Effective Classroom Management Strategies for Productive Learning Environments

2. Chapter 13 Creating a Productive Learning Environment

3. Creating a Setting Conducive to Learning

4. Classroom Management • A well-managed classroom is one in which students are consistently engaged in productive learning. • Effective management is similar to authoritative parenting.

5. Effective Classroom Management • Create a physical arrangement that focus students’ attention. • Establish and maintain good working relationships. • Create a psychological climate in which students feel they belong and are intrinsically motivated. • Set reasonable limits for behavior. • Plan activities that encourage on-task behavior. • Regularly monitor what students are doing. • Modify instructional strategies when necessary. • Take developmental differences and student diversity into account.

6. Arranging the Classroom • Arrange furniture to encourage student interaction when appropriate and discourage it when counterproductive • Minimize distractions • Facilitate teacher-student interaction • Identify locations that allow easy monitoring of students’ behavior • Make appropriate changes for classwide use of technology

7. Productive Teacher-Student Relationships • Regularly communicate caring and respect for students. • Remember that caring and respect involve much more than simply showing affection. • Work hard to improve relationships that have gotten off to a bad start.

8. The Psychological Climate • Establish a goal-oriented, businesslike, nonthreatening atmosphere. • Communicate and demonstrate that school tasks and academic subject matter have value. • Give students some control over classroom activities. • Promote a general sense of community and belongingness.

9. Setting Limits • Establish initial rules and procedures. • Present rules and procedures in an informational rather than controlling manner. • Periodically review existing rules and procedures. • Acknowledge students’ feelings about classroom requirements. • Enforce rules consistently and fairly.

10. Keeping Students on Task • Ensure that students are productively engaged in worthwhile activities. • Choose tasks that are appropriately difficult for students’ knowledge and skills. • Provide structure for activities and assignments. • Plan for transition times.

11. Monitoring Students • Withitness: Teachers know what students are doing at all times. • regularly scan the classroom for misbehavior • regular eye contact with students • know when, and often why, misbehaviors occur

12. Instructional Strategies • Consider whether instructional strategies or classroom assignments might be partly to blame for off-task behaviors.

13. Accommodating Differences • Developmental • Individual • temperament • Cultural & ethnic • standards for behavior • Gender • Family socioeconomic status • Special needs

14. Coordinating Efforts With Others

15. Working with Faculty Members • Develop a sense of school community • communicate and collaborate regularly • identify common goals • establish a shared set of strategies for encouraging productive student behavior • commit to promoting equality and multicultural sensitivity • schoolwide positive behavior support

16. Working with the Community • Coordinate activities and efforts with • youth groups • community organizations • social services • churches • hospitals • mental health clinics • local judicial systems

17. Working With Parents • Treat them as partners • Communicate on a regular basis • conferences, written communication, phone, discussion groups, class websites • Encourage involvement in school activities • extra effort for reluctant parents • Attend to cultural differences

18. Dealing With Misbehaviors

19. Misbehavior • Any action that • can disrupt students’ learning and planned classroom activities • puts one or more students’ physical safety or psychological well-being in jeopardy • violates basic moral and ethical standards

20. Dealing With Misbehavior • Ignore the behavior • Use a cue • signal the appropriate behavior • Discuss privately with the student • avoid a power struggle • use I-messages • Teach self-regulation strategies • Confer with parents • Planned, systematic interventions • cognitive behavioral therapy

21. Addressing Aggression and Violence at School

22. Aggression and Violence • Violent aggression in the United States has declined over the past 15 to 20 years. • Most aggression at school involves psychological harm, minor physical injury, and destruction of property.

23. The Three-Level Approach • Level I: Creating a nonviolent school environment • Level II: Intervening early for students at risk • Level III: Providing intensive intervention for students in trouble

24. Gang-Related Problems • Develop, communicate, and enforce clear-cut policies. • Identify the nature and scope of gang activity in the population. • Forbid clothing, jewelry, and behaviors that signify membership in a particular gang (within the law). • Actively mediate between-gang and within-gang disputes.

25. The Big Picture

26. The Big Picture • Effective teachers establish caring, supportive relationships with students. • Effective teachers nurture productive student–student relationships. • Effective teachers think proactively to minimize behavior problems. • Effective teachers are consistent and equitable in enforcement of rules but accommodate individual differences. • Effective teachers are team players.