This article contains information on everything you need to know about classroom management in terms of strategy, styles and types.
Being a class room teacher is one position that cannot be occupied by just anybody because it takes a lot to ensure orderliness in the classroom. Classroom management therefore refers to the organization of the learning environment in relation to keeping students on track to learn successfully.
Most educators believe things should be done in a certain way to better manage the classroom and many of these ways differs. Also, since every classroom is different most times, there are management strategies that may not work, but then, there are certain strategies that can be applied to manage classrooms of any type effectively.
Many teachers only choose management strategies without giving much consideration to how those strategies can be implemented effectively.
LIST OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND STYLES
Thus, below are the 16 effective classroom management strategies /styles that can easily be adopted by educators:
1. Build Relationships
One of the most effective classroom management techniques is to have personal relationships with the students. Many times, students are naturally difficult to control when in the care of a person they do not seem to like and with but the case is always different for a person they like. Students are more engaged and corporative when they like and admire their teacher, and the classroom environment is more pleasant when there is a mutual understanding between the students and teacher.
2. Set Rules and Regulations
This may look weird but rules are important to enable class members to know the do’s and don’ts, what they are expected to do, when, where and how it ought to be done as well as the consequences of breaking every rule. This will help class members to know when they are doing the wrong things. Setting rules and regulations and sticking to it makes everyone cautious and this is one management strategy that works effectively.
So, as an educator, it’s time to draft one for the class.
3. Document the Rules
After setting rules and regulations, documenting it is one way classroom members will understand how important it is. Similar to handing out a syllabus, print and distribute the list of rules that the class discussion generated and when a student breaks a rule, it’ll be easy for you to point to this document.
4. Carry Students Along
It’s one thing to set rules and another thing for the scholarship to abide by these rules. Therefore, another management strategy is aimed at getting scholars to obey the rules and this is carrying the students along while creating the rules.
Rather than creating the rules as a classroom teacher, spend time discussing these potential rules with the students. You will be amazed to find out that they are likely to suggest stricter rules than you do. While doing this, guide the class discussion so there are no rules that will cause class disruptions and unruly behaviors. Moreso, you must endeavour that the majority of the class agrees on whatever the class adopts.
5. Let Students Lead
This is a strategy that works perfectly for a classroom with scholars who are difficult to control. The fact is that these students do not understand what it takes to teach and as such, to get them to understand the energy it takes to be a teacher, why not let them teach.
This can be by letting them tell you and their classmates what they have learnt or what they understand about a given topic. In many cases, students dread doing this and in bid to avoid being called to teach, the classroom is usually calmer than ever before.
6. Avoid Punishing the Whole Class
If there is one way to turn students against you as an educator, it is punishing the whole class for one person’s error.
Punishing the whole class can harm classroom management in the long run because it hurts the students who are not behaving badly. Instead, address isolated behavior issues by calling out the offenders as to avoid destroying relationships thereby jeopardize other classroom management efforts.
7. Encourage Initiative
When it comes to education, the norms have always been the give and receive approach whereby teachers are always giving out information while the students take it in the hook line and sinker without any form of research and contribution. To manage a classroom promoting growth mindset by allowing students to work ahead and deliver short presentations is also a strategy that works effectively.
8. Praise Instead Of Condemnation
No human enjoys being scolded openly no matter what the case may be but everyone enjoys praises and accolades.
If you want to manage the classroom effectively as an educator then learn to praise your scholars more. Always praise students for jobs well done, as this improves academic and behavioral performance. Other importance of praise includes: improves a student’s self-esteem, encourages students to repeat positive behaviour.
9. Give Tangible Rewards
Rewards for good behaviour are a great way to manage the classroom effectively.
For instance, during your class, some groups of students paid keen attention and also answered questions while others weren’t. After the class endeavour to openly rewards such students for their activeness in class. The aim of this is to encourage and motivate other students to put up good behaviour.
It could be chocolates and candies, movie tickets, etc. Try to make it a tangible reward. By doing this, others would equally desir such a reward would definitely put on good behaviours in subsequent classes.
10. Make Courtesy Calls and Visits
As a teacher, if you think your work ends in the classroom you’re wrong.
Your duty as a teacher extends to the personal life of your students which means that paying a surprise visit to the homes of your students, their parents, making positive phone calls and sending complimentary letters home is also one of the strategies to better manage the classroom. A child from a troubled home will always have issues in school and this indirectly rubs off on the teacher.
Checking on such students at home can have a positive impact in such families and this can also entice such parents to be more dedicated to the child’s learning which in turn brings about better performance of the student in school.
11. Build Excitement for Content
As an educator, you may find yourself in a class where the scholars are nonchalant about what’s to be taught for the day. In order to effectively manage this situation, always start teaching by previewing the exciting and captivating parts first, thereby hooking student interest from the onset.
