Что такое classroom management

What is Classroom Management?

There are researches that suggest that managing the classroom is a nightmare for the majority of newbie teachers. Even some suggest that it is still a nail in the toe for seasoned teachers.

I have had my fair share of troubles with managing a class efficiently. From my experience and research, understanding the concept puts you in a better position to effectively manage and control student behavior in your class. But what at all is it? Knowing the meaning of the concept will help us in our efforts to master it.

Classroom management has no one accepted meaning. It simply refers to the techniques and skills used by teachers and schools to ensure that the classroom is conducive for effective learning. All in all, effective classroom management should be able to motivate students and promote life-long learning. See the benefits of effective classroom management here.

Differences between classroom management and classroom discipline

Before I continue, it is important to differentiate between the terms. They are often used interchangeably. Understanding the difference will help you break down and identify the best techniques to employ to tackle all the issues in the classroom.

So, why are they sometimes used interchangeably?

This is because the teacher has to, first of all, make sure that the classroom functions before the students can behave. This means you have to properly and effectively manage the procedures and routines in the classroom before you expect your students to behave accordingly.

When you do this, all the issues of discipline will be tackled and your students will know your expectations about their behavior.

Classroom discipline is an important element of classroom management. This is because you can use discipline to instill a sense of responsibility and maturity in your students. When you succeed in doing that your students will see the need to behave appropriately in class.

You must always remember that your classroom management techniques and procedures should help you avoid problems rather than reacting to them. If this is not the case there will always be chaos in your class and you will soon stress out.

Factors that Affects Classroom Management

There are some factors that will help you to properly perceive and understand the concept of classroom management. Your ability to appreciate the importance of these factors will greatly impact your success in managing your classroom.

This suggests that your success is highly dependent on your ability to proactively identify and control, to an extent, all the factors affecting the classroom environment. Let’s briefly discuss some of the most important factors as shown below:

1. Physical Environment: Do you know that research has shown that the physical environment of your classroom plays an important role in student learning? Yes, it does.

For example, I taught a class of 35 students in the early days of my teaching job. My movement in and around the classroom was difficult. This class was always a nightmare for me.

I almost gave up my job. But the main problem was that the class was crowded and students were always uncomfortable, especially the weather gets hot.

2. Personality and Style of the Teacher: It is important for you to understand that your personality type impacts a lot on your ability to manage your classroom effectively. This often influences your choice of teaching style that affects your class control abilities.

For example, a teacher with a clumsy personality will often be reactive instead of being proactive in predicting possible behaviors in the classroom.

3. The personality of Students: What is the personality of your student? Knowing each and every one of your students will help improve your skills in putting in place a classroom setting that will be favorable to all. This is important for learners as behavior among your students will vary greatly.

For instance, the personalities of your students will range from being introverted to being extroverted. It is your duty to organize a classroom environment that is conducive for all these personalities to thrive.

4. Background of Students: Research in social sciences tells us that the family plays a major role in determining the behavior of a person. That is to say, your students will bring the happenings at home to the classroom.

So, your ability to understand, to an extent, the family circumstances of your students will help you to properly manage the behavior of students. This is key to classroom management.

Example, a student whose parents have separated will likely have behavioral issues that will affect your classroom. So, you need to understand and predict this in order to adequately plan your class taking into consideration all the possible disruptive behaviors that will arise from this problem.

5. Student’s Disabilities: Sometimes some of your students will have behavioral and/or learning disabilities. This will always affect your classroom management. Disabilities such as Conduct Disorder (CD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) determines the behavior of your students.

Knowing this will put you in a better position to understand and adopt a proper classroom management style for effective learning to take place in your class.

6. Culture: This is one of the matters overlooked by most classroom management experts. However, this is very important in today’s world. Our classrooms are now made up of students from diverse cultures through migration. This plays a key role in managing your class effectively.

This suggests that you have to be culturally savvy in order to structure your classroom practices to reflect on other peoples’ cultural values and beliefs.

Being aware of others’ cultural beliefs and applying them to your class can be a herculean task for you. To help you in that regard, you need to know how to (1) assess and understand your own cultural values, (2) understand the values of others and not be bias towards them, and (3) try to apply what you learn about cultural differences to improve your classroom routines and practices, in a meaningful and non-threatening manner.

