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Positive Pieces: Social-Emotional Learning and Student Wellbeing: Why SEL Matters

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We define social and emotional learning (SEL) as an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.

New to Social and Emotional Learning? Start here (2 min. read).

Think of a young person in your life. What skills will they need to achieve their hopes and dreams?

Chances are, you just named social and emotional skills - like staying motivated, communicating effectively, practicing curiosity, and working with others to solve problems. Social and emotional learning, or SEL, helps develop the skills we need for life.
Hear why students, parents, and educators want SEL in schools. Here are 3 things to know about social and emotional learning:

1. Social and emotional learning is a foundation for many of our most pressing priorities: SEL helps young people - and adults - learn and practice skills that set them up for academic success, fulfilling careers, healthy relationships, and responsible civic engagement.

2. The research is clear: Social and emotional learning in schools leads to positive outcomes, including better academic performance, and decreases in stress and anxiety.

3. There's no one-size-fits-all approach: Social and emotional learning brings families, schools, and communities together to make sure every child has caring relationships and what they need to learn, grow, and thrive.

Subscribe now for our expertly curated 3-part email series delivered straight to your inbox. We'll roundup the key facts from our website on SEL is, it matters, and it shows up in schools.

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

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SEL can help all young people and adults thrive personally and academically, develop and maintain positive relationships, become lifelong learners, and contribute to a more caring, just world.

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Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success.

People with strong social-emotional skills are better able to cope with everyday challenges and benefit academically, professionally, and socially. From effective problem-solving to self-discipline, from impulse control to emotion management and more, SEL provides a foundation for positive, long-term effects on kids, adults, and communities.

Children thrive. Schools win. Workplaces benefit. Society strengthens. All due to social-emotional learning.

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Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success.

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Lynn Lyons: Helping Children and Families Manage Anxiety Disorders

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Give Your Kids Autonomy: What It Means and How To Do It by Lynn Lyons

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The critical importance of nurturing autonomy in your kid and how to do it in a culture that over-emphasizes achievement-based learning and structured play.

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Autonomy supportive parenting is an approach that can help children feel comfortable being themselves. Learn from Bright Horizons early childhood experts how to implement this parenting style.

Your parenting style has a direct impact on how your child develops. How you model problem-solving, approach rule setting, as well as how you think about setting learning goals really matters. At the same time, few of us consciously choose and implement a parenting style, even though there are potential advantages to thinking through your parenting philosophy before being in a situation where you have to act on it.

In the 1960s, parenting researcher, Diana Baumrind identified four parenting styles: authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved, and authoritative. This article focuses on a fifth style known as Autonomy Supportive Parenting, which is becoming a popular, practical, and helpful parenting style. In some ways, it captures the best of each of Baumrind's four styles. This style is also very compatible with how teachers in Bright Horizons centers approach and interact with children.

You may say to yourself, "Why have a parenting style? I don't have time to think about my style-and I prefer to just make decisions on the fly, which usually works out pretty well." Of course there are many situations where you have no choice but to make decisions on the fly-and that's fine. But the process of, sometimes, thinking through a situation ahead of time is an important process. It helps us be more prepared the next time we have to make a quick parenting decision.

As the name suggests, Autonomy Supportive Parenting helps children develop in ways that support their autonomy. Autonomy is typically defined as functioning independently without control by others; however, autonomy is not just about being independent. It is about parenting in a way that a child feels comfortable to be herself and is comfortable in her own body. Children are given space to feel their feelings-and to understand rules.

How to Implement Autonomy Supportive Parenting

Provide acceptance: children are loved and accepted unconditionally.

Help your children feel competent: children, even babies, need to know they are having a positive impact on their world.

Support your children in achieving autonomy: your child has a sense of ownership and control, as opposed to feeling like he is being controlled by you.

Treat your child like a unique person: every child is different and should be treated as unique and special.

Key Components of Autonomy Supportive Parenting

Relatedness: parents strive to give children a sense of warmth, belonging, and connection, and try to understand their child's perspective.

Structure: parents define and enforce limits, offering children some structure, and might make descriptive comments like: "There are toys all over the floor." Then they also follow-up by providing a rationale for their rules and expectations, i.e., "We need to pick up the toys. Otherwise we will trip over them and someone might get hurt."

Autonomy: process for engaging with our children; opposite of controlling.

Other specifics of Autonomy Supportive Parenting

Trust that development will unfold as expected-and that children want to cooperate and learn.

Take the child's perspective, as often as possible. For example, "Before we go inside for a nap, would you like to put away the bikes or the sand toys?"

Plan for long-term goals. Give chances to practice and learn. For example, rather than "I can't stand how messy your room is," try focusing on the long-term. "I'd like you and I to work together to keep your room cleaner," and then model the behavior you'd like to see in your child. You can even try breaking it down into smaller parts, so, "Tonight, I'd like you to put away the blocks, and I'll take care of the books. Next week, you can do both the blocks and the books."

Focus on the process of learning instead of performance. In other words, don't expect your child to recite a new skill for others like counting to 20 before they are ready or comfortable.

Remember: children learn from their mistakes instead of feeling bad about themselves.

Autonomy Supportive Parenting pulls together principles from positive child development theory and practice and gives parents a "style" to reflect on when making decisions about child development and behavior.

The principles of Autonomy Supportive Parenting can also be applied to yourself. Show compassion-and don't be too hard on yourself as a parent when you make a mistake. You deserve to treat yourself well, and notice your strengths as you continue on your parenting journey.

Bright Horizons Webinar: Getting to Know Your Parenting Style

What is your parenting style? Parenting experts from ZERO TO THREE and Bright Horizons discuss the impact of temperament and style on the parent-child relationship and will help you reflect on your own unique approach to parenting.

More on Parenting Styles

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Autonomy supportive parenting is an approach that can help children feel comfortable being themselves. Learn from Bright Horizons early childhood experts how to implement this parenting style. Your parenting style has a direct impact on how your child develops. How you model problem-solving, approach rule setting, as well as how you think about setting learning goals really matters.

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In this helpful new book, John Dacey, Gian Criscitiello, and Maureen Devlin show you how to seamlessly infuse social and emotional learning into your curriculum. With the growing emphasis on student assessment and learning outcomes, many teachers find they lack the time and the encouragement to begin implementing SEL techniques into their instruction. This book offers a solution in the form of practical lesson plans for grades 3-5 in ELA, math, social studies, and science-all of which can be implemented without tedious preparation and all of which are designed to boost creativity, cooperation, concentration, and critical thinking. Your students will learn how to...

Evaluate the costs and benefits of their decision-making;

Connect daily choices to an overarching sense of purpose;

Judge independently and pursue self-awareness;

Assess, harness, and transform emotions as a strategic resource;

Gain energy from personal values and commitments; and

Practice mindfulness and think positively.

Each chapter contains a number of reproducible tools that can be photocopied from the book or downloaded as eResources from the book product page at www.routledge.com/9781138632066.

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In this helpful new book, John Dacey, Gian Criscitiello, and Maureen Devlin show you how to seamlessly infuse social and emotional learning into your curriculum. With the growing emphasis on student assessment and learning outcomes, many teachers find they lack the time and the encouragement to begin implementing SEL techniques into their instruction.

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Play-Based Learning: How & Why It Works | Wonderschool

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Learn why play-based learning is so important and how to implement it at home, or in daycare with Wonderschool.

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Play-based learning helps engage elementary students in their education and has cognitive, physical, social, and emotional benefits.

A few years ago, I began shifting to a play-based approach in my kindergarten classroom. Research extolled the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional benefits of play and called to mind Friedrich Froebel's vision of kindergarten as a place where play and learning go hand in hand.

As I made small changes in my classroom, I began to understand that play is a primary and integral mode through which children make sense of the world, and that it is essential to their development and well-being. In addition, it supports skills like collaboration, communication, and creativity. Offering play can feel challenging when mandated programs and standardized tests are requirements of many school districts, but play-based learning is an effective practice for deepening understanding and engaging children. The key is finding a balance between academic expectations and the developmental needs of young students.

Offer Time, Space, and Materials

As I studied children's play, I saw that their bodies and minds were most engaged and focused when they were offered time, space, and meaningful materials to make sense of what they were learning. Teacher-directed activities and transitions are no substitutes for opportunities for exploration, creativity, and socialization.

Using a "choice time" structure like the one outlined in Choice Time: How to Deepen Learning Through Inquiry and Play, PreK-2 affords children opportunities to learn playfully. Making time for play early in the day optimizes learning and helps to balance a classroom schedule. My students have a 30-minute choice time within our literacy block each morning in addition to a 45-minute choice time at the end of the day.

The classroom environment is designed to engage their minds, meet their sensory needs, and offer practice with academic content. Our classroom includes a block center, math center, science center, book nook, dramatic play corner, sensory table, felt board, and art center. Many of the materials in each center can be integrated into more than one center.

With thoughtfully designed centers, children flow from one activity to the next with a sense of purpose. The art center is a place where children can construct all sorts of creations. Pine cones, tree bark, and other natural treasures are piled into the science center with an old overhead projector for light study. Cuisenaire rods, pattern blocks, and counting grids encourage geometric design at the math center. The block center is where children's imaginative worlds come to life.

Creativity and invention stem from some of the simplest materials, and having access to these materials can make the difference in a child's ability to learn.

Other materials are introduced to expand thinking on a certain topic or theme. For example, later in the spring, the sensory table will be filled with soil and the students will begin a scientific study of worms that will eventually lead the students outdoors to the garden.

Use Play to Inform Teaching

I had an initial hesitation surrounding play-based learning because I worried that it would impact my ability to teach district-mandated programs or address required academic standards and assessments. But observing young students as they played gave me new insight on the ways they think and learn. I was able to use that knowledge and address their individual needs more effectively.

Children were more motivated to explore academic standards within their play because it was meaningful to them. After reading Miss Maple's Seeds last fall, the children became fascinated by the knowledge that Eliza Wheeler had created the pictures and story from her imagination. They grew curious about how the book was made. After discussing the book-making process in our circle, a child exclaimed, "We can make books, too!" A few minutes later, a group of children set off to the art center to create books of their own.

The collaborative work of story writing incorporates speaking, listening, and writing standards. Book making has since become a favorite activity, carrying over into other areas of learning.

This winter, a child made a number book and brought it to our math circle to share with the class. Number books quickly became the rage, with each one a little different from the next. One child began a book about groups of 10. A friend offered support by popping up from the table to reference the number grid on the wall. They soon reached 200.

Given time, space, and materials, these children were able to explore mathematical concepts at their ability level while also contributing to other children's understanding. Educational consultant Mike Anderson describes this kind of "self-differentiation" as the place in which learning is "most effective" and "enjoyable"-in other words, their zone of proximal development.

Understand Child Development

Understanding how play supports learning means understanding how children learn. Just as a tree's roots form a foundation on which the tree can thrive, our teaching must have roots in child development in order for children to thrive.

Once my students had experienced play-based learning, they were more focused, motivated, and purposeful. Most important, they were happier. Bringing play-based learning to my classroom created balance, deepened our learning, and defined our classroom community as a place where we could learn and grow together.

