PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF TEACHING

Modular Approach

MODULE 3: MANAGING THE CLASSROOM

I. Introduction
Classroom Management is not yet teaching, but it is prerequisite to
teaching. Attention is basic to learning. We cannot expect the students to
learn without attention because learning requires focus. As a classroom
manager, teachers manage resources to facilitate learning. These resources
include the 3Ms.Moment, Materials, and Man. In the context of teaching,
these are time, teaching materials and other physical features like desks,
tables, and the learners themselves.

II. Objectives
1. Explain the concept of routine, time management, discipline and other
elements of classroom management that are essential to learning.
2. Cite situations about the demonstration on the use of the different
approaches, methods and techniques in organizing the classroom.
3. Justify the need to manage the classroom well for maximum learning.
III. Instructions
1. Read thoroughly the discussion/power point presentation.
2. Research on specific cases/problem in relation to classroom
management.
3. Answer the pre-test and post-test.
4. Perform the requested activities efficiently.

IV. Pretest
TRUE or FALSE: Write the word TRUE if the sentence is correct and FALSE
if it is wrong on the blank provided for before each number.

_________1. The primary purpose of routine is to economize the use of time for
teaching and learning.
_________2. The more rules the teacher imposes in the classroom the more effective
classroom management is.
_________3. Corporal punishment is prohibited only if parents complain against the
practice.
_________4. The teacher needs to act promptly if misbehavior occurs in the classroom.
_________5. Nagging leads to proper decorum in the classroom.
_________6. Strict imposition of the rules in the classroom is the best way to prevent
disciplinary problems.
_________7. Excellent instruction could prevent misbehavior in the classroom.
_________8. Dealing with the problem as it occurs is an example of proactive discipline.
_________9. Praising a child could contribute to positive atmosphere in the classroom.
________10. Scolding a child does not guarantee positive change in his/her behavior.

Discussion

A. GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

‘Classroom management is not teaching; it is a necessary condition to teaching.’
A common problem that beginning teachers face is poor classroom management. The
following principles can help the new teacher manage the classroom well.
PRINCIPLES IN CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Below is a list of principles on classroom management backed up by research as cited by
James H. Stronge in his book ‘Qualities of Effective Teachers’ (2002)
1. Consistent, proactive discipline is the crux of effective classroom management
‘Prevention is better than cure’, so goes the adage. If we are proactive in our
approach to discipline we prevent unnecessary disciplinary problems from
cropping up.
2. Establish routines for all daily tasks and needs.
Routinized collection of assignments, passing of papers, and preparation for
experiments saves as a lot of time and effort.
3. Orchestrate smooth transitions and continuity of momentum throughout the
day.
Smooth transitions and continuity momentum throughout the day ensure us
that every instructional moment is made use of wisely.
4. Strike a balance between variety and challenge in student’s activities.
A variety of student activities will ensure that student’s multiple intelligences
and varied learning styles are considered in the conduct of student activities.
5. As classroom management, are aware all actions and activities in the
classroom.
Our heightened awareness of everything t is happening in our classroom puts
our pupils and students on their toes at all time.
a. Resolve minor inattention and disruption before they become major
disruptions.
The old adage ‘a stitch on time saves nine’ aptly applies here. We have not to
wait until our class is out of control.
6. Reinforce positive behaviour.
Be generous with genuine praise. Some teachers are quite stingy with praise.
7. Treat minor disturbance calmly.
‘Do not make a mountain out of a mole.’ If a stern look or gesture can kill the
inappropriate behaviour so be it.
8. Work out a physical arrangement of chairs that facilitates an interactive
teaching-learning process.
 There is no doubt that external environment affects us. The most common
arrangement of tables and chair in the classroom is one where the teacher’s
table and chairs are in front and the student’s desk or chairs are arranged in
rows facing the teacher.
9. Make good use of every instructional moment. Minimize discipline time to
maximize instructional time.

