Classroom Management Strategies: Eleven Effective Strategies

Controlling a class can be a challenging task. Each student has a unique attitude and behavior, and one cannot be dealt with in the same way as the others. An inattentive, chaotic, and undisciplined classroom is the worst nightmare for any teacher. As such, apart from teaching the required lessons, teachers must also adopt strategies that can keep everyone's attention on the lesson and enable them to comprehend what is being taught.  

A study was conducted in Melbourne to analyze teachers' strategies and student behavior by observing 20 teachers during their lectures. The study found most of the teachers were concerned with student misbehavior and were wasting most of their time in managing them. This increased the stress for teachers and decreased students' attention to tasks. This study called for the implementation of proactive classroom management strategies for the smooth functioning of a classroom.

According to researchers, classroom management is a core strategy for effective teaching, four components of classroom management were identified and analyzed, which included: rules and regulations, disciplinary interventions, teacher-student interactions, and mental sets.

When rules and procedures were implemented, researchers found a 28 percent decline in disruptive incidents. When disciplinary interventions were undertaken, this showed a 32 percent drop in bad behavior. An improvement in teacher-student relationships showed a 31 percent decrease in disruptive incidents, and a good mindset provided for a 40 percent decrease in disruptions.  

Eleven Effective Strategies to Manage a Classroom

1. Understand Behavior is a Skill to Be Taught

As a teachers, we are there to help students learn academics. We are also there to help them learn so much more. If we understand behavior is a skill to be taught, when misbehavior occurs, it becomes an opportunity to teach the skill the student has not yet mastered. A traditional, punitive discipline approach believes students mastered the behavior skill and are choosing not to use it; therefore, consequences are assigned by the teacher so that the student remembers better in the future.  Nonpunitive discipline helps students identify and develop missing skills that will help them be successful in their lives. The teacher becomes a partner in helping the student identify how misbehavior does not align with the life goals of the student and how the student can improve their lives through different behavior choices.  

2. Amplify Student Voice  

Teachers can provide choices about how lessons are learned and how the classroom is run. Teachers can encourage their students to come forward with ideas to conduct workshops or events appropriate for the whole class. Providing opportunities for student voice may help students generate more ideas and think creatively from different perspectives in the future. Teachers can also encourage students to share any additional points to the topic being taught in class. Motivating students to deliver short presentations would also make the classroom more engaging. Amplifying student voice will instill a feeling of belonging among the students as their ideas are heard.

3. Build Interpersonal Relations

The teacher must create an environment in which the teacher is approachable and with whom students are comfortable. Instead of being a mere pedant to the students, the teacher must develop positive relationships with each child. Teachers should strive to be understanding and empathetic. The teacher can ask about how things are going with the student's family, if they face any difficulty in studies, etc. By giving individual attention to each student, the teacher can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the student and help him or her excel in class while seeing the teacher not as strict and cranky but as friendly and helpful. Be compassionate to the students and let them recognize your compassion through your words and actions.

4. Appreciate Students

Appreciation goes a long way. Noticing something about a student or providing a small compliment could make a child’s day. It boosts the student's self-esteem, self-confidence, and desire to be a good student. A teacher might think praise, appreciation, and compliments are unnecessary. However, small deeds could inspire and motivate students to actively participate in class, stay up-to-date on the course being taught, and encourage their classmates to do the same.

5. Good Classroom Management Has to Be Student-Centered and Consistent, Not Rigid

While the overall goal of a class is for the students to learn the academic objectives, an exclusive focus on the academic lesson can undermine learning. A student-centered classroom places the physical and social-emotional needs of the students first. While some may believe it is necessary to be strict in order to maintain classroom discipline, it is important to achieve consistency without being rigid. A rigid, inflexible teacher who tries to be too controlling will often create resistant students. As teachers demonstrate empathy and care for their students, they create an environment permeated with mutual respect and partnerships.

6. Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

A teacher might feel the urge to ignore students who simply do not follow the rules. This might seem okay in the short run, but in the long run, it affects the teacher's credibility and gives the impression that students can get away with whatever they want to do in class. The teacher should not show partiality to one student either. They should not ignore a wrong deed done by one student while addressing another for a similar act. The teacher must be consistent with the guidelines and consistently address misbehavior.

7. Provide Tangible Rewards

Students, especially the young ones, love to receive rewards. The teacher can offer small incentives like trinkets, books, and so on. These can be offered to students for scoring top marks on tests, for good behavior, etc. Rewards can encourage students to use their full potential to study and score good grades as well as to behave in a disciplined manner.

8. Avoid Punishments, Especially Avoid Whole-Class Punishments

In almost all schools, there are certain behaviors (fighting, weapons, etc.) that by policy, require a punishment. These policy punishments are generally intended to protect the safety and order of the school and classrooms as a whole. Providing punitive discipline, the intent to cause pain to inspire pain, is generally ineffective with an individual and even more so in large groups. The teacher must restrain from punishing the entire class for some transgression committed by any one student in the class. Punishing an entire class only builds resistance among well-behaved students toward the teacher, and they might not cooperate in the future, creating further chaos.

9. Provide a Short Description Before Starting a Lesso

Before the teacher proceeds to teach his or her lesson, he or she must try to provide a short description stating what will be taught, any assignments or tasks to be done, the learning outcomes of the lesson, or any other information relating to the lesson. This will draw everyone's attention, instill interest, and facilitate learning in the students.

10. Practice Interdisciplinary Teaching

Teachers can create an open and creative learning environment by making the students work on real-world issues. The teacher can combine different topics by setting an interactive and integrated project for the students. This can be done by way of assigning projects concerning newspaper articles, uploading articles on the given topic on the school website, etc.  

11. Consider Peer Learning & Instruction

A few top students can help their peers in the classroom. This will boost the confidence and the interpersonal skills of all the students. The students might feel more comfortable if their classmates teach them and may be more open to the learning. Hence, peer learning undertaken from time to time will enable the poorly performing students to excel in areas they feel they are weak in with the help of their classmates.

In one study on peer instruction, 208 undergraduate students were asked 86 different questions about their course content; they recorded their answer after discussing it with peers as opposed to individually answering. It was found that they answered all questions with much more confidence and provided accurate answers.

Conclusion

Any single strategy that proves effective in one classroom may not work in another one. The effectiveness of these strategies depends on the students, the teachers, and how they are implemented. A combination of all these strategies will make the classroom an engaging, peaceful, and productive space for the students and the teachers alike.

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Amy Stock, MS