Assessment Post No. 5 - Glasser

William Glasser’s choice theory is based on five crucial needs of students
- Survival, Safety and security
- Love, belonging and acceptance
- Personal power, competency and achievement
- Freedom, independence and autonomy
- Fun and learning
(Edwards & Watts, 2004, pp.136-137)
He notes that students have to have all of these needs achieved in order to learn effectively. Having these needs satisfied leads to self management and personal responsibility for one’s actions. http://web.ebscohost.com.ipacez.nd.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=103&sid=4724445d-e7d7-43ba-9fbe-e617b1e3834a%40sessionmgr102
Glasser goes on by saying that these five needs are part of our ‘quality world’ which is what students really want from a classroom or school and that what they have now is not as good, called our ‘comparing place’. Therefore there is a huge strive to achieve the quality world. Not having these five needs satisfied results in misbehaviour and students perhaps not fulfilling their potential and being frustrated with this.
As a teacher this information and theory is incredibly important for my classroom management skills, realising that these five needs are related to effort and achievement makes sense when thinking about my own schooling experiences. If a child is lacking in any one of these areas I have to help them to achieve it and satisfy it before even trying to teach them anything. This is also related to the student teacher relationship that needs to be worked upon with my students, if I do not know my students then I cannot identify which needs are not being satisfied and therefore would perhaps have difficulty teaching them. Also, the fun part of the needs I can incorporate into my lesson plans, students do not want to simply do activities the same way Everytime. I know from my own schooling that the best lessons I had were the fun lessons. Teaching and learning does not have to be boring to be effective.

This link talks about how important it is for student teachers to be reflective about their teaching practices and about how their lesson plans have to be stimulating. This is very important for my upcoming practicum.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ipacez.nd.edu.au/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=103&sid=4724445d-e7d7-43ba-9fbe-e617b1e3834a%40sessionmgr102