Educational Psychology - Teaching Movie Analysis

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Teaching Movie Analysis: Dangerous Minds (1995)

Demetrius Evans

NC A&T State University Graduate Studies

EDPR 600

Dr. Debra Davidson

March 12, 2021

Teaching Movie Analysis: Dangerous Minds (1995)

Introduction

The movie “Dangerous Minds” focuses on an ex-marine untrained teacher who is offered a temporary teaching job at poverty-stricken school. The students are not enthusiastic at her arrival; however, she uses unconventional methods to gain trust from them. It essentially highlights a story of a dedicated teacher who faces rebellious students, but eventually wins them over. The majority of the students are Hispanics, and African Americans, while the teacher is white, they call her white bread. The unconventional method she uses to win them over include teaching them karate, informing them that she is a U.S marine. She also bribes them with candies and offers free trips to amazement parks. The movie star, who acts as the teacher is Lou Anne Johnson. The paper explains how the characters, the events, and the plot in the movie “Dangerous Minds” are linked to the theorists and concepts such as language development, cognitive development, self, social and moral development, and culture and diversity.

Concepts and Theories in the Movie

The movie exhibits three theories, namely social cognitive theory, behaviorism, and constructivism. The learning theories are exhibited by the behavior of the movie star. Behaviorism is shown in the trial-and-error approach adopted by the teacher. For example, when the teacher first entered the class, she faced a rowdy class, Lou Anne could not control the class; the students sensed her low self-esteem and succeeded in pushing her away because she left the class. Trial and error is exhibited when Lou Anne tried to gain control of the class by writing the name of the most rowdy student on the board but she could not gain control.

In relation to social-cognitive learning theory, the teacher exhibited low self-efficacy because she noted that she could not teach the class. The teacher’s self- efficacy, which is essentially the personal beliefs about her capabilities, arose from different factors including the student behavior, the student achievement, and job satisfaction (Klassen & Chiu 2010). In

addition, the teacher used positive reinforcement such as buying them candies, teaching them karate and taking them to amusement parks. The approach aligns with the social cognitive theory because the teacher engaged in a certain behavior in order to attain a specific goal.

In terms of the constructivism theory, the movie has a plot where the Lou Anne creates the Dylan- Dylan contest. In this case she shifted from the teaching and learning in order to enhance change among the learners. The contest helped students by enabling them to connect their research, analyze their ideas, summarize their ideas, and justify their ideas. The Dylan-Dylan contest entailed working in groups; collaborative learning is based on constructivism because constructivists believe that through working in teams learners must individually discover and change complex information if they are to individually own it (Nyikos, & Hashimoto 1997).

Self, Social and Moral Development

The movie shows a transition from a rowdy rebellious class to an accepting class. At first the teacher was rabbled; however, over time after employing the different techniques including use of positive reinforcements, the class was unwilling to let her go. The transition shows the self and social development, the collaborative works helped the class to work in teams to discover new ideas, which was necessary in education. Furthermore, the students discovered the acceptable moral values; the students eventually appreciated her, bought her candies and valued her as their light.

Conclusion

Based on the movie, in a situation where teaching is not exciting, the advice I would give is to change the approach to teaching; that means starting with what the learners are interested in even when their interests are not related to the educational curriculum. This will create the needed rapport and develop the interest in learners. Furthermore, the teacher should motivate the learners and allow them to actively participate in the learning process. It will help them to self-discover and enhance their cognitive development, which is good in teaching.

References

Klassen, R. M and Chiu, M. M. (2010). Effects on teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction: Teacher gender, years of experience, and job stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(3), pp. 741-756

Nyikos, M., & Hashimoto, R. (1997). Constructivist theory applied to collaborative learning in teacher education: In search of ZPD. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4), pp. 506- 516