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Play-based learning helps engage elementary students in their education and has cognitive, physical, social, and emotional benefits.

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Play is an important part of children's learning and development. Find articles on how to intentionally connect play and learning, ideas to share with families, and the latest research about learning and play.

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7 Ways to Support Diversity in the Classroom [With Examples]

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All Posts A school culture where people embrace diversity in the classroom can positively impact the school community. When this happens, a school community creates a safe, supportive and purposeful environment for students and staff which, in turn, allows students to grow - academically and socially.

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America is becoming increasingly more diverse. According to the Census Bureau, by the year 2100, the U.S. minority population will become the majority, with non-Hispanic whites making up about 40% of the U.S. population. And while the school population shifts, the teacher population is projected to remain overwhelmingly white and female. According to Edweek.org, a 2017-2018 survey found that 79.3% of public school teachers are white, 9.3% are Hispanic, 7% are Black and about 2% are Asian.

As the student population changes, so do classrooms. Schools must prioritize efforts to promote diversity and equity within their school culture and within the classroom. It is important to focus on diversity and equity because white teachers have to be able to use classroom instruction to support a diverse student population. Below are 5 ways to promote equity and diversity in your classroom.

5 ways to promote equity and diversity in the classroom

Promoting equity and diversity in your classroom begins with self awareness. Educators must recognize how the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status, and being able-bodied impact us individually. We must understand how our identification within a particular group gives us privilege in certain spaces and we must be open to actively listen to marginalized groups who experience life differently because of their social groupings. We must acknowledge our personal biases and seek to understand people with different experiences.

Kickboard's Equity Training takes educators through four distinct phases of anti-racism work: awareness, examination, acknowledgement and action; allowing teachers to move from awareness to action to promote equity and become anti-racist.

An important part of promoting equity and diversity is setting norms in your classroom that promote inclusion and openness. Be explicit about the way students in your class will be respectful to each other; and share ideas, opinions and values. Teach students how to disagree respectfully. Use Restorative Practices and promote self-awareness, self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Challenge negative stereotypes immediately and openly. Create class norms together with your students to give students ownership over their community. Be flexible and ready to amend and refine norms as needed.

Culturally relevant, or responsive, teaching emphasizes academic excellence, cultural competence, and social and political analysis and activsim. This pedagogy provides a framework for exposing students to diverse cultures in deep, meaningful ways and prioritizes academic excellence for all students. This framework is also unique because of its emphasis on social justice and activism.

In a 2007 study the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality found that 76% of new teachers said they were trained to teach ethnically diverse students however, less than 40% said the training was helpful. If schools do not invest in high quality professional development that emphasizes culturally relevant teaching, teachers may feel underprepared to create a learning environment that promotes equity and diversity and supports all students.

It is important to remember that diversity is not just about race. Culturally relevant teaching prioritizes analysis of academic performance that recognizes the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic status, and being able-bodied.

Conversations about diversity and equity can be uncomfortable for students and teachers. An important part of promoting equity and diversity in your classroom is purposeful planning. Planning a lesson is just as important as the execution of the lesson; especially if your class will discuss sensitive topics or ideas.

Before you plan, consider:

Text: Think about the text that you can use to explore topics about multiculturalism. Consider texts that explore alternate opinions or view history from a new perspective that may not be present in mainstream text.

Discourse: When planning consider ways that you can facilitate, rather than lead, a group discussion. As facilitator, your job is to get your students to take the lead; by posing open-ended questions you guide the discussion and challenge ideas but you may not necessarily "take a side". Stepping back and facilitating empowers students to speak to each other. Students benefit from hearing from their peers. Create opportunities for students to participate in discussions where they listen to each other actively and challenge opinions respectfully.

Differentiation: An important part of equity is educational access. When planning, consider how you will differentiate your lessons for various learners and learning styles. This includes having various levels of text, differentiating the way students show mastery, and varying the ways that you present topics. Also consider using collaborative learning groups that allow students to work in groups within their class.

Participation: When planning a discussion or lesson you must also consider equity in participation. Some students are very vocal while others are more quiet. Plan ways to keep all students active and engaged in the learning so all student ideas are shared and represented.

Your students and their families have a wealth of knowledge to share about themselves. Invite parents and family members into your classroom as community experts. Allow them to read a book about a particular issue that relates to their culture or that they are passionate about. Show students various representations of their culture and other cultures. Invite people from the community to your class as guest speakers to talk about a topic your class is learning about. Invite persons with physical or learning disabilities to talk about their experience as a student. Creating respectful ways for students to have diverse experiences adds value to the learning experience for everyone. The more exposure students get to diverse people, experiences and identities the more prepared they will be for life outside of the classroom.

Here at Kickboard, we value culturally responsive teaching and leading. Since our founding, Kickboard has worked to give educators the tools they need to create safe and happy schools where students and staff thrive. Kickboard's Equity & Anti-Racism Professional Development aims to support districts, schools and teachers towards becoming anti-racist. Given that the vast majority of our schools are composed predominantly of students of color, the culture and climate work we do with schools inevitably intersects with issues of race and disproportionality in discipline. Promoting equity is a priority for Kickboard and we are intentional about situating the work we do at the intersection of positive behavioral supports, cultural relevance, restorative practices, and racial equity. Learn more about how we do that, here.

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5 Ways to Promote Equity & Diversity in the Classroom

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America is becoming increasingly more diverse. According to the Census Bureau, by the year 2100, the U.S. minority population will become the majority, with non-Hispanic whites making up about 40% of the U.S. population. And while the school population shifts, the teacher population is projected to remain overwhelmingly white and female.

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School is an extremely important place for students to feel safe and comfortable. In order to learn, students need an environment that makes them feel welcome. If a student feels unsafe and insecure, they will not be able to focus on learning.

Students with a diverse cultural background may feel that they stand out alone in the classroom, they may feel underrepresented in the teaching materials, etc. Children with a diverse background may then feel unsafe and uncomfortable in a classroom when they don't feel that their diversity is seen or valued. Racial, cultural, and gender differences are important factors in a person's identity, and it's extremely valuable for teaching to help students understand differences better.

Efforts that current and aspiring teachers make to improve diversity in the classroom can benefit all learners in a variety of ways. From elementary students to high school students, it is always a good time for teaching to focus on racial and culturally unique differences in the past, present, and future. It can benefit diverse students who need to be represented and accepted, and can help all students learn from unique perspectives and increase their understanding.

School diversity inclusion and representation is crucial in education, in terms of student demographics, staffing, and lessons. There are many educational benefits from introducing new thoughts on racial or cultural differences in a classroom. Ethnicity, cultural differences, racial differences, and more are all important to talk about as part of a student's education. Resources are available to help teaching these subjects be appropriate and positive. There are many specific reasons why diversity is key in the classroom and schools, including:

Diversity brings new perspectives into a classroom. Students of different genders, races, backgrounds, etc. bring multiple insights and thoughts into a classroom. This enhances a classroom discussion and learning opportunities. It can add well-rounded views and can help students learn more from each other. It will allow students to see things in a new light-one that they may not have considered otherwise. From elementary to high school, new perspectives are important to learn at any age.

Research shows that diverse classrooms improve learning outcomes for every student. Schools that are more diverse, when controlled for socioeconomic factors, see no difference in test scores from schools that are less diverse. There is also research that shows diverse groups are better able to solve problems and work more efficiently. Diverse schools also see students who are more empathetic and less prejudiced, allowing everyone to feel more safe and confident in their learning environment. No matter what age, elementary or high school, introduction to culture and racial differences can have great positive impacts on students.

Including diversity in your curriculum as a teacher improves self-efficacy in learners. Self-efficacy is a person's belief in their ability to meet challenges and accomplish tasks. It also helps improve their self-worth, tolerance and appreciation for different views, and more. Different understandings of culture can help students see how people that are like them have succeeded. White students, black students, Asian students, Hispanic students, female students, male students, high school students, elementary school students-self efficacy is important for every kind of student out there. Cultural individuality helps students understand their worth and feel appreciated.

Diversity in a classroom leads to better discussions among students. When there is more diversity in the classroom, it lends itself to better, well-rounded discussions. Students of a different ethnicity, racial, or cultural background will have a unique perspective to offer. All students can offer their insights from what they understand culturally, helping them to understand one another and connect. Groups are able to benefit from different ideas, students get new perspectives and insights about the world around them.

More classroom diversity prepares students for their future. The world around us is increasingly culturally diverse. It's extremely likely that students will be working in a field that is incredibly diverse, and classroom diversity can help prepare students for that future. It increase their cultural awareness in a classroom setting, helping set them up for success in their future. Having respect and kindness for culturally unique individuals will help them succeed in a career where it is likely they will interact with those of different races and culture.

Diversity in the classroom fosters creativity. Diverse, cross-cultural classrooms encourage more critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. Collaboration encourages creativity inside the classroom, and diverse classrooms where students feel encouraged to collaborate help them learn from each other's experiences, bouncing ideas off of each other and creating creative solutions. It increases their cultural awareness in a classroom setting, preparing them for a future career.

If you're a current or aspiring educator it's important to learn how to foster a culture of diversity inside your classroom. Some things you can do to embrace creativity inside your classroom include:

Students need to be able to express their individuality in the classroom. It's important that teachers create a classroom that is a space for expression and reflection for students to feel that they can be themselves. This improves self-efficacy and learning outcomes for students. Teachers can do this by making rules that prevent bullying so students feel safe in their classroom. It's also important for teachers to establish positive relationships with students so they feel they can express their individuality freely.

Teachers can include a diverse range of perspectives by introducing diverse authors and historical figures into teaching materials. This will help all students understand and appreciate diversity more. Diverse learners will be able to be inspired by learning about people who they can look up to and learn from. It's valuable for teachers to look at lesson plans from other educators to find diverse authors and historical figures to reference in their lessons.

All students have different learning needs, so it's valuable for teachers to use different strategies to appeal to the different strengths of learners. Teachers can utilize regular reviews of concepts learned to help students retain information, use a variety of visual, audio, and tactile learning activities to meet the needs of different kinds of learners, provide opportunities for group activities as well as one-on-one interactions, and listen to student feedback to adapt based on what each student needs. Being prepared to utilize different teaching methods and strategies will help foster a successful diverse classroom.

Working and collaborating with other teachers is key to helping introduce diversity into a classroom. Teachers who focus on different subjects can help create an interdisciplinary curriculum that highlights the importance of diversity. For example, history and English teachers can come together to talk about cultures and diversity in history across classrooms for Black History Month, giving students additional support and understanding in that area. Doing this gives reinforcement to the ideas of diversity, and helps student apply it in multiple areas of their schooling and life. Teachers can begin each term with a simple email or conversation with other teachers, asking if they would be interested in collaboration on a subject of diversity.

There are many resources teachers can utilize to enhance cultural representation and learning in their classroom including:

If you're a current or aspiring teacher, understanding how to incorporate diversity into your classroom is crucial for student success. Working to incorporate diversity in learning materials, in staff and students, and encouraging students to be kind and respectful are key to making a safe and happy learning environment for all students.

