadequancy. : the pupils want to seek for attention in order to get teachers closer. This is a normal situation as the pupils are not used to the new environment made by the teacher As a new teacher, Mr. Vijaya should establish a good relationship with each individual based on trust and mutual respect. He can make a class meeting with his pupils so that they can set goals and rules together. This is how democratic teaching style takes place.