Literature Review
Community Oriented versus Traditional Classrooms
Having volunteered at many southeast San Diego schools and having student taught in upper middle class suburban schools, I have seen various differences in the way classrooms are run. One of the major differences can be attributed to the nature of the relationships between the students and teacher in the classroom. In my experience, I have seen classrooms where teachers simply recognize diversity, and I have also seen classrooms that aim to develop an environment in which “shifting groups of people that dialogue with, actively listen to, and support each other, through reciprocal responsibility and accountability, regarding a common interest or concern” (Bettez, 2011, p. 10).
During the time that I have spent in the classroom, I have seen the various roles that diversity has played in the way relationships are formed between students. Many of the students in the classroom choose to talk to people who they are comfortable with, and the result of this is the formation of various cliques. The result of having such a diverse population demands teachers to be critically reflective, adaptable, and able to respond to varying needs and implement strategies for facilitating students learning from each other (Trees, 2013). It asks teachers to become not just teachers of materials but facilitators of relationships. Research has shown that students in racial and gender diverse classrooms reap many benefits (Terenzini, 2001). I believe that in a modern context, this often means that teaching must take on nontraditional strategies to reach these benefits within the classroom, hence the recent success of project based learning models. “Although diversity is linked with student development in theory, educators must create certain conditions to maximize the potential for learning” (Hurtado, 2001, p. 4). This started to make me wonder, how does diversity in the classroom play a role in building a community, and what are the "certain conditions" that the educator needs to create to maximize learning?
Knowing the diverse populations
Trees says that, there is a need for teachers as well as students to know each other on a deeper level. She points out that teachers know and can navigate the culture that they grow up in, but to understand the culture of where the students come from is equally important. Often times we only know the tourist version of the background of our students, but in order to better know our students we need to get a better grasp of their culture and who they are (Trees, 2013). This leads me to believe that as educators we cannot merely judge a student by stereotypes or things we have heard from other teachers, instead we need to find out from the students themselves. One way to accomplish this is using community-building exercises to know more than each other’s names; this can be an important building block towards growing the community in the classroom because it helps students open up conversations with each other. Prior to understanding the steps towards growing community in the classroom, we must first begin to learn who the people in the community are.
Military and veteran families are a large subculture in our society today but they are also one of the least visible, and due to the constant moving it can take years to readjust to society. This is especially evident in the classroom that I am teaching in, there are more than a handful of students that come from military families. Providing a connection from the family to community is an important aspect of supporting military families (Kudler & Porter, 2013). Having identified the students from military is one of the first steps of integrating them into the society and classroom. I wanted to be sensitive in the way that I discovered who was part of a military family, and during a lesson on the G.I. Bill, I used the opportunity to ask who was part of a military family. About a third of the class raised their hands. One of the challenges in meeting the needs for this particular population is the difficulty of integration (Kudler & Porter, 2013). Many military students frequently move and are separated from friends, family, and can often become detached from community. They need support in vastly different ways than other populations. Being sensitive to their situation meanwhile setting high expectations for the children of military families can be helpful because this population is resilient and can grow through the expectations (Kudler & Porter, 2013). Understanding this and knowing the classroom population has allowed me to become more sensitive in the way that I approach creating projects as well as dealing with situations that arise in the classroom. This will lead me to be conscious of the groups with students who are from military families and to support them as they learn to collaborate with their classmates.
Teaching Diverse Student Populations
Having seen many schools in southern California, I believe that teaching diverse student populations is a critical skill that every teacher needs to learn. This does not mean that we ask all students to conform to the way we do things but rather it is understanding that all cultures need to be respected, included, and accepted. By promoting diversity in the classroom, we can create a culture in which everyone is valued, and more importantly everybody’s culture is valued, students will feel more comfortable being in the classroom and will show the importance of community (Scott, 2001). This leads into the idea of developing community in the classroom and the cultivating healthy relationships that exist in classrooms.
