Week+2



= ISSUES SUMMARY and THOUGHTS // Week 2 Key Words: Classroom Management, Behaviour Management, Welfare and Discipline, Classroom Structure, Relationships with Students // =

It was very interesting to hear about discipline from a person involved in reasearching this subject. It was easy to absorb the information in this engaging and humerous style. We were not overloaded with information.

After reading the article on this research, it was easy to relate to what was being said. The main focus was to make sure we understood that student responsibility is the key to classroom management, not obedience. We spoke about the power of the teacher and how it relates to the 4 types of students. 4 types of students:
 * those that can have their behavior managed in the classroom
 * those that are sometimes disruptive
 * students that need to be separated
 * those that seem to be unable to be managed

It was interesting to hear about the 4 types of power and how they apply to the classroom. 4 types of power:
 * Legitimate - legal eg policeman
 * Expert - egsurgeon
 * Referent - elationship eg real estate agent
 * Coercive - punishment eg skinhead

We then applied the 4 types of power to particular senarios of students in a classroom.

In our workshop, we were able to do an activity to enable us to apply our understandings of the powers of a teacher and the behavior types of students, which was really helpful as well as entertaining! Our group involved the students in deciding on classroom rules, to engage the students in effective learning. We had discussions about their rights in the classroom and made a list of what they thought were the important points about: respect, speaking, listening, behavior, responsibility. It was lots of fun!

AUTHOR: ANITA DINON

Week 2

45 to 55% difference in student learning outcomes being attributed to classroom management is a powerful motivator to be an effective teacher. Excellent classroom management skills are fundamental to both students and teachers. This week’s readings demonstrated the importance of effective utilisation of teacher’s power in creating a harmonious learning environment. The most effective strategies for classroom management are based around personal and communal responsibility, rather than obedience. Clearly defined rules and expectations are essential to effective classroom management. Children feel more engaged when they are part the process of developing classroom rules. By involving students in the process of establishing rules, they are going to take more responsibility for themselves, and for the group. Responsibility is about behaving appropriately because it is the right thing to do, for reward or for praise, not because of fear of punishment. Another key point from this week was the management of children whom are disruptive no matter what a teacher tries. (Type D from notes) A strategy discussed was to not react to their behaviour, as this is giving them the attention they are looking for. Dreikurs’ theory (Lewis) discussed that disruptive behaviour was often caused by the need to fit in. If a child feels they do not fit in, they seek approval by being disruptive and rebellious. A teacher must break the cycle and not react to the behaviour and approach from the point of encouragement and support for the child. This article is a fantastic resource with great suggestions and strategies. Sonia McAlary 21/03/2009  I was glad to come back and complete this wiki reflection after I had experienced life in the classroom as I believe my entry would have been rather different to what I would have written before hand. The teacher I am working with at the moment implements such as wonderfully successful classroom management system. The system is primary based around positive consequences. One element of how this works is by having children’s names stuck on a board with four different stages. It’s pretty basic, if the child does something good they go up a tick. The teacher gets the child to move their name themselves when rewarded a stage so they really get to think about their good behaviour and the rest of the class can see. The children are really punished of put down levels (expect at the end of the week). Other approaches like grouping students into teams to achieve goals ownership and intrinsic motivation to behave well.  (Jessica Mitchell)