Example of Classroom Management Issue

The following example of classroom behavior will help you to understand the concept of managing the classroom properly. They are;

Mr. Smalling is a Third-grade teacher. He teaches a group of 34 children. Denilson is one of the students in the class. He is an active youngster who often gets into brawls with his colleagues. The class just had a short recess.

When returning Denilson came with a Lego. While the next lesson was ongoing, Denilson was busy playing with his Lego and making some noise. The teacher realized that and the following transpired;
Mr. Smalling: yells across the room, and asked: “What’s going on there?”
Denilson: replies, “nothing!”

The other boy next to Denilson said, “he is playing with a Lego”
“Denilson, stop that and pay attention,” says the teacher.
Denilson grumbles and said, “But, I am bored”

The teacher approaches Denilson to take the Lego from him. He yells louder, “Nooo, I can’t give it to you!”
The teacher took the Lego. In anger, Denilson starts to threaten the boy who told the teacher about the Lego. He even wants to slap the boy in the class.
The teacher yells again, “Stop that!” while trying to answer a question asked by someone.

After a moment, Denilson starts to pierce a child’s pencil case with a sharp object he brought from outside. A fight broke out between him and the girl. The girl shouts, “take your hands away from my table”

Mr. Smalling heard the struggles and noise, and asked, “what is happening.” The girl said, “teacher, he is trying to create a hole in my pencil case” Denilson replied while laughing, “she is telling lies”

The teacher said while standing at the front, “Denilson, will you stop what you are doing before I call your parents?” Denilson yelled and said “you are a bad teacher. Go ahead, call my parents. They are separated and my dad doesn’t care.”

This continued until the end of the lesson. If you were the teacher, what will you have done to manage a behavior like that of Denilson? What are some of the crucial factors you will consider when looking for appropriate ways of managing a class like that of the one in the example above?

Approaches to Classroom Management

In your attempts to understand the concept, it is important to appreciate how it can be approached. From research, a classroom can be managed proactively or reactively. It is appropriate to understand that good classroom management will always combine these approaches. This is explained below;

1. Proactive Classroom Management: The focus of proactively managing a classroom is to create a sense of belonging among all the students. You try to encourage positive behavior in the class by promoting strong student-student and/or student-teacher relationships.

When you adopt the proactive approach you collaboratively set standards, rules, routines, and activities with your students. This is often considered to be the best by most teachers, especially when implemented appropriately.

2. Reactive Classroom Management: With this approach, you use some effective strategies to ensure that student behavior is checked in the classroom. These strategies are reactive in nature and use to prevent misbehavior in the classroom.

This includes strategies such as classroom discipline plans, mediation processes between/among conflicting students, and pre-planned alternate activities to students who are quick to finish their activities.

Classroom Management Styles

Another essential issue to consider in your efforts to understand how to manage your classroom is the type of classroom management styles. Read here for inspiration in selecting your classroom management style. This important because it helps you to properly analyze and make improvements to your teaching styles for better results in the classroom.

Below are the four styles and/or types of classroom managers according to the well-known clinical and developmental psychologist, Diana Baumrind in 1971;

1. Authoritative: If you are this type of teacher, you will always be considered as a caring, a loving, and concerns yourself about the success of your students.

This is because you establish clear and consistent expectations of behavior for your students. With this, you actively associate and promote good behavior in your students.

Students from your class will have the freedom and exercise it within the set limits regarding activities in the class. Your students will grow up to be empowered, sociable, and responsible in life. This is the style recommended by most teachers.

2. Authoritarian: If your style falls under this type of class management, it means you don’t encourage collaboration between you and your students in providing a conducive classroom environment.

You are obsessed with overly controlling everything in the class without the involvement of your students. This classroom doesn’t provide freedom for your students.

You will always be unfriendly, unreasonable, and uncaring in the eyes of your students. Even though you might have some success in controlling some students, some will definitely rebel and they will be chaos in your classroom.

You will likely produce students who are not empowered, social and less innovative. Example, you will set classroom rules for your students without involving them in the process if you are an authoritarian. Click here for a philosophy backing this style.

