International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
outcomes, not the performance of individual actors. It is that kind of group level phenomena that I am
suggesting would be valuable for teachers or observers to monitor and analyze.
So, the notion that teachers are applied sociologists who need to understand and deal with group level
phenomena suggests that they need methodological strategies and tools to do so. They need ways to gather and
analyze information about how to assess group processes and group development, about classroom climate and
student interaction.
As an applied sociologist, the teacher would have a methodological tool kit that would draw on classic
techniques and strategies of sociology for looking at schools and classes as communities of learners such as
surveys employing rating scales; interviews and focus groups to try to monitor how students are perceiving or
experiencing aspects of the curriculum; systematic observation of interactions; incident analysis (that looks at
how groups typically respond to a type of situation such as a member being frustrated); sociometric analysis;
content analysis; ethnographic study that looks at systems of meanings and knowledge; etc.
This can be seen as part of an effort to get a better picture and understanding of teacher-student, and studentstudent
interactions as well as the values and perceptions of a class or school as a community of learners. In
addition to providing teachers with greater insight, the very act of gathering this information could enhance
student morale and productivity -- similar to the famous Hawthorne Western Electric studies in which the very
act of studying workers enhanced their sense of being cared about by management which, in turn, positively
affected their morale and productivity.
One other area I would like to touch on is the topic of classroom management. One of the most crucial
challenges, perhaps the most crucial challenge, that one hears from beginning teachers is how to handle
classroom management. It appears to be the greatest source of stress and frustration of new teachers, and the
major area that many complain about not having been adequately prepared to handle.
In the literature on classroom management, I think we can see perhaps the most useful and developed
movement towards elements of applied sociology. Moving beyond the strategic use of praise and rewards, we
see guidelines that include the following strategies to foster effective classroom management:
• clear communication of expectations, equivalent to establishing the normative order of the classroom (a
central concern of sociology),
• enlisting students in the development of that normative order by having them help to formulate rules and
protocols, thus creating a sense of shared ownership of classroom governance,
• employing tasks that are engaging, meaningful and personally relevant in light of students values and
interests,
• establishing open communications and feedback channels such that students feel that teachers are caring and
concerned about them, and
• employing culturally appropriate management strategies (examples offered in the literature include
differences in how Latino, Filipino or Chinese students are likely to respond to expectations of individual
performance).
Of course, this notion of the teacher as an applied sociologist has implications for the skills and knowledge
that may need to be fostered in professional development experiences. I am not suggesting that teachers learn all
these concepts, principles, and methodological tools and employ them beyond
what is reasonable and feasible. What I do think is useful here is for teachers to be thinking about their work
from the perspective of applied sociology in which they want to and are able to look at some data about their
everyday practices and that the data focus on important facets of group level phenomena.
SECTION V - SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS
None of this has been intended to imply that teachers are not already acting to some extent and in some
respects as applied sociologists. Generally, they are attentive to classroom climate, try to be sensitive to student
backgrounds, and often employ group-based instructional strategies. In short, teachers use these perspectives
and techniques in varying degrees. Indeed, all of us, in order to function effectively in society, must be applied
sociologists. But some of us are more successful applied sociologists than others--and I think that awareness of
principles, strategies and methods is an important factor in being successful. My concern then is to see these
principles used more extensively, consciously, and systematically as they might be if teachers saw themselves
and were seen as applied sociologists.
My advocacy of a more explicit recognition of teaching as, among other things, a form of applied sociology
rests, in part, on the view that practice alone does not make perfect. I would argue that mentored, well-coached
practice helps make perfect. And, beyond that, mentored, well-coached practice grounded explicitly on
disciplinary foundations with clear principles and research protocols helps make perfect. Of course, intensive
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