B. DISCIPLINE
‘Self-discipline connotes internal motivation for one’s behaviour, the internalization of
domestic ideals and is most evident when external regulations of behaviour are
absent’- George Bear
Discipline is controlled behavior. It constitutes him next important concern of teachers
as part of good management. No matter how well-managed a learning environment is,
students will occasionally misbehave.
Disciplinary problems may be traced to:
• Unfavorable learning conditions
Some of the most common causes of classroom problems point prominently to
unfavourable learning conditions that impinge on the learner’s abilities needs
and interests.
• Teacher’s poor management skills
The teacher’s lack of knowledge and skills in handling occurrences of
misbehaviour likewise contribute to a trouble-prone setting.
• Student’s varied background
The students bring to the classroom a surprising record of individual attitudes,
interests, and abilities. Characteristics could be traced from their differences in:
a.) family background b.) Physical and mental capacities, and c.) Emotional traits
among others
How to Prevent Discipline Problems
To prevent discipline problems:
• Employ more group-oriented methodologies
• Use varied teaching techniques
• Develop patience, compassion, genuine respect and care for your students

Various Modes of Establishing Discipline/Classroom Control

The establishment of classroom control can be seen as:
• Students’ responsibility
• Teachers’ exclusive responsibility
• A result effective teaching strategies
• An effect of group dynamics on behavior

Schools differ in how they achieve and maintain good discipline. Following are some
common practices.
 1. Discipline is the students’ responsibility
2. Discipline is the teacher’s way of establishing a desirable student-oriented
environment for learning.
3. Discipline is coupled with effective teaching strategies and techniques
4. Discipline is achieved through the effects of group dynamics on behaviour.
5. Discipline is believed to be the exclusive responsibility of the teachers.

Are you a good disciplinarian?

Here are some tips at could make a teacher a good disciplinarian:

1. Be prepared to face a class with multi-behavior tendencies.

2. Know your student’s well- their names, family composition and socio-economic
status.
3. Show your sincere concern for their welfare.
4. Commendable behavior is reciprocal.
5. Be calm, poised and tactful in solving discipline problems.
6. At all times e firm ad consistent in following classroom ‘do’s’ and don’ts.’
Students will likely test your patience and try how far they can go.
7. Be enthusiastic and students will match your enthusiasm instead of being drawn
to trouble.
8. Let out your good sense of humor.
9. Speak with a good voice volume, not too loud to become noise nor too soft to be
heard.
10. Be humble in words and actions.

Ways of Dealing with Disciplinarian Problems

To establish discipline, use acceptable ways of dealing problems and avoid the
unacceptable measures all means.

Discipline is any means adopted by the teacher for orderly behavior of students.

3 means of Classroom discipline:

1. Desirable Means of Discipline include the following: reminding or reprimanding the
students of their present misbehavior for the purpose of renewal or transformation.
2. Less Desirable Means of Discipline include demerit, withdrawal of students’ roles or
responsibility in order to change his/her behavior.
3. Undesirable Means of Discipline include the use of abuses in whatever forms verbal,
emotional, and physical. These are as follows:

Emotional/ Verbal Physical

 • Obscene languages • Spanking
• Name-calling • Pinching
• Teasing • Manhandling
• Scolding • Battery
• Oral defamation • Standing on the air
• Slander • Writing SORRY for one thousand
• Conduct unbecoming of a teacher times
• Refusal to smile and show a • Kneeling on the floor
healthy environment for learning • Tying the child on the pole

C. MANAGING THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

‘The external environment helps create the atmosphere conducive for learning’
Introduction
A well-designed utilization of classroom space is of utmost necessity if the aim is to be
able to manage all learning activities to a successful completion.
Furniture Arrangement
The physical features in the classroom must be located in areas where the contents
could be viewed well and be made available or use.
Seating Arrangement
The seating arrangement deserves foremost consideration since the students stay in
each at the longest time during the day.
Physical condition of the classroom
Clean rooms, hallways and surroundings are wholesome places to stay in. The teacher
should schedule who is responsible for their neatness on a regular basis.

