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Paige Woodall
SPED 310
November 4, 2015
Reflection #2:

Academic ethos is loosely defined as the guiding principles or beliefs of teachers as seen
in the classroom. There are four components of academic ethos that all teachers should include in
their classroom: providing recognition, engaging students, establishing high academic and
behavioral expectations, and effective questioning.
The first component, providing recognition to students, is especially effective because it
allows a teacher to encourage and motivate students. Two ways in which a teacher can provide
recognition to students are through specific positive praise and acknowledgement statements.
When a teacher praises a student for their correct behavior, it not only encourages that student, it
motivates them to continue doing what they are doing. By praising a student with specific
positive praise the teacher is also using that student as an example for the rest of the class to
model appropriate behavior. Praise also provides motivation for other students to work hard and
behave correctly so that their behavior might be recognized in return. In the same way, an
acknowledgement statement is used to reference when a student behaves correctly, and models
for other students to learn from. Providing recognition through praise and acknowledgement is
important because it reinforces students correct behavior, motivates them to continue to achieve
success, and reminds them of what they need to do in order to be successful.
Engaging students in learning is a fundamental component of academic ethos. In order
for students to learn and achieve in school, they have to be engaged and able to connect with the
learning. One effective way for teachers to engage students is by using attention getters.
Attention getters are phrases that are used to grab students attention and to let them know that it
is time to learn. These are effective because they let students know that they are to immediately

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stop what they are doing and get ready to listen and learn. Another way to engage students is to
create a positive classroom environment. A positive classroom environment is one where
students feel welcomed and comfortable. To create a positive environment, teachers should focus
on greeting students at the door every morning with a smile and praise when they arrive, letting
students know that they are on their side and invited in. This sets students up with the mindset
that they are wanted in the classroom, and encourages a positive attitude that is ready to learn.
Teachers can also create this environment by displaying students work around the classroom.
This helps to show students that everyones work is accepted and appreciated, and it builds a
sense of honor and motivation in students to continue to work hard and participate. This
motivation gets them excited to work on activities that will be displayed for the rest of the class
to see. In his article, Beck introduces another way to engage students through providing activities
that they can actively participate in (pg. 88-89). Such activities include having students come up
with explanations, examples, nonexamples and summaries, allowing them to participate and
engage with what they are learning.
Teachers can also engage students in learning through asking and answering questions
about the information. In his article Systematic Questioning, Gilbert mentioned that asking
factual questions that are easily and quickly answered contributes little to the development of
critical thinking skills (pg. 41). For this reason, effective, higher-level questioning is a key
component of academic ethos. As Kloss discussed in her article, asking students lower level
questions does not require critical thinking, and simply connotes to students that they are only
expected to perform at the factual level of thinking (pg. 245). However, this type of lower level
questioning does not push students toward high achievement by any means. Instead, it is crucial
that teachers refer to Blooms Taxonomy when creating questions in order to provide questions

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that apply to all levels of thinking push students to use their critical thinking skills to answer the
questions based on their comprehension of the information. As mentioned in the article, when
teachers ask effective, higher-level questions in their class, students are more likely to ask
questions meeting the same criteria on their own. Asking effective questions allows students to
engage and connect with their learning which results in full comprehension of the material.
Requiring students to use higher-level, critical thinking skills through answering more
complex questions is one way of setting high academic expectations. Along with having high
academic expectations, it is equally important to set high behavioral expectations for students.
Academic and behavior expectations can be established through setting rules and procedures in
place in the classroom. Enforcing rules for students to follow in the classroom sets students up
with the behavior that is expected of them. When creating rules, it is important that teachers
think about problem behaviors that may arise in the classroom, and create rules that strictly
prevent those behaviors from occurring. In order for classroom rules to be effective, they must be
consistently reinforced so that students know how to behave at all times. As discussed in class,
academic expectations can be set through having classroom procedures that work as a guideline
for students to follow. However, it is important that teachers create procedures that allow
students to be successful in whatever they do. In order to be an effective teacher, it is important
to have high academic and behavior expectations that are both reasonable and challenging, and
allow students to be successful.
In order to be an effective teacher, one must be motivated to hold true to their academic
ethos by including these four components in their classroom. Providing recognition to students
allows teachers to encourage those who are behaving correctly, while modeling for others what is
expected of them. Engaging students in learning sets students up for success by motivating them

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to connect with and learn from the information. Asking effective questions pushes students to
think critically and fully comprehend the information provided. Setting high behavioral and
academic expectations for students is important because it pushes students to be successful. All
of these components are important to include in order to create an open, encouraging, and
affirmative environment that positively impacts students learning and achievement.

Works Cited
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary
instruction (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Pages 88-89.
Gilbert, S. W., (1992). Systematic questioning: Taxonomies that develop critical thinking
skills. The Science Teacher, 59(9). Page 41.
Kloss, R.J., (1988). toward asking the right questions: The beautiful, the pretty, and the big
messy ones. The Clearing House, 61(6). Page 245.