Module 4 (COMPETENT TEACHERS: EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM

MANAGERS)
Classroom is a complex interaction of students, teachers and learning materials. A
competent teacher should have the skills in managing instruction, classroom environment, time,
and discipline in order to impart knowledge and skills to students.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT – is the business of getting students to do what teachers want

them to do. If the teacher is good at it, a lot of things get done and students enjoy coming to
class.

MANAGING THE CLASSROOM WELL IS IMPORTANT IN TEACHING AND

LEARNING SITUATIONS

A knowledgeable teacher may fail in teaching due to inability to work effectively with
students. Students may be entertaining each other during class time, talking loudly or walking
around aimlessly in the classroom. What can be done to help students learn in these situations?

Here are some tips in order to manage the classroom well:

1. Set Rules and Procedures That Students Are Expected to Follow

The teacher must communicate the rules clearly to the students. Clear communication
entails a clear discussion of every rule and its rationale. A final critical stage is to find out
if students understand the rules and commit to abide them. Class rules, procedures, and
notice of upcoming activities are posted in convenient places to help students stay on
track. Students follow class routines for daily chores without nagging. In a well-
disciplined class, students understand what they are expected to achieve each day and
how they are to go about them.

2. Let Students Actively Engage in the Pursuit of Knowledge

Active learning generates a much higher noise level than the silent classrooms of the past.
There is movement, laughter, and noise. Students are up and out of their seats while
engaged in a variety of interesting activities that encourage thought and discovery. They
do more talking than the teacher on most classroom learning experiences.

3. Lead Students to Take Responsibility for Their Learning

In a well-disciplined class, teachers may lead students, but they do not coerce them into
good behaviour through threats of dire punishment. Teachers encourage students to
 understand the importance of choosing good behaviour over the short-term thrills of bad
behaviour. In an orderly class, self-directed students not only encourage each other, but
they also work with their teachers to achieve academic and behavioural goals that they
themselves have established. Successful teachers employ a variety of strategies to
promote responsible decision-making and create self-reliant students.

4. Respect Everyone

Teachers and students treat each other with obvious respect. This is evident in such
nonverbal interactions as body language and tone of voice as well as in what students and
teachers say to each other. Students speak with confidence because they feel their
opinions are valued. Students in a well-disciplined class also respect their classmates.
They have been taught to appreciate each other’s unique contributions to the class as well
as appropriate ways to resolve conflicts. There is a general sense of togetherness and
steadfast courtesy.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

How do teachers manage the first days of the new school year to set the stage for
the entire year? Here are some classroom management techniques:

Management of Instruction

This refers to the smooth flow of the instructional processes. Smoothness involves
circulating to facilities students’ cooperation and discussion as they work in small groups.

1. Maintain smoothness of instruction and avoid jarring breaks within the activity flow.

2. Manage transition from one activity to another, from subject or from lesson to recess
and give clear signals.

3. Maintain group focus during the lesson so that all students in the class stay involved
in the lesson even if the teacher calls on only one student.

4. Maintain a group focus during a seatwork by circulating to see how they are doing.

5. Develop withiness and be aware of student’s behaviour at all time

6. Develop overlapping skills and be prepared for all scenarios in the classroom.

Management of Discipline
 This refers to the means of preventing misbehavior from occurring or the manner
responding to behavioural problems in order to reduce their recurrence in the future.

1. Start the year right with a clear, specific plan for introducing the student to classroom
rules.

2. Set few class rules for the students to follow.

3. Create an atmosphere where there is respect to one another.

4. Apply the principle of least intervention for routine classroom behaviour problem.
Create varied interesting lessons to make students pay attention to class discussion
and students do not engage in activities that disrupt class discussion.

5. Manage serious behaviour problems through applied behaviour analysis.

6. Prevent serious behaviour problem and remove the causes of misbehaviour.

7. Formally develop the desired behaviour by teaching (not telling) the behaviour.

Management of Relationship

This refers to emotional climate and communication affecting learning conditions.

1. Maintain positive climate characteristics which allow students to choose a variety of

activities to achieve common goals.

