Significance
The question of what classroom management techniques are effective in secondary school classrooms is a significant one for a variety of reasons: misbehaving students are ubiquitous and time is a precious and limited resource.
In almost every classroom I have observed, I have seen misbehaving students. The misbehaviour can include talking while the teacher is talking, making vulgar jokes, and making paper airplanes . To hope for a classroom of perfectly behaved students is a vain hope. How do we deal with students who refuse to obey the teacher? How do we deal with students who are abusive to another student? If I were put in these situations, depending on the extremity, I would be at a loss for what would be the best and most effective disciplinary action.
Beyond the safety of the other students in the classroom, there is also the issue of time. A teacher only has about 70-80 minutes per class to guide and teach the students what they need to know. The inability to teach and guide the students, especially intellectually, means that the teacher failed to do his/her prescribed job. However, I do believe that disciplining students and classroom management is useful for teaching students beyond the intellectual realm; in fact, disciplining students teaches them ethics as they learn what is appropriate/inappropriate behaviour, which trains them to become responsible and conscientious adults. Emmers & Gerwels (2006) suggest that when teachers focus on students’ positive behaviour, it is one of the best ways of helping adolescents with developing behaviour that is socially acceptable. They point out that one of the ways to classroom manage is by noting good student behaviour.
Classroom management is essential and beneficial for students and teachers alike.
References
Emmer, T.E., & Gerwels, M.C. (2006). Classroom Management in Middle and High School Classrooms.
In C.M. Evertson & C.S. Weinstein (Eds.), Handbook of Classroom Management: Research,
Practice, and Contemporary Issues (407-437). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Hello Jan-Lin, this is a very thoughtful inquiry and it is clear that it is a pressing question for you. The genesis is well stated, your plans for the practicum were clearly laid out, good resources, and I especially appreciated your analysis of the approaches you found during your observations. You can now see that classroom management is a complex and continuous process that includes engaging students, setting guidelines and limits, creating flexible enough assignments for students to succeed, creating relationships (to a point — teacher, not buddy), providing choices (including fixed choices — you can either do this or that, or select from… providing limited but enough options…), etc.
I did worry about the “no English” rule in one classroom. I do wish teachers could develop a more nuanced approach to allowing first language use when it might be productive rather than a universal “English only” rule. I wonder how you feel about that.
I sympathize with the soft voice issue. I always try hard to “throw” my voice (project more) when I am in front of a group.
Best of luck as you go through the program. I will look forward to catching up later in the year. Theresa