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Challenges to Classroom Management
Lecture 1
Challenges to Classroom Management
 Events occur simultaneously
 Everything happens at once and the pace is fast.
 Teachers have literally hundreds of exchanges with
students during a single day.`
Challenges to Classroom Management
 Classroom have histories
 The meaning of a particular teacher’s or student’s
actions depend in part on what has happened before.
 The fifteenth time a student arrives late requires a
different response from the teacher than the first late
arrival.
 Classrooms are multi dimensional
 Classes are particular kind of environment.
 Distinctive features no matter how students or the
physical environment is organized or teacher’s belief in
education.
 Crowded with people, tasks and time pressures.
 Many individual all with differing goals, preferences,
and abilities must share resources, accomplish various
tasks, use and reuse materials without losing them,
move in and out of the room, and so on.
Challenges to Classroom Management
 Events are unpredictable
 Even when plans are carefully made, the overhead
projector is in place, the demonstration is ready, the
lesson can still be interrupted by a burned-out bulb in
the projector or a loud, angry discussion right outside
the classroom.
 Classroom are public the way the teacher handles these
unexpected intrusions is seen and judged by all.
 Students are always noticing if the teacher is “fair”. Is
there favoritism? What happens when a rule is broken?
Gaining students Cooperation
 Gaining students cooperation means much more
than dealing effectively with misbehavior.
 It means planning activities, having materials
ready, making appropriate behavioral and
academic demands on students, giving clear
signals, accomplishing transitions smoothly,
foreseeing problems and stopping them before
they start, selecting and sequencing activities so
that flow and interest are maintained and much
more.
 Different activities require different managerial
skills.
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Definitions of
What Would You Say? Classroom management
Doyle (1979) describes
 You are interviewing for a job in Majeedhiya School.
The assistance principal looks at you for a moment and classroom management as
then asks, “What is classroom management?” How “any actions or approaches
would you answer?
taken for effective learning –
steps and procedures in an
environment that are necessary
for learning and teaching to
take place.”

Definitions cont… Definitions cont…

How the teacher organizes “Everything that teachers do
the class to maximize to establish and maintain an
student’s self esteem and environment in which
learning.” effective learning takes
Rogers (1996) place.”
McInerney & McInerney (1994)

Aim of Classroom Management The Goals of Classroom Management

 The first goal of classroom management:
 It is to maintain a positive, productive learning
 To expand the sheer number of minutes available for
environment. learning which is sometimes called allocated time.
 Classroom Management is the techniques used to  To spent actively involved in specific learning tasks often
maintain a healthy learning environment, relatively called engaged time or, sometimes time on task.
free of behavior problems.  The time when students are actually succeeding at the
learning task which is called academic learning time.

2

Where Does the Time Go?
Academic Learning Time
Engaged Time
Actual Academic Time
Attended Time
Total Time
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Hours
The Goals of Classroom Management
 The third goal of any management system is to
help students become better able to manage
themselves.
 The movement from demanding obedience to
teaching self-regulation and self control is a
fundamental shift in classroom management
today.
 Self management: Management of your own
behavior and acceptance of responsibility for own
actions.
Creating a Positive Learning Environment
 Distinguish between rules and procedures
 Rules are the specific dos and don’ts of classroom life.
(written or posted)
 Cover administrative tasks, students movement,
housekeeping, routines for running lesson, interactions
between students and teachers and interaction among
students.
 Rules can be written in terms of rights and students may
benefit from participating in establishing these rules.
 Consequences should be established for following and
breaking the rules and procedures so that the teacher
and the students know what will happen.
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The Goals of Classroom Management
 A second goal of class management is to increase
academic learning time by keeping students actively
engaged in worthwhile, appropriate learning activities.
Goals of good classroom management?
 To make ample time for learning
 Improve the quality of time use by keeping students
actively engaged
 Make sure participation structures are clear,
straightforward, and consistently signaled
 Encourage student self management, self control and
responsibility.
Effective managers.
 teaching a workable, easily understood set of rules
and procedures by using lots of explanation,
examples and practice.
 Students are occupied with organized, enjoyable
activities and learn to function cooperatively in
group.
 Quick, firm, clear and consistent responses are
planned
 Plan carefully to avoid any last minute tasks that
might have taken them away from their students.
 Deal with children’s pressing concern first.
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Maintaining a Good Environment

Factors identified by Kounin that prevent
for Learning
management problems in the classroom
 How can Teachers encourage engagement?  To create a positive environment and prevent
 As teachers supervision increases, student's engaged problems, teachers must take individual differences
time also increases. into account, maintain student motivation, reinforce
 When the task provides continuous cues for the student positive behavior.
about what to do next, involvement will be greater.
 Activities with clear steps are likely to be more absorbing
, because one step leads naturally to the next.
 Making needed materials, and monitoring activities all
add to engagement.

Factors identified by Kounin that prevent

management problems in the classroom Seven levels of intervention in misbehavior
 Successful problem preventers are skilled in four areas 1. Make eye contact with the student or move
described by Kounin: closer to, the offender.
 “withitness”,
 overlapping,
2. Try verbal hints such as “name dropping” simply
 group focusing,
inserting the student's name into the lecture.
 movement management 3. Next the teacher asks if the offender is aware of
 When penalties have to be imposed, teachers should the negative effects of the actions,
impose them calmly and privately. 4. Reminds the student of the procedure and has
her or him follow it correctly

Seven levels of intervention in misbehavior

5.If this does not work, the teacher can ask the students
to state the correct rule or procedure and then to
follow it.
6. Tell the student in a clear, assertive, and un hostile
way to stop the misbehavior.
7. If this fail too, the teacher can offer a choice- stop the
behavior or meet privately to work out the
consequences.