Classroom Management and Behavior
It is a confirmed fact that relationships are a critical component of both classroom and behavior management. This fact is particularly truthful when applied to male students. Current research indicates that, "For so many of the boys, the issue was not what subject or instructional approach engaged them, but rather for whom they might risk engagement and effort" (Reichert & Hawley, 2014). Obviously, the boys denoted in this study are "risking" their effort for the instructor. Moreover, instructors that are able to create a positive relationship with students will be able to engage them better -- better engaged students require less disciplinary efforts than less engaged students. The efficacy of a positive relationship with students to the related ease of classroom and behavior management is described in the subsequent quotation: "You don't win on the strength of your argument. You win on the strength of your relationship" (Goulston, 2013).
Pedagogues can root positive relationships to positive interactions with their students. As such, it is better to focus on positive attributes of things -- rewards instead of punishment, praise instead of criticism -- in order to foster the sort of relationship with students that leads to effective classroom and behavior management. The mishaps associated with focusing on negative aspects of children and one's relationship with them are alluded to in a study by the London School of Economics that revealed, "excessive shouting and meting out hard-line punishments was counterproductive. Ignoring naughty children also appeared to lead to deterioration in discipline standards" (Paton, 2014).
As such, behavior management should be focused on positive reinforcement, which can take any number of different forms. One of the most readily accessible of these is to issue verbal...
It is necessary to offer praise for both performance (academic achievement) as well as for behavior. Moreover, it is of considerable importance to issue praise verbally, so that all of the students in a class can hear. There are a couple of benefits of doing so. One, the fact that other students hear the teacher praise one particular student's behavior can help to motivate them to behave well so that the teacher lauds them as well. Another is that the pedagogue can rely on such praise in times when a student is misbehaving. For instance, after a student is praised for his or her academic performance, the teacher can remind the student of that praise if the student subsequently begins talking out of turn.
Other means of offering praise is to utilize visual means of doing so. For instance, teachers can create a chart with the names of different students and place stars next to their names after commendable academic performances or instances of behavior. Thus, students can compete with one another for stars, and possibly even get rewards for being the student with the most stars after an allotted time period (Budden, 2010).
Establishing ground rules is another extremely viable means for facilitating positive relationships between pedagogues and students. Ideally, such ground rules should be created early on in the relationship between the teacher and his or her students. Moreover, it is also fairly beneficial to have the creation of these rules involve an interactive process between both the students and the teacher. That way, students can take part in the creation of these rules and possibly incur some sort of pride in doing so -- and in keeping them.
One way that teachers can facilitate this process is by drawing a happy face and a sad face on the board,…
