(Unit -2) Classroom Management (6403)

 Unit -2

COMPONENTS OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT 

Components of Classroom Management

Classroom management is fundamental to achieving positive educational outcomes. Organization and behaviour management in the classroom provide students with structure, which promotes learning. This is especially important in elementary school classrooms, but the same principles can be applied to middle school and high school students as well. There are six basic components of classroom management that can help turn a rowdy classroom into a place for learning.

1.  Rules of the Classroom 

Develop rules that promote respect, care and unity amongst the students of your classroom is the basic components of classroom management. Because it gives clear direction to the students that what they have to do and what they have not to do.

2. Discipline 

Classroom rules must have tangible consequences. Students observe the limitations of each teacher from the very first day of school. So the teacher needs to be firm, fair and consistent. The class should be started with the warmth welcome to the student and confirm their knowledge about the classroom rules.

3. Learning Goals 

 For good management of lessons in the class the teacher should communicate and explain the learning goals at the beginning of each unit or at the beginning of each class period.

4. Routines of Classroom 

Structuring the routine of classroom is very important in school settings. In elementary schools the teachers set the routine of classrooms for the beginning and end of each day. Daily schedules is an important component as it also effective tool in aiding student learning.

5. Classroom Rules and Social Expectations 

Establishing clear classroom rules and ensuring that students know the consequences of their actions can go a long way towards minimizing disruptive behaviour.

6. Encouragement and Praise 

Encouragement and praise both are very important components of classroom. Because it motivate the students towards learning.

Use of Teachers’ Qualities

All students have had hundreds of teachers in their lifetimes. A very few of these teachers they remember as being exceptionally good.

 What are the qualities that combine to create an excellent, memorable teacher?

Why do students learn more from some teachers than others?

This issue of "Emphasis on Teaching" focuses on the four essential qualities that distinguish exceptional teachers:

 (a) Knowledge

Students consistently and clearly target as the number one quality of a good teacher exactly what you would expect: knowledge of the subject.

(b) Communication

The second core quality that good teachers possess is the ability to communicate their knowledge and expertise to their students.

(c) Interest

A good teacher starts with a firm knowledge of the subject, and builds on that with a clarity and understanding designed to help students master the material.

(d) Respect

Good teachers have a deep-seated concern and respect for the students in the classroom.

Teachers’ Techniques

Teachers often use techniques which cater to multiple learning styles to help students retain information and strengthen understanding.  A variety of strategies and methods are used to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to learn.

(i) Setting the Scene

The importance of starting off on the right foot cannot be overestimated. The students are most likely to learn in a relaxed and friendly environment.

(ii) Being Student Centered

Being student centered means focusing on what the students want to know and involving them in the learning as much as possible.

(iii) Assessing Prior Knowledge

Finding out what students know already is very important.

 (iv) Getting Students to Participate

Students are most likely to learn when they are actively involved with the learning. This keeps students interested.

(v) Asking Questions and Dealing with Answers

 Questions are the simplest way of getting students to interact with a teacher. However, asking questions is not as simple as it appears. Questions can also probe at different levels of knowledge.

(vi) Checking Understanding

During a session it is worth monitoring the progress of the students. Check that they understand the points you have just covered and make sure they have no questions before you move onto the next topic.

 (vii) Using Visual Aids

This is another way of keeping students interested. Students can interact with diagrammatic information easily. Common tools are diagrams (from books, CD ROMs etc), flip charts and overhead projectors

(viii) Setting Homework

This is often referred to as lifelong learning through which students can understand the content as doing by self at home.

(ix) Summarising and Closing a Session

 Summarising at the end of a session is important. We could reduce a lot of teaching theory to the statement “tell them what you going to do, do it, tell them what you just did”.

Teachers Skills

The key points to remember are:

·         Effective classroom teaching to varied audiences in terms of subject matter

·         Effective classroom teaching in terms of pedagogy

·         Ability to convey the competence in subject matter and confidence in one’s ability to teach

·         Ability to develop course curriculum and individual lessons

·         Effective use of common instructional aids, including audiovisual techniques

·         Ability to help students understand the general principles and concepts underlying a particular lesson

·         Ability to explain both basic and difficult concepts clearly

·         Ability to ask well questions (testing, study, case histories).

·         Ability to provide feedback to students.

·         Awareness of the strengths and limitations of various means for evaluating teaching performance.

