Haim Ginott Video
Examples in the Classroom
- During class discussions we the teacher are more facilitators of conversation. We help to include every students and the direction of the discussion but allow the students to do most of the talking. We help students listen to each other’s ideas and to value what each student contributes.
- To minimize interruptions we do not make a spectacle out of minor misbehavior. We address this behavior privately as well as positively. We focus on the behavior not the child and leave the past in the past. We strive to help students reach acceptable behavior so this is what we focus on.
- Within the classroom we give students choices. We treat them as humans. And as teachers we recognize student’s feelings. We do not ignore or demean how a child feels.
CONS OF APPROACH
- More suited for secondary classroom because it relies heavily on the students being about to communicate their thoughts and feelings and make judgements based on reason.
- Teacher needs to master a whole new personality and language
- Punishment should be avoided.
- Critics suggest that it only work if the teacher's communication style is similar to the communication style of the students (kind of impossible to have 24 plus students and the teacher have the same communication style).
PROS OF APPROACH
Examples in the Classroom
- It's easy to implement.
- Student's well being is fostered; autonomy, self-esteem, and communicative efficacy.
- Encourages student's self-direction and empowerment.
- Teachers are modeling the behaviors they want their students to produce I.e. self- discipline.
- It lures students into learning rather than commanding.
- We can see Haim Ginotts influence in our classroom every day. Within our classrooms we set clear boundaries for behavior while acknowledging and exploring emotional feelings.
- We as teachers use “I” statements instead of “you” statements so not to attack, criticize, or demean the student.
- We use communication to influence our classrooms.
- As teachers we discipline instead of punish.
- Our rules are attached to objects. An example of this would be “Class the soft area is not for wrestling.”
- We the teacher, are the model for how we want our students to be. We model positive behaviors for our students.
Personally I think that fact that teachers should pick their battles is a pro and a con it says to ignore disruptive behavior UNTIL the teacher can speak to the student privately and positively. Pro because it minimizes time taken away from the class plus in the heat of the moment the teacher might not handle the situation appropriately which could lead to an all out war between the teacher and the student. Con because with a "child" negative behavior should be targeted immediately, especially wit younger kids, if you don't address the behavior chances are they won't even remember what they did wrong and then they feel they are being punished for no reason.
5. Teachers should also use positive language, no sarcasm, name calling, or criticizing.
6. Positive communication techniques should be used, ex. “I” statements, “I feel,” or “I think.”
7. Punishment should be avoided…(students may feel as if they have paid their dues for their bad behavior, and think they can repeat these behaviors.)
8. Rewards should only be given out if they are warranted. (rewards can be utilized to pressure the students into good behavior.)
Background Information
The main principles of Ginott’s theories in relation to a classroom
1. Asking questions
2. Listening to students
3. Brevity
4. Acceptance
5. Respect.
Philosophy
- Haim Ginott was a famous teacher from Israel, who lived between 1922 and 1973.
- He was a teacher, a child psychologist, a parent educator, and a physician psychotherapist whom worked with children and their parents.
- Ginott initiated techniques for talking to children who are still in use today.
- His book "Between Parent and Child (1988) was a best seller for over a year and still remains very popular today.
- Ginott studied clinical psychology at Columbia University in New York City, earning his doctoral degree in 1952.
- Later, he moved on to work with troubled children at Jacksonville Guidance Clinic in Florida.
- Despite his death in 1973, Ginott's theories are still being kept alive by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish.
- Ginott's theories combined setting limits and using compassion with congruent communication as the key tool.
- He believed that there was no such thing as an unacceptable child, only unacceptable behaviors.
Ginott thinks
1. A teacher should help develop conversations about important topics that involve every student. The purpose of these conversations is to promote the students to gain a voice of their own in reference to the classroom issues.
2. Being clear, precise, quiet, and direct with students will helps minimize interruptions in the classroom instead of making spectacles out of minor misbehavior. (ex. whisper in their ear that their behavior is distracting to the other students.)
3. Have consequences and rules posted in the classroom.
4. It is the teachers responsibility to get to know their students and to accept them for the person they are, as well as their behavior. If there is a problem with a student’s behavior, the teacher should address the issue, not the student’s character. It is also the teachers job to try and guide the student to practice appropriate behavior, not to criticize the person they are.
Dr. Ginott's greatest contribution and continuing legacy may be teaching the communication skills that help parents relate to their children in a caring and understanding way without diminishing parental authority.
Books
Dr. Ginott insisted that you can quite easily give your child compassionate emotional support and firm boundaries at the same time. He believed that you could set firm limits on their behavior, but still respect your child's feelings.
Above all, he believed that children are humans too, and deserve to be treated as such.
Between Parent and Child (1965)
Between Parent and Teenager (1967)
Teacher and Child (1972)
Theorist
Haim Ginott
"I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized."
-Haim Ginott