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In today's classrooms, diversity continues to be an important and impactful topic. Teachers need to learn how to incorporate diversity better into their classrooms to help students be successful, and feel more connected. Learn how you as an educator can improve diversity in your classroom.

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When teachers acknowledge and adapt to different cultural values, they can work collaboratively to strengthen the learning environment of the whole community.

A Latina immigrant mother remembers a parent-teacher conference with her daughter's 1st grade teacher: I couldn't understand what the teacher was trying to communicate when she commented on my daughter's performance. I particularly recall two confusing comments that this teacher made: "Your daughter is very sociable" and "Your daughter is outstanding in. . . ." My tendency as a Mexican mother was to feel very happy she was sociable; after all, that was what I was fostering. However, I did not know what to do about her being "outstanding;" I had tried to show my daughter not to "show off," but it seemed that it was not working.

Parent-teacher conferences are a prime occasion for cross-cultural communication. The issue of being "outstanding" is fraught with cross-cultural misunderstanding between teachers and Latino immigrant parents. The opening vignette illustrates two cultural models at play (Raeff, Greenfield, &amp; Quiroz, in press).

Cross-Cultural Conflicts About Values

The teacher expressed an individualistic perspective: She assumed that the primary goal of development is to become an outstandingly competent individual. The mother interpreted "outstanding" as "standing out," something to be avoided in her culture. She was expressing an important element of the collectivistic model, which exphasizes fitting into and being a contributing member of a group.

Each cultural model consists of a set of assumptions that the group takes for granted and therefore does not recognize as cultural in origin. Each model also defines a set of criteria for evaluating child development and for guiding socialization; these models sometimes conflict when Latino immigrants enroll their children in public schools in the United States. For example, educación, the Spanish cognate for education, primarily refers to instruction in correct social demeanor; in contrast, the English equivalent, education, refers primarily to academic instruction (Reese, Balzano, Gallimore, &amp; Goldenberg, 1995).

This conflict does not occur with every Latino parent. It is as presumptuous to assume that all Latinos hold the same developmental and socialization goals as it is to assume that everyone should hold the developmental goals of mainstream U.S. education. Latinos are very diverse, differing in social class and education before immigration, rural or urban origin, country of origin, acculturation, and race. Therefore, teachers need to explore cultural values systems, not assume them. Nonetheless, the sociohistorical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural conditions experienced by large numbers of recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America provide a basis for a common pattern of adaptation and collectivistic cultural values (for example, Raeff, Greenfield, &amp; Quiroz, in press; Valdés, 1996).

Likewise, teachers' behavior is not specific to a particular ethnic group. Latino teachers, like others, undergo an individualizing process that is part of higher education and teacher training (Delgado-Gaitan, 1994; Greenfield, Raeff, &amp; Quiroz, 1996; Raeff, Greenfield, &amp; Quiroz, in press; Rothstein-Fisch, Trumbull, Quiroz, &amp; Greenfield, 1997). Culture lies in values and practices, not in ethnic labels.

Latino immigrant families are very interested in their children's education (Delgado-Gaitan, 1994; Goldenberg &amp; Gallimore, 1995). However, parents from Mexico and El Salvador who arrive with little education do not necessarily realize that they and their children will be asked to give up collectivistic values in pursuit of educational achievement. In the interdependent perspective of Latino immigrant parents, education is a tool not for developing the individual potential of each child, but for enabling each child to help the family as a whole.

The Bridging Cultures Project: A Teacher Responds

Bridging Cultures (Greenfield, Raeff, &amp; Quiroz, 1998) is an ongoing cross-cultural professional development effort that allows a group of California teachers and researchers to collaboratively apply research on cross-cultural value conflict in schools to the education of children from Latino immigrant families (Rothstein-Fisch, 1997; Trumbull et al., 1997). During a Bridging Cultures workshop, one teacher-participant responded to our analysis of her conferences with Latino immigrant parents: My awareness of the cultural differences between collectivistic and individualistic groups has been heightened. . . . Now not only do I realize that there are differences, but also I greatly appreciate the concept that a bridge must be constructed so that I do not value one over the other.However, this leads to a conflict. What should be the ultimate goal of a teacher? Should it be to facilitate the academic success of my students? Or should it be to facilitate the collectivistic mode valued by the Hispanic families I work with? Maybe it could be a combination of both goals.I feel that the parent conference situation is not easily resolved. First, I have a time constraint of 15 minutes in a room where other families are waiting. . . . Second, I am responsible for the academic-social progress of each child. I show parents how well their children are doing or where improvement is necessary. My conflict arises with understanding what kind of success this child should be striving for. If it's academic, it may conflict with the family's definition of success as a supportive member of [the] family. But parents explain to me that they immigrated here "to better their lives," so perhaps academic achievement is in alignment with this goal.

The Child-Led Versus the Group Conference

During the Bridging Cultures workshops, teachers proposed alternative practices for conducting parent-teacher conferences, and experimentation ensued.

A culturally incompatible format. The teacher previously quoted experimented with the child-led conference. Despite its current popularity, this format turns out to be incompatible with Latino culture: By putting the child in the leadership role, the child-led conference violates the collectivistic cultural value in which children respect and look up to their parents as authority figures.

A culturally compatible format. The next year, the teacher developed a successful social format for the parent-teacher conference. In a later Bridging Cultures workshop, she described her approach: In the prescribed practice of parent conferencing, teachers allot 10 to 15 minutes for each parent. They use this time to review a child's academic progress, report card, social skills, and state test scores. Most of the time, other parents are waiting, or several parents arrive at the same time. In many circumstances, the appointment time is not when the parents show up. Teachers repeat generic information at each conference. This type of conferencing tends to be threatening for most parents.To incorporate the concept of collectivism, I redesigned my parent conferencing into group conferences. For families who couldn't attend, I arranged a separate time. I divided my children by ability levels and language into one English-speaking group and two Spanish-speaking groups. My paraprofessional translated for the Spanish language groups. I prepared the children for their part in the conferencing by role playing the student and parent parts during the previous week.Most of the parents arrived on time and sat with me in a circle. The children presented their parents, mostly mothers, with a folder that contained test scores, their report card, a parents' tips list, and a hard-to-understand booklet for interpreting test scores. I explained the percentiles and stanines of the Stanford 9 or Aprenda and how the parents could use the results to know which academic areas are strong and which need improvement. I explained the report card format and the meaning of the marks and discussed my expectations for the next quarter. I also discussed what I could do to help students progress academically as well as how the parents could help at home.A comfortable and warm feeling came across during the conferencing. Many parents had questions that benefited the others. The children, once the group session was over, excitedly escorted their parents and siblings to their desks to share and discuss their portfolios. Thy took their parents on a tour of the room to show their displayed work.The group conferencing was relaxing for the parents. It was a less threatening environment than the individual conferencing style; parents supplied support and were company for one another. This format provided a group voice from the parents rather than an individual voice. After one hour, parents could sign up for a private conference or ask a few questions privately.My new format was successful. I saw all 28 parents in three days. The conference design impressed my principal, who asked me to lead a staff development program on the subject. I see this conferencing format as an evolving process.

Achieving Harmony

The Latino parents interpreted the teacher's ability to coordinate the group conference as a display of the social skills appropriate to her position as the leader of her classroom domain. From the parents' perspective, the teacher demonstrated that she could integrate a group of individuals into a harmonious multiparty interaction with explicit and common goals. At the same time, she let children play the role of active participants, a role valued by the school. Latino parents often value harmonious group interaction more highly than one-on-one interaction. In contrast, the individualistic worldview places high value on individual attention and privacy and sees one-on-one interaction as the ideal for social interaction; the social format of the standard parent-teacher conference reflects this value.

Initially, this teacher focused on the pragmatic difficulties of integrating different values into a parent-teacher conference, achieving the accomplishments she expected, and interpreting the parents' goals. Through the Bridging Cultures workshop process and through her own experimentation, she realized that she did not need to convert to someone else's cultural orientation to understand and accommodate that person's needs and perspectives. Goals that initially seemed incompatible became mutually reinforcing in her new group-conferencing format. She gave the parents of each group of similarly achieving students an overview of academic progression on the group level, without singling out individuals. She used a family process-parent-child communication-to present parents with their children's individual work. And she provided an opportunity for parent-teacher consultation on individual problems.

Most important, however, was the teacher's realization that including families' cultural perspective on social interaction could benefit students as well as herself. This process is not easy. To accept that one's own perceptions are not the only ones or even the better ones requires humility. These qualities can be threatening to people raised in a culture that places a high priority on building and protecting self-esteem.

One important outcome of the Bridging Cultures process was the participants' realization that, as educators, they function under the implicit assumptions of their own cultural framework. This step is necessary to build respect for differences and a sincere acknowledgment that diversity has value.

References

Reese, L., Balzano, S., Gallimore, R., &amp; Goldenberg, C. (1995). The concept of Educación: Latino family values and American schooling. International Journal of Educational Research, 23, 57-81.

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Bridging Cultures with a Parent-Teacher Conference - ASCD

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A Latina immigrant mother remembers a parent-teacher conference with her daughter's 1st grade teacher: I couldn't understand what the teacher was trying to communicate when she commented on my daughter's performance. I particularly recall two confusing comments that this teacher made: "Your daughter

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Guest commentator Elise Trumbull, EdD, an Independent Educational Consultant and co-creator of the Bridging Cultures Project, discusses the challenges of communicating with families from different cultural backgrounds. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, over one-third of students in Pre-K through grade 12 classrooms are from minority groups, and the families of an increasing number of students are immigrants, many with native languages other than English. However, many new teachers are unprepared to deal with the challenges of this diversity in their classrooms. Dr. Trumbull addresses these concerns and presents a framework to help teachers understand cultural patterns, as well as guidelines for cross-cultural parent-teacher conferences.
Communicating with parents from different cultural backgrounds presents challenges to teachers beyond common language issues. Communication is itself tied to culture. For instance, an immigrant Latina mother from rural Mexico may expect to intersperse personal talk with academic talk during a parent-teacher conference. She may be more comfortable with indirect questions than with direct inquiries about her goals for her child and perceptions of his development. The teacher, on the other hand, may view the conference as an opportunity to focus on a child's academic progress and gather information that will help that particular child to achieve further. She may regard social conversation, beyond a greeting, as a digression. In addition, the assumptions about child development and schooling that underpin the content of a conversation between parent and teacher may differ. The parent may be just as concerned about her child's proper behavior as she is about his test performance, whereas the teacher is focused primarily on academic development. Unfortunately, while all of these differences can come into play in a parent-teacher conference, they tend to remain invisible and may result in misunderstandings and discomfort.

These are some of the lessons of the Bridging Cultures Project and earlier research on which it was based. Through Bridging Cultures, professional researchers and teachers in Southern California explored ways to use cultural knowledge to improve schooling for the predominantly immigrant Latino students in the region's schools. Some of the very first changes in these teachers' beliefs and practices were in the realm of working with parents.