The idea of community in a classroom can be defined as the dynamics of relationships that exist between individuals inside the classroom. In every classroom, there are different dynamics and combinations of relationships but the most prevalent source of interaction is that which occurs between the teacher and individual students (Bettez, 2011). I created this web chart (figure 4) to illustrate my interpretation of what Bettez said about the traditional relationship between students and their teachers. It shows a classroom structure that focuses on the individual student’s growing relationship with the teacher but not with each other. For example, the teacher poses a question to teach the class a point, once the teacher calls on student A, it becomes a conversation between student A and the teacher. But if you think about the purpose of the question, it was originally used to teach the entire class a lesson. What I started to ask myself was, how could the idea of a community oriented classroom change the way students learn?
Having volunteered at many southeast San Diego schools and having student taught in upper middle class suburban schools, I have seen various differences in the way classrooms are run. One of the major differences can be attributed to the nature of the relationships between the students and teacher in the classroom. In my experience, I have seen classrooms where teachers simply recognize diversity, and I have also seen classrooms that aim to develop an environment in which “shifting groups of people that dialogue with, actively listen to, and support each other, through reciprocal responsibility and accountability, regarding a common interest or concern” (Bettez, 2011, p. 10).
During the time that I have spent in the classroom, I have seen the various roles that diversity has played in the way relationships are formed between students. Many of the students in the classroom choose to talk to people who they are comfortable with, and the result of this is the formation of various cliques. The result of having such a diverse population demands teachers to be critically reflective, adaptable, and able to respond to varying needs and implement strategies for facilitating students learning from each other (Trees, 2013). It asks teachers to become not just teachers of materials but facilitators of relationships. Research has shown that students in racial and gender diverse classrooms reap many benefits (Terenzini, 2001). I believe that in a modern context, this often means that teaching must take on nontraditional strategies to reach these benefits within the classroom, hence the recent success of project based learning models. “Although diversity is linked with student development in theory, educators must create certain conditions to maximize the potential for learning” (Hurtado, 2001, p. 4). This started to make me wonder, how does diversity in the classroom play a role in building a community, and what are the "certain conditions" that the educator needs to create to maximize learning?
Knowing the diverse populations
Trees says that, there is a need for teachers as well as students to know each other on a deeper level. She points out that teachers know and can navigate the culture that they grow up in, but to understand the culture of where the students come from is equally important. Often times we only know the tourist version of the background of our students, but in order to better know our students we need to get a better grasp of their culture and who they are (Trees, 2013). This leads me to believe that as educators we cannot merely judge a student by stereotypes or things we have heard from other teachers, instead we need to find out from the students themselves. One way to accomplish this is using community-building exercises to know more than each other’s names; this can be an important building block towards growing the community in the classroom because it helps students open up conversations with each other. Prior to understanding the steps towards growing community in the classroom, we must first begin to learn who the people in the community are.
Military and veteran families are a large subculture in our society today but they are also one of the least visible, and due to the constant moving it can take years to readjust to society. This is especially evident in the classroom that I am teaching in, there are more than a handful of students that come from military families. Providing a connection from the family to community is an important aspect of supporting military families (Kudler & Porter, 2013). Having identified the students from military is one of the first steps of integrating them into the society and classroom. I wanted to be sensitive in the way that I discovered who was part of a military family, and during a lesson on the G.I. Bill, I used the opportunity to ask who was part of a military family. About a third of the class raised their hands. One of the challenges in meeting the needs for this particular population is the difficulty of integration (Kudler & Porter, 2013). Many military students frequently move and are separated from friends, family, and can often become detached from community. They need support in vastly different ways than other populations. Being sensitive to their situation meanwhile setting high expectations for the children of military families can be helpful because this population is resilient and can grow through the expectations (Kudler & Porter, 2013). Understanding this and knowing the classroom population has allowed me to become more sensitive in the way that I approach creating projects as well as dealing with situations that arise in the classroom. This will lead me to be conscious of the groups with students who are from military families and to support them as they learn to collaborate with their classmates.
Teaching Diverse Student Populations
Having seen many schools in southern California, I believe that teaching diverse student populations is a critical skill that every teacher needs to learn. This does not mean that we ask all students to conform to the way we do things but rather it is understanding that all cultures need to be respected, included, and accepted. By promoting diversity in the classroom, we can create a culture in which everyone is valued, and more importantly everybody’s culture is valued, students will feel more comfortable being in the classroom and will show the importance of community (Scott, 2001). This leads into the idea of developing community in the classroom and the cultivating healthy relationships that exist in classrooms.