3. Indulgent: If you are an indulgent classroom manager, you are relaxed and allow more student involvement than control. This means you don’t care whether your students behave in accordance with behavioral standards, even if they are there.

This extreme freedom can undermine your ability to promote positive and good behavior, giving way for misbehavior or chaos in the classroom. For instance, you will likely give in quickly to student demands for free time if you are an indulgent teacher.

4. Permissive: Permissive teacher is a lazy one who has a lackadaisical attitude towards the management of her/his class. There will be total freedom in your class if you are a permissive teacher.

Thus, you will put no standards of behavior for your students. The condition created in your classroom will not conducive for effective learning.

Even though your students may see you to be “cool,” they won’t learn much in your class. You are also likely to lose your respect in the sight of your students. In the end, your students will exhibit immaturity, inability to control their impulse, and lacking leadership skills.

Note: It is important to know that no teacher will exhibit only one management style. Most teachers tend to combine these styles at least occasionally. but you should always work hard to have the authoritative style as your predominant way to classroom management.

Self-Reflection

Conclusion

To conclude, it can be noted from the above that having a broader and a clearer understanding of classroom management will help you to adopt proper and all-encompassing strategies to make you class a conducive one for all students to learn effectively. If you find this helpful, please share it with your friends. Don’t forget to comment below and tell us your understanding of classroom management.

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Classroom management for young learners

Managing your classroom whether it is online or offline is not an easy task. It’s one thing to teach adults but a whole other ball game when it comes to children and young learners. Today we are going to discuss classroom management techniques. To put it bluntly, rules and routines for young learners.

Would you be surprised if I told you that “classroom management” extends beyond the classroom and is used at home too? Yes, that’s right. Classroom management or rules and routines, in fact, is discipline. In my experience, I learned that every culture is different. Sometimes you have to tweak your style according to the culture of the student. Is the student Chinese/Asian? Or is your student Eastern European? These are things to consider. For example, in the Chinese culture is it fine and appropriate to smack a desk for attention, to be extremely strict. Teachers are viewed as authority and not friends. It is normal for kids to be shy of their teachers because of these strict rules and way of teaching.

Classroom management can be tricky and somewhat daunting. At least for me. I have learned that anticipating “bad” behavior is the key to managing. Have a plan for when XYZ happens!

Establish a routine

Each class should start the same. You can not deviate from this. Find an audio or visual cue that informs the student that the class is about to start. This might be a “welcome hello song” or a certain chime. Maybe even clap your hands! Say a specific sentence. Keep it short sweet and simple and remember to start each class in the same manner.

Why? The student will know it is time to focus and study. He or she will be mentally ready and able. But Hanna, what do we do if we have a very busy learner, he moves around a lot and takes time to settle into class? The simple answer is, routine! If you see your student is not ready, sit quietly and wait. I usually ask: “are you ready?” and wait. I will ask again: “are you ready?”. The student then hears the repeated word: “ready” and will then settle. The next line is: “hello, how are you today?”. For me, this works.

Some students might need a song or a chime as their cue to settle down and focus.

Should you be teaching a group and one or two students are ready while the others are not you can use these well behaved and focused students as your “cue.” You could say: “thank you, Natalia, for being ready” or “ Oh, look at Natalia and Sergey! They are ready!” Another one of my favorites is: “ 1, 2, 3, Eyes on me! Are you ready?!” This works well with very young learners.

Here are the examples of good hello and goodbye songs:

Giving instructions

This is where TPR and visual cues come in. When you give your students instructions such as reading, use the same visual cues. You can not change these cues as it will create confusion and the student will not understand what you require from them. If you use the same instructional methods your class should flow without a hickup. It’s important to do research and find what kind of TPR and cues or instructions work for you. They have to be clear and concise. Preferably a smooth one-handed motion. If you prefer not to use your hands for instructions, you may always consider images. You can display an image with the instruction. Want your student to read? A picture of a child reading should do the trick along with verbal instruction.