Using a Framework of Individualism and Collectivism

In the Bridging Cultures Project, we used the cultural framework of individualism and collectivism to understand contrasts in worldviews that can lead to conflicts between home and school. Schools in the United States are highly individualistic, reflecting the values of independence, individual achievement, interpersonal competition, self-reliance, and individual rights. Cognitive development is generally evaluated independently of social/moral development.

A contrasting set of collectivistic values, meanwhile, is common to many cultures throughout the world, including the majority of immigrants to the U.S., in addition to American Indians and African Americans. Collectivism is associated with the values of interdependence (particularly within the family), group well-being, respect for elders, personal modesty, helping, and sharing. Cognitive and social/moral development are seen as intertwined. Although access to formal education and urban living move people toward a more individualistic viewpoint, many collectivistic values tend to persist across generations.

It is important to note that this framework is a starting point for understanding cultural patterns, not a substitute for learning directly from people about their own worldviews.

Cross-Cultural Parent-Teacher Conferences: A Hotbed of Communication Issues

A conference can be considered cross-cultural even when teacher and parent are from the same ethnic background, because the teacher has likely internalized the values and beliefs associated with the mainstream culture through her own education process. Hence, miscommunication can occur between a Latino teacher and a Latino parent, based on both communication style and beliefs about child development and schooling. A parent may have the goal of rearing a respectful, modest child who is helpful at home and at school, while the teacher may envision an independent learner who is confident in expressing and supporting his or her opinions and achieves to high levels.

Consider the following vignette based on an actual videotaped parent-teacher conference about a fifth-grade girl named Carolina from an immigrant Latino family. Carolina's teacher, mother, father, and younger brother are at the conference.
Teacher: Carolina is doing great. She's doing beautifully in English and in reading. And in writing and in speaking.
Father: (Looks down at lap.)
Teacher: It's wonderful!
Father: (Turning to point to younger son) The same... this guy he...
Teacher: (Interrupting, with shrill tone.) Gooood!
Father: ...can write-
Teacher: (Cutting him off) He can write in English?
Father: Well, his name...(trailing off).
In this short exchange, several communication problems can be identified:

1. The father's lack of initial response suggests his discomfort with the effusive praise the teacher offers, which is not consonant with a value of modesty. He may prefer to hear how his daughter needs to improve rather than about her accomplishments (an inference validated later in the conference, when both father and mother become enthusiastic about helping the daughter improve her handwriting).

2. When the teacher continues with the praise of Carolina, the father attempts to draw his young son into the discussion. Whereas the teacher seems to find this inappropriate, he is likely acting on the value of family as a cohesive group. From his point of view, each child should be recognized as a contributing member of the family unit, and not so much as an individual. Singling out one child violates that value.

3. Neither the teacher nor the parent seems aware of the source of the conflict or how to repair the conversation.

Alternative Conference Formats and Communication Practices

Several of the Bridging Cultures teachers have found that a small-group parent-teacher conference format appeals to immigrant Latino parents. When one parent is willing to talk, others will often join in. And parents appear to be more comfortable talking about common problems and goals rather than singling out their individual children for discussion. One format that teachers decided against on the grounds of cultural incompatibility is the student-led conference. Putting students on the same footing as teacher and parents would violate role expectations. Latino parents are likely to believe that it is the teacher who should be in charge.

With the help of one of the researchers in the program (a Latina mother and teacher who grew up in Mexico), the teachers identified guidelines for entering into their cross-cultural conferences. Here are a few:

Begin with a personal exchange rather than launching into a formal progress report.

Allow the personal to be interspersed with the discussion of academics.

Show respect for the family, instead of only paying attention to the child who is the focus of the conference.

Use indirect questions or observations rather than questions to elicit information about the child at home (e.g., "Some parents prefer to have an older child help with homework..." rather than, "Do you or someone else help the child with her homework?")

Discuss the student's achievements in the context of the peer group of the classroom, suggesting how the individual student contributes to the well-being of all.

Explain the goals and expectations of the school and help parents find ways in which they are comfortable supporting their children's learning.

Create a sense of common purpose and caring through the use of the pronoun "we" rather than "you" and "I."

This resource is part of the March 2011 FINE Newsletter. The FINE Newsletter shares the newest and best family involvement research and resources from Harvard Family Research Project and other field leaders. To access the FINE Newsletter Archive, visit www.hfrp.org/FINENewsletter.

1. Bridging Cultures® is a registered trademark shared by WestEd (San Francisco) and the four founding researchers: Patricia M. Greenfield, Elise Trumbull, Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, and Blanca Quiroz. http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/pj/26
2. Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Greenfield, P. M., & Quiroz, B. (2001). Bridging cultures between home and school: A guide for teachers. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
3. Adapted from Greenfield, P. M., Quiroz, B., & Raeff, C. (2000). Cross-cultural conflict in the social construction of the child. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 87, 93-108.
4. Adapted from Trumbull, E., Greenfield, P. M., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Quiroz, B. (2007). Bridging cultures in parent conferences: Implications for school psychology. In G. Esquivel, E. Lopez, & S. Nahari (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural school psychology: An interdisciplinary approach (pp. 615-636). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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hfrp harvard family research project evaluation exchange family involvement school parent children

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early childhood education strategic partnership out-of-school complementary learning

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FINE Commentary: The Challenge of Cross-Cultural Family-School Communication

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Guest commentator Elise Trumbull, EdD, an Independent Educational Consultant and co-creator of the Bridging Cultures Project, discusses the challenges of communicating with families from different cultural backgrounds. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, over one-third of students in Pre-K through grade 12 classrooms are from minority groups, and the families of an increasing number of students are immigrants, many with native languages other than English.

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The Internet TESLJournal Yvonne Pratt-Johnson
prattjoy [at] stjohns.edu
St. John's University (Queens, New York, USA)

This article looks at the need for teachers to be culturally responsive and competent as schools and classrooms become increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse. It highlights five points of cultural difference with which all teachers should be aware when teaching students of diverse backgrounds.

Introduction

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing group of students in the United States today (Spellings, 2005). Today, one out of every nine students is learning English as a second language. That's about 5.4 million children-almost the population of Arizona, or Maryland, or Tennessee (Spellings, 2005). If this trend continues, current projections indicate that by the year 2030, 40% of all school-aged children in the United States will be speakers of a first language other than English (Duffey, 2004). Teacher demands and expectations today are far greater than they have ever been. But are classroom teachers adequately prepared to teach and interact with this culturally and linguistically diverse population? In classrooms where what is communicated, practiced, and perceived greatly affect and impact students, it is imperative that teachers learn how to effectively communicate cross-culturally in such diverse contexts.

If teachers are to become effective cross-cultural communicators, it is essential to understand the role that culture plays within the multi-cultural school setting. Lustig and Koester (2003) define culture as "a learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, and norms, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people." Similarly, Samovar and Porter (1991) explain culture as a medium that touches and alters all aspects of human life, including personality, how people express themselves (which includes displays of emotion), the way they think, how they move, and how problems are solved. Indeed, culture goes far beyond the climate, food, and clothing of a student's native country.

Culture, undoubtedly, is complex. It is multi-layered and multifaceted. Indeed, some have likened it to an iceberg of which only the top is visible while a massive part remains unobservable below the surface of the water. Others have compared culture to an onion with its many layers (Hofstede, 1991). As one layer is peeled, another layer lies beneath, waiting to be discovered. Both metaphors powerfully address the complexity of culture. In these complexities lies the challenge that teachers of ELLs face.

Cultural Competence in the Classroom

Competence in cross-cultural communication requires diving below the surface to see the rest of the iceberg, and it involves onion peeling, too: acquiring a corpus of deeper cultural information that might affect how a teacher instructs and how a student learns. While the iceberg and onion metaphors speak to the complex nature of culture, they also evoke an array of feelings. Running into an iceberg can cause an unexpected jolt, and an onion, as it is peeled, can cause the eyes to tear; likewise--to go from metaphor to analogy--the process of becoming culturally competent also comes with new challenges and experiences that might, initially at least, surprise, shock, or even offend. In the classroom, being culturally competent also involves an understanding of how cultures differ under the surface and how cultures respond differently to similar situations.

Acquiring cultural competence is a gradual process. It is achieved only after many observations, experiences, and interactions in the classroom and playground, with parents and with peers. However, the process can begin with the knowledge and understanding of six basic cultural differences that teachers are likely to encounter in the culturally diverse classroom. Familiarity with these differences will begin to aid teachers in understanding the complexity of teaching diverse groups of students.

1. Ways of Knowing

How do cultures come to acquire information? In some cultures, information is gathered through intensive research in libraries and on the Internet--for example, in the United States. These cultures appreciate evidence that can be measured and documented through such media.

On the other hand, other cultures acquire information through "non-academic" sources--for example, through elders, nature, spirits, or symbols. Some cultures do not have the same quantity and quality of experience with books or similar forms of research. These cultures may place greater value on information and knowledge acquired through oral tradition.

2. Ways of Solving Problems

Cultures have different ways of solving problems. It is surprising that given the same set of problems and circumstances, cultures can arrive at very different solutions. Cultures reason differently and arrive at solutions based on their distinctive values, philosophy and beliefs. One example is the variety of responses that members of different cultures provide to the following question:

Suppose you are on a boat with your mother, your spouse and your child. Suddenly, the boat begins to sink. You determine that you can only save one of the other passengers. Whom do you save?

According to survey results, 60% of Americans save their spouse, 40% save their children. The reasons typically offered run along these lines:

Save Spouse: "My spouse is my partner for life and I can have more children.";

Save Child: "Children represent the future, so it is vital to protect them first. Probably, my spouse would support this decision."

However, among Asian cultures, or Americans of recent Asian descent, nearly 100% of respondents state that they would save the mother. The rationale I have heard offered is this:

Save Mother: "My mother gave me life; I owe her my life. I can marry again; I can have more children, but I cannot replace my mother or otherwise repay the debt I owe her." (Texin, 2002).

3. Ways of Communicating Non-verbally

Cultures have different ways of communicating non-verbally, and it is crucial for teachers to be aware of these differences. In a class that is culturally diverse, any or all of the following might be observed in the classroom: children who will not make direct eye contact when talking to a teacher, because to do so would show lack of respect in their culture; children who smile not because they are happy but because they are embarrassed or do not understand and are afraid to ask questions; others who rarely smile, such as students from Korea: "In Korean culture, smiling signals shallowness and thoughtlessness. The Korean attitude toward smiling is expressed in the proverb, 'the man who smiles a lot is not a real man'" (Dresser, 1996).

When teachers begin to recognize that cultures have different ways of communicating non-verbally, they will understand their ELL students better and be less likely to be offended or to misinterpret non-verbal clues to emotional, cognitive, or attitudinal states.

4. Ways of Learning

Generally speaking, different cultures also learn in different ways. In the United States students often work in groups and do collaborative activities in which they learn from one another. Classrooms in such cases can be student-centered, with the teacher as facilitator. In some cultures, however, the teacher is always the center of class activities, the sole authority figure. Sometimes, students do not even dare to ask questions, as to do so would challenge the teacher's authority. There are no collaborative activities in such classrooms, and students are required to memorize pages and pages of information that they subsequently restate on written tests.

