Classroom Management Theorists and

Theories/Jacob Kounin
Overview/History of Jacob Kounin's Work
Jacob Kounin is an educational theorist who focused on a teachers ability to affect student
behavior through instructional management. His best-known work was done in the 1970s, where
he conducted two major case studies. From educational psychologist to a well-known theorist
today, Kounin brought a novel idea that incorporated both the instructional and disciplinary
aspects of the classroom together. Before this happened, most educators viewed their role as a
straight-forward passing on of skills and knowledge to their students. After publishing his book,
Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms(1977), Kounin attempted to influence the
original viewpoint of educators and to integrate teaching and discipline in the classroom.
Kounins first observation of an intriguing pattern in student behavior was when he asked a
student in his own classroom to put something away; he noticed that the students around him
suddenly followed in focusing their attention. He watched as the correction of one student
behavior actually spread to other students engaging in inappropriate behaviors, and resulted in a
much more ordered room. He later described this phenomenon as the Ripple Effect.
This first observation led Kounin to conduct experiments over 5 years with students from all
levels, but later Kounin changed his focus to seeing how teachers actually prepared or
proactively managed their classrooms before behavior occurred. He noticed how the reactions of
teachers to students affected classroom management in a negative way. He learned that teachers
were always receiving similar responses from their students no matter how they reacted to
misbehavior in the classroom. From this observation, he concluded that there must be something
a teacher could do to prevent misbehavior in the first place, which would lead to more effective
classroom management.
From his studies, Kounin developed theories about classroom management that were based
around a teachers ability to organize and plan in their classrooms while using proactive behavior
and high student involvement. He believed that in order for a teacher to have an effective
connection between management and teaching, there needed to be good Lesson Movement. This
Lesson Movement is achieved through withitness, overlapping, momentum, smoothness, and
group focus.
Withitness was Kounins word to describe a teachers ability to know what was going on at all
times in his/her classroom. This can be as simple as making scanning looks around the room
every once in awhile. Kounin said that is was not necessary for the teacher to know what is going
on, but for the students to perceive that the teacher knows.

Overlapping is the ability for a teacher to in a word, multi-task. Being able to present a new topic
while preventing misbehaviors is essential for a teacher. The concept of overlapping ties into the
idea of withitness as well.
Momentum is the flow of a lesson. A teacher must be able to roll-with-the-punches in
acknowledging that things might go wrong and being able to fluidly adapt and continue onward
despite distractions and disruptions. An example of this would be a student late for the class
interrupts or technology that is being used goes wrong.
Smoothness is also highly related to momentum. Being able to keep on track without getting on
tangents as well as being diverted by irrelevant questions or information is important. Many
times, a teacher can get distracted and leave a topic open and not come back to it until later,
which can be confusing to students. Another thing that can ruin smoothness is when a teacher
does not have a plan or course of action, it can seem as though the lecture is jumping from one
topic to the next.
The final aspect that results in Lesson Movement and effective teaching through integrating
management and learning is group focus. Group focus is the ability of a teacher to engage the
whole class using techniques such as building suspense or asking community questions. This can
also look like asking random questions, or asking a student a question and then looking around at
other students to see if they are thinking or ready to respond. These are the main theories and
history of Jacob Kounin.

Implementation Of Kounin's Philosophy

As mentioned above the Five Main points of Kounin's work are:
1. "with-it-ness"
2. overlapping
3. momentum
4. smoothness
5. group focus

"With-it-ness"
The teacher is responsible for inhibiting poor behavior. The teacher can maintain this strategy by
making eye contact to all students at all times. The teacher should know each student on a
personal basis (i.e. name, interests, strength, weaknesses, etc.)The teacher can use other nonverbal techniques to show students that they are alert and care about the well-being of all
students. The teacher may also want to make a respectable suggestion to inform the student that
their behavior is unacceptable. The teacher should have communicated to all students the
expectations and can have these displayed so everyone can be "with-it".

Overlapping
The teacher can have procedures that will allow the teacher to be effective when two situations
occur at the same time. For example, if a student is done with an assessment or an assignment
early have something for them to do such as moving on to another assignment, reading a book,
or a quiet enrichment exercise. While the early-finishers are staying busy the teacher is allowed
to move around the room to answer question or assist struggling students. Another example, if
the teacher is in the middle of a lecture and a student enters the room the teacher should make
eye contact with the student, have an area for the student to turn in work, and continue with the
lesson. Once the students are doing their work the teacher can go to the tardy student and tell
them what they missed or answer any questions from the homework assigned the night before.

