Classroom Management Theories

21st Century Classroom Management

Seminar-Workshop for Teachers
December 10-12, 2018
Classroom Management Myths

1.Myth: Teachers shouldn’t smile until December. Reality:

Connect with students.

2.Myth: Teachers should praise students often to encourage

them. Reality: Praise can actually be detrimental if not handled
correctly.

3.Myth: Teachers should offer plenty of options for students who

finish work quickly. Reality: Teachers should differentiate for
students, and require genuine reflection so everyone is
working to their potential.
4. Myth: Deviating from structured routines will cause chaos.
Reality: Throwing in unexpected “twists” will keep students
engaged.

5. Myth: Movement only causes disruption and makes it harder

for students to focus. Reality: Movement can be beneficial
for learning and gives students an opportunity to engage
both physically and mentally.
6. Myth: Digital devices are a distraction. Reality: Digital
devices can engage your students in new ways.

7. Myth: Behavior is more difficult to manage in a student-

centered classroom. Reality: Allowing students to have
leadership roles and choices in some decisions leads to
more engagement and less reason to look for other
distractions.
“The highest stake of all is our ability to help
children realize their full potential.”

- Samuel J. Meisels
Classroom Management

 It refers to all the things that a teacher does to organize

students, space, time and materials so that student learning
can take place. (Wong, Harry K.)

 Classroom management includes the things a teacher must

do toward two ends:
 To foster student involvement and cooperation in all
classroom activities;
 To establish a productive working environment.
Classroom Management

 The actions teachers take to establish and sustain an

environment that fosters students’ academic achievement as
well as their social, emotional, and moral growth. The goal of
classroom management is not order for order’s sake, but
order for the sake of learning. (Oxford)
Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov, Early 1900s)

 Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian conditioning)

is learning through association.

 Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of

learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a
response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

1. Acquisition

Acquisition is the initial stage of learning when a response

is first established and gradually strengthened. During the
acquisition phase of classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is
repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus. (Unconditioned
stimulus is something that naturally and automatically triggers a
response without any learning.) After an association is made, the
subject will begin to emit a behavior in response to the previously
neutral stimulus, which is now known as a conditioned stimulus. It
is at this point that we can say that the response has been
acquired.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

Example: Gesturing the index finger to suggest “arms forward”.

The response has been acquired as soon as the class does the
routine in response to signal/gesture.

Once the response has been established, you can gradually

reinforce the routine or response to make sure the behavior is
well learned.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

2. Extinction

Extinction is when the occurrences of a conditioned

response decreases or disappears. In classical conditioning,
this happens when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired
with an unconditioned stimulus.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

For example, if the verbal instruction (the unconditioned

stimulus) had been paired with the index finger (the conditioned
stimulus), it would eventually come to evoke the conditioned
response of “raising arms forward”. However, if the
unconditioned stimulus (verbal instruction) is no longer paired
with the conditioned stimulus (index finger), eventually the
conditioned response (raising arms forward) would disappear.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

3. Spontaneous Recovery

Sometimes a learned response can suddenly reemerge

even after a period of extinction. Spontaneous recovery is the
reappearance of the conditioned response after a rest period or
period of lessened response.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

For example, imagine that after training the class to “raise arms
forward” through gesturing the index finger, you stop reinforcing
the behavior and the response eventually becomes extinct.
After a rest period during which the conditioned stimulus is not
presented, you suddenly do the signal and the class
spontaneously recovers the previously learned response.
If the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are no
longer associated, extinction will occur very rapidly after a
spontaneous recovery.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

4. Stimulus Generalization

Stimulus generalization is the tendency for the

conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses after the
response has been conditioned.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

In John B. Watson's famous Little Albert Experiment, for

example, a small child was conditioned to fear a white rat. The
child demonstrated stimulus generalization by also exhibiting
fear in response to other fuzzy white objects including stuffed
toys and Watson own hair.
Key Principles in Classical Conditioning

5. Stimulus Discrimination

Discrimination is the ability to differentiate between a

conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been
paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

For example, if one finger were the conditioned stimulus,

discrimination would involve being able to tell the difference
between the 1 finger and other similar symbols. Because the
subject is able to distinguish between these stimuli, he or she
will only respond when the conditioned stimulus is presented.
Operant Conditioning (B. F. Skinner, 1960s)

 Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs

through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through
operant conditioning, an individual makes an association
between a particular behavior and a consequence.
Operant Conditioning (B. F. Skinner, 1960s)

 Skinner’s work was based on Thorndikes’ law of effect

(1898), which suggests that behavior that is followed by
pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior
followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be
repeated.

 Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect -

Reinforcement. Behavior which is reinforced tends to be
repeated (i.e., strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced
tends to die out-or be extinguished (i.e., weakened).
Operant Conditioning (B. F. Skinner, 1960s)

 The theory is based upon the idea that learning is a function

of change in overt behavior. According to Skinner, changes in
behavior are a result of individuals’ responses to events, or
stimuli, that occur in their environment. When a stimulus-
response (S-R) pattern is rewarded, the individual is
conditioned to respond similarly in the future.
Operant Conditioning (B. F. Skinner, 1960s)

 The central tenet of Skinner’s work is that positively

reinforced behavior will reoccur.

 Reinforcement, or anything that strengthens the desired

response, is key to learning (i.e. praise, reward, good grades,
feeling of accomplishment).
Problems with using punishment

 Punished behavior is not forgotten, it's suppressed -

behavior returns when punishment is no longer present.
 Causes increased aggression - shows that aggression is a
way to cope with problems.
 Creates fear that can generalize to undesirable behaviors,
e.g., fear of school.
 Does not necessarily guide toward desired behavior -
reinforcement tells you what to do, punishment only tells you
what not to do.
Strategies

 Practice should occur in a question-answer format that

exposes students to information gradually through a series of
steps.
 The learner should respond each time and receive
immediate feedback.
 Instructors should try to arrange questions by difficulty so the
response is always correct, creating positive enforcement.
Strategies

 Good performance should be paired with secondary

reinforcers like praise, prizes and good grades.
 Teachers utilize immediate praise, feedback or rewards when
seeking to change problematic student behavior, and some
even use “token economies” to reward students in a
systematic way.
Choice Theory (William Glasser, 1998)

 The theory suggests that all we do is behave, that almost all

behavior is chosen, and we are driven by genetics to satisfy
our basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom
and fun.
Choice Theory (William Glasser, 1998)

 The classroom should therefore be a needs-satisfying place

for students.

 In practice, the most important need is love and belonging, as

closeness and connectedness with the people we care about
is a requisite for satisfying all of the needs.
Choice Theory (William Glasser, 1998)

 Choice theory, with the Seven Caring Habits, replaces

external control psychology and the Seven Deadly
Habits. External control, the present psychology of almost all
people in the world, is destructive to relationships. When
used, it will destroy the ability of one or both to find
satisfaction in that relationship and will result in a
disconnection from each other. Being disconnected is the
source of almost all human problems such as what is called
mental illness, drug addiction, violence, crime, school failure,
spousal abuse, to mention a few.
Seven Caring Habits Seven Deadly Habits
1. Supporting 1. Criticizing
2. Encouraging 2. Blaming
3. Listening 3. Complaining
4. Accepting 4. Nagging
5. Trusting 5. Threatening
6. Respecting 6. Punishing
7. Negotiating differences 7. Bribing, rewarding to control
The Ten Axioms of Choice Theory

1. The only person whose behavior we can control is our own.

2. All we can give another person is information.
3. All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship
problems.
4. The problem relationship is always part of our present life.
5. What happened in the past has everything to do with what
we are today, but we can only satisfy our basic needs right
now and plan to continue satisfying them in the future.
The Ten Axioms of Choice Theory

6. We can only satisfy our needs by satisfying the pictures in

our Quality World.
7. All we do is behave.
8. All behavior is Total Behavior and is made up of four
components: acting, thinking, feeling and physiology.
9. All Total Behavior is chosen, but we only have direct control
over the acting and thinking components. We can only
control our feeling and physiology indirectly through how we
choose to act and think.
10.All Total Behavior is designated by verbs and named by the
part that is the most recognizable.
Strategies

 Build positive relationships with students

 Give students opportunities to choose projects and to feel
power and control by giving them choices
 Focus on quality of work and their ability to use what they
have learned
 Show students how to satisfy their needs using more
appropriate and effective methods to decrease undesirable
behaviors
 Self-Evaluation; students will take ownership of their learning
Strategies

