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TESOL Research

respond non assertively, i.e. without consideration for their own wants and feelings, to students' demanding, often aggressive, and school goal irrelevant comportment. The non-assertive teacher fails to act because of fear or confusion regarding the adequacy and the appropriateness of his or her actions. Hostile teachers, on the other hand, overreact, i.e. they reduce their level of anxiety through aggressiveness which they are wont to rationalize as the "need for discipline" in the classroom. The dilemma remains: To spank or not to spank, that is the question! Whether It is nobler to adopt a laisser faire attitude or to be in full command of the situation is still at the core of the teaching/learning authority dilemma.

It is authority that provides control. Doubtlessly, teachers must be accountable for the output of their pedagogical efforts. The crux of the matter lies in the various facets of authority as well as on its various modes of application. One thing is for teachers to exercise control of classroom discipline, another is to stand as the role-model of the knowledge and skills to be taught, another still is to constitute the sole or main architect of the teaching/learning environment and processes. If, as psychologists believe, the locus of learning resides in the learner, should the learner not generate his own syllabus and didactic methodology? Affective-Humanistic Approach methodologists think so. Where does that put the teacher and her "authority?" Has she lost control of the teaching/learning situation? Let us see what a representative sample of researchers think about the problem.

Stevick (1980:19) contrasts control with initiative which "refers to decisions about who says what, to whom, and when... and consist[s] of choices among a narrow or a very broad range of possibilities which are provided by whoever is exercising control." He argues that control and initiative must be kept distinct and can be a...

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TESOL Research. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:01, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681270.html