proactive curriculum
Meaning
of the term proactive
Active means
"doing something." The prefix pro- means
"before." So if you are proactive, you are ready before something
happens. The opposite is being reactive, or waiting for things to unfold before
responding. Think about winter cold season. A proactive person washes his hands
and takes vitamins; a reactive person gets sick and takes cold medicine. Someone once
observed: "There
are three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch what
happens, and those who wonder what happened".... Proactive
behavior refers to the first kind of person - those who make things happen.
Many scholars believe that everyone has the potential to be the kind of person
who makes things happen. That is, everyone can display more or less proactive
behavior, depending on their motivation in the situation.
Three examples of proactive behavior include:
- A nurse who,
whilst waiting for the doctor to arrive to see a patient, anticipates and
prepares the equipment and information that the doctor might need,
enabling the doctor to do her job much more effectively and rapidly
- A production
operator who has, on his own initiative, come up with a way of cleaning
his machines that reduces water wastage.
- A new management
consultant who initiated meetings with her colleagues to seek feedback
regarding how to improve her future performance. Without waiting to be
asked or instructed, the individuals in the above scenarios have used
their initiative to change the present situation in light of anticipated
future demands and needs.
Because it is a relatively new field, the precise definition of
proactive behavior has been somewhat unclear and even contentious.
Nevertheless, in recent times, there appears a consensus appears to be emerging
as to the definition of proactive behavior, as suggested in Parker & Collins(2010). Dictionary definitions typically highlight two key
elements of proactivity.
First, they identify an anticipatory element involving acting in
advance of a future situation, such as acting in anticipation of future
problems, needs, or changes
(Miriam Webster Online Dictionary).
Second, definitions emphasize taking control and causing change,
for example: "controlling a situation by causing something to happen
rather than waiting to respond to it after it happens”
Both of these elements - anticipation and taking control - are
present in most conceptualizations of general proactive behavior. For
example:
- Crant (2000,
p.436) referred to proactive behavior as "taking initiative in
improving current circumstances; it involves challenging the status quo
rather than passively adapting present conditions".
- Parker, Williams & Turner (2006, p. 636) defined proactive behavior as
"self-initiated and future-oriented action that aims to change and
improve the situation or oneself"
- Grant, &
Ashford (2008, p. 13) defined proactive behavior as "anticipatory
action that employees take to impact themselves and/or their
environments".
As well as anticipation and taking control, definitions of
proactive behavior also often highlight its self-starting nature. Thus, Frees
and Fay (2001) suggested personal initiative involves going beyond assigned
tasks, developing one's own goals, and attempting to solve problems that have
not yet occurred. Likewise Grant and Ashford (2007) argued that proactivity can
include doing things before being asked, inventing new means, and/or
negotiating new ends. Importantly, self-initiation is essential to both taking
control and being anticipatory. For example, if one needs to be asked to change
something, it is not taking control of the situation. Likewise, if someone is
told to do something because of an impending need, then they would not be
acting in anticipation, but rather, they would be following a direction.
In summary, proactive behavior has three key features:
1. It is anticipatory - it involves acting in advance of a future situation, rather
than just reacting. For example, the nurse in the example has thought ahead to
anticipate the doctor's needs.
2. It is change-oriented - being proactive means taking control and causing something to
happen, rather than just adapting to a situation or waiting for something to
happen. The production operator has caused a change in the way machines are
changed.
3. It is self-initiated - the individual does not
need to be asked to act, nor do they require detailed instructions. For
example, the new management consultant in the example has not waited to be
given feedback, but has proactively sought it out.
Additional elements have been included in the definition of some
forms of proactive behaviors. For example, Frese and Fay (2001) included
persistence as a defining element of personal initiative. Being proactive can
involve persistence, such as persevering to bring about change, but persistence
per se is not always proactive (e.g., one might be persistent at asking a
supervisor for help). Being constructive and/or prosocial is also sometimes
highlighted as a feature of proactive behavior (e.g., taking charge is defined
as constructive efforts to effect functional change in how work is executed),
but too much, or misguided, proactive behavior can also be dysfunctional and
counter-productive (Bateman & Crant, 1993).
Within the domains that it has been investigated, proactive
behavior has been shown to be distinct from related behaviors. For example, in
the area of work performance, Griffin, et al., (2007) showed that proactive behavior is distinct from task
performance (which they referred to as proficiency), distinct from citizenship
& contextual performance, and distinct from adaptive performance. These
authors proposed a model of work role performance that distinguishes
proactivity, adaptively, as well as proficiency.
