Students' moral and prosocial development is affected not only by their family and friends, but by their school experiences as well. Whether you intend to or not, you will undoubtedly be teaching your students moral values as well as academic content.
With this in mind:
a. Describe the types of experiences that, according to researchers and theorists, are likely to help students develop morally and/or prosocially. Within your discussion, identify three different factors that promote moral and/or prosocial development.
b. Identify a moral issue that may arise either within a specific content area you will be teaching or within the general classroom situation. Explain what you, as a teacher, might specifically do to promote moral growth as you deal with the moral issue you've just identified.
Ques. 2Imagine you are teaching at a school that serves students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The students tend to congregate in groups along ethnic lines,
to the point that they are quite cliquish and exclusive, and hostilities are building up between ethnic groups. Using guidelines presented in the textbook, describe three strategies that you and your fellow teachers might use to foster positive interaction and friendships across the groups. Describe each strategy in a separate paragraph, and be specific about what you might do.
Ques. 3One of your students, Janet, seems to go out of her way to make other children feel bad. Sometimes she spreads malicious, untrue rumors about people.
Sometimes she convinces some of her classmates to snub others by ignoring them, excluding them from group activities, and so on. With Janet's behavior in mind:
a. Determine whether she is displaying physical or relational aggression.
b. Determine whether she is displaying proactive or reactive aggression.
c. Drawing on what psychologists have learned about the underlying cognitive causes of aggression, identify three possible reasons why Janet may be acting so aggressively.
Ques. 4Three of the following strategies are likely to help students at risk stay in school. Which one is not likely to do so?
a. Discourage them from participating in extracurricular activities so they can focus on getting their grades up.
b. Communicate your expectation that they can do well and that you'll help them achieve instructional objectives.
c. Have students participate in school decision making.
d. Identify them as early as possible and provide long-term academic support.
Ques. 5Especially in the middle school and high school grades, teachers must be alert to the possibility that a student is contemplating suicide. Which one of the following students is least likely to be having suicidal thoughts?
a. Gracie has become quite interested in looking and dressing like a popular rock star.
b. Erik has stopped hanging out with his friends and refuses to take their telephone calls.
c. After being seriously depressed for several weeks, Larinda is suddenly quite happy.
d. Although he loves music, Oscar is giving away all of his favorite CDs.
Ques. 6All of the following strategies are certainly beneficial, but only one is likely to foster resilience in students who live in difficult and challenging circumstances (e.g., extreme poverty, abusive family members).
Which strategy is known to foster resilience?
a. Take a personal interest in students' welfare and show them that they can turn to you in times of need.
b. Show students how academic tasks are relevant to their personal lives.
c. Give students both positive and negative feedback when it's appropriate to do so.
d. Have fewer classroom requirements and be lenient in grading criteria.
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