A student teacher was having serious problems managing the behavior of her 10th grade math students. When her students were not working well in their collaborative learning groups, she'd often ask them, "Can't we all just get along?" She could not understand why the students laughed when she used this phrase. The students, of course, immediately recognized it as Rodney King's plea during the 1992 Los Angeles uprising. The line was later incorporated into a song, displayed on T-shirts, and chanted by students. One of her students remarked to this confused teacher, "It just cracks me up when you say that!" Nevertheless, she did not comprehend the impact of what she was saying until her university observer explained.
This incident illustrates the need for beginning teachers to understand two critical teaching behaviors: social insight and what has been called "withitness." Such awareness can be the critical element in establishing an effective learning environment.
Social Insight
Waller asserted that teachers must learn "an elusive something which it is difficult to put between the covers of a book or to work up into a lecture. That elusive something is social insight" (1967, p. 1 ). Social insight can be described as an understanding of what is taking place in the classroom. That sounds rather simplistic at first. Yet, to accomplish this effectively, the teacher must have a sense of the students' culture as well as an understanding of student behavior.
Hall (1981) examined eight elements of culture that he defined generally as (1) verbal language, (2) nonverbal communication, (3) culture in general, (4) world view, (5) behavioral style, (6) values, (7) methods of reasoning, and (8) cultural and ethnic identification. Pennington adds a few more characteristics of culture: beliefs/values, sense of time, religion, and social relationships/communication networks (1985, pp. 30 -39). Bennett notes that we often define culture as what shapes our thoughts and behavior. In line with this, multicultural education often concerns the development of multiple standards for perceiving, believing, doing, and evaluating (1990, p. 47).
These notions represent a sample of what some believe constitutes culture. The characteristics illustrate the fact that adolescent culture goes beyond ethnic or linguistic differences. Adolescents' speech patterns, popular music, styles of dress, favorite movies, and preferred places for recreation may either transcend or incorporate the political, religious, and social causes deemed important by adults. The requisite attribute is that adolescent culture belongs solely to the adolescent. Social insight is a vehicle that teachers can use to glimpse the meanings of the adolescent cultural milieu.
When a teacher lacks social insight, communication with students may be less effective, resulting in classroom management problems. In the case of the student teacher mentioned above, the students knew that their insults would not be understood. Their daily behavior continued to disintegrate, and after six weeks the student teacher's assignment had to be terminated.
Helping preservice or beginning teachers develop social insight remains a critical challenge for the teacher educator. Although it might at first appear to be relatively insignificant when compared to the myriad learning and teaching theories new teachers must master, adolescent social development should be of paramount concern if for no other reason than its relationship to managing a classroom effectively. Assuming the lesson is appealing, teachers whom adolescents perceive as successful socially seem to experience less difficulty capturing the interest of their students. Their classrooms run more smoothly. The teacher educator will find it difficult to help the student teacher who lacks this "understanding of the social situation of the classroom and the need to adapt his or her personality to the needs of that milieu" (Waller 1967, p. 1).
“Withitness”
Kounin (1993) introduces the term "withitness" in his discussion of classroom management (Charles 1989, p. 28). Teachers who demonstrate withitness understand the many behaviors taking place in the classroom and how to react appropriately. Kounin identifies two behaviors in particular that communicate to students that their teacher is aware of the classroom. The first is knowing who is causing a disturbance. Some students are brilliant at fomenting small classroom arguments and then fading into obscurity. Effective teachers learn their students' names and behavior patterns quickly. Second, withit teachers can handle more than one disturbance at a time and do so quickly. Beginning teachers too often focus on one disruption and miss the start of another. Students become adept at knowing when the teacher's attention is elsewhere and they may use the time for social interaction—chatting, flirting, making faces. Experienced teachers know this, address the behavior, and engender a modicum of respect by having "eyes in the back of their head."
Secondary students are particularly critical of any teacher who does not display social insight. The student teacher is especially fair game for the spunky adolescent and is a likely target of a certain degree of disdain and criticism. Thus, in a matter of days, the student teacher who lacks social insight and withitness can be reduced to emotional Jell-O.
