Principles of Teaching and Learning: Classroom Management

Since my very first post, I am not quite aware about the comments that I have received from some of
the readers who came across this blog. And I am glad to know that there are a lot of comments
especially from my posts about principles of teaching. I personally believe that once an education
student have mastered all the principles of teaching, he/she doesn't need to memorize all the facts
(Well, if we are only talking about the courses Principles of Teaching 1 and 2...hehehehe. Memorizing
some important facts is also very vital especially in Content Courses. If you'll ask and "idealist", he might
say that facts are important building blocks for higher thinking skills.) In this regard, I am now going to
discuss some principles in teaching particularly in managing the class (Actually this is a more
comprehensive discussion of my previous post about this topic. In short this is just a repost. hehehehe)

It is a cliche to say that a teacher must also be a good manager. Although we have heard this how
many times, this is really so true (really and so...redundancy...hehehe...for emphasis's sake). What we
have prepared for a day's lesson will be useless if our class is uncontrollable. Below are some of the
principles of effective classroom management.

1. Proactive discipline over counteractive discipline. This means that we must do certain actions before
disciplinary problems will occur. We must impose rules and policies inside our class and consistently
implement these. We must not wait for troubles before we will take solutions. If pupils will be cleared
with all the rules they need to follow, disciplinary problems will least likely to happen.

2. Routines are best ways of minimizing disorders inside the classroom. It is good to start the school
year establishing routines with the students/pupils. These routines, like passing of the paper, reading
textbooks, checking of answers, etc, can lessen interruptions and can save a lot of time. If the
students/pupils are made to know what they have to do, the flow of the class will be more smooth and
orderly.

3. Avoid having "dead air" in the class. The class must run smoothly so as not to give a chance for
students to do unnecessary things. This makes the class's attention focused on the lesson and not
making them restless.

4. Make the activities interesting and challenging. Perhaps this is one of the primary principle in
minimizing mismanaged class. If pupils/students are provided with various challenging and interesting
activities, they will never think of doing things that may interrupt the class. These do not make them
bored, because if pupils/students are bored, then expect chaos inside the classroom.
5. Teachers must have "with-it-ness" (LET alert...this always comes out in the exam...remember
this..."with-it-ness"). When we say "with-it-ness", a teacher must be aware of what is going on inside the
classroom. He/she must be vigilant and sensitive enough with his/her pupils/students. If the
students/pupils feel that their teacher is watching over them, they become more conscious with their
actions. As teachers, we must have eyes in our backs and make use of the whole classroom space while
teaching.

6. Respond and resolve minor problems before they become a major one. We must not wait for our
classroom to be out of control before we make a move. Let us put a small spark out before it becomes a
fire.

7. Provide positive reinforcements for good behavior. Token management (giving of rewards) can be
used. This is far better than giving punishments. However, positive reinforcements do not necessarily
mean giving of material things. A praise or an approval is sometimes enough to do this. One thing to
take note is that to make this more effective, it must be appropriately and sincerely given. Give
pupils/students what is due to them. Don't underpraise nor overpraise students/pupils.

8. Treat minor disturbance calmly. Don't spend the whole class giving "sermons" because of an
inappropriate behavior. (Some teachers are so guilty with this. They will give a long sermon and if it is
time already, pupils/students will say "The mass has ended".hahahaha). If this can be settled even by
just giving of a stern look or gesture, then it's over, done, finished, etc...hahahaha...

9. Check the physical environment. Sometimes, the main reason why the class is restless and noisy is
because of the physical feature of the classroom. Perhaps the class is too congested, overcrowded,
disorderly or hot. Fix these things and the class will be far much better.

10. The last but not the least, minimize discipline time to maximize instructional time. Avoid long
sermons...period. hehehe...very self-explanatory,..no need to discuss...

Posted by jay-l at Sunday, March 27, 2011

Principles of Teaching and Learning: Assessment of Learning

Assessment of Learning is one of the, shall I say, "challenging" topics in education. This is so because it
involves a little bit of statistics. Since, I lack time to discuss the various topics involved in assessment, I
will just present the principles behind assessment of/for learning. Remember that LET will not really
focus on the technicalities, like what is variance, how to get the standard deviation, what is the
difference among the mean, median, mode, etc. Rather, it is more focused on how will we interpret
these statistical data in understanding the learner's achievement and to improve our instruction.

These principles are again, "adapted" from Corpus and Salandanan, 2007)

1. Teaching and learning is never complete without assessment. This means that assessment is an
integral part of the teaching-learning process. We need to test how far the learners have learned, either
before, during or after instruction, in line with our objectives. Thus, if learners are made to realize about
this, negative attitudes about assessment will be minimized since the quizzes and tests will be just
"usual" to them. They will come to realize the purpose of assessment, that is, to check how far they have
learned.

2. Assessment tool and objectives must be colinear. The test/quiz or any assessment techniques must be
in line with the objectives. This also includes the type of assessment appropriate for a certain objective.
This is like a teacher who has an objective about "Singing the Philippine National Anthem". Which is
more appropriate assessment tool: let the student write down completely the anthem, or let them sing
the anthem? Reflect. Hehehe...

3. Assessment results should be fed back to the students. This is one of the mortal sins of some of the
teachers. They will give quizzes, tests, projects, etc yet they fail to return these to the students, or to just
inform the grade/score the students acquired. The purpose of assessment is to give learners a feedback
to what extent their learning is. How will the learners learn this if the teacher won't give their scores or
return their papers?

4. In assessment, consider learners' multiple intelligences and learning styles. The traditional paper and
pencil test puts verbally and linguistically intelligent students at the advantage. Let us take into account
the learners multiple intelligence and learning styles in assessment. Give various assessment techniques
in order to cater individual differences.
5. It is wise to give some positive feedback as well as constructive criticisms. Don't forget to praise the
students on a job well done. This can boost their morale to study and appreciate the value of success.
Further, let's give them some constructive criticisms on the areas they need to improve. Remember that
the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.

6. Emphasize self-assessment. Assessment must be intracomparative rather than intercomparative. In

short, if learning is as well a personal process, then, let the learners assess their performance on their
own against a certain criteria(is this "in short"? Hehehe). Let them be aware of and reflect on their own
progress. Rather than comparing themselves with other people, let them compare their "then" self to
their "now" self. Competitive nature of learning must be as much as possible avoided. If there is a
competition, let this be between the students and their own prior performance. One thing more, always
remember that self assessment must also be in line with teacher assessment. This can avoid
overestimation or underestimation of students' performance on themselves.

7. Build the culture of success in the classroom. Avoid the bell curve mentality, or the belief that it is
normal that some students pass while some fail. Have that mentality that ALL learners can achieve.

8. Never use assessment as a disciplinary action or a punishment. This distorts the true purpose of
assessment. This will enkindle the negative attitudes toward assessment.

9. Assessment should be communicated regularly and clearly to parents. Take note however the
importance of accountability, transparecy and confidentiality.

10. Emphasize on real world application that favors realistic performances over out of context drill
items. Hence, assessment must focus on real life application, as well as developing higher ordered
thinking skills such as analyzing, evaluating and most of all creating.

(Sorry if the explanation on the last principles are short, out of character spaces in my
cellphone.hehehe...)