Teaching Methods that Enhance Human Dignity, Self-Respect and Academic Achievement

Few would doubt that schools, even when they make no attempt to instil moral values, affect the child’s perception of right and wrong and of acceptable and unacceptable conduct. Even at the preschool level, classroom rules and procedures, as well as other indications of teacher and peer approval and disapproval, influence students. The orderly functioning of the classroom depends, in part, on the acceptance and internalization of certain values. Punctuality, courtesy, cooperation and honesty are fundamental. Teacher interventions at many levels, whether in fighting or in correcting incorrect academic responses, reveal certain values the teacher holds and is trying to transmit (Pyszkowski 1986, p. 42).