Chapter Summary

  • Chapter Summary
    • This chapter focused on classroom management. The main points associated with specific objectives were as follows:
    • Learning Objective 1: Define classroom management and identify its various aspects.
      • Classroom management is the process of organizing and conducting the business of the classroom relatively free from behavior problems.
      • A classroom must be organized and orderly, and it must run smoothly for learning to take place.
      • Positive management strategies are essential to effective teaching and learning.
    • Learning Objective 2: Identify similarities and differences in classroom management at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels.
      • Effective leadership is essential to a smoothly run classroom at all grade levels. The three styles of classroom leadership are authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire. Teaching and classroom leadership can be stressful.
      • Middle and secondary student problems can be more long-standing and more deeply ingrained.
      • Secondary students tend to be more resistant to authority.
    • Learning Objective 3: Identify and describe the self-discipline, instructional, and desist approaches to classroom management, as well as characteristics of the different illustrative models of discipline associated with each approach.
      • Principles of the self-discipline approach to classroom management are supported by the Glasser reality therapy model, Gordon teacher effectiveness training (TET) model, Coloroso inner discipline model, and Kohn beyond discipline model.
      • Principles of the instructional approach to classroom management are emphasized by the Kounin model and the Jones model.
      • Principles of the desist approach to classroom management are integral components of assertive discipline and behavioral modification.
    • Learning Objective 4: Identify and discuss causes of classroom misbehavior.
      • Misbehavior sometimes can be attributed to influences outside the classroom, such as the mistaken goals of children, the home environment or the community, and to attributes associated with the teacher or with students themselves.
    • Learning Objective 5: Discuss organizational techniques that lead to effective classroom management.
      • Characteristics that represent potential for classroom problems are as follows: Classrooms are multidimensional, activities occur simultaneously, things happen quickly, and events are often unpredictable.
      • Effective management calls for planning well, establishing routines, arranging the classroom to avoid problems, and formulating limits.
    • Learning Objective 6: Identify and discuss teacher-tested techniques for effectively preventing classroom management problems and the appropriate use of punishment in the classroom.
      • Teachers must establish credibility at the beginning of the year—and then keep it. They must be fair, firm, and consistent with students. They must monitor their classrooms and apply the consequences to misbehavior.
      • Teachers should use punishment only as a last resort. They should establish a positive classroom atmosphere, where students have an opportunity to develop a sense of self-discipline.