Another way is to go through an agenda of the day which may include group tasks, games for the day, etc. The goal of this classroom management technique is to arouse the their interest your agenda and thereby dissuade misbehavior and non-participation.
12. Offer Varieties of Free Study Time
In many cases, once it’s free study time, scholars are mostly forced to take a nap. This may not go down well with every member of the class and such people may at one point or the other begin to put up some form of rebellion.
To better manage this, it’s either you provide a range of activities during free study time that will interest students who struggle to process content in silence, individually or collectively or incorporate play.
You can provide audio books, which can play material that they are meant to read by themselves. You can also create a station for challenging group educational games. By engaging in these sorts of activities, free study time will not only be fun but it will benefit different learners.
Students deal with stress and pressure in their studies, and stress lowers concentration and the ability to learn.
By encouraging a stress-free environment, teachers actually help students learn better. This can include cracking jokes, encouraging creative projects. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Therefore, this should also contribute to overall classroom performance.
13. Write Group Work
Group work is a great way to get students more involved and engaged in the class. Moreso, it allows students to work on relationship-building skills, collaborating and leading skills, and usually results in more learning. Group contracts should be based on expectations. You can have a discussion about what is ideal. Once you’ve written the contract, encourage students to come up with consequences for Implement Group Work
14. Interview Students
Once in a while, having a heart to heart discussion is very important. So, interview students who aren’t academically sound or non-active in the classroom. This will enable you to learn how to better manage them. For better results, you can take each student aside to ask them about how they class activities and how they have been performing. This can include questions such as:
- Which activities they like the most
- Which subjects they enjoy most
- What helps their focus during class, etc.
Inorder to get the best out of this, maintain a friendly disposition.
15. Consider Peer Teaching
Peer teaching activities, such as pairing students together as reading partners can be highly beneficial for students who have poor interpersonal skills.
To achieve this classroom management strategy use the top performers in the class to engage and educate less active and struggling students.
16. Tech-Off Policy
This technique is basically for colleges and universities. With the existence of technology and gadgets, it is very difficult to be in a classroom where mostly everyone in the class is in possession of one gadget or the other. For most teachers/lecturers, this has made it very challenging to properly manage a class effectively as on many occasions some of these gadgets may actually be used for the purpose of the class, with which to take notes and record lectures.
In this situation, most educators have come up with management techniques which include either placing the gadgets on silence in the case of phones or alternatively, having students turn off their phones and either placing them on the desk orvin the bag so that teachers can see that they are not being distracted.
TYPES OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STYLES
There are different classroom management styles but for the purpose of this article we will be considering four major styles. While no teacher is a perfect fit for any of the styles, this information is only to guide your decision-making in relation to choosing classroom management strategies. They are:
1. Authoritarian
The authoritarian teacher exhibits a high level of control over the classroom, but a low level of involvement with students. This teacher strictly enforces the rules, assigns seats and provides a lot of direct instruction. Such teachers avoid close connections with students. They often know little about their students personal lives and won’t tolerate problematic behaviour in the classroom. The teacher expects students to remain quiet and discourages discussions of any sort. Any inappropriate behavior attracts strict punishment.
With this style of classroom management, it is very obvious that managing the classroom is far from being effective and also the academic performance of students with such a teacher will be poor.
2. Permissive
The permissive teacher has low levels of both control and involvement. This teacher has checked out and doesn’t prepare lesson plans. They rather choose to while away time doing irrelevant things such as seeing movies and listening to music. Students always have the upper hand in such a class and the teacher does little or nothing to challenge this. Teachers in this category interact little with students and rather engage more in their own entertainment than attending to academic needs of students.
3. Indulgent
The teacher in this category has a high level of involvement with students, but a low level of control. The teacher cares for the students and loses authority by becoming friendly with the students. Here the teacher is always dedicated to discharge his/her duties but lacks the control to direct the students to present the lessons. The students do what they want generally and the teacher allows them to express themselves freely. Students rarely encounter punishment when rules are broken and the teacher encourages students to make their own decisions. This style confirms the saying that too much familiarity brings about disrespect.
4. Authoritative
The authoritative teacher has high levels of both control and student involvement. This teacher is firm but fair. The teacher praises and incentives for a job well done, encourages class discussions and considers reasonable consequences for any form of misconduct. The authoritative teacher is interested in the success of the students and cares about what happens to them outside of school. Rules are consistent and regularly enforced. This teacher is understanding of the challenges the students face and is always considerate when setting rules. The teacher encourages self confidence and independence in the students.
Having considered the different management styles, it is obvious that getting a management technique to work in a classroom is solely dependent on the style of management used by the teacher.
CONCLUSION
These classroom management strategies and styles are very important for the success of any student. It will help both teacher and students get more out of the classroom environment. Regardless of where these management strategies are used, teachers and students will surely benefit from a more focused and creative classroom environment.
Whatever the case may be, how well a classroom is managed is solely dependent on the teacher and not the strategies used.
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