Nowadays, more and more teachers begin to question whether the accepted teaching and management strategies are helpful in terms of productive learning. With the progressive pace of advanced technology development and psychological discoveries, it is possible to find brand new ways to manage classrooms in the most effective and less time-consuming ways. Therefore, this article covers top classroom management strategies to boost the efficiency of student learning.
What is classroom management?
Classroom management is a combination of diverse techniques, approaches, and teachers’ skills served to organize the teaching process and make students attentive and productive while learning. With the help of classroom management techniques, teachers can minimize or eliminate any sort of disorder, disobedience, or disrespect among students. The practice shows that inexperienced teachers tend to pay less attention to this important aspect of teaching in comparison with more effective and experienced educators. As a result, they struggle with maintaining discipline and focus among students. Therefore, it is essential to take into consideration this important aspect of teaching.
Some time ago, people assumed that successful classroom management strategies are all about compliance rules established by teachers in their classrooms. According to these rules, pupils have to behave in a certain way: sit quietly, raise a hand to ask something, listen carefully to the teacher, and so forth. As for now, however, the situation has drastically changed. Efficient classroom management strategies involve such aspects as behavior and approach (encouraging polite and attentive behavior and using positive incentives), environment optimization (well-lit and comfortable learning space appropriate for all necessary activities), predescribed expectations (the agreements that both students and teachers make together to facilitate the learning process), learning activities (a variety of experiences designed both to teach something and correlate with students’ interests or leaning level), learning materials (the established kinds of texts and equipment, etc. that would match the learning objectives and activities).
How to choose the right management strategy
The right choice of classroom management strategy is one of the crucial factors of students’ academic success. It is not a secret that one strategy might succeed with some students, while the others may be not so effective. While choosing the best classroom management strategy, is important to pay attention to the following factors:
– students’ age group and their personal traits;
– the targeted subject;
– personalized and general learning objectives.
Class behavior and age group define the combination of necessary tools and activities that would match the needs of a specific group. For example, it would be better to use ClassDojo and Kahoot for very young students, while Google Classroom tools and Google Forms, different kinds of online polls, online discussions, different group collaboration platforms may be used while teaching older students. Of course, it would not be reasonable to teach Maths using history textbooks or art tools. In addition, it is necessary to build up the learning program and classroom management based on students’ objectives. Teachers should pay more attention to problems that their students may encounter (for example, teaching how to read to pupils with dyslexia).
As can be seen, classroom management strategies may vary according to the particularities of the group and subject. If you need to write an excellent paper from scratch on the topic of classroom management but you struggle with finding missing details and theory, you may use a custom thesis writing service such as Pro-papers.com where writers can find and organize all required information for you. In any case, it is possible to mention a number of universal classroom strategies that will be helpful in any kind of teaching process and every learning group.
1. Signing the contract about expected behavior
First, teachers need to make sure that they demonstrate behavior they want to see. They need to demonstrate and expect polite language, eye contact maintenance, keeping mobile phones away, etc. It would be useful to establish the rules of students’ expected behavior in a playful manner, i.e., by creating and signing the contract during the very first lesson. This contract should contain guidelines and rules that everybody should sign. It is possible to prepare the basic first rules beforehand, and then add more items together with students. In this way, teachers will not only establish the rules but also show that they respect their students. Finally, it would be wise enough to pin the signed contract in the place everyone could see. When a student breaks a rule, the teacher can easily address the document.
2. Usage of positive attitude and humor
Once a teacher has signed the contract together with students, it might happen that some of them will violate the established rules. In this cage, the best option is to remain positive and come up with penalties related to the academic process for those who violate the contract. Attentive and successful teachers will look into the core of a problem. For example, while an inexperienced or inefficient teacher asks to stop talking, a wise teacher would ask their students if they have a question or something important to share. This approach will allow teachers to remain friendly, open, and demanding at the same time.
3. Responding to bad behavior
At the same time, all “bad” behaviors need to be acknowledged and turned into the “good” ones. It is crucial to respond to any kind of inappropriate behavior as soon as possible. The best way to do it is to talk to a student in private. Remember that punishment in front of peers has limited value and may lead to undesired negative consequences. Remember that harmful education strategies often lead to psychological traumas for students later in adult life.
4. Usage of educational technology
Nowadays, every sphere of life becomes thoroughly connected to technological advancements. It would be effective to adopt these advancements to students’ needs and simultaneously boost their learning process engagement. For example, a mobile phone can be both the most significant distraction and the greatest helper if choosing the right approach.
5. Gamify learning activities
Another effective classroom strategy is to make a game out of the learning process by introducing elements of quests, game, and giving tangible rewards (for example, badges for the best results).
Classroom management strategies is one of the topics that include a range of equally important aspects. This list is only a tiny bit of all efficient strategies known so far. Overall, it is essential to both keep in mind the age and level of a group, the targeted subject, and wisely integrate modern technologies and psychological tricks to make the learning process more awe-thrilling.