Setting time limits

Some kids get very excited, and this is great! I rather enjoy it when my learners are happy and enjoying the lesson. However, it can be tricky to move on to the next part of the lesson. You should absolutely set a time limit for each section or activity. Every lesson has an outcome and objective. Should you not set time limits you will end up doing only the parts of the lesson the student enjoys and no real learning takes place. When you set time limits in your classroom, you are in control. When you give a student free reign for activities, they will find it easy to manipulate you and mold the lesson into what they want and not necessarily into what the objectives are. If you set time limits for every lesson, you will have established a routine and created discipline. Your students along with their parents will know what to expect at each lesson, and thus you can also prepare and anticipate disruptions. Your students will become aware of the time constraint and how important it is thus creating self-discipline which is a fantastic skill to learn at a young age.

To set the time limit, use a timer on your phone or a call bell, make the sound louder so that everyone knows that time is over.
Rewards

Yes, rewards may help manage your classroom. It has worked on my very busy students. It kept them in check and motivated them to learn and do better. I use a glass jar with marbles ( I hate the sound ), but my students love it. This is another way you can “control” your students’ behavior especially if they get bored quickly or in general are very busy kids. It’s important to follow through on your reward system. The reason I use the glass jar with marbles merely is for the sound it makes. Yes, the noise! The student associates the sound with progress. They feel like they have accomplished something and will want more of it. This leads to further motivation from the student and progress meaning you should reach your learning outcomes.

Basically, classroom management is not only for us teachers but also for the students. There will always be two goals. For the student to reach the learning outcomes and objectives of every lesson and for the lesson to go smoothly without disruption and bad behavior.

To wrap up, classroom management, rules, and routines are simple. It really is.

⭐ Keep your rules and cues as simple as possible.

⭐ Your students should know when it’s time for class. Anticipate bad or disruptive behavior and have your strategy ready to be implemented when the time calls for it. Find what works for you and your student.

⭐ Always open and close your lessons in the same manner; this will let your student know its time to focus and work.

⭐ Use rewards to keep the student focused and motivated and stick to your time limits. Don’t get trapped in the “this is so much fun for student”, you have a learning outcome to reach!

⭐ Your instructions should be short sweet and simple. Consider how you will use it. Will it be TPR? Audio or visual cues? Never deviate from these and do not change them frequently.

Keep in mind that when teaching groups it is essential to discipline appropriately. What is the goal of discipline? It is never to disrupt your class, ever! Your class should flow naturally and progress. Anticipate specific behavior and be ready for how to deal with and address it correctly and efficiently. Remember that no two students are the same and that sometimes you will have to make a tweak here and there to get and keep the attention of your student.

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Classroom management

Classroom management is a term used by teachers to describe the process of ensuring that classroom lessons run smoothly despite disruptive behavior by students. The term also implies the prevention of disruptive behavior. It is possibly the most difficult aspect of teaching for many teachers; indeed experiencing problems in this area causes some to leave teaching altogether. In 1981 the US National Educational Association reported that 36% of teachers said they would probably not go into teaching if they had to decide again. A major reason was «negative student attitudes and discipline».Solving Discipline Problems Charles H Wolfgang and Carl D Glickman 1986 (Allyn and Bacon)

According to Moskowitz & Hayman (1976), once a teacher loses control of their classroom, it becomes increasingly more difficult for them to regain that control.Moskowitz, G., & Hayman, J. L., Jr. (1976). Success strategies of inner-city teachers: A year-long study. Journal of Educational Research, 69, 283-289. Also, research from Berliner (1988) and Brophy & Good (1986) shows that the time that teacher has to take to correct misbehavior caused by poor classroom management skills results in a lower rate of academic engagement in the classroom.Berliner, D. C. (1988). Effective classroom management and instruction: A knowledge base for consultation. In J. L. Graden, J. E. Zins, & M. J. Curtis (Eds.), Alternative educational delivery systems: Enhancing instructional options for all students (pp. 309-325). Washington, DC: National Association of School Psychologists.Brophy, J. E., & Good, T. L. (1986). Teacher behavior and student achievement. In M. C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed., pp. 328-375). New York: Macmillan. From the student’s perspective, effective classroom management involves clear communication of behavioral and academic expectations as well as a cooperative learning environment.Allen, J.D. (1986). Classroom management: students’ perspectives, goals, and strategies. American Educational Research Journal, 23, 437-459.

