Learning to Trust: Transforming Difficult Elementary Classrooms Through Developmental Discipline

by Marilyn Watson, Laura Ecken, Alfie Kohn

Faced with increasing numbers of children who are difficult to manage and the pervasive presence of high stakes testing, many teachers feel frustrated and compelled to reduce their attention to building relationships with and among their students and their focus on social and ethical development. In Learning to Trust, an educational psychologist and a classroom teacher collaborate to demonstrate through an in-depth case study of an inner-city classroom...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787966509
• ISBN13: 9780787966508
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A different approach to dicipline.

The book presents an alternative to the traditional dicipline approach in a classroom. Marilyn Watson does a great job showing us how the attachment theory can work in a classroom situation. Laura Eckens, a 16 year elementary school teacher, takes us into her classroom over a 2 year period to show us her successes, challenges and failures. She uses real-life experiences to demonstrate what developmental discipline is. She shows how you can manage a successful classroom without providing incentives to the children. This book is an easy read and provides you with all kinds of ideas for your classroom.

Vivid Narrative of the Development of a Caring Classroom

This book invites us to step inside a dynamically unfolding classroom, come along side a caring professional educator and her supportive mentor, and vicariously share in the joys and struggles of a group of children who will forever be etched in our hearts. The genuine interactions portrayed in the classroom vignettes, demonstrate the potential for all children to grow and develop when led by a teacher like Laura Ecken, the teacher in this book. Her commitment to developing trusting relationships in a caring classroom community is guided and sustained by the professional mentorship of the author, Marilyn Watson. Marilyn, an educational psychologist, assists Laura, and indeed all of us, as we come to understand the needs of children through the lens of attachment theory. Members of the classroom come to life in this vivid narrative account. The thinking, actions and reflections of the teacher are shared in ways that evoke tears of laughter and sorrow. Together, Laura and Marilyn create reachable hopes and dreams for everyone in the learning community. They have given me a powerful resource to use with my new teacher education students at the large, urban, state university where I currently work. The ideals stressed in the work of Dewey, Noddings, Goodlad and others emerge in surprisingly concrete ways. The possibility of creating caring classroom communities where intrinsic motivation is fostered and teaching and learning are facilitated without coercive approaches to management and discipline becomes reachable. The book is powerfully concrete without creating oversimplified recipes. Instead it illuminates the rich complexity of learning and human development and the rich complexities involved in the kind of teaching that meets the challenge to leave no child behind. Finally, I have found a course textbook that meets the needs of my teacher education students, my faculty colleagues, and the in-service teachers with whom we collaborate. e

Beyond Classroom Management

Marilyn Watson has written a book relevant to all classrooms, not just "difficult" ones. It is a helpful blend of theory and practice, with Laura Ecken and her classroom serving as a case study. The reader can live with Laura during her two years of transforming her classroom into a caring community of learners. Watson's commentary helps the reader understand not only what works but why it works. I highly recommend this book to all practicing teachers.