D. ESTABLISHING CLASSROOM ROUTINE

‘Routines are the groundwork for a well-orchestrated classroom’
Introduction

The classroom is a place where most of students’ learning takes place under the
guidance of the teacher. The learning environment in this classroom must be learner-
friendly and educational.

Routine is one important aspects of classroom management. Organized routine means

the management of details so as to leave the learners and the teacher free for their
teaching and learning.

Principles Underlying Classroom Routine

1. Routine activities should be selected with a view toward their carry-over values
in life situations.
2. The larger the classes the more necessary to have routine.
 The teacher is expected to organize classroom activities for the students in the first
day of classes otherwise if he/ she fails to do this, problem always prevail.
3. Routine procedures yield a maximum amount of experience value to the learner
4. Routine seeks to conserve learner initiative
5. It prevents lesson confusion
With routine, learning becomes systematic and the students would be free from
any confusion. As they are conditioned most of the time then learning takes
smoothly.

Some Activities that Establish Routines

1. Enlivening the room - this includes the putting up of curtains, flowers,

plants, pictures, posters, cleanliness and attractiveness of the room, as well
as, the bulletin and subject area displays.
2. Use of chalkboard - teachers should train the children that the board should
always be ready for use, chalk should always be at hand, and erasers are
always made clean, the board should be clean by either the teacher or the
students for the next class to use.
3. Attendance and Seating – attendance records are kept through the use of
attendance chart. Attendance checking should be made economical of time
and not distracting. Have a set regulation regarding tardiness or absence.
4. Handling devices, materials and equipment – assemble materials before
class that are planned for use during class.
5. Response to Signals – train students to understand non-verbal signals like
disinterest, boredom, and other forms of misbehavior.
6. Watering the plants in the garden – the learners are members of the school
community, thus they would feel the ownership of taking care of the plants
in the garden and the potted plants inside the room by watering it regularly.
7. Cleaning the room and the garden – the teacher organizes cleaning teams
for regular routine assignments.
Routines also include the following classroom courtesies and preliminary
activities.
Some routines on the following can be of great help:
• Beginning and ending the class day or period
• Transitions
• Getting/distribution of materials and equipment
• Group work
• Seatwork a teacher-led activities
Beginning and ending the class day or period
Transitions
Management of most instructional interruptions is fully within the teacher’s control.
Examples of anticipated interruptions are:
• Beginning of an instructional episode
• Between instructional episodes
• After an instructional episodes
• Equipment set up and take-down
• Material distribution/collection
• From teacher-to-student-centred activity
• Beginning/end of class or school day

Use of Materials and Equipment

Make clear your rules and procedures on the distribution and collection of materials,
the teacher’s desk and storage areas, student’s desks and storage areas, the use of the
pencil sharpener.

Group Work
Rules and procedures on group work address the following areas:
• Movement in and out of the group
• Expected behaviours of students in the group
• Expected behaviours of students not in the group
• Group communication with the teacher

Seatwork and Teacher-led Activities

Rules and procedures in these areas pertain to:

• Student attention during presentations
• Student participation
• Talking among students
• Obtaining help
• Out-of-seat behaviour
• Behaviour when work has been completed

E. Approaches in Classroom Management

1. ASSERTIVE APPROACH- deals with the use teacher’s assertion to immediately

respond to students’ misbehavior. This approach is based on primarily on Lee
 and Marlene Canter’s model of discipline, which teachers insist on student’s
responsible behavior.
2. BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION APPROACH- deals with the refinement of students’
behavior with the use of positive and negative reinforces to transform their
misbehavior.

