The Metamorphosis of Classroom Management
By Fran Mayeski

A classroom is a place where students gather to learn. Creating a safe and orderly environment in the classroom is a survival skill for teachers and optimizes the learning environment for students. The strategies teachers use to create such classroom environments have been studied and developed as the area of "classroom management" for many years. This article will examine recent changes in this field and provide concrete examples of new approaches.

Historical Perspective

In the 1970s and '80s, researchers and practitioners examined management issues such as how to organize the room, make it safe and establish the rules of behavior for the students in that classroom. Management is defined by Randolph (1985) as working with and through others to accomplish the organization's goals. The major reform agenda of that period, "effective schools" was focused on the organization level.

The Shift

The emphasis is shifting from the organizational level to the learner. A pivotal document symbolizing this transition is Learner-centered Psychological Principles: Guidelines for School Redesign and Reform. The purpose of this document is "to provide useful information consistent with research generated by psychologists and educators in the areas of learning, motivation and human development. Use of these principles in reforming education will serve shared goals: educational excellence with a focus on the individual learner" (American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Psychology in Education, 1993, p. 4).

This perspective now is reflected in the field of classroom management and discipline. Researchers are focusing on increasing their understanding of behavior rather than on expanding ways to control it (Solomon, Watson, Delucchi, Schaps, & Battistich, 1991). Many of the emerging classroom management/discipline programs are based on the belief that when students' basic needs are met, misbehavior can be avoided. Six of these programs are profiled in the "Discipline Profiles" chart. These "Discipline Profiles" are reprinted from the Fall 1994 issue of Teaching Kids Responsibility, a newsletter of the National Education Service. They have given permission to reprint the profiles in this issue of Noteworthy.

Beliefs

How we work with students in the classroom is shaped primarily by what we believe about how students learn how to behave. At one extreme is the belief that students are passive receivers of knowledge who need to learn to conform to the system and require clear identification of a payoff for their learning. The emphasis is on routine and standardization. The other extreme is the belief that students are active, positive, motivated and unique problem solvers. The emphasis is on choice. It is not surprising that teachers tend to use the strategies that are congruent with what they believe (Short, Short, & Blanton, 1994; Hoy & Forsyth, 1986).

Routines and Rules

All classrooms need rules and routines to function effectively. Many research studies in the 1970s and '80s emphasized the importance of teaching these routines early in the year. Some studies were as explicit as identifying that they should be taught in the first four days (Leinhardt, Weidman, & Hammond, 1991), while others recommended it be sometime within the first few weeks of school (Hutchins et al., 1991).

The nature of classroom rules and routines and how they are formulated varies according to the teacher's belief system. Rules often originate from the teacher anticipating problems or glitches in the functioning of the classroom and establishing rules and routines to circumvent their occurrence. The general guidelines for rules are:

• Make only a few rules--neither you nor the students will remember a long list.
• Select rules because they establish an orderly environment and contribute to successful learning. As important an issue as gum chewing may be, it probably does not significantly impede learning.
• Make the rules as unambiguous as possible. They should be stated behaviorally: "Keep your hands and feet to yourself" is clearer than "no fighting."
• Select rules that all adults in the building are willing to enforce uniformly. As soon as students figure out there is a double standard, they will test the limits (Hutchins et al., 1991, pp. 3-33).

1. They are consistent with the nature of the infraction.
2. They reflect the needs and best interests of both the student and the school community.

Management and Instruction

"The conception of management and instruction as separate domains presents a false dichotomy. As students and teacher work together to construct lessons and to reach instructional goals, management and instructional processes are co-occurring" (Weade & Evertson, 1991, p. 136).

Routines are processes or skills; they can be taught in the same way that teachers teach any other skill. Because teaching should reflect what we know about how people learn, it is helpful to examine the three phases a learner goes through when acquiring a skill or process: constructing models, shaping and internalizing. Research about these three phases can be found in A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching with Dimensions of Learning (Marzano, 1992); and strategies the teacher can use during these three phases can be found in the Dimensions of Learning Teachers' Manual (Marzano, Pickering, Arredondo, Blackburn, Brandt, & Moffett, 1992).

1. Constructing models

To learn a skill or process, the learner needs a rough model of the steps involved.

Hunter's classic work on "Developing Independent Learners" (1976) focused on the importance of "modeling" routines for students. This concept is inherent in most of the classroom management programs that are skill based.

One strategy that can be used to help students construct a model is "verbalizing your thoughts as you demonstrate the skill or process" (Marzano et al., 1992, p. 62). Additional strategies the teacher might use are presenting the students with a written set of steps for the routine or having them create a flow chart of the routine.

