The Importance of Classroom Management

“No other topic in education receives greater attention or causes more concerns for teachers and parents and students than classroom discipline. The lack of effective discipline…is a major stumbling block to a successful career in teaching.”

      Nicholas Long & William Morse

Let's Get Started

Alright! I am glad you are here and hope you are ready to make some great discoveries about classroom management!

  BRAINSTORMING

To start off this unit, I want you to think about what the term classroom management means to you. If you have a pen and paper handy, jot down a few thoughts on the subject, or if you are technologically savvy (which you must be if you are taking this course, wink wink), maybe type it out in a word document. No, this is not a test question; it is purely a tool for you to use to reflect back on after completing this course.


Introduction


The importance of classroom management has been highlighted across numerous research studies as the major variable that affects student achievement (Marzano, 2003). The most obvious reason for this is that effective classroom management sets the stage for teaching and learning.

This is obvious to all of us since a classroom that is chaotic and disorganised as a result of poor management is highly unlikely to enhance student achievement and might, indeed, inhibit it. In chaos, very little academic learning can happen. What is less obvious, however, is that a teacher’s classroom management practices are major socialising influences on the students. Each one of the teacher’s actions communicates, subtly or otherwise, explicit messages about social norms, expectations and emotional behaviour. Even if teachers are unaware of it, their students are constantly developing a repertoire of social and emotional skills – both good and bad – through modelling, experimentation, and reinforcement (Elias and Schwab, 2006). Through lack of understanding and/or reflection, teachers can unintentionally encourage the learning of poor social and emotional skills. All of the activities that we group under the heading of ‘classroom management’ can and do help students to develop lifelong healthy habits and behaviours.

“The concept of classroom management is broader than the notion of student discipline. It includes all the things teachers must do to foster student involvement and cooperation in classroom activities and to establish a productive working environment.”
Julie Sanford, Edmund Emmer, & Barbara Clements

Explanation

• Classroom manangement is the full range of teacher efforts to oversee classroom activities, including learning, social interaction, and student behaviour (Unal & Unal, 2012, p. 41).

• Classroom management revolves around teachers’ and students’ attitudes and actions that influence students’ behaviors in the classroom (Unal & Unal, 2012, p. 41).

• Classroom management is a teacher’s efforts to establish and maintain the classroom as an effective environment for teaching and learning (Unal & Unal, 2012, p. 41).

• Classroom management is two levels of management: (a) the prevention of problems, (b) responses when problems do occur (Unal & Unal, 2012, p. 41).

• Classroom management is a process of organizing and structuring classroom events for student learning (Wong et al., 2012, p. 60).

• Classroom management includes five critical features: (a) maximize structure, (b) post, teach, review, monitor and reinforce expectations, (c) actively engage students in observable ways, (d) use a continuum of strategies for responding to appropriate behaviors, and (e) use a continuum of strategies to respond to inappropriate behaviors (MacSuga & Simonsen, 2011, p. 4).

• Classroom management includes developing a set of class rules, specifying procedures for daily tasks, or developing a consequence hierarchy (Sayeski & Brown, 2011, p. 8).

As you can see, classroom management covers many important aspects that are essential to the creation of an effective learning environment. Reading and/or listening to these definitions should make you aware of the importance of classroom management. However, just to make sure you really grasp its importance, let us think about what happens when classroom management plans are not in place.

• Poor classroom management results in lost instructional time, feelings of inadequacy, and stress (Sayeski & Brown, 2011, p. 8).

• Teachers with no structured classroom management skills contributed to negative student outcomes. Poor classroom management skills often contributed to stigmatizing students who internalized the labels "mean," "bad," or "crazy" and by misbehaving, reflected back to the teacher and/or school the negative labels applied on them (Reglin et al., 2012, p. 5).

• Results of poor classroom management include: noisy talking, walking aimlessly, and inappropriate use of classroom materials (Erdogan et al., 2010, p. 887).

Classroom management from Maria Martha Manette Madrid

 

Task

You already know about the importance of classroom management. Have you experience about having classroom which well managed? Define your feeling in a piece of paper, share with your friends !

           

Methods theoriesof management from Wolmerian

source : http://icepe.ie/blog/uncategorized/the-importance-of-classroom-management/