They also try to be consistent in enforcing these rules and procedures. Many would also argue for positive consequences when rules are followed, and negative consequences when rules are broken. There are newer perspectives on classroom management that attempt to be holistic. One example is affirmation teaching, which attempts to guide students toward success by helping them see how their effort pays off in the classroom. It relies upon creating an environment where students are successful as a result of their own efforts.Pintrich, P.R., & De Groot E. V. (1990). Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 33-40. By creating this type of environment, students are much more likely to want to do well. This transforms a classroom into a community of well-behaved and self-directed learners.

Contents

Techniques

Also known as «lines,» rote discipline is a negative sanction used for behavior management. It involves assigning a disorderly student sentences or the classroom rules to write repeatedly. Among the many types of classroom management approaches, it is very commonly used.

Preventative techniques also involve the strategic use of praise and rewards to inform students about their behavior rather than as a means of controlling student behavior. In order to use rewards to inform students about their behavior, teachers must emphasize the value of the behavior that is rewarded and also explain to students the specific skills they demonstrated to earn the reward. Teachers should also encourage student collaboration in selecting rewards and defining appropriate behaviors that will earn rewards.Bear, G.G., Cavalier, A., & Manning, M. (2005). Developing self-discipline and preventing and correcting misbehavior. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Systematic Approaches

The Good Behavior Game

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a «classroom-level approach to behavior management» Responding to rule violations or rule following: A comparison of two versions of the Good Behavior Game with kindergarten students. Journal of School Psychology, 48, 337-355. that was originally used in 1969 by Barrish, Saunders, and Wolf. The Game entails the class earning access to a reward or losing a reward, given that all members of the class engage in some type of behavior (or did not exceed a certain amount of undesired behavior). The GBG can be used to increase desired behaviors (e.g., question asking) or to decrease undesired behaviors (e.g., out of seat behavior). The GBG has been used with preschoolers as well as adolescents, however most applications have been used with typically developing students (i.e., those without developmental disabilities). In addition, the Game «is usually popular with and acceptable to students and teachers.»Tingstrom, D.H., Sterling-Turner, H.E., Wilczynski, S.M. (2006). The Good Behavior Game: 1969-2002. Behavior Modification, 30, 2, 225-253.

Discipline with Dignity

Tools for Teaching

Tools for Teaching is a classroom management method created and taught by Fred Jones on speaking tours and in the eponymous book series

Positive Classrooms

Positive Classrooms developed by Dr. Robert DiGiulio sees positive classroom management as the result of four factors: how teachers regard their students (spiritual dimension), how they set up the classroom environment (physical dimension), how skillfully they teach content (instructional dimension), and how well they address student behavior (managerial dimension).

Assertive Discipline

Assertive discipline is another systematic approach of classroom management. Lee and Marlene Canter discuss the ideas behind this approach in several published books.

Discipline without Stress, Punishments or Rewards

Discipline without Stress (or DWS) is a K-12 discipline and learning approach developed by Dr. Marvin Marshall described in his 2001 book, Discipline without Stress, Punishments or Rewards. Marshall, Dr. Marvin (2001). Discipline without Stress, Punishments or Rewards, Los Alamitos: Piper Press. The approach is designed to educate young people about the value of internal motivation. The intention is to prompt and develop within youth a desire to become responsible and self-disciplined and to put forth effort to learn. The most significant characteristics of DWS are that it is totally noncoercive (but not permissive) and takes the opposite approach to Skinnerian behaviorism that relies on external sources for reinforcement.

A four part Teaching Model guides educators in the implementation of this approach. Foundational is the teaching of four concepts referred to as The Hierarchy of Social Development, which highlights the difference between internal and external motivation. Young people are taught that all behavior and motivation can be assigned to one of four levels and that all choices can be made consciously. With eight Significant Teaching Points in mind, students are taught to use the Hierarchy to guide self-reflection and self-evaluation, with the goal of making responsible choices and decisions in life. Students come to understand and experience that responsible behavior, motivated from the intention to «do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do,» is inherently satisfying.

