All-important and overlooked: classroom management

A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality investigates the extent to which America's traditional teacher-preparation programs offer research-based strategies for candidates to better manage classrooms from the outset. Most programs can correctly claim at least some classroom-management instruction, but it's often scattered throughout the curriculum. Most programs do not draw from research when promoting classroom-management strategies, and instruction is divorced from practice (and vice versa). There is also a pervasive notion that teachers should be able to rise to a level of instructional virtuosity that eliminates the need for defined strategies in classroom management. Finally, the edPTA performance assessment has yet to specify explicitly what teacher candidates ought to demonstrate as classroom managers. The report identifies five strategies essential to classroom-management success: establish and teach classroom rules to communicate expectations for behavior; build structure and establish routines to help guide students in a wide variety of situations; reinforce positive behavior, using praise and other means; consistently impose consequences for misbehavior; and foster and maintain student engagement by teaching interesting lessons that include opportunities for active student participation. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

Published by LEAP

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.