Classroom Management for A New Teacher to Master

From Cini's (2017) seven areas of teacher responsibility in classroom management, this paper

would focus on three areas: Classroom Design, Instructional Technique and Communication.

Classroom Design

Designing classrooms is more than just rearranging furniture, but how the classroom

setting can help in improving student learning. Rands and Gansemer-Topf (2017) compared

traditional classroom setting with all students sitting individually facing to the front and

active learning classroom setting with larger tables surrounded by chairs so students can work

in small groups. By rearranging chairs in a group, teachers in an active learning classroom are

able to engage students because teachers can move within spaces and they can interact with

their peers during the process. In physical classrooms, teachers are able to create spaces for

students to showcase their learning products, and decorate classroom walls with motivational

quotes and other learning materials.

However, since the pandemic Covid 19 hit at the end of 2019, most schools have been

forced to prepare for different classrooms for teachers to teach: the physical, blended, and

hybrid classes. The blended learning happens when the school has to be closed to minimize

the virus spread among students and teachers. The challenges faced by teachers are how they

can still engage students in collaborative learning through learning platforms, synchronously

or asynchronously, even though students do not physically sit together in the classroom. How

teachers can bring the physical classroom atmosphere into the online classroom so that

students can feel the warmth and spirit just like when they come to schools.

Another matter has arisen when schools are open but only a fraction of students can

attend. The rest of the students have to stay at home because the classroom capacities are less

than usual because the school health protocols require social distancing in the class. Also,

usually because they do not have the parental consent to attend schools, or when there’s a
virus outbreak among their families or surrounding environments. Hybrid learning would

facilitate students to access their learning, and meet their friends, both at school and home at

the same time. However, conducting virtual and physical classroom activities at the same

time are not easy tasks. Teachers struggle to create group activities within breakout rooms, or

in the physical classroom but with social distancing. Teachers juggle students’ attention

between the ones in the classroom and the ones in the virtual classroom (Ørngreen et.al,

2015). Teachers need to rearrange the furniture and screens so that students at home and in

the classroom can see each other. Teachers also have to think about what equipment is needed

to broadcast the classroom activities clearly and where they need to position the camera so

that it would project the correct angles (Raes, et.al., 2020).

Communication

Having rules and disciplines is important, but the ability to communicate them is more

important to have. Rules and disciplines are basically managing expectations both from

teachers and students. Newell (2017) explained that a classroom needs both rules and norms.

Teachers have expectations about how learning activities can be both safe and efficient, so

that’s why we have classroom rules, set by the teachers. However, we also have to recognise

students’ needs and expectations on how learning should occur, how they treat each person in

the classroom and how they can act responsibly in community (Kruse, n.d). That’s why we

also have classroom norms that are agreed upon by all individuals within the classroom, that

can be revisited and changed overtime.

In order for students to adhere to both rules and norms, teachers need to have good

communication skills to convey the rationales behind their existences, as well as bridging

communications with parents so that they can support their children in producing behaviors

as expected. This particularly is important when we have scenarios where students have to

learn from home, and most often, the family conditions are not supportive for students to act
in accordance with both rules and norms. Three-way communication and collaboration would

establish a good rapport between teachers, students, and parents so that the rules and norms

can be accepted and respected. The challenges in building rapport and good communication

are primarily in posing the right questions to parents and students, to steer the conversation

into the solutions and not to blame each other.

Instructional Technique

Kratochwill et.al. (2010) suggested that teachers who implement high-quality,

universal instructions/interventions on behavior in the classroom, would likely to manage

their classroom more effectively. Raes, et.al (2020) also identified that relating to hybrid

learning, there is a gap between what is expected in the hybrid classroom with pedagogical

scenarios set by teachers to maximise student learning outcomes. Teachers can design

instructions that relate to students’ interests, enable them to reach short term goals, and

provide easy steps for them to avoid frustration (Deroche, 1967), especially when they have

to learn from home. Better instructions would lead to improved motivation and expected

behavior in the classroom.

The challenges for teachers in designing instructions are how the instructions would

spark curiosity and motivation to discover more knowledge in students (Arnone, 2003).

Teachers have difficulties in adjusting instructions in different classroom environments, for

example they usually create the same instructions when they teach in physical classrooms as

well as in online classrooms. As a result, students get confused and could not get to the level

of understanding as expected. It is important that teachers are able to differentiated

instructions to help students learning, either in physical or online classroom, to achieve the

desired learning outcome.

References:

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