- The first type
of performance, termed "proficiency", describes the extent to
which an individual meets role requirements that can be formalized. It is
possible to assess proficiency when the requirements of a work role are
formalized because there is a clear standard against which these judgments
can be made.
- The second type
of performance, "adaptively", describes the extent to which an
individual adapts to changes in a work system or work roles.
- The third type
of performance, "proactivity", describes the extent to which the
individual takes self-directed action to anticipate or initiate change in
the work system or work roles.
Proactivity are
important whenever a work context involves uncertainty and some aspects of work
roles that cannot be formalized. It is important to note that the above
perspective is different to the idea that proactive behavior should be seen as
a type of contextual performance or as a type of extra-role behavior. For
example, some have argued that proactive behaviors is by definition extra-role,
since in-role activities are non-discretionary and hence not self-directed.
However, classifications of in-role and extra-role are unclear, and depend on
how employees construe the boundary of their role. Proactive individuals are
likely to construe their roles more broadly
Proactive learning
Proactive learning is a generalization
of active learning designed to relax unrealistic assumptions and thereby
reach practical applications.
"Active learning
seeks to select the most informative unlabeled instances and ask an
omniscient oracle for their labels,
so as to retrain a learning algorithm maximizing accuracy. However, the oracle is
assumed to be infallible (never wrong), indefatigable (always answers),
individual (only one oracle), and insensitive to costs (always free or always
charges the same).
"In real life, it is possible and more
general to have multiple sources of information with differing reliabilities or
areas of expertise. Active learning also assumes that the single oracle is
perfect, always providing a correct answer when requested. In reality, though,
an "oracle" (if we generalize the term to mean any source of expert
information) may be incorrect (fallible) with a probability that should be a
function of the difficulty of the question. Moreover, an oracle may be
reluctant – it may refuse to answer if it is too uncertain or too busy.
Finally, active learning presumes the oracle is either free or charges uniform
cost in label elicitation. Such an assumption is naive since cost is likely to
be regulated by difficulty (amount of work required to formulate an answer) or
other factors."
Proactive learning
relaxes all four of these assumptions, relying on a decision-theoretic approach
to jointly select the optimal oracle and instance, by casting the problem as a
utility optimization
problem subject to a budget constraint.
Here are a few things to consider to bolster
yourself and remain in a proactive mindset now and in future situations.
- What you say matters. In spite of how familiar the old phrase about “sticks and
stones…” may be to us, we are realistic enough to know that words truly
matter. A teacher’s words carry significant weight. They can uplift,
wound, or even destroy. So look at each challenging circumstance as an
opportunity to model proactive behavior, particularly through your
language choice. Once you’ve let those first responsive words out of your
mouth, there is no reeling them back in, in spite of how badly you’d love
to be able to do it. How can you communicate the worth and potential of
this child, parent, or co-worker as you respond—even when the need is to discipline
or correct behavior? Before you speak, take just a few seconds to pause
and think about your next words. Make sure they have the impact you
intended.
- Practice Habit Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. How
many times have you reacted to what you thought was the
reality, only to find out after it is too late that the true circumstance
was much different? Next time, take a proactive approach. Start with a
few clarifying questions to get a good handle on what’s
going on and what’s really at stake for all of those involved. Some
examples of a clarifying question might be:
- Is there anything else
about this situation you think I should know?
- What led up to this
situation?
- Was there anyone else
involved that I don’t know about?
- Take stock of your share of
ownership. Could the situation have been
precipitated from something you said or did that contributed to this
circumstance? Could your instructions have been less than clear? Did you
provide all of the needed resources? Was your expectation of the nature of
others’ performance reasonable? Could at least a portion of the
responsibility for this situation reside with you? If
so, how will you address that ownership in a way that lets others know
that you are ready to claim and address your share of the dilemma?
- State your job or
responsibility as the teacher. You are here to love,
teach, and discipline your students… among other things. In the heat of
the moment, it can be profoundly helpful for you to clarify your
intent—exactly what your end in mind is for this
circumstance. In fact, you, as well as others, will be served by pausing
to clarify the intended outcome and your role in achieving it. An example
of a clarifying statement could be: I am here to teach AND to help
you develop disciplined behavior, and nothing is going to prevent me from
doing that. So, right at this moment, though you probably aren’t going to
be pleased with what we need to do next, I want you to understand my end
in mind.