The idea of community in a classroom can be defined as the dynamics of relationships that exist between individuals inside the classroom. In every classroom, there are different dynamics and combinations of relationships but the most prevalent source of interaction is that which occurs between the teacher and individual students (Bettez, 2011). I created this web chart (figure 4) to illustrate my interpretation of what Bettez said about the traditional relationship between students and their teachers. It shows a classroom structure that focuses on the individual student’s growing relationship with the teacher but not with each other. For example, the teacher poses a question to teach the class a point, once the teacher calls on student A, it becomes a conversation between student A and the teacher. But if you think about the purpose of the question, it was originally used to teach the entire class a lesson. What I started to ask myself was, how could the idea of a community oriented classroom change the way students learn?
Figure 4 - "Traditional" classroom relationship pattern
Much of the emphasis of fostering a community atmosphere stems from the attitude of the teacher. Rather than approaching a teacher to student method of relationships, it is equally as important for students to engage with each other. I noticed that many of the lessons required students to work individually, and when asked to work with each other they would struggle with the idea of group work. Part of my goal in this research is to teach students that community and group work are intertwined to enhance learning.
Why is community important in the classroom?
The question is then asked, “Why is community important in a classroom?” The purpose of school is to be able to learn, and if we spend too much time building relationships then learning becomes minimized. Although this may be true, my argument for this research is to show that the level of community within a classroom can allow students to reach their full potential in regards to learning. In the traditional school model that is displayed in figure 4, students mainly interact with the teacher that creates a greater divide between students. The limited interactions between students allows for greater tension when participating in discussions, the fear of answering wrong, or asking a dumb question in front of the entire class could possibly limit the amount of learning that can occur within the classroom.
Depth of Interaction/Learning = Level of community x opportunities for interaction
I created this equation to show that learning is dependent on the level of community is raised with the amount of opportunities for interaction. The level of community is composed of two factors: (1) the individual sense of belonging and comfortability within the classroom setting (Bettez, 2011), (2) "abundant social interactions and peer support" (Wu & Zilla, 2005, p. 28). These two factors can provide students a safe space to ask questions and respond to each other with their thoughts. This is the beginning of critical thinking for the students and this can greatly increase their capacity to learn in the classroom.
With very diverse student populations, teachers are the necessary catalyst to bring about change. In Figure 4, the model of community keeps many of the student’s diversity separate and away from each other, while the teacher might see and understand the uniqueness of each individual, the students lack opportunities to see and interact with the diversity that is right there in front of them. The need therefore becomes one in which there are lines that are drawn and connected between students. Furman defines community as, “the metaphor for community becomes an interconnected web or network of persons who may differ but who are interdependent” (Furman, 1998). The model of a community-oriented classroom is not as neat and organized as that of our traditional classrooms, but it does depict what an interconnected community in a classroom could look like. True community is not linear, it is a series of degrees of separations and in a classroom, and it creates opportunities for students to get to know each other as well as develop relationships with each other. Therefore, as this research progresses the development of community in the classroom will be defined as the formation of a interconnected mindset that promotes collaboration by embracing and encouraging individual diversity. Bettez says, “one can begin to conceive of a web that includes connections between the various students, as well as strands from students to teachers.” (Bettez, 2011, p. 7) The web chart (figure 5) is an adaptation to figure 1 and it displays the potential of interactions within a community-oriented classroom.
Why is community important in the classroom?
The question is then asked, “Why is community important in a classroom?” The purpose of school is to be able to learn, and if we spend too much time building relationships then learning becomes minimized. Although this may be true, my argument for this research is to show that the level of community within a classroom can allow students to reach their full potential in regards to learning. In the traditional school model that is displayed in figure 4, students mainly interact with the teacher that creates a greater divide between students. The limited interactions between students allows for greater tension when participating in discussions, the fear of answering wrong, or asking a dumb question in front of the entire class could possibly limit the amount of learning that can occur within the classroom.
