Why Is Classroom Management Important?

It’s never too late, or too early, for teachers to establish proper classroom management in their classrooms. Developing a structured space using proper classroom management techniques, helps students feel secure and more willing to participate in their learning. Teachers who use proper classroom management have more confidence that they’ll never lose a student’s attention in a lesson and can see participation levels increase as students remain engaged and excited about lessons.

The 3 Cs of Classroom Management

In 1999, David and Roger Johnson developed the 3 Cs of Classroom Management. They believed that through cooperation, conflict resolution, and civic values, a genuine sense of community could be created in schools. Establishing cooperation in the classroom was essential to developing trust between a teacher and the students. If trust was developed, it would better serve students and teachers when a conflict arose, through conflict resolution. Conflict resolution could occur only with cooperation, and this would help conflicts from escalating. Through cooperation and the ability to resolve conflict, then civic values could be established. These were values and goals that could be shared between students and teachers and would create the sense of genuine community that schools strive for.

Types of Classroom Management

Classrooms have changed and so has classroom management.

If you were to observe a classroom today, you might see that a teacher has a particular style of classroom management. Most classroom management styles fall somewhere between four styles.

• Authoritarian– an authoritarian teaching style resembles total control of the classroom by the teacher. There’s little to no flexibility involved in the learning so students might refrain from becoming actively involved.
• Authoritative– an authoritative teaching style is having teacher control but also student involvement. Students participate in the learning but also follow a set of class rules at all times. Developing this teaching style will enable students to feel the most secure and confident to take risks and participate in lessons.
• Permissive– developing a permissive teaching style would not necessarily be ideal for students or the teacher. The teacher is not striving for any sort of control in the classroom, nor are the students striving to participate in a lesson. The teacher essentially lets the students do what they want, but students don’t feel secure in participating in any sort of lesson because of the lack of structure.
• Indulgent– an indulgent teaching style will achieve a high level of participation but there’s little to no control over the classroom by the teacher. Even though students feel free to participate, behaviors could get out of hand and the security some students need to be a part of the community teachers are trying to create could be compromised.

Classroom Management Techniques

There are many techniques that a teacher can implement to better ensure the classroom exudes the type of atmosphere that is most conducive to learning. The good news is, that all of the techniques are well within the teacher’s control.

Organize the Class and Its Materials

The first technique that a teacher can implement is to organize the classroom and its materials. A teacher might be hard-pressed to create any feeling of order in the classroom by students if the classroom and its materials are in complete disarray. One might not think that the way how in which desks are placed within the classroom could have an effect on student learning but something so simple could be the difference between students being engaged in a lesson or not. Desks should be placed in a manner that everyone has visual access to the teacher. If a student has a hard time seeing the instructor, they will be less likely to be engaged. Also, the desks should create a desirable traffic flow. There should be a space for students to consistently turn in work and the desks should not create obstacles to this location.

How the room is organized affects student learning.

Maintain a Positive Learning Environment

Once the physical setting is organized and set up in such a way that is conducive to learning, teachers should have students come in to create and maintain a positive learning environment. Something so simple as greeting students at the door as opposed to sitting at the desk as students come in can go a long way in terms of creating the first positive interaction that may set the tone for the rest of the class. Making a concerted effort in getting to know the names of the students as soon as possible is another way for teachers to simply show their students that they care about them. Behaviorally, the most important thing one can do as a teacher is to develop the kind of relationships with students that prevents negative behaviors from occurring. These behaviors will occur, however, and the teacher will have to use disciplinary action. Instructors should always try to avoid shaming a student when using disciplinary action, however. Remember, there’s a level of respect that should be to maintained in the classroom.

Establish Rules and Procedures

If the teacher’s goal is to always maintain a positive learning environment, it is imperative to establish clear rules and procedures in the classroom. This eliminates most guesswork that students would have to do and shifts their energy and attention into participating in lessons. There are some rules and many procedures that are going to be non-negotiable to a teacher and it’s important that these are established very clearly to the students. At the same time, from kindergarten to high school, students respond better to rules and procedures set forth if they can be a part of creating them. Students will be more likely to internalize rules if the teacher takes the time early in the school year to work with their students to create the rules that everyone will follow. The teacher should always make sure that they are attainable so the students are not set up for failure. If a rule that was created together is broken, make sure that there’s a clear procedure for what happens as a consequence. Consequences could also be something that students help create but again, don’t set students up for failure, and make sure that the consequence is reasonable.

Enforce Rules and Procedures Consistently

Once the teacher and students have created rules and procedures to follow it’s imperative that the teacher is consistent in enforcing them throughout the school year. Again, this takes a lot of the guesswork out of it for the students so they can direct more of their attention towards what they’re there for – learning. If the teacher is consistent in enforcing rules and procedures, the students already know the consequence. Another helpful tip includes rewarding students when they follow the set rules and procedures, as opposed to focusing on the punishment end. If the teacher consistently rewards and praises students for their good work, they will strive for this type of attention throughout the school year as opposed to worrying about breaking rules. Setting up a chart with students’ names and rewarding them with stickers or another type of marker, and working towards an even larger reward could help encourage following set rules and procedures. This should remain simple because most of the excitement should be saved for actual lessons.

Build Excitement for Content and Lesson Plans

Once the classroom contains the level of desired organization, rules procedures, and expectations and the teacher has started developing a relationship with students it shouldn’t be difficult to begin actually teaching! It’s important when planning lessons to include an introductory element to the content. as often as possible, when introducing new content to students, you should build excitement for the contents of your lesson. The easiest way to do this is to access students’ prior knowledge. If a teacher can relate something students don’t know to pieces of something they may already know, then curiosity is built into the lesson already. If a student is set up to be curious from the get-go, then they are excited and want to participate in their learning. When there’s the opportunity to engage students in a hands-on element of a lesson or the lesson can carry real-world meaning, such as in an authentic activity, it may carry the students’ excitement about a particular subject.

Student Engagement

Keeping students engaged in the learning process is an imperative part of classroom management. Students that are engaged are much less likely to engage in other behaviors that may be undesired. Make sure to access different learning styles by switching up how you conduct a lesson or presenting information in different ways during lessons so that students always feel like they can access what is being taught. Students will put more effort into their work if they feel like they were a part of the learning process and may even be more tempted to discuss the topics because they were engaged and have excitement over particular subjects. The more engagement in the classroom the better.

Remain Positive and Enthusiastic

Last but not least, teachers must always keep their own attitudes in check. Things can get difficult during a school year but it’s essential that whatever is going on doesn’t affect the relationship with students. If a strong relationship is built with students it could be appropriate to allow students to call the teacher out if they have a poor attitude. Always, for the sake of the students try to remain positive and enthusiastic. This is the cherry on top so to speak of classroom management techniques and will go a long way in maintaining the relationship the teacher has worked so hard for with the students.

Lesson Summary

Many things happen during a school year that are very much outside of teacher control that can affect student behavior or learning. However, one thing that you as a teacher have complete control over is classroom management. If you are always working towards the 3 Cs of cooperation, conflict resolution, and civic values then you are always working towards creating more community in your classroom and school. Out of the four classroom management styles of authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and indulgent is it probably most ideal for a teacher to work towards being an authoritative presence. This entails using proper classroom management techniques that ensure that students feel safe and confident in participating in lessons in their own learning and gives the teacher the type of control over the classroom that allows them to guide students to where they need to be academically and socially.