Student Learning

PoLT Online Professional Learning Resource – Principle 1

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Theory Snapshot

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Aims of the principle

Principle 1 aims to ensure the basic needs of every student are considered and catered for in the classroom, the school, and the broader school community. This means that at the centre of the teachers’ thinking is the acknowledgement and valuing of the relationships with every student. Teachers must consider the students and their need for:

  • survival
  • love and belonging
  • power
  • feedom and choice
  • fun and enjoyment.

In productive learning environments students feel supported and challenged. Teacher actions reflect:

  • knowing what students can do independently and safely
  • knowing what they can achieve with teacher support.

Moving students between independent and supported learning ensures the development of positive, risk taking learners. Two key theorists, but not the only theorists, whose work is integral to our understanding of Principle 1, The learning environment is supportive and productive are William Glasser (1925- ) and Lev Semanovich Vygotsky (1896-1934).

For more information see:

 

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William Glasser

William Glasser asserts that 95% of discipline problems are misguided efforts of children trying to achieve power. He views Total Behaviour as having 4 components - acting, thinking, feeling and physiology. While all Total Behaviours are chosen, Glasser suggests we only have direct control or choice over the acting and thinking components. We can only control our feelings and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think.

A central aspect of ‘Choice Theory’ is the belief that we are internally, not externally motivated and our behaviour is driven by internally developed notions of what is most important and satisfying to us. Consequently the only person whose behaviour we can control is our own. As humans we constantly compare our perception of the current world with our ‘Quality World Picture’, that is how we would like it to be. Consciously or not we determine if our current behaviour is the best available choice to achieve a real world experience that is consonant with our ‘Quality World Picture’.

According to Glasser:

  • disengaged students view their schoolwork as irrelevant to their basic human needs
  • teachers must negotiate both curriculum content and method with students as students’ basic needs help shape how and what they are taught
  • teachers should rely on cooperative, active learning techniques that enhance the power of the learners.

For more information see: Control Theory (http://raider.muc.edu/%7Eschnelpl/Control%20Theory%20-%20Overhead.html)

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Lev Semanovich Vygotsky

The major theme of Vygotsky’s theoretical framework is that every function in the child’s development appears twice – firstly between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). Social interaction is therefore fundamental to full cognitive development. An example is in the learning of language. While our first utterances with peers or adults are for the purpose of communication, once mastered they become internalized and allow “inner speech”.

Vygotskians also note the difference between what the child can do on their own and with help. The range of skill that can be developed with adult guidance or peer collaboration is greater than what can be attained alone. Full development of this potential is dependant upon the recognition of full social interaction.

According to Vygotsky:

  • curricula should be designed to emphasize interaction between learners and learning tasks
  • scaffolding (where the adult continually adjusts the level of his or her help in response to the child’s level of performance) is an effective form of teaching
  • in addition to producing immediate results, scaffolding instills the skills necessary for independent problem solving in the future.

For more information see: Social Development Theory - L. Vygotsky (http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html)