·         Ability to adjust lesson plan based on information garnered from student questions

Individual Differences

Students are all different. That is what makes students unique and interesting human beings. Obvious differences include hair color, height, size, and eye color. Other differences may not be so obvious, but definitely affect learning and behaviour in the classrooms.  Although classroom management plans are written for most classroom settings, classroom management is also affected by student characteristics.  Individual goals, interests, culture, home background, age, academic ability levels, mental health issues, behaviour problems, eating disorder influence the classroom management plan. To identify individual differences, teachers may look at many different sources for information. Sources might include classroom observations, work samples, school records, standardized testing, and reports from other teachers (Evertson & Emmer, 2009).

Need of Individual Differences

The aim of education is to enable each student to attain all-round development according to his/her own attributes.  To achieve this, students should be provided with suitable assistance and guidance in accordance with their abilities and learning needs, so that they can develop their potential to the full. Each student is a unique individual, different in cognitive and affective development, social maturity, ability, motivation, aspiration, learning styles, needs, interests and potential.  Apart from this, there are other factors underlying student differences.

These include innate differences in intelligence, differences in social and economic background, variations in past learning experiences, and perhaps variations in the level of congruence between the learner and the curriculum.

It should aim for understanding why students are able or unable to learn well and finding appropriate ways to help them learn better. To address the needs of students, teachers should provide them with a variety of learning opportunities for effective learning

Personality Development

The word "personality" originates from the Latin persona, which means mask. Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviours in various situations.

Personality may also refer to the patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours consistently exhibited by an individual over time that strongly influence our expectations, self-perceptions, values and attitudes, and predicts our reactions to people, problems and stress.

Philosophical Assumptions

The study of personality is not a purely empirical discipline, as it brings in elements of art, science, and philosophy to draw general conclusions. The following five categories are some of the most fundamental philosophical assumptions which may lead to personality aspects:

•         Freedom Versus Determinism

•         Heredity versus Environment

•         Uniqueness versus Universality

•         Active versus Reactive

•         Optimistic versus Pessimistic

(a) Physical Development

Physical development refers to physical changes in the body and involves changes in bone thickness, size, weight, gross motor, fine motor, vision, hearing, and perceptual development. Growth is rapid during the first two years of life. The child’s size, shape, senses, and organs undergo change. As each physical change occurs, the child gains new abilities.

·         Gross Motor Skills:

The term "gross motor" development refers to physical skills that use large body movements, normally involving the entire body. In the sense used here, gross means "large" rather than "disgusting.“

o   Between ages 2 and 3 years:

Develop the ability to run, jump, and hop. Children of this age can participate in throwing and catching games with larger balls

o   Children who are 3 to 4 years old:

Children develop better upper body mobility. As a result, their catching and throwing abilities improve in speed and accuracy.

o   4 to 5 Years

Their running continues to smooth out and increase in speed. They also have more control when riding their tricycles (or bicycles), and can drive them faster.

o   During ages 5 to 6,

Young children continue to refine earlier skills.

o   5-7 year-olds

Begin to show the skills necessary for starting or succeeding in school, such as printing letters and numbers and creating shapes such as triangles.

·         Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are necessary to engage in smaller, more precise movements, normally using the hands and fingers. Fine motor skills are different than gross motor skills which require less precision to perform.

Cognitive Development

It refers to the way children think, develop language, solve problems, and gain knowledge.

Birth to 5years of age is important for the development of cognition and it has greater impact on the child life. 

 

Jean Piaget Cognitive Development Theory

Jean Piaget, classified cognitive development into four stages. 

 

Temperament

Temperament refers to the quality and degree or intensity of emotional reactions. Passivity, irritability, and activity are three factors that affect a child’s temperament.

Passivity refers to how actively involved a child is with his or her environment or surroundings.

Irritability is also difference in the level of irritability (tendency to feel distressed) of infants.

Activity levels or levels of movement also vary in infants.

Temperament Characteristics

(i) Activity

Refers to the child’s physical energy.

(ii) Regularity

Refers to the level of predictability in a child’s biological functions, such as waking, becoming tired, hunger, and bowel movements.

(iii) Initial reaction

Known as Approach or Withdrawal. This refers to how the child responds (whether positively or negatively) to new people or environments.

(iv) Adaptability

Refers to how long it takes the child to adjust to change over time (as opposed to an initial reaction).

 (v) Intensity

Refers to the energy level of a positive or negative response

 (vi) Mood

Refers to the child’s general tendency towards a happy or unhappy demeanor.

(vii) Distractibility

Refers to the child’s tendency to be sidetracked by other things going on around them.

(viii) Sensitivity

 Refers to how easily a child is disturbed by changes in the environment 

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