5. Ways of Dealing with Conflict

Conflict is a fact of life. It is in observing how people deal with and react to conflicts that we see clear differences between cultures. Some cultures view conflict as a positive thing, while others view it as something to be avoided. In the United States, conflict is not usually desirable; nonetheless, conventional wisdom in this country encourages individuals to deal directly with conflicts when they do arise. In fact, face-to-face encounters are usually suggested as the way to work through whatever problems exist.

By contrast, in many Asian countries, open conflict is experienced as embarrassing or demeaning. As a rule, these cultures hold that differences are best worked out quietly. Thus, written exchanges might be preferred over face-to-face encounters as a means of conflict resolution (Dupraw and Axner, 1997).

6. Ways of Using Symbols

In the multicultural school setting, symbols that are unique to various cultures should be correctly understood and interpreted. Otherwise, problems can arise. One case in point occurred in an elementary school in New York City. A math teacher asked her students to embellish their math portfolios by drawing pictures to accompany them. She was incensed when she saw her young student from India drawing what she thought was a swastika. Furious, she took the student's "artwork" and ripped it in half in front of the whole class! Subsequently, she learned from another teacher at the school, a Hindu, that what had looked to her like a swastika was actually a sacred symbol of wisdom that Hindus throughout the world have used for thousands of years!

Discussion

The changing demographics of classrooms in the United States make it incumbent upon us as teachers to know our students' cultures. In order to improve our cross-cultural interactions, teachers must learn not just the basic facts but even important nuances of their students' cultures (Hodgkinson, 1991). There are many challenges in achieving cross-cultural communication. However, the more teachers learn about their students of diverse backgrounds, the better they become as cross-cultural communicators and the more likely they will be to contribute to optimal student learning outcomes. Banks concurs: "If teachers are to increase learning opportunities for all students, they must be knowledgeable about the social and cultural contexts of teaching and learning" (Banks et al., 2001).

Yet cultural contexts are not easy to understand. In fact, such an understanding can often be reached only if teachers begin by practicing cross-cultural communication. The following are suggestions that teachers might find useful in increasing their competence in cross-cultural communication, thus allowing them to learn from culturally diverse members of the school community:

Build relationships with students and their parents -- Relationships built on trust go a long way. Students must feel that they belong and are accepted. Politeness, friendliness, kindness, fairness, respect and empathy are important factors in establishing a sound teacher-student relationship.

Listen empathetically -- Teachers must listen actively and carefully to their students, putting themselves in their students' places and learning to read between cultural lines. Teachers might also listen to their students' conversations with their classmates. The things they talk about and ask teachers to discuss and explain are the areas that concern them the most.

Look for cultural interpreters in school or in the community who can serve as resources in assisting teachers to add to their cultural funds of knowledge. Teachers can ask such interpreters cultural questions and share with them their cultural concerns.

Take advantage of available resources: books, articles, films, music, audio recordings, and a variety of material from the Internet that might aid teachers in learning more about their students' cultures.

Conclusion

In the United States, with so much cultural mixing, teachers no longer have a choice as to whether they want to interact with diversity or not. They must become cross-culturally competent. To become cross-culturally competent in the classroom teachers must understand important ways in which cultures differ and how this affects the ways in which their students behave. Through studying the cultural backgrounds of their students, teachers can learn to avoid some of the problems that surface each day.

Living in a global society, teachers are called upon to instruct and work with students with very different ethnicities and beliefs from those to which they have been accustomed. Therefore, it is vital that teachers continuously educate themselves, discovering all that they can about their students and their backgrounds. In the process of developing their cultural knowledge and cross-cultural communication skills, the five cross-cultural points of comparison and the techniques for expanding cultural knowledge discussed above can provide important guidelines for teachers. Ultimately, such an approach should help teachers to understand and respect diverse students and to guide these students more effectively toward academic and personal success and fulfillment.

References

Banks, J. A., Cookson, P., Gay, G., Hawley, W. D., Irvine, J. J., Nieto, S., et al. (2001). Diversity within unity: Essential principles for teaching and learning in a multicultural society. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(3), 196-202.

Dreser, Norine (1996). Multicultural matters. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Duffey, A. (2004). The bilingual classroom. Retrieved September 15, 2005, from http://www.64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:ePOSInl4cncJ:www.ecbea.org/publications/bilingual

Dupraw, M. and Axner, M. (1997)
http://www.wwcd.org/action/ampu/crosscult.html

Hofstede, G. (1991). Culture and organizations. Software of the mind. London, UK: McGraw Hill.

Lustig, M. W., and Koester, J. (2003). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Samovar, L.A., and Porter, R. E. (1991). Communication between cultures. California: Wadsworth.

Spellings, Margaret. "From Essential Elements to Effective Practice." Address at the fourth annual "Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit" sponsored by the Department's Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA). Washington, D.C. 1 Dec. 2005. http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2005/12/12012005.html

Texin, T. (2002). Survey: Who Do You Save? Retrieved: November 9, 2005. http://www.i18nguy.com/adventures/whotosave.html

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XII, No. 2, February 2006
http://iteslj.org/ http://iteslj.org/Articles/Pratt-Johnson-CrossCultural.html

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Communicating Cross-Culturally: What Teachers Should Know

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How teachers can be more culturally responsive and competent in the classroom. Not only ESL teachers, but all teachers can benefit from reading this article.

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6 Ways Teachers Can Foster Cultural Awareness in the Classroom (Opinion)

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Schools that acknowledge the diversity of their student population understand the importance of promoting cultural awareness.

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Importance of Cultural Awareness for Educators

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Cultural awareness is fundamental to providing an equitable learning environment for all students.

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When teaching a foreign language, it's natural to introduce your students to the rich culture that accompanies that language. But how natural is it for you to introduce other cultures when teaching subjects such as social studies, science, language arts, or art?

A multicultural classroom is a huge benefit for students because it promotes critical thinking, helps to prevent prejudice, and more. Unfortunately, not all students get that kind of exposure, and that begs the question: How can teachers better create cultural awareness in the classroom?

This guide looks at practical ways in which you can expose your students to a host of different cultures right in your very own classroom.

Items you will need from various cultures:

Books

Movies with subtitles

Artwork, flags, and other representative items

Music

Recipes

Step 1: Research Different Cultures

At the beginning of the school year, research the cultures of your students as well as cultures they won't have direct exposure to. This will help you find balance when planning your lessons and activities.

Step 2: Educate Yourself

The most important part of introducing another culture is having the facts. As a teacher, you should be able to engage with your students and answer questions they may have about the cultures being taught in the classroom. A great place to start is history.com.

Step 3: Music Hour

Choose an hour during the day when students are performing basic tasks and play music from a specific culture. Engage with students by asking them how the music sounds to them, what it reminds them of, and what they think the lyrics mean within the context of when and where it was created. Be sure to choose songs that have age-appropriate content.

Step 4: Cultural Corner

Create a cultural corner in the classroom! Decorate the corner with All Are Welcome multicultural classroom decorations. Each month, you can re-decorate this section based on a different cultural group. You can ask your students to bring items that represent that culture and showcase them in the display. These items could include flags, books, magazines, artwork, toys, instruments, dictionaries, and more.

Step 5: Flavorful Cook-Off

Another great activity to help strengthen cultural awareness in the classroom is a cook-off. At the end of the year, you could ask students to prepare a dish at home from one of the cultures you studied. Let them know that they'll share the food with the rest of the class.

To keep it simple, choose basic dishes from each culture and provide students with recipes to follow. Ask the students to present some facts about the culture when they bring in their dishes, then have the rest of the class ask questions and talk about the flavors they taste in the food.

Before beginning any food activity, ask families' permission and inquire about students' food allergies and religious or other food restrictions.

Step 6: Real-Life Story Time

Take your cultural history lesson to the next level by sharing a real-life story of an individual from the time period you wish to highlight. You can do this in two ways:

Read a story from a biography or an online publication. The story should be interesting and include many references to the person's specific culture and customs.

Give your students the chance to tell stories about people from different cultures. Students can choose someone from their families or someone they've studied for homework.

Step 7: Who Am I? Poems

If you teach middle-school students who are a bit older, you can instruct them to write a poem that explains how they identify with being from a certain culture. Even if you don't have a diverse class it will be educational and interesting to see how your students perceive their own cultural ideals, standards, and customs.

Creating cultural awareness is of the utmost importance in our increasingly diverse world. It's important to teach our youth how to not only live in but also support a society that welcomes the rich knowledge and perspective that comes with learning about different cultures.

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7 Ways to Create Cultural Awareness in the Classroom

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When teaching a foreign language, it's natural to introduce your students to the rich culture that accompanies that language. But how natural is it for you to introduce other cultures when teaching subjects such as social studies, science, language arts, or art?

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Creating a Culturally Responsive Classroom

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A friend of mine recently told me about an incident involving students at Berkeley High School. On the first day of classes, African-American juniors and seniors were being asked by their honors course teacher to show him their schedule when they entered the classroom. The teacher, who was white, apparently assumed the black students were lost and in the wrong room, and his gesture made them feel unwelcome and humiliated.

This is an example of implicit bias-a behavior that arises from subconscious associations, which may even contradict someone's explicit values. Implicit racial bias plays a role in many classrooms and schools with potentially devastating effects. In one recent experiment with preschool teachers, researchers found that when teachers were primed to look for behavioral problems while watching a classroom video with black and white children (none of whom were misbehaving), teachers gazed much longer at black children than white children, as if anticipating the behavioral problems would come from the black children.

In another experiment from the same study, teachers read a vignette about a behavioral problem with a preschooler randomly identified as a black boy, black girl, white boy, or white girl, and then were given details about the child's background or not. Providing the background information on the child increased the severity of suggested disciplinary actions when the race of the teacher didn't match that of the child, supporting the idea that we are more inclined to punish those who look different from us.

In fact, disciplinary actions are more likely to be perpetuated against African Americans-boys and girls alike-than any other group of students, regardless of the infraction. And while it's understandable that teachers would want to prevent disruptions in the classrooms and take actions to avoid them, some seem to have little idea of how to do that without turning to ingrained biases.

Of course, teachers are not alone in having racial biases. Their behavior reflects how social messages are hard to escape, even for people of color. But studies like these show how racial disparities can be perpetuated in classrooms, too. If left unchecked, this kind of biased treatment can haunt a student well into elementary school and beyond, making the promise of "schools as the great social equalizers" a false one.

The good news is that teachers can learn to combat their prejudice, even the implicit kind, if they become more aware of it and take steps to actively fight it in themselves. Here are some of the ways that might help educators treat all of their students with dignity and care.

1. Cultivate awareness of their biases

Teachers are human and therefore influenced by psychological biases, like the fundamental attribution error, when we assume that others who behave in a certain way do so because of their character (a fixed trait) rather than in response to environmental circumstances. In-group bias leads us to assign positive characteristics and motivations to people who are similar to us.

