Elementary Classroom Management - (Third Edition)

Author: Carol Simon Weinstein, Andrew J. Mignano / Country:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: An analytical report summarizing 50 years of research findings indicates that classroom management is the key factor affecting student learning—more important than students' overall intelligence level, prior knowledge base, family background, learning motivation, and socioeconomic status. This book introduces cutting-edge theories of classroom management and explores principles of classroom management through numerous real-life examples from primary school teachers. How to arrange the classroom, how to shape the class's "personality," how to develop and implement behavior norms, how to motivate students, and how to address inappropriate behavior—various classroom management challenges that elementary school teachers face daily can all be found answers in this book.
A few years ago, we mentored a teacher named Molly who was assigned to a fourth-grade classroom. One of us taught Molly a course on campus and had some concerns about her organizational skills. However, what happened on her first day in the classroom was beyond our expectations. Molly was teaching a lesson on quotation marks, which, though not particularly engaging, wasn’t terrible. Yet the students' performance was disastrous. They were chatting, rummaging through their desks, and completely ignoring the lesson content. Additionally, throughout the class, students repeatedly approached Molly, asking to use the restroom, and then left the classroom. We saw one student leave for three minutes, which was almost unbelievable; on one occasion, five or six students left together. Yet Molly never made the students wait for the teacher to finish teaching or for the previous person to return before leaving. After the class, when we discussed with Molly, we asked her to explain the students' behavior. Strangely enough, we heard her explain that the students were disinterested in her lesson and clearly wanted to leave the classroom. We also wondered why she never said "no" when students asked to leave the restroom. We clearly remember her response: "I wanted to show the children that I care about them. I didn’t want to rule the classroom like a dictator. If someone wanted to use the restroom and I said no, it would be like telling them I don’t respect them." Molly never managed to create the respectful atmosphere she desired. In fact, she didn’t even complete her teaching internship. Her obsession with "care" (which she defined as "never saying no") created chaos, making learning, teaching, and showing care impossible. Over the years, we have often reflected on Molly’s situation, especially her definition of care. We have also heard echoes of this mindset from other prospective teachers we have mentored. Like Molly, these student teachers believe that good teachers should be caring teachers. They also believe they have the ability to deeply care for their students and build strong relationships with them. They imagine nurturing their students' self-esteem, taking pride in their success, and watching them grow. They envision a classroom filled with warmth, affection, and mutual respect. Then, these future teachers begin their teaching internships. After a few weeks, the rhetoric of care fades away, replaced by the discourse of control. The calls for dedication and passion are overshadowed by demands for discipline and the need to stay after class. Students regret that they had started "too well" and should have been "tougher." Some even begin to believe that care and order are fundamentally incompatible. The tension between the desire to care for students and the need to establish order is not uncommon among new teachers (McLnughlin, 1991; Weinstein, 1998). However, care and order are not irreconcilable goals. In fact, they complement each other. Only when the classroom becomes an orderly and well-structured environment can mutual care flourish. Clear rules and routines reduce chaos, misunderstandings, and the likelihood of demands being ignored, thereby increasing the possibility of warm, relaxed interactions between teachers and students. At the same time, one of the ways teachers create an orderly and efficient environment is by showing care. As four teachers’ students told us when we discussed classroom management (see Chapter 2), students are more willing to cooperate with caring and respectful teachers. Research also supports this view: A review of literature on students' need for school belonging (Osterman, 2000) shows that when children feel supported, they are more willing to accept others' authority and regulate their behavior according to class rules. However, gaining others' cooperation is not the only reason for developing a relationship of mutual respect and support with students. If we want children to learn seriously, share their thoughts and feelings, take risks, and develop a sense of responsibility, we need to organize the classroom so that students feel safe emotionally, intellectually, and physically, and that someone cares about them. If we want students to feel connected and trusted, we must strive to create a classroom community where students know they are needed and valued as members (Roeser, Eccles,