Authority and its influence on classroom climate

Abstract

This paper focuses on the concept of teacher's authority in the contemporary educational conception and its influence on a classroom climate. The author of the work primarily defines the concept of authority and provides typology of authority in general. The attention is paid to the sources of teacher's authority in the educational processes with a respect to the on-going changes of the educational curriculum. The author primarily focuses on the problems arising from the contemporary educational conception and describes the adaptation of the role of the teacher to these changes with a respect of application the teacher's authority in connection to the discipline problems. The essential teacher's skills, qualities and competences are summarized in connection to the authority acquisition, primarily in terms of natural authority and natural respect. The author summarizes the main strategies of the discipline maintenance in order to establish positive classroom atmosphere (climate), as the order in the classroom represents an essential factor of the classroom climate. Finally, the attention is paid to a specific classroom environment deriving from an ELT classroom with respect to discipline problems and positive classroom climate. In the empirical part of the work, the author focuses on the influence of the teacher's authority application on the classroom climate.