Designing a Prosocial Classroom: Fostering Collaboration in Students from Prek-12 with the Curriculum You Already Use

Christi Bergin

Book cover for Designing a Prosocial Classroom: Fostering Collaboration in Students from Prek-12 with the Curriculum You Already Use
Image for variant 9780393711981
Book cover for Designing a Prosocial Classroom: Fostering Collaboration in Students from Prek-12 with the Curriculum You Already Use
Image for variant 9780393711981

Designing a Prosocial Classroom: Fostering Collaboration in Students from Prek-12 with the Curriculum You Already Use

Designing a Prosocial Classroom: Fostering Collaboration in Students from Prek-12 with the Curriculum You Already Use

Christi Bergin

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Description

A prosocial classroom is easy to spot! Students are engaged in learning, have a warm relationship with the teacher, and can collaborate smoothly; conflicts and behavioral problems are the exception rather than the rule. Not only are students happier in this kind of positive environment, their academic achievement improves. But it's far from obvious how to establish and maintain such a productive and peaceful classroom.

In Designing a Prosocial Classroom, Christi Bergin has distilled the complex literature about social-emotional learning into a set of tools that all teachers can use to promote prosocial behavior. As with any skill, fostering kindness and collaboration requires deliberate practice; but it does not require a separate curriculum. These research-based tools--using effective discipline, building prosocial habits, developing positive relationships, modeling good coping strategies--are teaching practices that can be employed within any content area during regular instruction.

Each chapter includes authentic classroom vignettes, highlights from the research on prosocial behavior, and questions for reflection and discussion. Designing a Prosocial Classroom is an engaging read and an ideal resource for a school-wide book study group; included in an appendix is a case study for review and discussion of the teaching tools presented in the chapters.

Critical Reviews

An enormously useful guide to the establishment of a positive learning environment in classrooms--highly readable and engaging.--Nel Noddings, Lee Jacks Professor of Education Emerita, Stanford University

This comprehensive but concise guide, combining expert scholarship with practical, real-world examples, shows educators how to foster prosocial kids, classrooms, and schools. It should be read by anyone who is serious about improving our education system.--Gustavo Carlo, Millsap Professor of Diversity and Multicultural Studies, University of Missouri

This book takes educators beyond superficial rhetoric to delve deeply into the psychological mechanisms that foster healthy life in classrooms. Dedicated teachers will find a wealth of useful information for promoting prosocial behavior, and strategies to improve students' commitment to one another and their own learning.--Dr. Theresa A. Thorkildsen, Professor of Education and Psychology, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago

Just as students need to learn to read and do math, they need to learn to form positive relationships with others and to manage their own behavior and attention. Bergin offers teachers very practical advice - drawing from the latest research - on how to do this each day in the classroom. An absolute must read for all current and future educators!--Bridget Hamre, PhD, Associate Director, Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia

Bergin's book is conversational and practical, but presents a wealth of research about children's social behavior and classroom climate and the connection of both to learning.-- "Educational Leadership"

Publishing Information

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Pub date: 2018-05-29
Length: 272 pages

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