A second anecdote involves a student teacher who was attempting to teach algebra to an uninterested group of 10th grade students. Solving for unknowns was not high on their list of priorities that day. Their questions began to veer from the mathematical to the personal: "Why do you perspire so much?" "Why does your shirt hang out?" "Why do you wear bow ties?" "Do you know what you are doing?" This student teacher had lost control of his class and had no clue about how to relate to 15-year-olds. The lesson here is that a teacher may have a thorough grasp of content, but without social insight, he or she will be perceived as being out of touch with what is happening in the students' culture. This particular teacher exacerbated the problem by displaying a seeming lack of withitness. He may actually have been conscious of the students' insults but took no action.
A final example is more encouraging. A student teacher was discussing a particularly complex topic in genetics with a 10th grade ESL (English as a Second Language) class. The students were struggling with the content but were focused intently on the student teacher. She radiated warmth and professionalism, and she used a popular video game as an example to help the students remember the structure of a gene. Everything about her, including her body language, verbal expression, and even eye contact, communicated sensitivity and empathy with her students. They recognized that she understood them; she had encountered the same feelings they were experiencing. The teacher was familiar with their culture, and this familiarity laid the groundwork for mutual respect. Students did not need to act out with her. Additionally, if any disruption occurred, she spotted it immediately and acted accordingly.
Acquiring Cultural Information
One of the teacher educator's goals is to expedite the development of classroom management skills. Expanding Waller's discussion of social insight to include Kounin's notion of withitness provides a useful tool for learning such skills. The teacher not only becomes aware of student behavior but understands what is current and meaningful in students' lives. I like to refer to the result as academic biculturalism. The withit and socially insightful teacher uses cultural information effectively.
The question of how to develop social insight and withitness was posed to a group of secondary student teachers in their weekly seminar. The instructor's goal was twofold. First, she wanted students to realize that some of them might lack social insight by the very fact of their inability to address the question. Second, students who displayed social insight had the opportunity to share their knowledge with their peers.
- Expose yourself to adolescent culture. As painful as it may seem, watching MTV, listening to current music, and attending popular movies can help provide a connection to what is current in students' lives. This does not require teachers to participate in the latest fashions. For example, having an eyebrow pierced will not endear an adult to young people and can actually alienate them. Adolescents need to distinguish themselves from the adults who nurture them. Teachers can appreciate adolescent culture without embracing it as their own.
- Affirm students' "weather." It can be helpful to express an understanding of why students have a high level of energy or are not interested in class on a particular day. For example, the school dance, Halloween, a lunch fight, or approaching vacations can all contribute to volatile student weather. Telling students it makes no difference that the prom is the next day is whistling in the wind.
- Relate content to students' outside interests. Making abstract ideas more concrete by using examples that come from the students' adolescent world can be very effective. For example, in one classroom, the teacher's explanation of why an oxygen atom attracts two hydrogen atoms did not seem relevant to Jesse; however, phrasing the concept in terms of the fact that two 7th grade girls were attracted to him hit closer to home. Teachers learn quickly that metaphors involving sex immediately pique adolescents' interest as long as the metaphors do not cross the invisible boundary of propriety.
- Know your students. The secondary teacher has very little time to talk with students one-on-one, but it is important to find time for individual chitchat. Effective teachers use strategies such as greeting students at the door, referring to a student's interests in their lectures, or talking to students as they monitor classwork. Attending sporting events and school plays, reading the school paper, or being a club advisor are just a few ways teachers can connect with their students' educational and social loops.
- Share your humanity with your students. Celebrate life with them. Successful teachers are not afraid to show their strengths and weaknesses to students in the proper context. The classroom is not a therapy group, but teachers can enjoy life along with their students.
Facilitating the beginning teacher's transition into the classroom is not a simple matter of presenting a list of do's and don'ts. As much as it may dismay the proponents of a technological model of teacher education, fledgling teachers can effectively process only a limited amount of information before facing students. New teachers enter the classroom armed with explicit class management plans, a firm belief about how students should act, and a strong grasp of content. However, if they cannot transport that arsenal of information and teacher tricks into the context of what is actually taking place in the classroom, their success will be hindered. Adding social insight and withitness to the arsenal makes it far more likely that the necessary connections will take place.
