ACADEMIA Letters

Positive Classroom Environments and Rule Setting

Michael Depear, University of the People

Thinking about what sort of environment I want to be in and place in society, I want to be
in the safest and most comfortable environment as I possibly can be for me and my fam-
ily. So the same in the classroom we first need to investigate what makes society feel that
they are in a positive environment. Social norms are a big part of how society follows and
makes rules and procedures. Social norms are viewed as a collective portrayal of acceptable
group behaviour as well as an individual image of particular group conduct (Lapinski, Rimal,
2005). From a sociological viewpoint, social norms are informal understandings that govern
the behaviour of members of a society (Jackson, 1965). Social norms can be characterised as:
“rules that prescribe what people should and should not do given their social surroundings”;
this is also known as a milieu (Hechter, Michael, Opp, Karl-Dieter, 2005). Social norms could
also be viewed as products of culture as in values, customs and traditions etc…Although not
treated to be legal laws within society, norms still act to advocate a great deal of social control
(Druzin, Bryan, 2016). They are statements that regulate the conduct of an individual and
reflect what society as a collective considers a norm. Without them, there would be a world
without consensus, common ground, or restrictions leading to a chaotic society and a very
negative environment. Therefore, the classroom milieu is the reflection of the norms of social
rules and procedures and have to be addressed to be successful.
As the classroom is a social environment a positive procedure could be to create the rules
of the classroom together as a social group instead of a teacher just being a dictator. According
to Jonathan Erwin (2004) “One of the most effective and practical ways teachers can give
students a say in the classroom is by allowing them to participate in developing the classroom
rules or behaviour guidelines.” This will help a learner feel a part of this milieu and will take
extra care in following the classroom social norms.
Another rule or procedure that can make a more positive classroom environment is lan-

Academia Letters, October 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Michael Depear, mdepear1978@googlemail.com

Citation: Depear, M. (2021). Positive Classroom Environments and Rule Setting. Academia Letters, Article
3696. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3696.

1
guage. The continuity of a teacher letting the learners know you believe in them will go a
long way in creating a positive classroom environment saying “you have got this” to a student
is much more beneficial than saying “you must try harder”. Reminding students of past suc-
cesses is a positive step toward a happy milieu when a student is struggling with new content.
Try to remind them how successful they have been in the past and if their quality of work can
be that good, they can do it again.
Another rule that could be followed is to give honest feedback. This can work both ways
as a teacher or student, try to be open about if your instruction is working with all the learners,
this can be done as easily by a check for understanding like a thumbs up or a thumbs down
if you understand or not, it is very easy to lose a few students if we are not observant about
the class as a whole. For a student, honest feedback is needed to progress in their studies, just
‘Great job!’ is not feedback. How does the student go from where they are now to where they
want to be, how does the student go from a C to an A?
Another positive action can be, get to know your students. The more you know about your
students’ cultures, interests, extracurricular activities, personalities, learning styles, goals, and
mindsets, the better you can reach them and teach them hence creating a much more positive
milieu for you and the class. Also in doing this, students can get to know you as a teacher and
human being and not some sort of superhero who knows everything and a walking talking
dictionary.
Some rules and procedures can also be negative to the classroom environment. I have seen
in the past the rule of no talking in class written on the wall, it is not possible to discuss and
work in a social environment without communication. Communication needs to be central to
all classrooms, the only thing where control is needed is usually with volume, I use a chart on
the wall with a moveable arrow where we all can change the volume of the class, not just me
as the teacher.
Another negative procedure could be rewarding to control the class. According to Erwin
(2004), over 50 years of research has shown that incentives, gold stars, stickers, monetary
rewards, A’s, and other bribes only serve to undermine students’ intrinsic motivation, create
relationship problems, and lead to students doing nothing without a promised reward. The
only places token economies exist is schools, prisons and psychiatric hospitals, I believe that
is quite telling to say the least. Students should want to complete tasks because of the challenge
and the feeling of overcoming that challenge. Instead of devaluing their successes with tokens,
talk to students about how it feels to achieve proficiency and praise the effort, strategies, and
processes that led them to those successes.
Another negative action could be judging. When students feel like they are being judged,
or labelled, they start to distrust the person judging them. It is hard not to judge a student who

Academia Letters, October 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Michael Depear, mdepear1978@googlemail.com

Citation: Depear, M. (2021). Positive Classroom Environments and Rule Setting. Academia Letters, Article
3696. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3696.

2
just sits there doing no schoolwork after you have done everything you can to motivate them.
It is easy to see how we might call such a student lazy. And it is easy to label the student who
is constantly provoking and threatening peers as a bully. But judging and labelling students
is not only a way of eluding our responsibility to teach them but it also completely avoids the
underlying problem. The best way to overcome this is to ask them why once you find out the
underlying problem it is much easier to address the problem directly.
In conclusion, the best way for a teacher to address if their actions are creating a positive
or negative classroom environment is to get a feeling for the room. I am very aware of the
class if they do not understand something, I do not just move on to the next topic, I am a firm
believer that no one gets left behind in my milieu and we do not move until everyone is happy
to do so. The best thing to do as a new teacher would be to be as flexible as you can, reflect
on the mood of your milieu. If a lesson is not going well do not be afraid to ask yourself why
your milieu is a social community and should be treated as such. As in a social environment
rules and procedures are a necessity for social order and a means to make society a safe and
just one, our classrooms are a reflection of society so it requires as much care as our societal
needs do.

References
Druzin, B. H. (2016). Using Social Norms as a Substitute for Law. SSRN Electronic Journal.
doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2600012

Erwin, J. C. (2004). The classroom of choice giving students what they need and getting what
you want. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Hechter, M., & Opp, K.-D. (2005). Social norms. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Jackson, J. (1965). Structural characteristics of norms. Current Studies in Social Psychology,

301–309.

Lapinski, M. K. (2005). An Explication of Social Norms. Communication Theory, 15(2),

127–147. doi: 10.1093/ct/15.2.127

Academia Letters, October 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Michael Depear, mdepear1978@googlemail.com

Citation: Depear, M. (2021). Positive Classroom Environments and Rule Setting. Academia Letters, Article
3696. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3696.