Momentum
The teacher should make lectures short to allow students to group together and move around to
gain more knowledge of the content. The teacher should make sure that these exercises remain
short so students do not get bored. A teacher can keep a timer and assign roles to students to keep
the students moving and on a time deadline. If students are struggling the teacher can reflect on
what they can do to make the lesson more meaningful and easier to understand for their students.

Smoothness
The teacher can have students make hand gestures that will tell the teacher whether the student
has a comment or question concerning the lesson. This technique allows the teacher to have an
idea of which students may cause an unwanted tangent and which students may have a good
question that could pertain to utilizing the time effectively. When placing students in group-work
the teacher can walk around facilitating and listening to discussions of other students. The
teacher can then intervene or take the group to a different track if the teacher feels it is necessary.

Group Focus
The teacher can implement this strategy with several techniques:
A.Encourage Accountability: Make students aware that they will be graded for their participation
and contributions to the group.
B.The teacher can have a canister of popsicle sticks that have each students name on them. The
teacher can pick the popsicle stick at random to keep students on track and out of their seats with
anticipation for question/answer time, board problems, etc.
C.The students can facilitate a discussion. Once they have finished a task they can turn to each
other or they could pair up with those who are already done and compare answers.
In order for implementation to be effective the teacher must be well organized, communicate
their expectations to their students, and hold them responsible for their actions to encourage
motivation and attention.

Elementary School
In an elementary setting, the teacher could pair up the class in groups of 3-5 students and assign
a team name. The teacher could have a visual of a pocket chart to show where that group will be
during the time granted. For example, a pink card for Suzy, Bobbie, and Billy could stand for the
Phonics station. A green card could stand for Lizzy, Gary, and Greg to be at the Math station. The
time could be set for 30 minutes. Once the timer has elapsed the students would be instructed of
how to rotate. The teacher must not remain idle at any time. This should be used as
reinforcement/enrichment of the content in which the teacher has already covered the material
and could informally assess understanding and application of content. The centers assure the five
strategies by having directions at each center, a visual to state where students should be after the
time is up, and a way for teachers to actively listen to concerns/speed-bumps that are holding
them back. The teacher should make each center as kinestethic as possible with many
manipulatives at each station (i.e. Magnetic letters for spelling center, dice or play money for
Math, etc.) It is very important that elementary instructors maintain their energy and enthusiasm
when presenting to their students.

Middle School
Kounin's theories are very useful in a Middle School setting. The first two terms he uses, "Withit-ness" and "Overlapping," can be used for preventing the misbehavior of other students. When
one student is about to throw a paper airplane or punch his friend in the shoulder, the teacher can
make eye contact with him and shake his head. The belief is that doing this will show other
students that they will not get away with this either. In Middle School, however, it usually
becomes more necessary to make an example of a student who willingly breaks a rule so that
other students know they will share the same fate if they do so as well. Also, the "overlapping"
ability to do more than one thing at once is essential, since most middle school students will
capitalize on the opportunity to get away with outlawed behavior while the teacher's back is
turned. A final approach that seemed very effective was implementing lesson plans with high
participation formats. When every student always has something to do, each will not become
bored and find off-task behavior to engage in.

High School
In a high school setting, a teacher needs to incorporate all of the aspects of Kounin's philosophy
in their teaching practice. This means that with-it-ness, overlapping, smoothness, momentum,
and group focus all must meld together to form a coherent whole. This could be implemented
through teachers having at least a weeks lessons ahead of time in order for them to be sure that
lesson fluidity occurs. The "with-it-ness" that comes with being an effective teacher is most often
the fruit of planning and keeps students on task. This takes a special ability to diffuse potentially
distracting situations in which teachers need to bring students back to the task at hand. In
showing students the connections between one subject to the next, using previous vocabulary to
prepare students for learning new vocabulary, a teacher will show overlapping. This overlapping

ties into the momentum aspect. Students that feel as thought they are learning will make
connections between old and new material. This confidence will allow them to contribute to the
momentum of the classroom. The group focus aspect in the high school setting really takes a
quick attention to detail. Keeping high school students on task and not thinking about tomorrow
nights football game is a skill that is essential to promoting learning. A teacher needs to be able
to spot check for students not paying attention and rapidly engage them back into the subject,
while holding the rest of the class attention. This can be done through exciting announcements,
demonstrations, or by changing the atmosphere of learning.