The Role of a Teacher Inside the Classroom
New technology, online learning, AI support, tablets, phones, and screens. New programs, new curriculums, behavior plans, behavior incentives, discipline questions, and truancy officers. What do all these things have in common? Yes, you guessed it, these are some of the elements that are constantly changing in education. Despite these constant changes, there is one thing that has not changed in modern classrooms. That is the teacher’s desire for our students to succeed. Teachers have always been and will always be a necessary part of education. We can’t be replaced by AI, online learning, webcams, or new curriculums. Covid taught us that. Nothing can replace us. Yet we must also be flexible and teachable to reach our modern students. While the necessity of teachers will never change, the role of a teacher inside the classroom is changing.
In a previous blog post, we discussed teacher-student roles in the classroom and I’d encourage you to read that post soon. Today we are doing an in-depth dive into how a teacher can use his/her power in the classroom to optimize the environment for student learning. We know how essential teachers are to education. Even with the dawn of online learning, AI, and webcams to study from home, the teacher is the glue that holds together the educational system. Even when Covid surprised us all and students studied from home, it was teachers who turned on their webcams and bravely advanced in the face of potential disaster. No one can replace us.
Times Have Changed & Something Isn’t Working
If teachers will always be necessary, why are so many teachers frustrated and feeling ineffective? If we’re so important to education, why do so many teachers feel the need to leave the profession? Some say the problem is compensation. Others say the problem is a lack of respect for teachers and their professional opinion. Still, others say that teachers are sick of the lack of results and the apathy that meets them as they look across their classrooms. I don’t know what the main reason is but if making money was your first priority, you shouldn’t have become a teacher! I created the Mastery Gamification Methodology to address the other reasons that teachers leave education: the lack of respect and the lack of results.
The Mastery Gamification Methodology combines research-based strategies into one teaching system to empower teachers to be respected in their classrooms and to teach students to take responsibility for their education. One part of this methodology is using stories and character roles that teachers and students take on. In an ideal classroom, the student will be the hero of the story. Let’s take a look at the role of a teacher inside the classroom in relation to the hero.
Teacher Role 1: The Guide
The ideal role of a teacher is the guide. The guide will show up in most stories and video games to mentor, advise, and guide the hero on the hero’s epic journey. The guide knows that the destination belongs to the hero, not to the guide. The hero’s life will be affected by the outcome of the journey and it is the guide’s job to empower him to get there. The guide will advise and mentor but the hero makes the decisions. If the hero messes up, the guide is willing to give him a second chance. The journey is not about the guide. The guide respects the student’s agency.
Teacher Role 2: The Villain
Does it ever feel like your students see you as a villain? While there are certainly moments when the teacher has to be “the bad guy,” this should not be the role that the teacher routinely takes on. A villain inflicts their own will on the hero. The villain will not allow the hero to make their own decisions. A villain inflicts unenjoyable, pointless tasks upon the hero. The villain thinks that the journey is about the villain. The hero is just there as a means to an end. The villain does not respect the student’s agency.
Teacher Role 3: The NPC
NPC refers to a non-player character in a video game. This is a “character” in a video game that is simply a program with no actual intelligence. In a video game, an NPC may offer a side quest to the hero or may simply be a moving part of the scenery. The role of an NPC is very easy for a teacher to fall into and honestly, it’s not the end of the world if it happens. An NPC teacher might offer a small piece of advice to the hero or teach the hero something small but mostly, NPCs are not memorable, and they have very little influence on the hero. NPCs are just there, not really doing much.
The Student Response
The role of a teacher inside the classroom will hugely contribute to how well the students learn. We must think from the students’ point of view to see how they react to each teacher role. Students will see the teacher in one of these three roles. Therefore, it’s important to be conscientious of how students view us in the classroom.
If a student sees the teacher as the guide, the student is most likely to take on the role of the hero and take responsibility for his or her own education. A student hero is an empowered student with goals, plans, and motivation to reach his destination.
If a student sees the teacher as an NPC, the student will likely learn something but not be highly invested in the classroom journey. The journey will likely be fine, maybe a little boring.
However, if the student sees the teacher as a villain, the student must make a choice. Remember that the main difference between a guide and a villain is how they treat the student’s agency. A villain will not respect a student’s agency. When this happens the student has two main choices. The student can revert to a victim who accepts that the teacher as a villain but victims do not take responsibility for their own education or responsibility for their own actions. The other option for the student is that he can remain the hero who maintains their agency and responsibility for their education. But in every story, the hero must defeat the villain. This makes the classroom a battleground.
A Cinematic Example
A great example of students’ reaction to a villain teacher is in this clip from The Breakfast Club. See if you can pick out who has taken on the victim mindset and who has the hero mindset.
Did you see who had the victim mindset and who had the hero mindset? While it is important for students to receive appropriate consequences when they mess up, there is no reason for a teacher to come at students the way Mr. Vernon did. Mr. Vernon set himself up as the teacher villain in the eyes of his students. He does not respect the agency of any of his students.
In the victim mindset, we have Andrew Clark. He is going along with the wishes of the villain. Despite his cooperation, he is blamed for the mistake that the teacher villain made with the bookshelf in the doorway. You’ll notice that Andrew is mostly silent and reactive. Of course, we teachers would normally prefer that students follow our directions, but Andrew Clark is not obeying out of respect. He is obeying out of fear. If this were a content classroom instead of detention, you can bet that Andrew would only give minimal effort to this teacher. He would likely do just enough to stay eligible for his school sports and certainly not go the extra mile for this teacher. His agency was stolen by the villain.
In the hero mindset, we have John Bender. Certainly, teachers should not tolerate the behavior that John exhibits in the classroom. However, the teacher villain has laid out the battleground. As a hero, it is the student’s job to defeat the villain at any cost. The only way for John to maintain his agency and his hero mindset is to defeat the teacher villain. Who wins in this scenario? No one wins. Both John and Mr. Vernor have to do Saturday detentions for the next two months. They were both publically embarrassed. John will not allow his agency to be stolen and Mr. Vernor feels disrespected.
The Role of a Teacher Inside the Classroom is Powerful
How do your students see you? Are you the wise, respected guide who supports the hero’s goal of getting to his destination? Perhaps you are the forgettable, somewhat boring, but occasionally helpful NPC? Maybe you are the villain who steals your students’ agency and rules through fear? The role we take as teachers highly affects the ability of our students to learn in our classrooms. Let’s be the teacher guides that they need us to be.
Join the Movement!
If you believe in empowering students to have a hero mindset, own their agency, and take responsibility for their own education, then you are already part of the Mastery Gamification Movement! Join like-minded educators in our Facebook group so we can support each other and level up our schools. If you’re already part of our group, invite a like-minded educator. Remember that empowered teachers empower students and empowered students learn.
