Interpersonal relationships are fundamental to learning and human development. To develop a positive and safe classroom environment with student motivation and learning, music educators need to learn to relate and connect effectively with others. This article looks at the importance of the interpersonal relationships in the classroom environment…

Alternative and flexible education settings may come in different forms, but they generally have in common a focus on young people who have been disengaged from conventional schooling. One challenge of these settings, therefore, is to change the way education is offered in order to better engage these students. Much of the onus for this changed…

We all have emotional responses that affect what we do; teachers see all kinds of emotions emerge from students. Despite this fact some teachers think their purpose is to teach content and skills only, not to deal with the touchy-feely stuff. Rick Wormeli encourages teachers to develop constructive responses to their own affective needs and equip…

Understanding the Passive Aggressive Conflict Cycle (PACC) helps observers to be able to look beyond behavior and better understand what is occurring beneath the surface. This article presents a real-life example of a seemingly minor conflict between a teacher and child that elicited an apparent major overreaction by the adult. Also provided is a…

The reasons for creating difficult people in education are suspected to be budget constraints, increased expectations and bad educational press. The kinds of difficult people according to library specialist Luisa are discussed along with the terms the psychologists use to describe them.

This article aims to describe informal learning as it might apply to the early professional development of inexperienced teachers in the first three years of their career, working in secondary schools in England and Wales. An attempt has been made to move the debate on from a narrowly conceived competencies agenda based on a formalised approach to…

Focusing on the brain's natural functions, this article discusses specific teacher characteristics, teaching methods, and peripheral stimuli helping to activate appropriate learning behavior. Also identifies particular events and teacher behaviors that block learning and frustrate the brain's efforts to harmonize conflicts and admit new…

This article describes the teacher lore of Torey Hayden, its emphasis on a pedagogy of caring, and its use in preservice teacher education to address affective outcomes. Eight concepts that make up caring relationships and are reflected in Hayden's wisdom of practice are discussed. Four separate studies are then described examining the outcomes of…

This exploratory module is designed to provide practice in nonverbal communication. Activities permit the student to communicate messages nonverbally and also to observe the nonverbal messages of a discussion group participant. Questions for group discussion concerning nonverbal communication are indicated. (MJM)

Teachers are continuously faced with decisions, and often there is no one correct solution or answer. Therefore it is important for the teacher to be able to examine a situation and consider many alternative solutions before making a decision. This module is designed to give the learner an opportunity to consider situations and generate…

This exploratory module is designed to familiarize the learner with the NEA (National Education Association) Code of Ethics. Teaching situations are presented enabling the learner to decide upon an action if he/she were the teacher in the situation. The learner's decision is then discussed in relation to the NEA Code. (MJM)

An inservice training project has been designed for secondary school teachers who deal with emotionally disturbed adolescents in their regular classrooms. The objective of the training is for teachers to develop generic affective competencies for creating an affective classroom climate, managing conflicts and crises, and using positive classroom…

This exploratory module provides activities designed to enable the learner to develop an awareness of self. Activities suggest the formation of a group of 12-16 people and the presentation of a statement of self. The group is then subdivided, and participants share their statement after they have completed the following activities: personal…

A program stressing teacher involvement and classroom implementation of educational research findings is described. The program was designed to familiarize teachers with current findings, have them apply the findings in their classrooms, analyze their own teaching behavior, and critically evaluate the findings in terms of their applicability to…

This document presents a teaching model established at the Rural-Migrant School of Education in California. Students in this school are preparing to teach children of Mexican-American descent and face the necessity of dealing with cultural and language differences that are unique to the area. While instruction is oriented toward the philosophy of…