Biases like these are natural, used as cognitive shorthand for making quick social judgments in ambiguous situations, especially those involving people from unfamiliar ethnic or social groups. They become a problem when we're not aware of their impact on other people. And if we're part of a majority group with more social, economic, or political power than a minority one, then accumulated unconscious bias can be extremely destructive, limiting the life opportunities and hurting the well-being of the minority group.

Many researchers believe that becoming more aware of our biases can help us improve our interactions with others, decrease our sense of unease in interracial contexts, and make better decisions. Though most of this research has been done with other professional groups or the general public, the same lessons are likely to apply to teachers.

However, many teachers feel pressures not to cop to those biases, perhaps out of fear they will be accused of racism. This leaves them blind to the ways that biases work at an unconscious level. Pretending to be colorblind is not helpful and in fact adhering to a color-blind philosophy has been shown to increase implicit bias, at least in college students. Admitting that we are all subject to biases creates a safer space to examine them more carefully and to take steps to fight them.

2. Work to increase empathy and empathic communication

Empathy -the ability to understand another's perspective and emotions-is important in all human social encounters, including teaching. Yet, often teachers have little understanding of the communities where their students live and have trouble understanding their perspectives, leading them to treat these students more harshly.

One solution: learning about the lives of students and showing that you care. At least one study has found that actively trying to take the perspective of another person-as opposed to trying to be "objective"-increased one's ability to not fall prey to stereotypical views of others. Actively inducing empathy for another person has been tied to a willingness to consider environmental circumstances more closely when handing out punishments for misbehavior. And, one recent study has found that training teachers in empathy cut down student suspension rates in half.

Though perhaps more research has been done on empathy in other professionals (such as physicians and police officers), teachers may want to take note of the ways that they have learned to increase their empathy through a combination of stress reduction, learning how to manage difficult emotions, and practicing empathic communication. Treating students with kindness and consideration is a sure way to bring out kindness in them, too.

3. Practice mindfulness and loving-kindness

Mindfulness practices-such as paying attention in a nonjudgmental way to one's breath or other sensations-has been shown to decrease stress in teachers, which can indirectly have an effect on reducing bias. But according to some research, mindfulness may also have a direct effect on bias reduction as well.

In one study, young white participants who listened to a 10-minute audiotape with instructions in mindfulness showed less implicit bias towards blacks and older people than those who listened to a 10-minute discussion of nature. This suggests that nonjudgmental awareness, even when not specifically focused on reducing prejudice, can help reduce unconscious biases.

Loving-kindness meditation-a practice that involves consciously sending out compassionate thoughts toward others-may also help. In a recent study, the random assignment of a short-term loving-kindness meditation reduced implicit bias toward a targeted group, though it didn't decrease implicit bias for other groups not targeted by the meditation.

4. Develop cross-group friendships in their own lives

While it's important to take steps in the classroom, the relationships we form outside of the classroom can also have an impact on bias.

Cross-group friendships have been shown in several studies to decrease stress in intergroup situations, to decrease prejudice toward outgroup members, and to decrease one's preference for social hierarchy or domination over lower-status groups. These findings alone might encourage teachers to seek out cross-group friendships in their lives so that they can be more receptive to the diverse students they find in their classrooms.

Another reason for teachers to consider developing cross-group friendships is that they may influence their students to do the same. When people see cross-group friendships working out in positive ways, they tend to be more willing to engage in cross-group friendships themselves.

In addition, positive cross-group friendships can have contagion effects in other people within social groups, turning whole communities into warmer, more receptive spaces for cross-group interactions. All of this bodes well for teachers role-modeling the kind of behavior they want to see in their students.

Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean teachers should indiscriminately approach someone just because they are from a different racial group. Instead, teachers can reach out to colleagues at work, or get involved in activities or perhaps attend events where people with different backgrounds and perspectives come together for a common cause. Developing friendships can be one of the best ways to break down barriers of prejudice, and it's more easily done when people have some common interests.

Is this a lot to ask, given all the burdens our society heaps on teachers? Perhaps. Teachers should get more support than they do, and, ideally, school districts should make reducing implicit bias a priority backed up with money, policy, and training. Individual teachers can only do so much.

Luckily, the teaching profession tends to attract altruists who want to teach in a way that helps their students. By working at countering implicit bias in themselves, they can truly make a difference in the lives of their students, making them feel safe, cared for, and welcome in the classroom.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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Four Ways Teachers Can Reduce Implicit Bias

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We're all subject to bias. Here are tips to help teachers treat all of their students with dignity and care.

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In June, a mathematics professor from a California community college unwittingly made national headlines after sending an email to a Vietnamese student asking her to "Anglicize" her legal name. He told her that the pronunciation of her given name sounded offensive, like "an insult in English." She refused, telling the professor that his request was discriminatory, but he repeated the request. Once administrators learned of the incident, Laney College put the professor on administrative leave.

While this example may be extreme, it illustrates one way that unconscious bias seeps into university classrooms, creating an uncomfortable environment for international students who already face a host of challenges when adapting to a new culture and an unfamiliar academic system.

Such expectations of conformity and attempts to suppress or alter cultural identity may interfere with international students' sense of belonging on campus, explains Christina Yao, PhD, assistant professor and coordinator of the Higher Education and Student Affairs Program at the University of South Carolina.

"The potential implications [of situations like this] could be feelings of alienation, or feelings of being [viewed as the] 'other,'" Yao says.

Recognizing Unconscious Bias

Unconscious, or implicit, biases are the attitudes, preferences, and assumptions that any person holds toward another individual or group of people. These beliefs-centered around a wide range of characteristics, from race, ethnicity, and gender to religion, speaking accent, physical appearance, and physical abilities-are formed from birth, outside of a person's awareness. However, they play a role in perceptions of and interactions with others.

Issues and perceptions around racism and unconscious bias affect international students studying in the United States, as well as those studying in other parts of the world-including U.S. students studying abroad. In the classroom, these biases can manifest in a number of ways:

A professor calling on certain students most frequently-for example, research shows a tendency by teachers at all levels to call primarily on white, male students

The readings and multimedia materials chosen for any given lesson not representing or reflecting the diversity of the classroom

A presumption that international students have expertise or an interest in issues related to their race, ethnicity, or home country

A tendency to equate lower proficiency in spoken English with poor writing skills

Initiating a discussion on a hot topic, such as racism in the United States, without realizing that international students in the classroom may not understand the historical and cultural circumstances linked to the issue

Faculty members are not the only ones who hold biases; students do as well. Yao points to research showing that non-native English speakers tend to be marginalized when it comes to group work, possibly because they struggle to comprehend or speak in an unfamiliar language or may not grasp the norms of peer collaboration.

Unconscious biases can hinder student recruitment, engagement, and success. In professional settings, it may stifle innovation or hinder efforts to diversify the leadership pipeline.

"If we're really trying to use education as a force for positive change, then we have to be constantly shifting and challenging ourselves to see the things we do that exclude or marginalize or devalue others," says David Wick, EdD, assistant professor with the MA program in international educational management at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. "The only way to do that is to begin dismantling our implicit biases."

Here are a few tips for identifying, acknowledging, and actively working to counter unconscious bias in the classroom.

1. Get real-and embrace discomfort.

Addressing unconscious bias starts with awareness and acknowledgment, says Holly Carter, PhD, associate professor of sociology and interim principal of Harlaxton College, which is part of the University of Evansville.

"First and foremost, we must be aware that these biases exist, [everyone has them], and they don't make you a bad person," she says. "Secondly, [we all] have to be willing to acknowledge the fact that they can have some interplay in our life. And then I think we have to be open to experienc[ing] things that will change that socialization."

By the nature of their profession, international educators likely are interested in learning about different cultures and people. They should take time to reflect on how personal belief systems develop and how a person's worldview impacts their interactions with people and places that are different.

"If we're really trying to use education as a force for positive change, then we have to be constantly shifting and challenging ourselves to see the things we do that exclude or marginalize or devalue others." -David Wick

Malaika Serrano, MA, vice president for diversity and inclusion at WorldStrides, has worked with students to boost self-awareness through a process of naming their "privileged" identities-characteristics that give a person an advantage over others-and "targeted" identities-those that can hold someone back. The exercise sparks open conversation about biases and strategies for change. "We just take a deep breath and then lean into the discomfort," Serrano says.

2. "Spend time with people who are not like yourself."

A longtime volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, Carter quotes fellow Habitat supporter President Jimmy Carter as frequently saying, "The most important thing you can do in this world is to spend time with people who are not like yourself." An openness to hearing other people's stories can foster a deeper understanding of the vast range of human experiences.

At the University of Evansville, the weekly I-House series gives students from different regions of the world an opportunity to share with the campus community about their customs, beliefs, and culture.

"Sometimes we dance, and sometimes we eat, but these opportunities have been valuable in helping us to understand people in a different way," Carter says.

Following months of highly publicized acts of violence against Black Americans, Serrano led "Listening Circles" for employees at WorldStrides to discuss the personal and community impact of this violence. Serrano facilitated respectful conversations around questions such as the following:

What is your understanding of recent events that have transpired?

How has this made you feel?

What is one thing you would like to learn about someone from another community?

3. Apply intercultural communication techniques.

Globalization is a force that has led to more frequent and powerful intercultural interactions, and navigating those interpersonal relationships is more complex than ever. With one of her colleagues, Kathryn Sorrells, PhD, communication studies professor at California State University-Northridge, developed the Intercultural Praxis as a guide for "critical, reflective thinking and acting" in the context of global engagement. The process involves several steps:

1. Inquiry: Ask questions to understand more deeply another person's beliefs, or ask ourselves how we learned to think a certain way. "Fundamentally, our assumptions come from unasked questions," Sorrells explains.

2. Framing: Look at issues from different perspectives. "We develop certain ways of seeing the world based on our cultural frames [gender, race, etc.]," Sorrells says. "[Become] aware of your cultural frames and then [learn] through practice how to expand those."

3. Positioning: Consider the access to power in any given situation, based on materialistic and/or symbolic circumstances.

4. Dialogue: Engage in conversation to build bridges of understanding, tolerance, and acceptance.

5. Reflection: Create a better understanding of ourselves and how we relate to others, as well as the willingness to change our perspectives and actions.

6. Action: Use what we learn about ourselves as motivation for doing our part to make the world more peaceful and just.

"We've used the model as a way to understand that people bring very different perspectives and frames and they're positioned differently," says Sorrells, "but how can we benefit from our differences?"

Be the Change

Even taking the smallest steps toward countering unconscious bias can make a big difference. Educators should learn to pronounce international students' given names, for example, and ask for their help when needed.

Wick uses a technique called Pair Share to expand equity in the classroom. The method enables each student to reflect on class topics with a partner, then each group shares their insights with the entire classroom.

"[It can be difficult] to get educators to become conscious enough to ask these kinds of questions and start challenging themselves. ... By asking the questions and putting it into a public forum, I model that I'm continuing to push myself and asking for that kind of feedback in front of other people." -Tasha Willis

"One of the benefits of this teaching technique is that it can change which voices are heard," Wick says. "The pair conversation makes it more likely that every person in the room has a chance to express their ideas."