Granted that helping students construct a model of the routines that will be used in the classroom is more effective than the practice of simply telling students what to do, it is not enough. Tempting as it is to mimic the Nike commercials and say, "Just do it!," we need to use what we know about the second phase of acquiring a skill, shaping.

2. Shaping

In this second phase the learner is involved in two major processes. One is understanding the procedure at a conceptual level and another is modifying the skill or process itself.

"Vygotsky (1978) hypothesized that a learner needs the most guidance when working in the zone of development in which she has not yet acquired a skill but has some initial idea of it--in effect, when the learner is shaping a procedure she has been introduced to" (Marzano et al., 1992, p. 60).

Providing opportunities for the students to practice the skill or process while the teacher is present to provide feedback (guided practice) is an important component of Hunter's strategy for teaching routines in the classroom.

3. Internalizing

To make the use of a skill or routine automatic requires practice . . . and lots of it. This principle was represented in the "independent practice" component of Hunter's design.

Rewards

Our beliefs influence how we use rewards. For those who believe that learners require a clear payoff, extrinsic rewards are an important ingredient in the learning process. There are programs that emphasize the use of extrinsic rewards for "good behavior," and educators who believe that external rewards and punishments are necessary usually feel comfortable using them. Others believe the use of extrinsic rewards is detrimental. Some researchers have found that the use of extrinsic rewards diminishes intrinsic motivation (Solomon et al., 1991). Educators who believe that their role is to help students develop personal control and enhance their intrinsic motivation to learn usually eschew programs that have a heavy reliance on rewards.

Assessing Behavior

Our beliefs also influence how we assess student behavior and how we use that information. At one end of the continuum is the educator who believes the authority figure identifies the degree of adherence to the expectations and delivers the consequences. At the other end are those who believe it is the student who needs to reflect on this information and make decisions to alter the behavior.

"Effective learners operate best when they have insight into their own strengths and weaknesses and access to their own repertoires of strategies for learning. In recent years this type of knowledge and control over thinking has been termed metacognition" (Brown, 1975, cited in Brown and Campione, in press). The work on meta-cognition in the academic arena is beginning to transfer to our insights about how students need to think about their own behavior.

Concluding Remarks

Classroom management is undergoing a metamorphosis. The focus is becoming more and more centered on the student and on creating the environment that encourages the butterfly to emerge.

References

American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Psychology in Education. (1993). Learner-centered psychological principles: Guidelines for school redesign and reform. Washington, DC and Aurora, CO: American Psychological Association and Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory.

Brown, A. L., & Campione, J. C. (in press). Designing a community of young learners: Theoretical and practical lessons. Le Revue Francaise de Pedagogie.

Gathercoal, F. (1990). Judicious discipline. The Education Digest, 55(6), 20-24.

Hoy, W. K., & Forsyth, P. B. (1986). Effective supervision: Theory into practice. New York: Random House.

Hunter, M. (1976). Improved instruction. El Segundo, CA: TIP Publications.

Hutchins, C. L. et al. (1991). A+chieving excellence: An educational decision-making and management system. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory.

Leinhardt, G., Weidman, C. & Hammond, K. M. (1991). Introduction and integration of classroom routines by expert teachers. In U. Casanova, D. C. Berliner, P. Placier, & L. Weiner (Eds.). Classroom management: Readings in educational research (pp. 22-62). Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Marzano, R. J. (1992). A different kind of classroom: Teaching with dimensions of learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., Arredondo, D. E., Blackburn, G. J., Brandt, R. S., & Moffett, C. A. (1992). Dimensions of learning: Teacher's manual. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

National Education Service. (1994, Fall). Discipline Profiles. Teaching Kids Responsibility, 1(1), 1-2.

Randolph, W. A. (1985). Understanding and managing organizational behavior. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.

Short, P. M., Short R. J., & Blanton, C. (1994). Rethinking student discipline. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Solomon, D., Watson, M. S., Delucchi, K. L., Schaps, E., & Battistich, V. (1991). Enhancing children's prosocial behavior in the classroom. In U. Casanova, D. C. Berliner, P. Placier, & L. Weiner (Eds.). Classroom management: Readings in educational research (pp. 186-212). Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Weade, R., & Evertson, C. M. (1991). The construction of lessons in effective and less effective classrooms. In U. Casanova, D. C. Berliner, P. Placier, & L. Weiner (Eds.). Classroom management: Readings in educational research (pp. 136-159). Washington, DC: National Education Association.