2. Develop sense of interdependence, common bonds, defined group expectations and

relationship qualities that enhance wholesome emotional climate.

3. Develop communication characteristics that promote wholesome classroom

relationship like positive constructive conversations aimed at understanding on
another’s point of view.

4. Render different forms of assistance by providing class meetings or students to have

an opportunity to examine the ideas and feelings that influence value judgment.

Management of Physical Environment

This refers to the organization of the learning environment, supplies, and

materials.

1. Organize supplies and materials for activities that occur frequently in most readily
available accessible place, and must be governed by the simplest procedure.
2. Rules must go with territory and insist on respect for them. Expectations regarding
beginning and end of class behaviour must be clearly expressed.

3. Avoid interruptions during class program.

4. Arrange the physical setting and maximize visibility and accessibility. Student’s
desks are separated in rows facing toward the chalkboard and away from the window.

5. Materials and equipment stations are available in sufficient quantities and are located
to minimize congestion in traffic lanes.

6. Bulletin boards and wall spaces are used to display student work and complement
current class activities.

7. Set explicit procedures for getting materials from and returning them to designated
classroom locations.

Management of Time

Refers to the organization and use of allocated time in the classroom.

1. Make good use of all classroom time.

2. Start teaching at the beginning of the period and end of time.

3. Establish routine procedures.

4. Minimize time spent on discipline and prevent interruptions.

5. Teach lessons that are so interesting, engaging, and relevant to student’s interest.

6. Maintain momentum through avoidance of interruptions or slowdown like phone

calls, knocks on the door and other disturbance.

Management of Routines

Refers to the established activities or procedures that are repeatedly done.

1. Teach pupils to learn how to form various grouping and return to standard
arrangement with minimum confusion.

2. Do not use the first few minutes of the class session to collect materials when
students are potentially most alert to instruction.
 3. “Overlapping” technique is used for collection and distribution of materials. It refers
to the teacher’s ability to attend to the task at hand and at the same time prevent an
extraneous situation from getting out of control.

4. Prepare for transition by planning distinct types and sequences of teacher-pupil

activity e.g. checking homework assignment, presentation of new material, giving
assignment, monitoring seatwork. Transitions should be quick and quiet.

ASSESSMENT:

Vision of the 21st Century School

Name: _______________________________________ _ Date: _____________________

Directions: Envision your present or future classroom of the 21st Century School. Visualize
classroom setting. List appropriate management procedures that will create positive learning
conditions.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES/ACTIVITIES

TECHNIQUES
A. MANAGEMENT OF INSTRUCTION 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B. MANAGEMENT OF DISCIPLINE 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
C. MANAGEMENT OF 1.
RELATIONSHIP 2.
3.
4.
5.
D. MANAGEMENT OF PHYSICAL 1.
ENVIRONMENT 2.
 3.
4.
5.
E. MANAGEMENT OF TIME 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
F. MANAGEMENT OF ROUTINES 1.
2.
3.
4.
5

II. CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

Directions: Give possible classroom management technique to the following misbehaviors of

students.

MISBEHAVIORS CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

TECHNIQUES

1. A Grade 5 student who interrupts small

group work.

2. A Grade 10 student who continually

makes noises during class.

3. A Grade 11 student who threatens to beat

up another student after class outside the
campus.

III. TASK! Questions for Reflection

Directions: Imagine that you were the teacher in one of the classes in Grade 7, as you begin to
make plans to create the productive discipline climate that will work best for your students, you
consider many different factors. Use the questions below as a guide to your systematic planning
that will work well for your students.
1. What are the expectations for a successful discipline climate in my school? How can I
include these expectations in a plan that will meet the needs of my students?
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2. How can I encourage my students to become self-disciplined?

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3. Why do my students misbehave? What can I do to learn more about this? How can I use
this knowledge to help my students improve their academic and social behaviors?
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4. Which instructional practices tend to promote productive behaviour in my class? Which

ones cause students to become off-task or disruptive?
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5. How can I use routines, procedures, and policies to establish a smoothly running
classroom?

6. What can I do to prevent or minimize disruptions caused by misbehaviour?

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