By Todd Finley, Interim Editorial Assistant, Schools that Work Reporter.
Education is
catastrophically deficient in trust. Pro-accountability education reformers
presume that, absent carrots and sticks, classrooms would be overrun with lazy
and incapable teachers. Traditional
instructors presume that, absent carrots and sticks, classrooms would be
overrun with lazy and incapable students. Both viewpoints
emerge from a noble desire to make classrooms high-performance spaces, but in
actuality they suppress excellence.
Exemplifying
an exasperating phenomenon that would make Karl Marx tsk, teacher mistrust
metastasizes, particularly in the most underserved classrooms. Poor students
and minorities, prejudged with the most ungenerous stereotypes, are consigned
to the least constructivist and democratic classrooms (Tschannen-Moran &
Hoy, 2000; Solomon et al., 1996). Already placed with remedial-oriented drill and skill teachers,
students witness their peers ramp up their antisocial behaviors in response to
authoritarian punishments (Cothran and Ennis, 1997).
Teachers can break this
cycle with trust, even if it means risking that students will betray your faith
in them. You have to make yourself vulnerable; otherwise, you aren't doing it
right. Trust is an action word.
Benefits of Teachers Trusting Students
When teachers trust their students, the results
are astonishing.
- Academics: Academic performance improves (Goddard, Tschannen-Moran, & Hoy, 2001), and so do test scores (Ennis & McCauley, 2002).
- Positive Behaviors: Students are more willing to follow classroom norms and work cooperatively with peers.
- Engagement & Risk: Learners are more likely to engage with the curriculum and ask questions.
When teachers trust their students, their pedagogy
changes.
- Progressive Instruction: Teachers are more willing to engage in constructivist practices, according to the dissertation research of Virginia Louise Durnford, because progressive practices require instructors to trust that "children are capable of creating their own knowledge" (Rainer, Guyton, & Bowen, 2000, p.10).
- Increased Differentiation: Classroom professionals are more likely to reshape old methods of instruction and try alternative strategies. They empower students who want to follow individual paths to content mastery.
- Democratization: They share more control of the class with students (Goddard, Tschannen-Moran, & Hoy, 2001).
- Improved Practice: Teachers seek out professional development (Tschannen-Moran, 2004) and grow their abilities.
In the
following sections, I'll define trust and then offer research-supported ways of
manifesting Vitamin-T.
What is Trust?
While love exercises the heart, trust exercises the soul.
Durnford writes that "definitions of trust include one or more of the following attributes: vulnerability, benevolence in motivation, reliability, competence, honesty and openness (Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2000)." The truster has to believe that both parties share mutual goals and that the trustee has the capacity to meet expectations.
Trust Factoids
- Students' reputations affect trust.
- Some people have more propensity to trust than others.
- Poverty and diversity negatively affect trust.
- High levels of trust -- the realm of faith and hope -- are hard to shake, even in the face of betrayal.
- Trust is gradually developed in stages. Don't believe in trust at first sight.
- Give it away: Trust must be given in order for trust to develop. "You know that old stuff we learned about assigning students special duties and responsibilities? It works -- especially with tough-to-teach students," says high school teacher, Sara Davenport (Ennis & McCaulay, 2002). Also, give students second chances.
- Slowly and deliberately get to know your students: In Catherine Ennis and Terri McCaulay's study of urban high schools, teacher Michelle Connors describes her beliefs about students' potential:
My students are like oysters.
Life has not been good to them. Most of them have failed [. . .] To protect
themselves, they build this shell around them. And as a teacher, what I have to
do is wear away, literally by perseverance, wear away that shell to the point
where I can get inside, or I have to make them open up . . . because once you
show a student that they can succeed, you've found that pearl that is hidden
deep inside.
For that process to work,
Connors must consciously trust that each student has a pearl.
- Share power: Seek student input about what is to be learned and how.
- Explain to students how they can earn your trust: Explicitly tell learners how they can impress you with honesty, academic effort, politeness and consistency. Radiate supernova optimism that students will exhibit trustworthiness.
- Avoid protective hesitancy: Engage students who don't look, sound and act like you.
- Try not to punish: Teachers with fixed views about their authoritative role in the classroom activate oppositional youth (Herman & Marlow, 2005).
- Adjust the learning environment: Desks arranged into clusters demonstrate trust. Rows do not.
Showing
students your belief in them is easier when they trust you. It will help if you
are honest and open. "I might only understand 80% of what you've just
said," I tell students. "If you think I'm not hearing you, give me
another chance. Let me know." It's not just a job to you, right? Give
students extra cognitive and emotional reasons to trust you by surpassing expectations.
Tyler Hester bought his ninth grade English students books with his own money. Watch
how the gesture touched them.
Remember that
students who do not experience trust from their teachers are less likely to
learn (Ennis and McCauley 2002; Tschannen-Moran 2004). Fortunately, you can
dial up your trust. Have a little faith.
Read, Lean and Flourish!
Grow, Glow and be
Great!