Technology also can be used to expand equity, Wick says. For example, students can contribute ideas through platforms such as a Doodle poll or a Google Form, reducing the risk of feeling like their ideas are wrong or unpopular.

And though it is not always comfortable, international educators should be honest about their own unconscious biases-for their benefit and that of their students.

"[It can be difficult] to get educators to become conscious enough to ask these kinds of questions and start challenging themselves," says Tasha Willis, EdD, associate professor in the School of Social Work and faculty director for internationalization at California State University-Los Angeles.

"By asking the questions and putting it into a public forum, I model that I'm continuing to push myself and asking for that kind of feedback in front of other people," she says. "That helps humanize me to other people around me-faculty, staff, and students-and lets them know that this is just part of being human, and that we have all inherited the world as it is." *

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Strategies for Countering Unconscious Bias in the Classroom

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NAFSA: Association of International Educators is the world's largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education and exchange.

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The ultimate goal of education is to mold young people into well-rounded individuals. That often includes making sure that the teaching and learning process flows as smoothly as possible.

In theory, your role as a teacher is to plan and deliver your lessons, and everything will fall into place.

Unfortunately, theory doesn't always apply in the real world. Truth be told, getting children to settle down and behave as expected is often a job and a half.

That's where positive behavioral management strategies shine.

Let's talk about some behavior management strategies you can tap into to enhance student behavior and allow teaching and learning to proceed as planned.

1. Maintain a Routine

Having a set routine is an important behavior management tool that helps to establish guidelines and behavior expectations.

A routine ensures that students know what's coming next, so you'll spend less time giving out instructions-freeing up time to do the real work.

Include the students in establishing a class schedule that works for everyone and give them responsibility for some routine tasks.

Don't leave out the notoriously disruptive students in your schedule-more often, a sense of responsibility can help reduce behavior issues.

When a student starts to slide out of your planned routine, use non-verbal cues like hand gestures to remind students of what they should be doing. Avoid verbal cues to keep the lesson flow uninterrupted.

2. Set Rules Together With Students

Just like a routine, rules help improve student behavior. However, if the classroom teachers set the rules themselves, the class may reject them.

That's why it's important to have an audience with your class to help set the rules.

When children take ownership of the rules, peer pressure works in your favor to enforce them and improve behavior management.

Also, have a guideline for how infractions will be dealt with. These guidelines help remove the feeling of being punished, so students will know what to expect when they're called out about their behavior.

Remember to enforce the guidelines impartially and consistently. If you slack on the enforcement even once, you create a loophole that everyone will want to take advantage of.

It's also important to remember not to discipline the whole class for one student's infractions. For example, disrupting class proceedings to deal with one student. This will likely alienate the whole class, who will feel wrongfully punished.

3. Create Stimulating Lessons

Imagine sitting through a meeting where the facilitator drones on for hours on end. You will probably start fiddling with your keys or just zone out right in the middle of it.

That's exactly how students feel when lessons aren't exciting. Monotonous classes are sure to bring out the worst in your students. To get rid of bad behavior, make your class activities as exciting and stimulating as possible.

Structure your activities to engage and involve your learners throughout the lesson. Strive to allow your students to uncover knowledge with practical activities.

Most importantly, vary your teaching methods, use plenty of aids, and make the work as interactive and fun as you can.

You can draw the attention of younger students by incorporating games and using plenty of actions in your learning time. With older students, try to stay relatable, for example, by referencing modern music or movies.

4. Use Positive Language

Negative language has a way of reinforcing the wrong behavior. Typically, kids like to do what they are told not to do. So, rather than create a vicious cycle of behavior challenges, use positive language.

For example, instead of saying, "Stop throwing those paper airplanes," you can say instead, "Can we all focus and pay attention, please."

Positive language makes the students feel respected, leading to better behavior.

Plus, positive language will encourage the kids to start speaking positively. For example, instead of saying, "This work is too hard for me," they will begin to say, "I can try my best."

It's also important to keep your body language positive. Smile more and frown less often. Model the behavior you want to see in your students. Studies have shown that students learn from the language and behavior that educators display.

Some of the outcomes of positive language approaches include:

A safe learning environment

A sense of responsibility

Self-discipline

Self-motivation

5. Develop a Relationship With Your Students

Get to know your students individually. Take time to find out their interests and dislikes. If your lessons are centered around what the learners like, you will find it easier to keep them engaged.

Also, knowing your students will help you identify some triggers for behavioral problems. For example, if a student suddenly starts lashing out and talking over you in a lesson, they may be going through some personal problems at home or facing issues like bullying at school.

If you know a bit about the child, you may be able to figure out the root of the problem. Instead of punishing the bad behavior, you can talk to the student or point them in the direction of help; for example, get them to see the school counselor.

One way of developing a good relationship with your class is by speaking positively about them to their parents and administrators.

Use notes and calls to update their parents on their positive behavioral changes. Or have the principal or a senior administrator drop in to commend their good behavior. Your students are more likely to feel like you are looking out for them and continue to improve.

6. Adjust Your Scoring Methods

Getting an "F" on an assignment is demoralizing. Typically, students who get poor marks are disruptive in class and deliberately fall short of behavior expectations to deflect from the real issue.

If you are dealing with a similar scenario in your class, use a less standard scoring method for grading classwork.

For example, instead of grading a paper with a specific score, simply put check marks where they got it right and point out areas of improvement. This unconventional grading can help reduce the overwhelming feeling of poor grades.

You may also turn it into a game. Use points to grade papers and give some rewards when a student reaches a specific number of points. Treating scores like a fun game helps motivate students to focus and improve their scores.

Developing a Positive Behavior Management System for Your School

Many years ago, the trusted classroom management approach was authoritarian. Teachers routinely meted out punishment or used stern warnings to keep the class in line. However, this method has been proven to have many shortcomings.

For one, it breeds an atmosphere of fear, hindering kids from making progress in their studies. Secondly, studies have shown negative long-term effects like behavioral problems, low self-esteem, or depression.

That's why turning to positive behavior management techniques is critical. Positive behavior focuses on understanding your students, becoming a role model, and promoting wholesome behavioral development.

Imagine this scenario: a child is hanging from a tree cursing at his grandma, refusing to get into school. The principal's office is bursting at the seams with pupils in trouble for one infraction or the other, and it's not even time for recess yet!
Sounds incredible?
That's what Dr. Michael Perry had to deal with in his first year as principal at Critzer Elementary in Virginia.

But then, Positive Action came to his aid with a curriculum designed to instill positive behavioral change, plus training for educators in using positive behavioral management in the classroom.

The result was a phenomenal decrease in behavioral problems, safe classrooms, and thriving learners.
"Four years later, Critzer is profoundly transformed. The school is fully accredited, meeting and exceeding federal, state, and local standards. It ranks among the highest academic performing schools in its district, and halfway through this year there have only been two suspensions."
If you're facing behavioral problems in your school, turn to Positive Action.

Positive Action offers a full curriculum package, counselor kits, and school climate kits designed to help teachers, students, and school leaders to implement positive behavior management systems.

For a comprehensive turnaround of your school, contact Positive Action today.

Positive Action's programs are tried and tested.

Most importantly, all packages are engaging, easy to use, and set to transform the classroom and school environment to help shape your learners into well-behaved positive thinkers, and well-adjusted individuals.

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6 Behavior Management Strategies for Your Classroom in 2023

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Get ahead of the game with these upcoming trends and strategies for classroom behavior management. Learn to tackle the challenge of social awareness head-on and make your students thrive!

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In the 18 years I've been teaching, I've tried all sorts of behavior management systems. I've had the kids pull cards. I've tried the marbles in a jar. One year I even gave my students tickets for good behavior and excellent participation. Another year, I awarded table points. I've even used an economy system where my kiddos earned money and then spent it all in a class store buying trinkets. I was always looking for that PERFECT SYSTEM! The one that would work like a charm with every single child.

After years of research in my own classroom, you know what I finally discovered? I've finally realized that THE PERFECT CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DOES NOT EXIST!!!!!

What works one year and with one group of students, might not work the following. Another thing I've learned is that you need to find a system that WORKS.FOR.YOU. If you don't have much time left at the end of the week to run a class store, then do it! Be honest with yourself and how much time you're willing to invest.

It's important to choose a system that fits with your teaching style and with the needs of your students. It should be a system that both you and your students will enjoy. You definitely don't want to pick a system that is absolute torture for you. You also don't want a system that's going to seem like work. We have enough work on our hands, and a classroom management system shouldn't be adding to that pile.

For the past few years I've used BAM's in my classroom with much success. My students seem to love them, my parents tell me that their children can't stop talking about them, and former students ask me if I'm still using them. Needless to say, as long as BAM's continue to motivate my kiddos, I'm going to keep using them.

What Are BAM's

A BAM is a fuzzy, colored pom pom that students are able to earn and trade in for tokens. In our classroom, the word BAM stands for students caught Being AMazing! We have LITTLE BAMS... and BIG BAMS. Big BAMs are worth 3 of the little ones and they are hard to come by. That's why whenever a student earns one, it's a B-I-G D-E-A-L

Where Do Students Keep Their BAMs

Students store their BAMs right on top of their desks inside of small containers that I usually find at the Dollar Tree. One year I used colorful plastic baby food jars like the pink one in the picture below. Another year I used clear containers with colorful lids. They were meant to store paint and had a white insert that the kids could open to drop their BAMs inside. The children really LOVED those containers. I usually look for something small, colorful, and cheap that will last the entire year. The kiddos treat their BAM containers like gold.

How Do The BAMs Stay Put

I attach each BAM container to the top right or left of each student's desk with a small velcro dot. The velcro makes it quick and easy to remove when needed. At the beginning of the year, we set a few ground rules so the children don't spend the entire day removing and replacing their containers from their desks. They also NEVER go home! They must always stay in the classroom and on each student's desk. Another rule is that you're only allowed to touch your own container.

How Are BAMs Earned

BAMs can be earned for just about anything. The point is to motivate students! If you give students a list of what will earn them a BAM than that's all they're going to do. They're not going to go out of their way to do something special. So instead I just tell my students that I'm always on the look out for AMAZING BEHAVIOR and AMAZING PARTICIPATION. That's how you earn BAMs.

Sometimes I'll award a student a BAM even though they may have answered a question incorrectly. Perhaps they took a risk in answering when no one else dared to raise their hand. Or perhaps a student helped a classmate with a difficult math problem without being asked to. The point is, that you want children being AMAZING ALL THE TIME!

Here's a list of some of the more common ways students can earn BAMS:

class participation

random acts of kindness such as helping a fellow classmate without being asked to do so

returning weekly work folders on time

recalling information that was learned in a previous lesson

excellent classroom behavior when a guest enters the room. (If it's someone REALLY important and the entire class does AMAZING, then I'll even award them a BIG Bam!)

working/sitting quietly when the classroom phone rings

excellent cafeteria, hallway, library behavior

well thought out answer to a challenging question

excellent effort

fantastic teamwork

honesty (If a student finds a BAM on the floor and turns it in, I'll usually reward them with a BAM)

As you can see, you can pretty much hand them out whenever you want. And because they are so small, you can have a few in your pocket or in your hands and award them in random places throughout the day. If I ever notice that my student's hallway behavior is slipping, I simply grab a few BAMS in the palm of my hand and let the kiddos know that I'm on the lookout for some AMAZING BEHAVIOR. I wish you could see their reactions... BAMs are like gold nuggets in my room!

