ASSIGNMENT1                

CLASSROOM CULTURE 
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
 

Introduction
A classroom is a learning space and the various interactions between the mentors
and mentees, constitutes the classroom culture.​ There are multiple ways in which a
constructive classroom culture is built. When the students are engaged in projects
and activities with a vested interest, it enhances their understanding of the subject. It
provides them with factile experiences and when asked probing questions, they’ll be
able to evaluate and answer. When students provide examples to justify their
understanding of certain concepts, the teacher ensures that there’s no
misconception. They assess their own learning when they apply their knowledge in
student led conferences, presentations and exhibitions of learning.

Personalised student - teacher interactions increase the chances of a proper

feedback system about the teacher’s pedagogy. It also affects the way in which
students perceive their teachers. In certain situations, it acts as an impetus for the
students to consult their teachers on problems outside the threshold of the
classroom. It also enables the teachers to build a secure environment where student
opinions are not undermined. Such interactions reduce the chances of disruptive
behaviour.

Group activities ensure that students brainstorm for ideas together, which again
helps in building a conducive learning environment. The nature of peer interactions
helps in facilitating social learning. Another variable which increases cohesiveness is
the arrangement of furniture in the classroom. The circle desk arrangement
facilitates the flow of ideas by fostering positive group dynamics. When sitting in a
circle it is easier for students to not only see who is talking, but to make eye contact
with the speaker. Students sitting in a circle arrangement tend to feel more
comfortable speaking up and asking questions. This style of desk placement also
makes it easier for teachers to control the class, preventing off task comments as it
allows them to easily see all the students, and allows all the students to see the
teacher. A successful classroom is not just a schooled, socialised classroom; it is
one that creates a culture that suits the context, goals, and potential of the students.
OBSERVATIONS:
The students settle themselves down as the lecture begins and are intrigued by the
topic - Attitude.

Most of them are attentive as there is an effective student-teacher relationship in

place.

This relationship is observed when the professor asks for the student’s opinions
about the topic and they answer back by giving personal examples.

A subject of interest stimulates discussions among the students, wherein they put
forth their ideologies.

Student opinions vary strongly and an influence of their distinct cultural backgrounds
is seen.

The distribution of the desks inhibits the positive group dynamics to a certain extent,
as students are distributed unevenly across the classroom.

Depending upon the topic of interest, one can observe different groups of students
and their respective seating patterns. There are gradations within that as well as
some prefer to sit in close proximity to the teacher while some keep a median
distance. A generalised pattern of subject interest can be identified with the seating
pattern of the students.

Chances of a student sitting alone are less since students tend to sit in specific
groups.

During a group based activity, common-bond groups are formed as they have
shared goals. The students interact with each other on a daily basis, hence group
cohesiveness increases.

In such an environment, conducive to learning, chances of disruptive behaviour are

sparse.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPTS

SOCIAL COGNITION- The manner in which we interpret, analyse, remember, and

use information about the social world. ​It involves the study of mental processes
involved in perceiving and attending to the other people in our social world.

When looking at a social situation, any two people may have wildly different
interpretations. Each person brings a unique background of experiences, knowledge,
social influences, feelings, and cultural variations. Social cognition is at its highest
during peer interactions. Classroom activities neatly lay out these cultural
differences.
Some researchers have found that there are also collective, cultural influences that
can affect how people interpret social situations. The same social behaviour in one
cultural setting may have a very different meaning and interpretation if it was to take
place in another culture. As people interpret behaviour, extract meaning from the
interaction, and then act based upon their beliefs about the situation, they are then
further reinforcing and reproducing the cultural norms that influence their social
cognitions. For e.g. School culture is clearly driven by the country and its regulatory
system. Finland and India have completely different school cultures not just because
they are geographically disparate but also because the people and the regulations
are completely different. England and India share similar education structures due to
shared genesis and therefore, similar models and goals.

REPRESENTATIVENESS HEURISTIC - A strategy for making judgements based on

the extent to which current stimuli or events resemble other stimuli or categories.
The representativeness heuristic was first described by psychologists Amos Tversky
and Daniel Kahneman during the 1970s. Like other heuristics, making judgments
based on representativeness is intended to work as a type of mental shortcut,
allowing us to make decisions quickly. However, it can also lead to errors.

When we make decisions based on representativeness, we may be likely to make

more errors by overestimating the likelihood that something will occur. Just because
an event or object is representative does not mean its occurrence is more probable.

Consider the following example: Sarah loves to listen to New Age music and
faithfully reads her horoscope each day. In her spare time, she enjoys aromatherapy
and attending a local spirituality group.

Based on the description above, is Sarah more likely to be a school teacher or a

holistic healer? Many people would identify her as a holistic healer based on
representativeness. She fits in with our existing ideas of how a holistic healer might
behave. In reality, it is far more likely that Sarah is actually a school teacher based
purely on probability. School teachers are far more common than holistic healers.

This particular heuristic is used avidly by students when they approach their teachers
for the first time. One of the important criteria for making a conversation with a
professor is his appearance. Based on the language and dressing styles, students
often judge their peers and apply a specific personality trait.
SCHEMAS - Mental frameworks centering on a specific theme that help us to
organize social information. Students learn best when they can relate new
knowledge to previous knowledge by using their schemas. Teachers use teaching
strategies that capitalize on students existing schemas in order to integrate new
information.
Children enter school with the ability to engage in top-down processing. In order to
help students along in this process, teachers use a language experience approach.
In a language experience approach, known schemata are used to present unknown
material and establish a schema within children that can print and carry meaning.
Exposing children to varying types of literature is also very important as different
exposure increases schemata thus increasing the efficiency in processing text.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY - ​Bandura (1977) believes that humans are active
information processors and think about the relationship between their behaviour and
its consequences.
Individuals do not automatically observe the behaviour of a model and imitate it.
There is some thought prior to imitation, and this consideration is called mediational
processes. This occurs between observing the behaviour (stimulus) and imitating it
or not (response).
Classroom strategies such as encouraging students and building self-efficacy are
also rooted in social learning theory​. 

SOCIAL FACILITATION​ - ​Social facilitation can be defined as ‘an improvement in

performance produced by the mere presence of others’.
Studies on social facilitation concern the extent to which a given piece of an
individual's behaviour is affected by the real, imagined or implied presence of others.
An example of social facilitation is a group of students giving a presentation. The
confident individuals who know their material are likely to give a great performance,
but the less confident students will probably make mistakes and perform at a much
lower standard than their actual capability.
REFERENCES:

https://www.whatispsychology.net/social-facilitation-examples/
https://canvas.vt.edu/courses/62492/pages/schema-theory-activity?module_item_id=
345279
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2019/02/a-teachers-perspective-on-the-importance-of-sharing-stud
ents-learning/
https://www.verywellmind.com/representativeness-heuristic-2795805
https://www.kbmanage.com/concept/social-learning-theory
Robert A. Baron, Nyla R. Branscombe, (2017), SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Pearson