Establishing a Positive Classroom Environment

Ryan Atwood

Teachers must be the leaders of their classrooms

• Students respond better if they feel like the teacher is in control of the classroom environment
o Teachers shouldn't be too "buddy-buddy" or too much of a warden or tyrant
• Teachers should use authoritative classroom management styles
o "Know when to lighten up and when to tighten up"
o Maintain high levels of expectations

Teachers need to create a productive physical environment for their classrooms

• Physical environment impacts students' learning
o Students should fee! safe and secure
o Students should be situated in a way where they can interact with peers and focus on
the teacher
• Arrange classroom to meet instructional needs
o Rows are good for lecturing, clusters are good for cooperative learning/group work,
semi-circles are good for large-group discussions
• Climate control
o Maintain pleasant conditions for temperature, light, and air

Teachers should effectively manage,MlLnian Relations

• students are more likely to participate if they feel comfortable
• Suggestions for establishing a positive learning environment:

o Get to know students o Be respectful to students

o Manage class schedule to
enhance engagement
o Develop reasonable rules and
explicitly teach students these
rules
o Don't use schoolwork as
punishment
o Do no harm while disciplining -
ignore trivial behavior, diffuse
other problems with proximity,
humor, or private discussions
o Use class-building to promote
positive interaction

"When a student perceives a teacher to be an authentic, warm and curious person, the student learns.
When the student does not perceive the teacher as such a person the student does not learn! There is
almost no way to get around this fact, although technological people such as ourselves try very hard to.
We believe in experts and expertise, and we tend not to trust any activity that does not involve a
complex technique. And yet, increasing the complexity of the act of teaching has not really made much
difference for there is always that simple fact that teaching is the art of being human and
communicating that humanness to others." - Neal Postman

References:
Estes, T., Mintz, S., & Gunter, M. (2011). Instruction: A models approach (6*^ ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

^ Postman, N. (1994). In Barns, L. B., Christensen, C. R., & Hansen, A. J. (Eds.), Teaching and the case
method: Text, cases, and readings (266-273). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.