Student-Teacher Relationships
Over the past several weeks a lot of my research on the topic of disruptive behaviour has been centred around the idea of good teaching practices. In staying with this idea, this week I became curious about whether or not classroom management could be implemented in such a way that it could help minimize disruptive behaviour within the classroom without becoming the focal point of the lesson. Moreover, I found myself wondering if there are any alternative approaches to classroom management that have been proven to be more effective in helping to minimize disruptive behaviour.
Personally I believe that classroom management is an extremely important component of any successful classroom; however, I think it’s only one small part of a much bigger puzzle when it comes to creating a classroom environment that promotes learning, academic achievement, positive relationships, and pro-social behaviour. Although I think that at least some amount of classroom management is necessary within a classroom, there are many reasons why I would want to create a classroom environment that focuses on more then just classroom management. One reason why I feel it is important to move beyond more traditional methods classroom management is because I believe that student academic development, behavioural development, and social-emotional development improve far more in a classroom where the teacher’s focus is on building positive relationships with the students rather than micro-managing activities, behaviours, and noise. In addition to this point I also feel as if it is important to move beyond classroom management because it is both arbitrary and subjective in the sense that what may be seen as disruptive by one teacher may be seen as productive and beneficial by another teacher. For example, during a group activity what some teachers may interpret as noise and disruption I may interpret as learning, communicating, and building social skills. Accordingly, I think it extremely important that we as future educators move beyond the traditional focus of classroom management and concentrate more on creating a safe and supportive environment that encourages meaningful learning, positive relationships, and pro-soecial behaviour.
On a personal level I believe that traditional classroom management is lacking because it often does not take the behavioural or cognitive differences of students into consideration, nor does it take the personal relationships between the students and the teachers into consideration. One article which discusses the importance of student-teacher relationships as an indicator for student success and behaviour is entitled, ‘Student-Teacher Relationships’ and is written by Bridget Hamre and Robert Pianta (2006). Within the article it is noted that positive student-teacher relationships are extremely important to establish within the classroom as they are often huge predictors of student social emotional development and student academic success (Hamre & Pianta 2006). In building upon this idea, the article also discusses recent research which shows that positive student-teacher relationships can also help minimize disruptive behaviour within the classroom, help reduce the amount of time spent on behaviour management, and make learning more meaningful (Hamre & Pianta 2006). These findings within the article are exactly why I feel as if more traditional forms of classroom management are lacking. I feel that with a stronger emphasis on building and maintaining supportive relationships within the classroom, less time would be needed for classroom management and more time could be spent supporting, engaging, and encouraging our students. Furthermore, I strongly believe that with a stronger emphasis on building and maintaining supportive relationships within the classroom that instances of disruptive behaviour would begin to naturally decrease without the need for constant classroom management.
Living Inquiry Take Away
This week our cohort had the opportunity to participate in a ‘living inquiry’ activity in which we got to speak with members from the PL Tech cohort and learn about some of the inquiry topics they are pursuing. Although I had many fantastic conversations with many new people during this time, there was one conversation in particular that provided me with a lot more insight into my own inquiry topic. Jon Green, a member of the PL Tech Cohort has spent the past several months researching his topic of ‘assigning homework’ and whether or not it is valuable teaching tool or a waste of time. Within his research so far Jon has come across many alternative and/or more valuable ways to assign homework to students to make learning more meaningful. One specific example that he gave me from his research is as follows: Instead of assigning endless amounts of homework to your students ask a few of them each day to create their own question on the topic and then get them to teach it to the class. For example, at the end of a math lesson ask 5 students to create their own math question on the topic being taught and then get the students to teach it to the rest of the class on the following day. I think this idea is absolutely fantastic. Not only would assigning homework in this way help students be academically successful in their studies, but it would also help keep the rest of the class engaged during the lesson, which in turn would help to minimize disruptive behaviour.
This new perspective that I was able to gain during the living inquiry activity has really helped me to change the way that I think about minimizing disruptive behaviour within the classroom. Over the past fews weeks I have gained the understanding that good teaching practices and good student-teacher relationships are key in helping to minimize disruptive behaviours, and now I am beginning to understand that there are so many techniques and activities that I can use within my own classroom to help me achieve this goal.
Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2006). Student-teacher relationships. In G.G. Bear & K. Minke (Eds.), Children’s Needs III: Development, prevention, and intervention (pp. 59-71). Bethesda, MD: NASP.
Thoughtful comments and good connections! The term “classroom management” does have a connotation about the way a class is conceptualized. Who has control ? What does “managing” imply? What happens when their is “push back” to the teacher’s management?
With the suggestion that students teach a math example to the class, it is the students who are effectively given some control over their learning and given autonomy in how they present. Autonomy over their learning is one of the ways that students connect to learning. Also their peers have to listen to each other and learn respect for each other that way.