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Symbolic Interactionism In The Classroom

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Symbolic Interactionism In The Classroom
The concept, symbolic interactionism is the sociological school of thought that highlights how interpersonal communication in face to face settings creates subjective meanings which people attach to social circumstances (Brym and Lie 2015:6). A symbolic interaction with a labelled student affects the interaction between; students and teachers by verbal or non-verbal messages. In the paper “The Influence of Teachers and Peer Relationships on Students’ Classroom Engagement and Everyday Motivational Resilience”, the impact student teacher relationships are discussed and the effect on the success of students in academics and achievement. Furrer, Pitzer and Skinner explain why/why not and how to improve classroom relationships by using motivational …show more content…
Rejection, chaos and coercive are all variables leading to negative relationships (Furrer, Pitzer and Skinner). Rejection is where the teacher makes fun of students, is not friendly or interested in the student. This creates a feeling of dislike towards the teacher and a sense of failure in the student (Furrer, Pitzer and Skinner). Consequently, teachers who are inconsistent and criticize instead of giving positive feedback create chaos (Furrer, Pitzer and Skinner). This sense of chaos makes people feel helpless with an inability to succeed (Furrer, Pitzer and Skinner). Furthermore, coercive is where students feel pressured because of commands (Furrer, Pitzer and Skinner). The combination of rejection, chaotic and coercive produces self-doubts in students lowering the student’s self-perception to do well, and leads to the student giving up easier. When a teacher makes fun of students (rejection) by giving them labels the students feel afraid to ask questions, because they do not want to be labelled and defined by the label in front of their peers. This results in lower perseverance to do well and an increase in students dropping out of schools. Ultimately, the relationship between teachers who label students and these students is negative and creates emotional and academic
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