| Which factor should be capitalised on when it comes to attempting to help students develop socially? | Focus on their cognitive component - students' awareness and understanding. In other words, teachers should model, explicitly teach and discuss social skills, and use a classroom management style that promotes development. |
| Describe 4 guidelines that aid students in developing social skills in classrooms. | 1. Model social skills.
2. Explicitly teach social skills.
3. Discuss social skills and their relationship with school success.
4. Use classroom management to promote social development. |
| As a teacher, how does one model social skills in class? | Modelling social skills will promote the same skills in our students. For example, by modelling making eye-contact, checking perceptions, and listening attentively with students, we can use that as a base for even more advanced social skills, such as perspective taking and social problem solving.
As with all positive traits, attitudes, and behaviours, this modeling takes a little extra time and effort. The GOAL is to become more aware of the value of modelling these behaviours, and promoting this awareness in the classroom. |
| How do you explicitly teach social skills? Give a few examples. | 1. We can use vignettes to illustrate desirable and undesirable personality traits.
2. We can model the behaviours and than have students provide examples through role play. (Role play provides concrete examples for students).
3. We can have students practice their social skills during group work, and then give them feedback.
Students won't become socially skilled after 1 or 2 activities, but with time, practice, and explicit instruction, these skills can be developed and refined. |
| How do you discuss social skills and illustrate their relationship with school success to students? | As teachers, our goal is to help students understand social skills, and their impact on success and satisfaction in school.
We're capitalising on the COGNITIVE component of social development. Specific examples, such as student roleplaying, provide concrete reference points for discussions, and the discussions are the mechanisms that can lead to students awareness and understanding.
For example, when a discussion helps students realise that a lack of social skills can lead to peer rejection, which then leads to fewer opportunities to practice social skills and fewer friends, the likelihood of them attempting to improve their skills increase. |
| As teachers, how do we use classroom management to promote social development? | 1. We can create a set of rules designed to support students as they worked together.
2. Use a small number of rules because they supplement the general classroom rules, and because a small number makes them easier to remember.
3. The combination of general and social classroom rules will guide students' roleplaying, discussions, and observation of model behaviour.
This will contribute to students' awareness and understanding of social skills and their importance. In time, and with effort and practice, these efforts can make a difference in students' social development. |
