Classroom Management

"Being without a teacher is just like the Earth being without gravity."

Introduction

Classroom Management is the way in which student behavior, movement, and interaction during a lesson are organized and controlled by the teacher to be able to achieve the educational goals. Likewise, it is a system for structuring physical space and delivering instruction that manages behavior with the overall purpose of promoting student learning in the classroom. It can also be defined as the teacher’s ability to cooperatively manage time, space, resources, and student’s roles to provide a classroom that is conducive to successful learning.

It encompasses several aspects. It is a gestalt, dependent upon several interdependent components such as an engaging curriculum; working with anger, projection, and depression; students are responsible citizen; the teacher as a self-knowing model; classroom management skills, working with resistance, conflict, and stress; and robust instruction. Moreover, it also involves a positive classroom environment, appropriate standards of behavior for students, student engagement, and effective management of routines and transitions.

A central purpose of classroom management is to establish and maintain a learning environment that fosters both effective and efficient instruction while maintaining a positive social culture for students. Consequently, contemporary classroom management practices should be viewed not only from a behavioral perspective, but also from social and cultural perspectives. Thus, students’ explicit classroom behaviors must be understood as a function of their socio-cultural backgrounds. As a result a teacher can create a foundation for building and maintaining a positive classroom culture by learning about and attending to the relationship between students’ socio-cultural backgrounds and their classrooms behaviors which directly influence the kind of classroom management that took place in the teaching and learning process.

It is very strengthening to know that effective classroom management is effective and efficient instruction. It, then, perhaps considered as one of the most important and one of the most difficult tasks the teacher performs.

Theoretical Constructs

In the teaching and learning process, one of the roles of the teacher is to be a productive, efficient, and effective classroom manager aside from being a facilitator, guidance counselor, role model, and evaluator. Indeed it is not a simple task assigned to a teacher. He needs to plan, organize, coordinate, direct, and control his lessons to be taught including the way he handle the class to be able to achieve the expected learning outcome. He should also communicate well with his students and discipline them if necessary. In addition, he should be able to manipulate time, space, personnel, materials, authority, and responsibility. On the other hand, part of classroom management is resolving conflicts between the school and society, between roles and personalities, between the group and individuals, between immediate and long-term goals, among personalities, and among roles. In line with this, the following are the theories under classroom management, specifically the behaviors, acts, and performance of students inside the classroom which greatly affect the teacher or the classroom manager on how he will going to deal with the dilemmas that will arise in the teaching and learning process.

The first theory is the Control Theory which was developed by William Glasser in 1984. He suggests that there are four basic human needs. These are love, control, freedom, and fun. These four components are necessary for a healthy psychological balance. Children need to be taught how to control their behavior. He also stated that it is the responsibility of a teacher to help the students make good choices by making clear the connection between behavior and consequences. He emphasizes that people do not picture themselves doing badly. Individuals may at times choose to do self-destructive things, but do not intend to destroy themselves. This theory suggests that one of the criteria that make people psychologically healthy is possessing control in their life. Having autonomy, as a student, increases the control and self-esteem in a student’s life. According to Glasser, pushing a student into a corner until they conform to teacher’s expectations is not in accordance with psychologically healthy adolescent. There is a need to look at the process of acquiring those skills as opposed to concentrating on activities with predictive consequences.

Another theory is the Ginott Model. The Ginott Model concentrates on the communication between teacher and student. This approach concentrates on avoiding criticism and trying to understand the student’s feelings. Teachers are encouraged to foster student autonomy and try to help students take responsibility for their actions. These goals are accomplished by establishing a communication with the students and by reasoning with the student.

There is another theory named Kaye Model that views the character of children built upon internalized standards. People constantly judge their actions by these internal standards. By teaching and building upon these internal standards, children can be taught to by self-governing and responsible for their performances. Students intrinsically motivated to behave properly if they are taught how to do it. Students are responsible for their own motivation and for monitoring their own behavior. Teachers should not life these responsibilities off of the students’ shoulders. The role of the teacher is to teach students how to monitor themselves. Lastly is the theory of Jones Model. Frederic H. Jones developed a model of classroom discipline which accentuated the physical presence of the teacher. The basic assumptions of this are that children need to be controlled and that teachers can achieve this control through body language, administration, and parental support. A teacher needs to understand stage presence. The ripple effects of teacher’s presence will go out and affect each student if the teacher adequately forceful. Stopping instruction, staring, sitting close to the student are all powerful intimidation techniques which should stop students from misbehaving.

Reflections and Insights

Through the exposure that I have attained during my observations in different classes, I could assess that classroom management is really important in the success of the learning process. It encompasses everything in the teaching and learning cycle. It includes the way of giving homework, the rules inside the classroom, the rewards that may be given, the grading system, the discipline of the learners, the class jobs designated to each member, and the like. Likewise, apart from being the facilitator, guidance counselor, evaluator, and role model; teacher serves also as classroom manager. It comprises different challenging aspects.

Most of my critic teachers were able to possess the qualities of a good classroom manager. They were able to supervise their classes successfully. Generally, there were times that students were so incontrollable and hard to be disciplined, but fortunately their teachers, though it’s apparently difficult, were able to manage the class. There were moments that students were too noisy and busy with their own stuff and cannot notice that the teacher was already around. The role of the teacher as the manager of the class dominates as he talked and reprimanded the students.

Good classroom management affects how the study environment in a class will be conducive as they undergo with the lesson. In connection to this, every teacher should be able to supervise the process in the educative process.

Recommendations

Every teacher should be able to possess good classroom management. A well-managed class should be favorable to mental growth and development of students. Thus, it establishes an atmosphere which permits activities to be carried on effectively.

On the other hand, no matter what the circumstances arouse like the students who are hard-headed, the teacher’s temperament should always be controlled. He must be guided that his attitude towards the situation will predominantly affect the process of teaching and learning.