Care

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE:

"The ethical standard of care includes compassion, acceptance, interest, and insight for developing students potential" (OCT Standards, Ontario Ministry of Education)
Care is a word we have all grown up with and we tend to take it for granted. Sometimes I believe we forget to consider what care really means. Care means to feel concern for one's well-being and benefit. Nel Noddings wrote an article called Education Leaders as Caring Teachers that well represents care because he describes what a caring teacher looks like and does. I took this resource directly from the reference list from Talking Diversity chapter 2.

I believe this article articulates care appropriately because it sets the tone for what describes a caring teacher. This article notes that caring teachers listen and are responsive, hear their students expressed needs, and motivate their students. More importantly, Noddings takes a psychological approach and discusses how caring teachers focus not only on extrinsic motivation, but also intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when students, or anyone, is motivated to do something in order to gain a reward or avoid a punishment. For example, Billy wants to finish his math assignment so he can go out for recess. Intrinsic motivation is when students, or anyone, is motivated to do something simply for the pleasure of doing it and to improve and grow as a person. So, Billy wants to finish his math assignment because he wants to take responsibility for his own learning and knows that he can learn that math topic if he takes time and effort.

Before reading this article, I was not really sure how to express care as a teacher. Now, I know that in order to show that I am a caring teacher, I should promote and encourage intrinsic motivation on my students. I will show them that I care about them by having them take pride in their work and be proud of accomplishing tasks without reward/punishment. I really encourage that you read this article. It is only 7 pages and Noddings efficiently gets his point across.

The level of reflection that I will engage in to utilize whether or not I am using care in the classroom is pedagogical reflection. I would ask myself if I have represented care through promotion of intrinsic motivation and caring for students well-being and potential. I would do this by looking at my students interests, and utilize these interests in the learning process.

Below is a screenshot of the title synopsis of the article and below that is a citation of the article so you can research it if you would like!

Noddings, N. (2006). Educational Leaders as Caring Teachers. School Leadership & Management, 26(4), 339-345.