The following adults can best model building and modifying learner’s behavior: parents,
relatives, teachers, and other adults through the following:
• Demonstration of the expected behavior is explaining to the students what they
see and hear.
• Attention is the degree of attention that correlates with the characteristics of
the student.
• Practice is an opportunity for students to practice the appropriate behavior.
• Corrective feedback is the moment where the appropriate behavior is
reinforced; inappropriate behavior is suppressed and corrected.
• Application is the application of students’ learning in classroom activities like: (
role playing, modeling activities) and other real- life situations

3. BUSINESS ACADEMIC APPROACH- deals with the principle used by many

businessmen. In this approach, the teacher needs to establish a transaction with
his/ her students like clients in the business world-that is to make a deal or no
deal transaction as regards of their varied personalities in the classroom.
4. GROUP MANAGERIAL APPROACH- deals with the involvement of the students’
stakeholders to transform the behavior. It emphasizes the importance of
responding immediately to group the student behavior that might be
inappropriate or undesirable in order to prevent problems rather than having
with them after they emerge.
Work involvement- refers to the amount of time the students spent and engaged in
assigned academic work. It closely resembles what other research call “Time on
task” or “academic engage time”
Desist management Techniques are the teacher’s actions taken to stop
misbehavior.
Movement and Management- is the organization of behavior in transition from
task to task within and between lessons.
Group Focus is keeping the students focused on the group activity or task.

5. SUCCESS APPROACH- deals with the students’ self-realization to the right thing
for learning. This is anchored in humanistic psychology, which William Glasser
calls it as reality therapy.
6. GROUP GUIDANCE APPROACH- is based on manipulating or changing the
surface behavior of the student on a group basis. Discipline and classroom
control are produced through the group atmosphere and enhanced through
group rapport.
 7. ACCEPTANCE APPROACH- is rooted in humanistic psychology and maintains
that every person has a prime need for acceptance (Boiser: 2000). For her, the
acceptance approach is based on the democratic model of teaching in which the
teacher provides leadership by establishing rules and consequences, but at the
same time allows students to participate in decision and make choices.

F. Reinforcement

2 kinds of reinforcement
Positive – is a management support associated with the giving of rewards or incentives.
Negative- is a management support associated with the use of punishment.

Types of reinforcement
1. Graphic reinforcement is a management support to learning that emphasizes on
the use of words of appreciation and admiration scribbled on paper like: very
good, excellent and fantastic.
2. Activity reinforcement is a management support to learning that emphasizes
activities that catch students’ interest and attention such as: games, sports and
trips.
3. Verbal reinforcement is a management support to learning associated to verbal
prompt that emphasizes verbal messages and appreciation of the acceptable
students’ behavior like: I like you because you are so cute.
4. Non-verbal reinforcement is a management support to learning that makes use
of teacher’s pleasant disposition and emotional stability that serves as
behavioral models for the students to captivate like: showing the right smile
5. Tangible reinforcement is a management support to learning that makes use of
material things such as: candies, chocolates and bread.

Misbehavior in the classroom:

• Attention getting is the behavior of the children to be caught the
attention of their teacher or classmates on them where learning is
sacrificed.
• Power seeking is the behaviors of the child assert his or her
aggressiveness for any point of contradiction, which was not manifested
at home.
• Revenge seeking is the behavior of the child to be resentful by taking
whatever forms of vengeance to avenge the teacher.
• Withdrawal is the behavior of the child to withdraw learning manifested
in yawning, sleeping, daydreaming, and cutting-classes.
• Briskness is the behavior of the child to be abrupt in his mobility like
standing, running, and any form of movement that can disturb leaning in
the classroom.
 • Goofing is the behavior of the child to do wrong, by doing a mistake, by
making distraction or destruction in his/her presence of mind.

G. TIME MANAGEMENT

Is a skill among teachers alike inside the classroom by keeping in touch with the
attainment of lesson targets reflective in the instructional plan.
4- Steps plan for time management suggested by Hewit & Whittier

• Establishing clear goals and developing plans carefully prevents educators from
wasting their time, energy, and resources.
• Identifying and Eliminating Timewasters these are four basic types of time:
namely, payoff, investment, organization, and waste. The first three are
productive, and the last serves no useful purpose.
• Establishing positive time management strategies is the first step of many
teachers to eliminate time wasting.
• Taking care of oneself is an effective time management strategy. The teacher
who is overburdened and exhausted is of little use to his/her students.

