Promoting positive culture in the classroom
Every great teacher know curriculum is not only about the content or lessons we discuss in class with students. It is not only about the competencies teachers are expected to make students learn. Curriculum also touches on some hidden aspects such as how teachers make learners feel. This has something to do with creating a positive classroom culture-a culture that motivates and inspires students to learn at their best.
Many teachers simply assume they understand the student's problems and dilemmas, and mistakenly try to communicate their understanding in ways that only distance the student. A case in point is when a high school student once told a disappointed teacher that things were really hard at home and studying was difficult. The teacher responded by saying, "Well, you have to get past it and study anyway. I have been teaching for a long time, and there isn't any excuse I haven't heard." The student, of course, had no indication that the teacher understood at all and was actually discouraged by the teacher's unempathetic response.
Had the teacher taken the time to demonstrate that she understood the student's dilemma, she would have learned that the parents of the student were quarreling with and hurling invectives at each other every day, threatening each other with separation, wounding their children’s feelings and building an unsafe and worrisome homelife for their kids.
More often than not, we just issue words we think are healing or helpful words but prove to be damaging instead. It is important to learn empathic communication. Teachers hence have to work on their communication techniques. Every so often teachers hear but they don’t truly listen to their students’ stories.
The teacher could have encouraged the student with an empathetic response such as, "It must be really difficult trying to study while listening to your parents fighting and wondering what is going to happen with your family." Such a response would have communicated understanding to the student that he would have found valuable and that would have enhanced the level of respect he had for the teacher. Such a response also would have encouraged the student to communicate with the teacher so that the teacher and student could brainstorm ways to keep the student on task with her various academic assignments.
Paying attention to the words we use, and the connotations associated with those words is an important issue we need to consider. As teachers we must be cautious of the way we respond to students’ problematic circumstances. Promoting empathy would entail the point of ordering the way statements are said, the words that are chosen, and the feelings behind it as these are of equal value as the ability to empathize itself.
Developing an empathic approach is probably the most noteworthy effort a teacher can make towards getting along and making students feel better. When you understand others, they'll probably want to understand you – and this is how you can start to build cooperation, collaboration, and teamwork in the classroom. In dealing with students with problems, it is important to show empathy. Empathy is the power to understand perspectives other than your own. It is trying to understand what another person is feeling. It is seeing the world through another’s eyes and it helps people to get along better and to feel better.