Depth of Interaction/Learning = Level of community x opportunities for interaction
I created this equation to show that learning is dependent on the level of community is raised with the amount of opportunities for interaction. The level of community is composed of two factors: (1) the individual sense of belonging and comfortability within the classroom setting (Bettez, 2011), (2) "abundant social interactions and peer support" (Wu & Zilla, 2005, p. 28). These two factors can provide students a safe space to ask questions and respond to each other with their thoughts. This is the beginning of critical thinking for the students and this can greatly increase their capacity to learn in the classroom.
With very diverse student populations, teachers are the necessary catalyst to bring about change. In Figure 4, the model of community keeps many of the student’s diversity separate and away from each other, while the teacher might see and understand the uniqueness of each individual, the students lack opportunities to see and interact with the diversity that is right there in front of them. The need therefore becomes one in which there are lines that are drawn and connected between students. Furman defines community as, “the metaphor for community becomes an interconnected web or network of persons who may differ but who are interdependent” (Furman, 1998). The model of a community-oriented classroom is not as neat and organized as that of our traditional classrooms, but it does depict what an interconnected community in a classroom could look like. True community is not linear, it is a series of degrees of separations and in a classroom, and it creates opportunities for students to get to know each other as well as develop relationships with each other. Therefore, as this research progresses the development of community in the classroom will be defined as the formation of a interconnected mindset that promotes collaboration by embracing and encouraging individual diversity. Bettez says, “one can begin to conceive of a web that includes connections between the various students, as well as strands from students to teachers.” (Bettez, 2011, p. 7) The web chart (figure 5) is an adaptation to figure 1 and it displays the potential of interactions within a community-oriented classroom.
Figure 5 - Community-oriented classroom relationship pattern
After reading through the literature, I have learned that the creating a community in a diverse classroom is a fragile task. There are many components that are involved in the development of having a classroom that is community oriented. The practice of developing a collaborative community in my classroom will require me to navigate both individual relationships as well as the relationships between small groups in the classroom. The level of these connections and relationships that form a community can be referred to as interdependence. When comparing figures 4 and 5 we can see that interdependence is often something that is overlooked in the traditional classroom setting. When doing group work, many of the individual students approach it with a “divide and conquer” mentality, work on their parts then bring everything together as a whole (Santagata & Guarino, 2012). I have found that students in my classroom hardly want to work together, which also leads me to believe that they might not know how to work together. Through creating engaging lessons and projects, I will implement strategies where they will have to learn to work together and collaborate. I will use methods such as critical feedback through encouragement and suggestions can build interdependence. Allowing students to work as a whole rather than individuals can build a community (Bettez, 2011).
How do we Build Community?
At various levels of education there has been a resistance to using social media at both the institutional as well as individual level. Part of this resistance stems from the “sense of risk attached to using social media platforms, of being embarrassed in front of the students” (Bryant et al., 2014, p. 4). As schools become more open to using technology in the classroom and schools become wifi’d, we see that many social media platforms are blocked using a firewall. "There is an inherent tension between social media as an instrument of play or leisure and as an instrument of information dissemination or learner distraction" (Bryant et al, 2014, p. 2)This tendency to resist social media in the school system should be challenged and social media should be used to support learning and collaboration in the classroom. Of course there are many negatives and ways that technology could be taken advantage of in the classroom, but I believe the more we steer away from social media in the classroom, the more we lower the potential for their learning. Many students currently associate social media with updating their status with what they are doing and what they are eating, but what if we challenge students to use social media as a place to build community?
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) has been used and researched to see the benefits of using computers in collaborative learning. The two largest benefits of the research showed that CSCL facilitated joint knowledge building and acknowledging/replying/referring to another message (Blake, 2013). Using the results of this study, I aim to use social media to allow students to construct knowledge and to support each other in research. In the Seed fund project, they attempted to use "media to engage students in both summative and formative assessment tasks, class activities, personal tutoring, or feedback processes" (Bryant et al, 2014, p. 3). It will be difficult to monitor the use of the technology and what they are using the technology for, but monitoring the amount of use and quality of their use of social media will be instrumental in developing the skills of using social media. I am using the idea of social media in a controlled setting inside of class; I will not be requiring students to post outside of class. Twitter will be the platform that we use in the classroom. The primary reason that we will be using twitter is that it is easily accessible. Many students have access to twitter, we can access it on the school network, and the students all know how to use twitter.
