Developing a Teacher Training Program to Control Off-task Behaviors from the Perspective of "Focus" in Improvisational Theatre

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Controlling off-task behaviors has become an important educational issue in Japan. Here, we attempt to develop a teacher training program for controlling off-task behaviors in the context of an improvisational acting class.Referring to the notion of “Focus” (object of attention) in improvisational theatre, we characterize off-task behavior as the result of a “multi-focus” situation between teachers and students in which the object of students’ attention shifts to something out of the teacher’s control. We categorize strategies used by teachers into three categories: (1) “taking focus”, or directly ordering students to stop off-task behavior and pay attention to the subject matter; (2) “sharing students’ focus”, or shifting the teacher’s attention to the students’ object of attention (e.g., watching what the student is watching or listening to students’ conversations); and (3) “cutting in on students’ focus”, or engaging with students more actively than merely “sharing” in order to shif … More t attention back to the teacher (e.g., standing between the student and what he or she is watching or joining a conversation between students). It seems that many experienced, skilled teachers use the “sharing” and “cutting in” strategies to control off-task behaviors (often without knowing why they are effective).Through statistical analysis of the results of two questionnaires administered to elementary and junior high school teachers in Japan, we attempt to demonstrate a correlation between the self-efficiency of teachers and strategies used by teachers to control students’ off-task behaviors. The analysis revealed two tasks for teacher training as follows. (1) Novice teachers with high self-efficiency tend to depend solely on “taking focus” to control off-task behaviors. They may repeatedly shout “Stop it and look at me!” or “Quiet please!” in response to off-task behaviors in the classroom. If the students subsequently disobey these commands, the teacher will not have any alternative strategies. (2) Teachers who are afraid of failure tend to depend on “sharing students’ focus” or “cutting in on students’ focus.” Such teachers suffer from low self-efficiency; however, if they can learn to talk about the subject matter at the appropriate moments, they can overcome off-task behaviors in the same manner as skilled teachers.We propose concrete exercises for these two tasks and point out that the strategies of “sharing students’ focus” and “cutting in on students’ focus” are also effective as typical teaching strategies. Less