Classroom management: good practices and consequences of inappropriate approaches
3. Consequences of an inappropriate classroom management approach The realization of an effective classroom management represents an objective hard
to attain for many teachers. For this very reason, in the educational practice, we are faced as well with situations of inadequate management. The most important consequences of an inadequate class management, in the opinion of R. Iucu (2006, 167-185), are:
o Fatigue is the result of certain pedagogical actions characterized by: repetitive and monotonous tasks, absent or inefficient feedback, decrease of the pupils’
motivation and interest for the activities proposed by the teacher, inadequate didactic behavior etc.;
o Overcharging is related to the non-respect of the daily and weakly effort curve in the curricular and extracurricular activities;
o Lack of motivation of the class: is related to the teaching staff’s role in optimizing the pupils’ individual motivation for learning and their social motivation concerning the roles assumed by the pupils in the class-group;
o Depreciation of the educational climate represents an indicator of the alteration of the health of the educational group. A depreciated educational climate (atmosphere, affective state of the class) supposes: non-engagement from the pupils’ and teachers’ part, routine, depersonalization, critical reactions, etc.
o Lie : it consists in a verbal and nonverbal behavior of the pupils which often appears as a consequence of certain managerial mistakes. The teacher has to consider aspects such as: gestures, sound of his voice, intonation, physical aspect, position of his head, body etc.
Petrescu Ana-Maria, Stăncescu Ioana / Procedia – Edu World 2010
o Physical or verbal aggressiveness of the pupil are often the result of imitating certain behaviors present in the family or in school. The teacher should use altruistic managerial strategies, based on the valorization of positive models.
The teachers-managers have a great responsibility in the exercise of their activity.
On the way their class management is realized depends the educational and even professional evolution of their pupils.
For this very reason, it is very important for them to know all the consequences an inadequate approach could have on the class and find the most adequate strategies to prevent them or to fight against them.
We propose, below, a few possible ways of preventing and combating the consequences of an inadequate class management:
o establishing diverse and complex learning tasks, able to solicit the pupils’
creativity, critical thinking;
o assuring a permanent feed-back;
o promoting an atmosphere of mutual respect teacher-pupil, pupil-teacher, pupil-pupil;
o avoiding routine tasks;
o using modern methods in the activities, able to determine the pupils to get actively involved in solving the learning tasks;
o valorizing the knowledge and the competences the pupils have, as a means of motivation;
o realizing an efficient communication with the pupils.
Although the teacher-manager tries to prevent the appearance of certain problems in class, there are moments when he is taken aback by certain difficult situations which disturb the entire educational process, so that it can no longer attain its goals. The class is, many times, also an area of manifestation of certain educational crises, which, not managed or managed inadequately can lead to the depreciation of the entire educational climate.
The educational crisis represents “an unexpected and unplanned event or complex of events, generating hazards for the health, climate or security of the organization (class) and of its members.” (Iucu, 2006, 191)
The appearance and development of these crisis phenomena can be determined by certain conflict states manifested between pupils or between teachers and pupils (quarrels, fights, abuses etc.), or between teachers and pupils’ parents (denigrations, fights, bribes etc.), or between classes (group conflicts).
R. Iucu sketches a synthetic picture of the features of the educational crisis situations as follows:
o they appear unexpectedly, without warning and usually start by affecting the informational system: they distort the messages;
o they make communication difficult by permanently setting obstacles in its way, by destructuring the channels;
o they follow the instauration of a state of confusion;
o they facilitate the installation of a climate of insecurity, generate dissonant states and panic by eliminating the value-related orientation guidelines. (Iucu, 2006, 192)
Confronted to a situation of educational crisis, the teachers, as educational managers, need to find the best ways to manage it efficiently. So, in the specialized literature are mentioned the stages that must be covered to get over the crisis situations that can appear in class:
Petrescu Ana-Maria, Stăncescu Ioana / Procedia – Edu World 2010
o Identification and knowledge – characterizing a certain situation of educational crisis, describing its specific elements;
o Etiology of the crisis situation – identifying the reasons that led to the appearance of the respective crisis;
o Decision – choosing, from a number of alternatives, the optimal solution variant;
o Intervention program – determining some stages or guidelines for applying the solution;
o Applying the measures – implementing the intervention program and permanently adapting it to the particularities of the situation;
o Control – for controlling and avoiding certain secondary effects and for monitoring the application of the intervention program;
o Evaluation – measuring and evaluating the results obtained (Iucu, 2006, 196-200).
For a successful management of educational crisis situations, teachers must make use mainly of win-win strategies, so all those concerned may be, even though sometimes only apparently, advantaged, and the crisis may turn into an opportunity with a positive formative role.
The realization of an effective classroom management puts a series of problems to the teachers, generated both by the multitude of the situations they are faced with and by the inadequate management of the educational situations. However, the professional competence, the didactic experience and the pedagogic tact help most of the teachers to successfully deal with these educational realities.
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4th International Conference "Education Facing Contemporary World Issues" Piteşti, Romania, 2010, 2010, October
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