- Team up and solve the
problem together. If we remain in a position of absolute
authority over someone or the situation, we risk fostering an adversarial
relationship rather than a partnership. Keep in mind that the ultimate
goal is to achieve maximum maturity, which is interdependence.
Think about your student, the parent, the co-worker; they own a
significant part of this problem and they know it. They don’t have the
same perspective you do about the situation. In some cases, they don’t
have the skill or experience either. Rather than polarizing yourself or
them, move to position yourselves as a team working on the same problem
together. An example of a teaming statement could
be: Okay, we’ve got a problem here. But we are in this together
and we’re going to solve this problem. As leaders, we strive
continuously to do things that help communicate the worth and potential of
others so clearly they are inspired to see it in themselves. Positioning
someone as being inept in his or her role only alienates. At best,
alienation produces dependency; at its worse, alienation produces negative
synergy(hostility, belligerence, total withdraw
Effective
Classroom Management: Proactive Teaching through Prevention
Great teachers do more than
control their classroom; they have their students passionately engaged in the
learning. An essential step to achieving success in the classroom is learning
and practicing the art of prevention. Prevention is organized into multiple
areas:
- Holding ground
- Positive
connections
- Teaching
procedures
- Consistency
- Getting ready
- Lesson designs
“Holding ground” is a facet
of what teachers do proactively. It requires advance planning and commitment.
According to education
expert Rick Smith, “It’s the toughest thing we do as classroom managers in the
classroom is hold our ground with kids. And the research suggests that we only
have to do it about seven hundred times a day…” Teachers must “avoid the Land
of Reasons,” a place characterized by students asking for reasons why.
An important way for
holding ground is learning to say ‘no’ effectively. It is simple, direct and to
the point, and invites student cooperation. An effective ‘no’ is paradoxically
firm and soft. A lot of teachers believe the word no is inherently negative,
and should never be used. No problem. Use the word yes. Yes, Regina you can go
to the bathroom in ten minutes when the bell rings. You never have to use the
word no. Just use yes and, or yes later, or yes if…
Being proactive in a curriculum
planning
Early career lecturers may find it difficult to take a
proactive approach to the curriculum in their subject area, particularly if
they have inherited modules, find themselves co-teaching on group modules, or
have encountered opposition from colleagues to any changes they propose. They
may also be unaware of how to go about implementing changes, and what the
institutional mechanisms and timeframes for doing so may be.
Curriculum design
Curriculum design covers a wide range of areas, from
creating individual modules to planning and implementing new degree programs.
These are clearly tasks of different orders of magnitude. Creating new degree
programs will require intensive pedagogical and financial planning (you will
need to make a business case for it, for instance), and will necessitate a
great deal of paperwork. New modules will also need to go through institutional
hoops to ensure that they also meet a business case and that they conform to
quality assurance procedures.
The big picture: Institutional values
This is why the place to start with your curriculum plans
may not be the seemingly obvious – i.e. with the nuts and bolts of your
teaching – but instead with the bigger picture. What is your institution’s
guidance on curriculum development as a whole? What are the values that your
institution places at the heart of any curriculum design? Good places to start
include your institution’s quality manual, your student services division or
equivalent, which often provide guidance on process, and you’re departmental or
school Director of Teaching. Your DoT should be able to provide you with a
steer on any on-going, subject-specific issues: e.g. such as the sort of
teaching your institution or department favors, preferred assessment models,
and even live concerns about staffing patterns. There may be little point in
proposing single-instructor modules, for instance, when everyone else is
teaching in teams; similarly, your ideas about assessment need to conform to
some degree at least with current assessment models. Change can come, but only
when it takes into account current practice.
7 Proactive Classroom Management
Strategies
More and more classroom events are being caught on camera and
uploaded on the internet. Students are caught fighting each other and
teachers. Teachers are caught lashing out at students. Campus police
officers are caught physically handling male and female students. We ask
a lot of questions are a reactive in nature. However, we believe that
being proactive is the best way to prevent series discipline events. The
following seven strategies are great tools to implement in every classroom in
America.
1. Teach the Expectations
2. Set Clear, Concise, Logical, and Proportional
Consequences
3. Build Relationships
4. Do not Entertain Self-indulgent Behavior
5. Seek Administrative Support
6. Remove the Audience
7. Be a Classroom “Edutainer”
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