Note. The Summary section below is adapted from Schoolwide and Classroom Management: The Reflective Educator-Leader, by L.A. Froyen and A.M. Iverson, 1999, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, pp. 128-129, 193-209, 217, 221, 256-258.
According to specialists in the field of education, school and classroom management aims at encouraging and establishing student self-control through a process of promoting positive student achievement and behavior. Thus academic achievement, teacher efficacy, and teacher and student behavior are directly linked with the concept of school and classroom management.
Classroom management focuses on three major components:content management, conduct management, and covenant management. Each of these concepts is defined and presented with details in a list of observable elements in effective teaching practices.
Research shows that a high incidence of classroom disciplinary problems has a significant impact on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. In this respect, it has been found that teachers facing such issues fail to plan and design appropriate instructional tasks. They also tend to neglect variety in lesson plans and rarely prompt students to discuss or evaluate the materials that they are learning. In addition, student comprehension or seat work is not monitored on a regular basis.
In contrast, strong and consistent management and organizational skills have been identified as leading to fewer classroom discipline problems.
In this light, content management "does not refer to skills peculiar to teaching a particular subject but rather to those skills that cut across subjects and activities" (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 128). Doyle stressed that the core of instructional management is gaining and maintaining student cooperation in learning activities (as cited in Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 128).
Related to content management, Kounin (as cited in Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 129) places a special emphasis on instructional management skills, sequencing and integrating additional instructional activities, and dealing with instruction-related discipline problems.
Conduct management is centered on one’s beliefs about the nature of people. By integrating knowledge about human diversity (and individuality, at the same time) into a particular instructional philosophy, teachers could manage their classrooms in a better, more effective way.
Researchers have pointed out the importance of assisting students in positive behaviors. In planning classroom management, teachers should consider using an assertive communication style and behavior. In addition, they should always know what they want their students to do and involve them in the respective learning activities, under the general conditions of clearly and explicitly stated schoolwide and classroom rules.
According to Iverson and Froyen (1999), conduct management is essential to the creation of a foundation for "an orderly, task-oriented approach to teaching and learning" (p. 217), thus leading to granting students greater independence and autonomy through socialization.
An effective conduct management plan should also refer to teacher control and administration of consequences. The following components of such a plan are focused on in this summary: acknowledging responsible behaviors, correcting irresponsible and inappropriate behavior, ignoring, proximity control, gentle verbal reprimands, delaying, preferential seating, time owed, time-out, notification of parents/guardians, written behavioral contract, setting limits outside the classroom, and reinforcement systems. All of these components are presented so they can be identified in examples of best teaching practices.
Covenant management stresses the classroom group as a social system. Teacher and student roles and expectations shape the classroom into an environment conducive to learning. In other words, the culture of any given school is unique to that school. However, it is directly influenced by the culture of the larger community whose educational goals are to be met. A strong connection between school and community must be constantly revised and modified according to the requirements of societal dynamism. As schools become very diverse, teachers and students should become aware of how to use diversity to strengthen the school/classroom social group.
Quality schools are defined by teacher effectiveness and student achievement under the auspices of building strong interpersonal skills. In this light, teacher and student relationships are essential to ensuring a positive school/classroom atmosphere. Classroom management discipline problems can be dealt with either on an individual basis (between teacher and student) or by group problem solving (class meetings). As mutual trust builds up between teacher and students, the latter are gradually released from teacher supervision by becoming individually responsible. This is how both “educators and students become co-participants in the teaching-learning process, striving to make the most of themselves and their collective experience" (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 256).
Froyen, L. A., & Iverson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and classroom management: The reflective educator-leader(3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.