Democratic teaching

1. By: Greg Odachowski and Crystal
Butler

2.  Austrian Born,
February 8, 1897
 Trained at the
University of Vienna,
received is MD in
psychiatry in 1923
 Immigrated to the
United States in 1937
 American Educator
and Psychologist

3.  Dreikurs developed Alfred Alders system of
individual psychology into a method for
understanding children's behavior.
 His theory is based on the premise that
children have an inherent desire to belong and
feel part of their peer group, but due to feelings
of inferiority and maladaptive parenting, they
have acquired ineffective ways of finding their
place.

4.  Human beings are social and have a basic
motivation to belong
 Childhood behavioral problems stem from a
lack of feeling, or feeling inadequate in their
social group.
 Behavior is a result of individual purpose
 Education starts from home, and the education
system branches from it.
 Behavior is not an action, but a reaction and
interpretation of the surrounding environment.

7.  Attention Getting-If a
child is not getting
desired attention from
peers and students
misbehavior may
begin to occur. When
a teacher begins to
feel annoyed, he or
she can be sure the
child is seeking
attention.
 Power/Control-
Students begin to take
control because they
feel it gets them the
attention they
deserve. When the
teacher feels
intimidated or beaten
then the child is
seeking control.

8.  Revenge- Students
retaliate often from
anger because they
did not receive the
attention or control
they desired. A
teacher can identify
revenge when he or
she feels hurt.
 Inadequacy/Helpless
ness- Students may
just give up when
they do not feel apart
of the group. A
teacher may feel
incapable, or helpless
as well when a
student feels
inadequate.

9.  Seeking Attention – Restlessness, chattering,
talking out of turn, throwing things, minor
mischief.
 Seeking Power – Refuses to do homework,
refuses to sit down, purposely misspells words.
 Seeking Revenge – Similar to power seeking
misbehavior but often times it’s more extreme,
like verbally assaulting a teacher.
 Displaying Inadequacy – Has a defeatist
attitude, often underachieves as a way to get
attention.

10.  Driekurs did not
believe in
reinforcement,
neither reward or
punishment
 He believed in
natural and logical
consequences, he
believed these can be
used to prevent
problems.

11.  Being sent to bed early because of falling asleep
in class.
 Cleaning the desk after drawing on the desk.

12.  The Democratic Teaching Method is based on the
democratic principles of equality, cooperation,
participation and mutual respect.
 The teacher’s attitude toward the class must have a
combination of firmness and kindness. Firmness
implies self-respect and kindness implies respect
for others.
 If a teacher is too firm they will create resistance
and if the teacher is too kind, the students will
walk all over them.
 When the teacher can achieve a balance between
the two, mutual respect will be gained and there
will be far less conflict.

13.  When dealing with misbehavior, it is important to
remember this idea of mutual respect between the
teacher and the student.
 Being an autocratic teacher, one with harsh,
illogical punishments, one that rules with an iron
fist, this will often times only create more
resistance.
 A democratic solution to misbehavior is to get
together with the student and put the ball in their
court, ask them how “we” can fix this problem,
and let them come up with their own solutions.
Guide them rather than tell them.

14.  For example, if they repeatedly “forget” to do
their homework, meet with the student and
say: “lets brainstorm, what are some ways that
“we” can think of to ensure that you don’t
forget your homework again”.
 By guiding them to come up with their own
solution rather than telling them, it gives them
a sense of responsibility and it makes them feel
like it was their idea, making it much more
likely that they will follow through on
correcting their misbehavior.

15.  The teacher’s overall goal is to make their
students feel like they belong in the class.
 They do this by:
 Eliminating any feelings of inferiority or inadequacy
through encouragement, highlighting a student’s
strengths, and by promoting participation by all.
 Giving them a sense of equality, like they have a say
in how the class is run. Maybe by having a class
meeting for deciding upon the order in which they
will learn each chapter from their book.

16.  Less time wasted on disciplining students.
 The idea of mutual respect between student
and teacher creates mutual trust and a bond to
build off of, further limiting any potential
future discipline problems.
 Encouraging students to come up with
solutions to their own problems gives them a
sense of self-worth, responsibility and also
helps create self-discipline.

17.  Not all teachers have the temperament to restrain
their initial reaction to a student’s misbehavior and
will come off as autocratic rather than democratic,
which can ruin any mutual respect that had been
gained.
 It can be more difficult to institute this method
with older students since they are already set in
their ways.
 Combative, violent, and overly difficult students
may not always respond to this method, and other
methods may need to be included on a trial and
error basis.