Five Sources Of Power

847 Words4 Pages
“Power is the ability to exhort your will on another person even if that person refuses” (H. Hinds. 2016). The five sources of power as classified by French and Raven (1959) are described below. 1. “Reward power is said to be at use when a power-holder promises some form of compensation to a target in exchange for compliance” (). In the classroom, the teacher has the power to reinforce appropriate behaviour, for instance, by giving positive feedback after the student shares a good idea or by compensating the student for a task well done by giving the student a tick for solving a Mathematics problem. This will motivate students to comply, since they feel that their ideas are appreciated and relevant. According to Dr. John Shindler in his book…show more content…
“Coercive power is at use when the threat of punishment is made in order to gain compliance” () This power can be viewed as the opposite of reward power in that, the teacher can give punishments instead of rewards to get students’ compliance. For instance, when the teacher tells the class that any assignment submitted after the given due date will not be accepted or that marks will be deducted from the overall total. This will motivate students to comply since they will not want the threat to be actualized in this instance, lose marks. According to Dr. John Shindler in his book Transformative Classroom Management (2010), if this power is used constructively it creates a sense of security in the classroom as it helps to create boundaries. On the contrary, he noted that if it is used in its traditional form (e.g. humiliating the child or withdrawal of affection) it can be potentially damaging to the…show more content…
“Expert power is at use when one relies on his or her superior knowledge in order to gain compliance” (). When a teacher knows his/her content and the students are cognizant of this, the students are inclined to comply with him/her versus a teacher who appears as incompetent to the students. According to Dr. John Shindler in his book Transformative Classroom Management (2010), if a teacher relies heavily on this source, then he/she can use humour to aid delivery. He also says that the aim should be to not come off as arrogant or inconsiderate of the students’ needs as this has led to the downfall of many
Open Document