Running Head: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT METHODS 1

Classroom Management Methods that Build Responsibility and Self-Discipline:

While Maintaining a Positive Learning Environment

Abbigale Duncan

EDUC 505
Running Head: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT METHODS 2

Classroom Management Methods that Build Responsibility and Self-Discipline:

While Maintaining a Positive Learning Environment

Responsibility and self-discipline come hand in hand when taught correctly. By

building a students responsibility, an educator can also simultaneously build their self-

discipline. Students can develop these two things by being responsible for small tasks,

and gradually increasing these tasks and responsibilities so that they can acquire the self-

discipline needed to be successful in school and throughout their lives.

Stacy Lamb and Jerome Freiberg (2009) define the process of gaining students

self-discipline as “learning through responsible consequences and a shared respect and

responsibility.” Educators play a large role in providing this initial responsibility. In order

for educators to ensure students build this responsibility and self-discipline it is important

that educators provide a student-centered classroom that revolves around the success and

interaction of their students. As educators, we can provide a positive learning

environment by using a student-centered classroom management style, while also

teaching students valuable aspects of responsibility and self-discipline.

A student-centered classroom, or a person-centered classroom, is a wonderful

classroom management method that can build a students responsibility and also build

self-discipline within the student. According to Stacey Lamb and Jerome Freiberg (2009),

“A person-centered classroom management is a balance between the needs of the teacher

and the learner.” (p. 100) By teachers sharing this control in the classroom, learners begin

the process of becoming self-disciplined students.

According to Carl Rogers and Jerome Freiberg (2009), characteristics of a

student-centered, or person-centered, classroom can include: leadership being shared,

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management as a form of guidance, students as facilitators, discipline coming from self,

students have the opportunity to become an integral part of a classroom, rules are

developed by the teacher with feedback from the students, consequences reflect

individual discipline, rewards are intrinsic, students share classroom responsibilities, and

partnerships are formed with business and community groups to broaden and enrich the

learning opportunities for students. Designing a student-centered can influence many

different aspects of learning. According to Cari Crumly (2014), “Students are active

participants in their learning, learning at their own pace and using their own strategies;

they are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated; and learning is more

individualized than standardized.” (p. 73) By giving students this type of responsibility in

their classroom they will become more self-disciplined in order to complete the tasks that

are placed in their hands.

While developing responsibility and self-discipline within students, it is important

to make sure they are doing so in a positive learning environment. According to Stacey

Lamb and Jerome Freiberg (2009), “Nurturing a positive climate enables students to take

risks, build trust, and develop a strong sense of community.” (p. 103) A student-centered

classroom management style can help to create all of these aspects of a positive learning

environment. This positive environment will give students the freedom and choice in

their classroom to be responsible and self-disciplined while being active in the learning

environment. Just as mentioned by Stacy Lamb and Jerome Freiberg (2009), in a positive

learning environment, freedom and choice build self-discipline and students learn how to

be responsible, cooperate, resolve conflict, manage their own time, and set goals for their

own learning experiences.

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References

Crumly, C. (2014). Designing a Student-Centered Learning Environment. In Crumly C.,

Dietz P., & D’Angelo S. (Authors), Pedagogies for Student-Centered Learning:

Online and On-Ground (pp. 73-92). Augsburg Fortress. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9m0skc.8

Crumly, C. (2014). Student-Centered versus Teacher-Centered Learning. In Crumly C.,

Dietz P., & D’Angelo S. (Authors), Pedagogies for Student-Centered Learning:

Online and On-Ground (pp. 3-20). Augsburg Fortress. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9m0skc.5

Freiberg, H., & Lamb, S. (2009). Dimensions of Person-Centered Classroom

Management. Theory into Practice, 48(2), 99-105. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40344599