Classroom management as a process

In the Handbook of Classroom Management: Research Practice and Contemporary Issues (2006), Weinstein, edited by Carolyn M. Evertson ; Carol S. (2006). Handbook of classroom management : research, practice, and contemporary issues, Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Evertson and Weinstein characterize classroom management as the actions taken to create an environment that supports and facilitates academic and social–emotional learning. Toward this goal, teachers must (1) develop caring, supportive relationships with and among students; (2) organize and implement instruction in ways that optimize students’ access to learning; (3) use group management methods that encourage students’ engagement in academic tasks; (4) promote the development of students’ social skills and self–regulation; and (5) use appropriate interventions to assist students with behavior problems.

Dr. Tracey Garrett also describes classroom management as a process consisting of key tasks that teachers must attend to in order to development an environment conducive to learning. These tasks include: (1) organizing the physical environment, (2) establishing rules and routines, (3) developing caring relationships, (4) implementing engaging instruction and (5) preventing and responding to discipline problems. Classroom Management Essentials, created by Dr. Tracey Garrett, is the first classroom management app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch that guides teachers through the tasks involved in the process of classroom management.

Classroom management as time management

In their introductory text on teaching, Kauchak and Eggen (2008)Kauchak, D., and Eggen, P. (2008). Introduction to teaching: Becoming a professional (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. explain classroom management in terms of time management. The goal of classroom management, to Kauchak and Eggen, is to not only maintain order but to optimize student learning. They divide class time into four overlapping categories, namely allocated time, instructional time, engaged time, and academic learning time.

Allocated time is the total time allotted for teaching, learning, and routine classroom procedures like attendance and announcements. Allocated time is also what appears on a student’s schedule, for example «Introductory Algebra: 9:50-10:30 a.m.» or «Fine Arts 1:15-2:00 p.m.»

Instructional time is what remains after routine classroom procedures are completed. That is to say, instructional time is the time wherein teaching and learning actually takes place. Teachers may spend two or three minutes taking attendance, for example, before their instruction begins.

Engaged time is also called time on task. During engaged time, students are participating actively in learning activities—asking and responding to questions, completing worksheets and exercises, preparing skits and presentations, etc.

Academic learning time

Academic learning time occurs when students 1) participate actively and 2) are successful in learning activities. Effective classroom management maximizes academic learning time.

Common mistakes in classroom behavior management

In an effort to maintain order in the classroom, sometimes teachers can actually make the problems worse. Therefore, it is important to consider some of the basic mistakes commonly made when implementing classroom behavior management strategies. For example, a common mistake made by teachers is to define the problem behavior by how it looks without considering its function.Barbetta, P., Norona, K. & Bicard, D. (2005). Classroom behavior management: A dozen common mistakes and what to do instead. Preventing School Failures. Vol. 49, Issue 3, p 11-19.

Interventions are more likely to be effective when they are individualized to address the specific function of the problem behavior. Two students with similar looking misbehavior may require entirely different intervention strategies if the behaviors are serving different functions. Teachers need to understand that they need to be able to change the ways they do things from year to year, as the children change. Not every approach works for every child. Teachers need to learn to be flexible. Another common mistake is for the teacher to become increasingly frustrated and negative when an approach is not working.Barbetta, P., Norona, K. & Bicard, D. (2005). Classroom behavior management: A dozen common mistakes and what to do instead. Preventing School Failures. Vol. 49, Issue 3, p 11-19.

The teacher may raise his or her voice or increase adverse consequences in an effort to make the approach work. This type of interaction may impair the teacher-student relationship. Instead of allowing this to happen, it is often better to simply try a new approach.

Inconsistency in expectations and consequences is an additional mistake that can lead to dysfunction in the classroomBarbetta, P., Norona, K. & Bicard, D. (2005). Classroom behavior management: A dozen common mistakes and what to do instead. Preventing School Failures. Vol. 49, Issue 3, p 11-19. Teachers must be consistent in their expectations and consequences to help ensure that students understand that rules will be enforced. To avoid this, teachers should communicate expectations to students clearly and be sufficiently committed to the classroom management procedures to enforce them consistently.

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