Effective time management is a critical feature in the development of a classroom

environment that is conducive to learning. The following are the terminologies used in
classroom time management.

1. Allocated time refers to the amount of time the school or teacher sets aside to
teach a given content area or lesson.
2. Actual instructional time refers to the amount of time when instruction is
actually taking place and can be viewed as a subset of allocated instructional
time.
3. Engaged time refers directly to the amount of time the learner spends attending
to a lesson or task.
4. Academic Learning Time incorporates active engaged time and the
appropriateness of instruction
5. Transition Time refers to the movement of one learning activity to another.
6. Collaborative Time is the time of the teachers in various specializations meets
for the inclusive learning development of the students.

To maximize instructional time:

• Work for smooth classroom transitions
• Allow for no idle, time by using fillers
• Remain involved with students throughout the period
• Use a common place for materials
• Establish routines
• Limit disruptions and interruptions.
 ‘Time lost is irretrievably lost.’- Jose Rizal

Note: Check on the power point presentation for more discussion.

V. Post Test
Multiple Choice: Tick the letter having the correct answer.
1. What is the best way to handle a child who cannot seem to stay put in
one place?
A. ignore him C. give him more work than the
others
B. find out if he has a learning difficulty D. tell him to go back to his
seat
2. In Mrs. Colanag’s class, everybody is welcomed. Learning activities are
properly planned
to involve everyone in the class. The teacher’s lessons involve the life
and experiences
of the learners. This situation clearly shows that the teacher
A. is unbiased or non-prejudiced C. uses effective modeling
behavior
B. understands the process of learning D. is an effective communicator
3. Mr. Aragon, a grade six teacher thinks that his pupils coming from the slum
might be
incapable of achieving academic success as their wealthier classmates. If
the teacher seeks
your advice what will you tell him?
A. Group the students according to socio-economic status.
B. Provide opportunities for students of different economic background
to work together.
C. Expose the disadvantaged pupils to successful children of high socio-
economic
backgrounds.
D. Be careful not to make predictions about individual students on the
basis
of group differences.
4. Misdemeanor has a “ripple effect” This implies that as a classroom
manager a teacher ______.
A. Reinforces positive behavior
B. Responds to misbehavior promptly
C. is consistent in her classroom management practice
D. counts 1 to 10 before she deals with a misbehaving student
5. Which is an INAPPROPIATE way to manage off-task behavior?
A. Redirect a child’s attention to task and check his progress to make sure
he is continuing to work
 B. Make eye contact to communicate what you wish to communicate
C. Move closer to the child to make him feel your presence.
D. Stop your class activity to correct a child who is no longer on task
6. To be an effective classroom manager, a teacher must be friendly but must
at the same time be_______.
A. Confident C. Analytical
B. Businesslike D. Buddy-buddy
7. Kounin claims that “with-it-ness” is one of the characteristics of an effective
classroom
manager. What is one sign of “With-it-ness”?
A. Giving attention to students who are having difficulty with school work
B. Seeing only a portion of the class but intensively
C. Knowing where instructional materials are kept
D. Aware of what’s happening in all parts of the classroom
8. What must a teacher do to ensure orderly transitions between activities?
A. Allow time for the students to socialize in between activities
B. Have the materials already at the start of the activity.
C. Assign fewer exercises to fill the allotted time.
D. Wait for students who lag behind
9. The task of setting up routine activities for effective classroom management
is a task that a
teacher should undertake___________.
A. as soon as the students have adjusted to their schedules
B. on the very first day of school
C. every day at the start of the session
D. every homeroom day
10. Teacher S uses the low-profile classroom control technique most of the time.
What does this imply?
A. She is reactive on her disciplinary orientation
B. She manages pupils personalities
C. She reacts severely to a misbehaving student
D. She stops misbehavior without disrupting lesson flow

God Bless!