TAKING RISK IN CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

Can you recall examples of teachers you had who built on your strengths? What was the result in regard to your own willingness to take academic risks?  Will you encourage your students to take risks in completing assignments when you are a teacher, or will you encourage them to 'play it safe' and conform to the 'expected model'?

      Teacher should think students' strengths and weaknesses while preparing activities. Therefore, students can complete their problems with scaffolding of teacher. If classroom has positive environment/atmosphere, students will be more eager to learn new topics. Fostering the classroom environment is important for their learning process. Therefore, students will be more confident and they want to participate to the lesson. Sharing and reflecting new topics are helpful for them and there should be productive learning environment. Some students do not want to answer questions and raising her/his hand can be a risk for him/her. 

   

  “Sharing personal stories and continually reinforcing that making mistakes is part of the learning process can help create opportunities for students to take risks on their own. Teachers can start by creating low-risk opportunities in the classroom.” 

(http://mattcoaty.com/2014/06/29/risk-taking/) 

“Taking a risk could mean that students:

• Answer/ask questions more often
• more open to feedback given by peers and teachers 
• able to collaborate with others 
• Show perseverance when approaching challenging tasks 
• Take more ownership of their learning 
• Able to explain their mathematical thinking in more detail 
• Take pride in their work more often 
• Reflect on their performance and set goals 
• Rise above their own personal expectations 
• Start to develop leadership skills” (http://mattcoaty.com/2014/06/29/risk-taking/) 

      If a student makes a mistake, we should not correct them immediately or we could not give the correct answer immediately. Asking a question to them and waiting some time (Teacher waiting time). We should contextualize the lesson with meaningful activities and they will like the lesson. Therefore, their interest will be increased. Encourage them!!!

     Without taking risks, people cannot achieve their goals in life. If students do not understand the content, they should ask the problem to the teacher immediately. This is a kind of taking risk. After a while, students will be happy their correct answers and they want to participate to class discussion. NO RISK NO REWARD… 

This is a very important web site related to teachers’ risks in class : http://ajjuliani.com/10-risks-every-teacher-take-class/