In another post, I'll tell you all about how we trade in our BAMs for tokens...

If you've been struggling with behavior in your classroom or are in need of a change, I hope this post gives you a few fresh ideas to try out!

Do you have a few tips and strategies of your own that you've learned along the way? If so, I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

A third-grade teacher with a passion for creating time-saving classroom resources. She enjoys sharing her attempt to juggle it all... grading papers, lesson planning, student referrals, parent communication, test prep, and so much more all while managing a busy home life with two active teens.

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BAM's: Classroom Management System - More Time 2 Teach

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In the 18 years I've been teaching, I've tried all sorts of behavior management systems. I've had the kids pull cards. I've tried the marbles in a jar. One year I even gave my students tickets for good behavior and excellent participation. Another year, I awarded table points.

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This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Any purchases made through one of our links earn us a small commission, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. All creative ideas and opinions expressed are purely my own. Read our full privacy policy and disclosure for more information.
As a teacher, you continually try to keep your students engaged and on-task. This list of classroom management strategies can help you accomplish this goal! Your classroom management strategy will encourage students to follow your classroom rules and behaviors, all while helping to keep them engaged and learning.
The Ultimate List of Classroom Management Strategies:

Tips from Dedicated Teachers

There are so many classroom management strategies out there, you simply need to know where to look. This list of classroom management strategies helps you get started as you develop a strategy that works for you and for your class. I interviewed over 300 teachers to find out their favorite tips and tricks for classroom management, and these are a huge chunk of their ideas. Here are some strategies you can start using right away, from games to prizes. And the best part about them is that they are all POSITIVE methods - perfect for positive classroom management.

List of Classroom Management Strategies for Whole Class or Small Groups

Small groups are great for classroom management. Not only do students enjoy working together in small groups, you also get the chance to observe students more closely. Whether it's for learning centers or a classroom lesson, this list of classroom management strategies can help you manage your small groups.

1. Class Meetings - Hosting a class meeting is the perfect way to start the school day, because it is an informal and unintimidating way to get important points across to students. The conversational style of a class meeting lends itself to open communication and supportive, encouraging talks about expected behavior and rewards/consequences.

2. Team Points - When your classroom is set up in small groups, give each group a chance to earn points when they complete an activity or exhibit a positive behavior. Your small groups will work hard to earn those points!

3. Table Wars - Similar to Team Points (above), use a little friendly competition to help manage your classroom. When your students are working in small groups, have them compete against one another, earning points for teamwork, staying focused, cleaning up supplies and more.

4. Team Names - Another great way to manage your small groups is to give your students a way to take ownership of those groups. Let them work together to come up with a team name.

Visual Classroom Management Strategies

When a student can see how they're doing, they're very likely to continue the positive behavior or to change the unwanted behavior. Visuals are perfect for this. Whether it's a clip on a chart, a color-coded card, or a countdown clock for an activity, visuals give students the opportunity to gauge their behavior at a glance and make positive adjustments.

1. Class Dojo - Class Dojo is an online student behavior tracker that is perfect for classroom management. You can display Class Dojo on your smart board, using it to give students rewards and tokens. You can even use it to communicate with parents!

2. Sticker Charts - Sticker charts also help students visually gauge their behavior. Students will love working towards a prize or goal as they fill up their sticker charts.

3. Yacker Tracker - When students are working in small groups, you can use a yacker tracker to show students if their voice levels are appropriate. A red light would warn students to quiet down, while a green light will encourage them to continue their behaviors.

4. Color-coded Cards - Instead of using a clip chart, you can also use color cards to help students track their behavior. Students can flip their cards to a different color based on their behavior.

5. Behavior Punch Cards - While your students are working independently or in small groups, walk around with a fun-shaped hole punch and punch their behavior cards when you noticed positive behavior.

6. Gold Tags - When you notice a student following classroom rules or complete an activity, give them a gold tag. Gold tags can be exchanged for a classroom prize at the end of the day or week.

7. Countdown Clock - If students know when to expect an activity to end, they can make sure they complete all of their learning goals before the time is up. That's why a countdown clock is perfect for your classroom.

8. Fill A Jar - Every time an individual student, table group, or the whole class does something positive, you can add an item to your jar. It can be anything, from pom-poms to rocks or marbles.

Verbal Classroom Management Strategies

Your voice is a powerful tool when it comes to classroom management. This list of classroom management strategies focuses on verbal cues and transitions you can use to keep your students organized and ready.

1. Callbacks - Callbacks are a great way for you to get your students' attention and give them instructions for the next activity. Callbacks can be anything, from saying "Class, class" and having your students answer back with "yes, yes" to saying "1-2-3, eyes on me." Find a callback that works for your class and make the most of it!

2. Shushing Pattern - Words aren't the only thing you can use to get your students' attention. You can also make a shushing pattern and have your students shush it back to you.

3. Classroom Transition Songs - When it's time to move on to the next thing, get students moving with a transition song. You can come up with your own transition song or chant, or you can easily find a class favorite online.

4. Line Up Chants - A chant can also be used to get your students lined up for leaving the classroom. Not only will this get students in line faster, eliminating long transition times, it will also keep them focused and on good behavior as you take them into the hallway.

Non-Verbal Classroom Management Strategies

There are also plenty of non-verbal ways for you to keep your classroom under control. This list of classroom management strategies gives you a way to keep your students on task and learning.

1. Raise Your Hand - If it's time for your students to transition to another activity or to simply work more quietly, then simply raise your hand and wait for students to quiet down and raise their own hands.

2. Sign Language - When you're in the middle of an engaging lesson, the last thing you want to do is stop teaching the whole class to tell a student that they can grab a kleenex. That's why sign language can be such an important classroom management strategy. Teach students simple signs such as bathroom, tissue, sit, stand, or I have a question. This will eliminate plenty of interruptions!

3. Routines - Kids thrive on routine, which is why you should make routines a part of your classroom management strategy. Decide what works best for your class and use that throughout the year, remaining consistent with routines and expectations.

4. Proximity - If you have a student that is not on task, it's amazing how focused they can become as soon as you walk near them. Use your proximity to help manage students, encouraging them to be well-behaved and on task.

Classroom Management Games

Games are a great way to get students excited to learn! You can use these classroom management games to help encourage the behaviors you want and discourage the behaviors you don't want.

1. Porky the Pig Classroom Blurters - When you have a student that blurts, it's time to play the Porky the Pig game! Have a pig mounted on your whiteboard, along with a collection of coins attached to magnets. When a student blurts, they have to put a coin in Porky's mouth. At the end of the week, if Porky has collected too many coins, the class does not earn a reward. If they meat their goal, then the whole class can enjoy something fun.

2. Candy Land Behavior Game - Mount a candy land board for your class to see. Each student gets 5 moves a day, but can earn extra moves forward or backward based on behavior.

3. Kindness Chain - Challenge your class to build a kindness chain. Each time your students are kind or follow classroom expectations, they can fill out a paper link and add it to the chain. Once you reach a certain number of links or length, the whole class can earn a reward!

4. Brownie Points - Give your students a chance to earn brownie points! These points can be displayed on a baking sheet at the front of the room so that they can see how close they are to earning their classroom prize. The reward could be a brownie dessert!

5. Classroom Puzzle - Mount magnets to the back of each puzzle piece and then give your students a chance to earn those puzzle pieces throughout the day. At the end of the day or week, students can put the puzzle together on the dry erase board, displaying a beautiful picture that represents their classroom behavior.

Brain Breaks for Classroom Management

When students have been working hard on an intense lesson, a brain break can work wonders for your classroom management. Give students a constructive way to work out their energy, such as playing a moving game or fidgeting with a stress ball.

1. Go Noodle - Go Noodle is an online resource that is a must-have for any classroom. Simply play a fun video and watch as students dance, jiggle and wiggle their energy out. They'll be more prepared to learn after taking a Go Noodle Break

2. Fidget Toys - Some students need to fidget to help focus. Give students what they need by providing fidget toys, stress balls, or even notebooks to help keep them focused.

3. Calm Down Zone - Students also need a chance to calm down when they're upset or hyper. Create a safe zone for students to calm down, such as a corner of the room with a cozy chair. During a break, students can use this area to calm down and get focused until the next activity. Make a calm down kit with a few special items that a child can use when needed.

4. Brain Break Activities - Have a set of brain break cards ready with simple activities that kids can do easily and quickly when they need a break. Great for the whole class to get up and moving!

Prizes & Rewards for Classroom Management

You can use prizes and rewards to keep your students on their best behavior! In small groups or as a whole class, students can work towards a goal by demonstrating the desired classroom behavior. Here's a list of fun ways you can reward students for good behavior.

1. Prizes - Get some small prizes online or grab some items from a garage sale. Students will love earning little prizes.

2. Coupons - If you're looking for reward ideas that don't cost a thing, print off some coupons for students to earn. This can be anything, from picking their seat for the day or sitting by a friend.

3. Classroom Economy - Print some fake dollar bills and let students earn money to buy prizes. Not only is this a great classroom management skill, it also gives your students practice counting money, as well as spending it.

4. Raffles - You can also use raffle tickets for your classroom management strategy. Hand out tickets to students following directions and draw a few names at the end of the week. Whoever wins the raffle, will get a special prize.

5. Holiday-Themed Prizes - Students can be extra energetic before a holiday. Use that to your advantage and have a holiday-themed prize box. This can be anything, from a Boo Bucket for Halloween to a Pot of Gold for St. Patrick's Day.

6. Fun Friday - Another free prize your students can earn each week is Fun Friday. If students meet their class goal for behavior, you can save the last 20 minutes of class as their Fun Friday time. Students will be able to play educational board games, centers, iPad apps and more!

Parent Communication

Parent communication is an important piece of your classroom management strategy. Enlist parents' assistance by keeping them informed of their child's behavior, both positive and negative.

1. Positive Notes Home - When a student does an exceptional job, make sure you send a positive note home. This will endear yourself to the child's parents, letting them know that you love and care for their child. This will also make it easier to talk to the parents if you start to notice negative behavior.

2. Daily Folders - Use daily folders to communicate with parents. Each day, write a note to parents with the behaviors you've noticed, including both the good and the bad. Parents can also write back to you, keeping you informed of any personal issues that you should be aware of.

3. Thinking Sheet - When a student has displayed negative behavior multiple times, it's time to do a little bit of thinking. Send home a thinking sheet with the student, giving them a chance to reflect on what went wrong for the day. This will also make the parents' aware of any issues you've noticed.

A strong classroom management strategy is important for your students and for you, which is why this list of ideas is vital. Not only will classroom management help keep your students behaving, it will also keep them on-task and learning, a goal every teacher has!

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The Ultimate List of Classroom Management Strategies

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