Classroom Psychology Observation - Essay Example

ObservationThe observation was made in a classroom in the pre-school setting. Two children, Bob and Sam, were fighting over a broken pencil. The pencil belonged to Bob and had a rubber at one end. Bob had lent the pencil to Sam for a while during which Sam unintentionally happened to tear the rubber and the pencil apart. Bob slapped Sam in the face for having broken his pencil, and was holding Sam’s shirt by the collar. Sam was protesting in self-defense and was trying to explain that it was just an accident.

Bob was abusing Sam and would not listen. Other children in the classroom were showing different kinds of responses, with some of them laughing out loud, some doing commentary as if a wrestling match was going on, though most of the children were on Sam’s side and were trying to draw the two apart. In the start, the teacher was asking Bob to let go of Sam’s shirt from her desk, but seeing that things were getting out of control, she finally almost ran into Bob, held him by hand, and pulled him away from Sam.

She tried to cool Bob down and later asked Sam to say sorry to Bob. The teacher made use of the guidance technique to get hold over the situation. The only physical interaction she made was with Bob and in that too, she just took him by hand to draw him away from Sam as it was the need of the hour. Apart from that, the teacher’s reaction can in no way be identified with discipline. Her idea of drawing Bob away from Sam to give the conflict a pause, so that both achieve the state of psychological balance in the pause, after which she would get things straight between the two.

She asked Sam to say sorry to Bob for having broken his pencil, despite the fact that it was an accident. She also told Sam why he should say sorry, “You broke his pencil. You did it. I understand that you did not mean to, but saying sorry would make Bob feel that you empathize with him and are apologetic for the loss you caused him.” Since the teacher supported her commands with ethical reasoning, such techniques identify with guidance. As a teacher, one assumes the duty to develop and nurture the students morally and ethically in addition to completing the prescribed syllabus.

While the teacher said right things to Sam, she maintained a biased behavior with Bob. The teacher should also have told Bob that he did not need to lose his balance for such a small thing as a broken pencil. In fact, I would be fine if the teacher had been a bit strict with Bob for having slapped Sam and caught him by the collar. Sam was already trying to explain Bob but Bob was not listening in the first place. The teacher should have asked Bob to say sorry to Sam too because he had also insulted and bullied Sam.