Using small groups will allow students in the classroom to have a space to practice collaboration and community building. “Small groups have the most leverage when they are part of a larger gathering” (Block, 2008, p.132). It is important to note that although it is important to have diversity in groups, placing them in the vicinity of each other does not make them learn (Hurtado, 2001). Rather, it acts as the first step to providing opportunities for smaller and more intimate discussions. According to Illingworth and Hartley (2007), working in groups can be used to develop appropriate skills in collaboration, and can lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness. The smaller collaborative groups will give a chance for every student to share and ask questions, in the smaller groups the students will be more comfortable engaging in conversations.
One important aspect that I have not mentioned within my literature review is the use of projects. I believe that the use of projects will allow me to tie in all of the components (collaboration, technology, and small groups) to build the sense of community in the classroom. The use of projects a key instructional tool that I will use to see the effectiveness as well as growth in each students ability to collaborate. The use of projects will allow me as an educator to analyze student thinking and learning as well as construct instructional improvements (Santagata & Guarino, 2012). By implementing projects throughout the semester I will be able to see what helps my students develop collaborative skills.
How do we Build Community?
At various levels of education there has been a resistance to using social media at both the institutional as well as individual level. Part of this resistance stems from the “sense of risk attached to using social media platforms, of being embarrassed in front of the students” (Bryant et al., 2014, p. 4). As schools become more open to using technology in the classroom and schools become wifi’d, we see that many social media platforms are blocked using a firewall. "There is an inherent tension between social media as an instrument of play or leisure and as an instrument of information dissemination or learner distraction" (Bryant et al, 2014, p. 2)This tendency to resist social media in the school system should be challenged and social media should be used to support learning and collaboration in the classroom. Of course there are many negatives and ways that technology could be taken advantage of in the classroom, but I believe the more we steer away from social media in the classroom, the more we lower the potential for their learning. Many students currently associate social media with updating their status with what they are doing and what they are eating, but what if we challenge students to use social media as a place to build community?
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) has been used and researched to see the benefits of using computers in collaborative learning. The two largest benefits of the research showed that CSCL facilitated joint knowledge building and acknowledging/replying/referring to another message (Blake, 2013). Using the results of this study, I aim to use social media to allow students to construct knowledge and to support each other in research. In the Seed fund project, they attempted to use "media to engage students in both summative and formative assessment tasks, class activities, personal tutoring, or feedback processes" (Bryant et al, 2014, p. 3). It will be difficult to monitor the use of the technology and what they are using the technology for, but monitoring the amount of use and quality of their use of social media will be instrumental in developing the skills of using social media. I am using the idea of social media in a controlled setting inside of class; I will not be requiring students to post outside of class. Twitter will be the platform that we use in the classroom. The primary reason that we will be using twitter is that it is easily accessible. Many students have access to twitter, we can access it on the school network, and the students all know how to use twitter.
Using small groups will allow students in the classroom to have a space to practice collaboration and community building. “Small groups have the most leverage when they are part of a larger gathering” (Block, 2008, p.132). It is important to note that although it is important to have diversity in groups, placing them in the vicinity of each other does not make them learn (Hurtado, 2001). Rather, it acts as the first step to providing opportunities for smaller and more intimate discussions. According to Illingworth and Hartley (2007), working in groups can be used to develop appropriate skills in collaboration, and can lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness. The smaller collaborative groups will give a chance for every student to share and ask questions, in the smaller groups the students will be more comfortable engaging in conversations.
One important aspect that I have not mentioned within my literature review is the use of projects. I believe that the use of projects will allow me to tie in all of the components (collaboration, technology, and small groups) to build the sense of community in the classroom. The use of projects a key instructional tool that I will use to see the effectiveness as well as growth in each students ability to collaborate. The use of projects will allow me as an educator to analyze student thinking and learning as well as construct instructional improvements (Santagata & Guarino, 2012). By implementing projects throughout the semester I will be able to see what helps my students develop collaborative skills.