 Organize resources to maximize student's sense of control

and minimize chaos
 Small group activities- Gives students a sense of belonging,
motivates student learning, and reduces reliance on teacher
 Establish clear work spaces for students and teachers
 Analyze student needs to design a space that is functional
and friendly
 Learning area should be arranged so that traffic and flow of
activities are compatible
Student-Directed Learning Classroom (Alfie Kohn, 2006)

 Kohn maintains that societies based on extrinsic motivation

always become inefficient over time.
 The ideal classroom emphasizes curiosity and cooperation
above all, and that the student’s curiosity should determine
what is taught.
 He argues that standards should be kept very minimal and is
critical of standardized testing.
 Kohn also argues that a strict curriculum and homework are
counterintuitive to student needs.
Student-Directed Learning Classroom (Alfie Kohn, 2006)

 He suggests teachers keep cooperation in mind because

when curiosity is nurtured, rewards and punishments aren’t
necessary
 “Students should be able to think and write and explore
without worrying about how good they are”
 He emphasizes that not all students learn at the same pace,
and standards do not take this into account
 In general, Kohn believes in classrooms where the student is
at the center of everything
Student-Centered Classroom Management (Freiburg, 2014)

 Involves building trust and sharing the responsibility between

teacher and student
 Teachers caring for a student’s social and emotional needs
 Making sure all students feel a bond with their school,
classroom and peers
 Students feel safe in their school and classroom while trusting
their teacher and peers
 Students learn discipline by being responsible for their own
actions and share respect and responsibility with others
“Research suggests that all students are motivated to learn, as
long as there are clear expectations, the tasks and activities
have value, and the learning environment promotes intrinsic
motivation (Wlodkowski & Ginsberg, 1995; Eccles & Wigfield,
1985; Feather, 1982; Kovalik & Olsen, 2005).”
Strategies

 Create a positive learning environment

 Create a caring community where students collaboratively
work together to solve problems
 Active participation, high interest activities, and discovery
 Rewards are unnecessary
 Provide opportunities for students to help students
 Demonstrate patience as student discovers their learning
style and strengths
Strategies

 Share the responsibility and roles of the classroom with the

students
 Assign jobs and have them create the rules/procedures
 Teach students how to solve or prevent problems
 Give students the trust of doing things on their own and the
trust will be reciprocated
Strategies

 Provide a flexible but predictable and consistent learning

environment
 List homework, lesson objectives and the daily schedule on
the board for all students to see
 Ask every student questions by pulling names randomly
 Engage every student in active participation
Strategies

 Instill the value of love for learning

 Provide hands on activities that reflect life experiences
 Create an environment which allows for student opinion and
choice
Strategies

 Create areas in the room that are designated for certain

tasks
 Reduce distractions
 Assign areas on the floor, desks or supply areas for each
student
 Visually represent rules and routines
 Use cue words, like first and then, when establishing a new
routine
 Use visuals or symbols to communicate objects or tasks
 Utilize nonverbal cues
 Simplify language
Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura, 1977)

 Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn

from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling.
The theory has often been called a bridge between
behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it
encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.

 He believed that learning could not be fully explained simply

through reinforcement, but that the presence of others was
also an influence.
Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura, 1977)

 Learning theory explains how we learn when we are in social

contexts.

 Social modelling is a very powerful method of education. If

children see positive consequences from a particular type of
behavior, they are more likely to repeat that behavior
themselves; if negative consequences are the result, they are
less likely to perform that behavior.
Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura, 1977)

 Novel and unique contexts often capture students’ attention,

and can stand out in the memory. Students are more
motivated to pay attention if they see others around them also
paying attention.

 Another application of the theory is to encourage students to

develop their individual self-efficacy through confidence
building and constructive feedback.
Four Principles of Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

1. Attention. We cannot learn if we are not focused on the task.

If we see something as being novel or different in some way,
we are more likely to make it the focus of their attention.
Social contexts help to reinforce these perceptions.

2. Retention. We learn by internalizing information in our

memories. We recall that information later when we are
required to respond to a situation that is similar the situation
within which we first learnt the information.
Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

3. Reproduction. We reproduce previously learned information

(behavior, skills, knowledge) when required. However,
practice through mental and physical rehearsal often
improves our responses.

4. Motivation. We need to be motivated to do anything. Often

that motivation originates from our observation of someone
else being rewarded or punished for something they have
done or said. This usually motivates us later to do, or avoid
doing, the same thing.