There are common attributes that pertain to these types of classrooms, they are: setting a clear purpose, building self-responsibility, creating lasting bonds between students, and promoting skills that are critical for success inside and outside the classroom.
These classrooms function to change those within it for the better, individually and collectively. Visions in these classrooms tend to change thoughts and ideas from a negative view to a positive one. For instance, student characteristics focus on promoting self-responisibility instead of irresponsibility; acknowledging functional behavioural patterns instead of resorting to noticing the dysfunctional ones. A transformative classroom allows for egocentric behaviour to be replaced by students who desire to contribute thoughts, ideas, and actions. Finally, in this way the teacher becomes intentional and aware instead of reactive or accidental allowing for them to become the leader with a desired long-term vision while diminishing the need for short-term survival as a manager of the classroom.
When developing a vision for your transformative classroom, keep in mind you should clarify the intention (who is it for, what will it entail, how will it be beneficial, what kind of timeline do you need to complete it), be purposeful (raise you level of awareness of yourself and your students), and recognize the every practice has an affect (choice reaps consequences whether positive or negative).
In the book, Transformative Classroom Management, it distinguishes four types of management styles in the classroom represented in the following figure:
I wanted to post this Matrix of Management Style for you to examine the way you are teaching and push you to create goals of how to maintain or change your current position of teaching style.
Within the Workshop Model, the teacher is designated to be the facilitator by briefly introducing the topic of the lesson, allowing substantial student work time where they travel student to student to observe, note, and guide students, and then complete the class with a communal discussion to share knowledge, understanding, questions, findings and ideas. In this way, students are expected to be responsible for their learning, choose their own direction, and establish their motivation. The Workshop Model allows the teacher to be an architect and steward in an effective, functional, and student-centred environment.
The goal of the teacher as facilitator is to establish self-directed students and be motivated to build a sense of self-efficacy in each person. In order to beneficially establish this type of classroom environment, there must be clear boundaries, collective responsibility, and long-term goals set by the classroom and teacher. In this way, the students can refer to the classroom as their own.
Creating your vision for a transformative classroom should focus on the question "Why are we doing this?" so that both students and educators know what is happening, and why. The advantages of establishing a facilitator told in the classroom allow for working toward a self-regulated system, empowering students, promoting a lot of learning and insight, establishing a evident structure, and finally resulting in student and teacher satisfaction.
Finally, These transformative classrooms begin to establish a sense of open-mindedness which promotes creativity. This creativity stems from the students self-responsibility, empowerment, and implementation of their own ideas as facilitated by the teacher.
We often see schools educate student out of their creativity, however, if we implement a transformative classroom with teacher as facilitator of learning, students will be encouraged to tap into their creativity and ideas because what better way to learn than from the brilliant ideas of young aspiring minds?
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