What Are The Most Important Elements of Classroom Management?
The class life must be predetermined and must be appropriate for purposes. The teacher is primarily responsible for classroom management and principles. In other words, the teacher is responsible for the learning environment. In this way, classroom life becomes more charming, productive, and useful for the learning environment.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Elif A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Classroom Environment
The first thing the teacher should do to provide the physical and psychological environment required by classroom education. For this, it is necessary to love all students and treat them equally. The teacher is the representative of the modern world and contemporary values through the eyes of the student.
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Communication Strategies
Teachers can use numerous strategies to manage their classrooms and offer students the opportunity to have quality education and also prevent misbehavior in the classroom. One of these strategies is the way the teacher manages communication in the classroom in terms of usage of facial expression and tone of voice. The most important element of communication is language. The teacher should control the student’s behaviors with the language he/she uses.
Accordingly to this, the teacher should use flexible and descriptive language which is not judgmental communication which reduces a student's anxiety, strengths and motivates participation in class. In the communication process, eye contact with the student is very important and effective in classroom management. For both teachers and the learners, the eyes are a powerful tool around the teaching and learning environment. But how can eye contact be used in the classroom? The teacher can use eye communication to provide discipline, to attract the attention of the student and signal the student to indicate that something is correct or incorrect. But the eye contact should be avoided during any activity because it causes distraction of the student. Many gestures such as smile, gait, and mimic are complementary and important elements of the class management. Gestures play an important role in helping learners to remember which means gestures are catchy. In addition to being catchy, it also affects the students visually and increases class participation and motivation of the student.
Body Language
In my opinion, the usage of gestures unites the students and teacher culturally and eliminates the separations between them. A teacher’s ability to manage his/her voice is another rule is classroom management. The teacher’s voice should be clear and effective, otherwise, it can be a boring and dull atmosphere. The teacher should know when she raises her voice.
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Calling by Students’ Names
I think the usage of a student’s name is the most effective communication way because it makes the student feel special and feel respected. The first thing I will do when I become a teacher is to memorize the names of my students and get information about them because I believe that every individual wants to feel respected. In classroom management, the teacher uses the student’s names when she or he organizes an activity, tries to get the attention of a student, or indicates the student.
Grouping
But before deciding about grouping students, teachers should consider several factors. One of them is the learning style of students. We can say each student’s ability of learning and learning speed is different, so the teacher must be careful and sensitive about it. The other factors are the size of the class, the personalities of the students, and the experience of the students. Teachers can group the students in the classroom in different ways, these are pair work, students on their own, group work, and whole-class teaching.
In the whole teaching, the teacher instructs as a controller, the class is working under the teacher authority and makes students feel secure. I think in this teaching method, the teacher should increase the participation of the student, otherwise, the student can be bored and distracted.
The teacher should focus on visual narration and videos. There is not enough chance of speaking for everyone because it is a teacher-centered method. I think the most effective grouping way is group work because it increases the amount of talking and it allows people to know each other and get closer to each other. It also increases the self-confidence of the student and they do not feel alone by working with a group.
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Classroom Rules and Directions
Classroom rules are the most strategic element of class management. Classroom management aims to create an effective and efficient educational environment. In addition to the teacher, the student should also have the right to determine classroom rules and thus, it becomes a more effective and democratic environment in the class. Informing the students and getting their opinions to increase the validity of rules. This also allows students to develop behaviors and habits appropriate to the requirements of a democratic lifestyle. The teacher first describes the aims clearly and understandably. Of course, every rule should be directed to a specific purpose. In addition to the rule, the form expression is also important. Therefore the rules need to be spoken gently, the reward should be emphasized instead of punishment and never should not be expressed in the form of command sentences. The teacher has to make sure that the rules are implemented in an empathic communication system.
Seating Arrangement
Lastly, I want to talk about seating arrangement and how it affects the classroom management. I think seating arrangement influences classroom climate and student’s relationships with each other. A well-planned seating arrangement provides better academic and social development for a student. The seating arrangement is the physical design of the classroom and it must be visually motivating for both teacher and student. The physical setup of chairs and tables is significantly important and effective in learning. Orderly rows are the most frequently used in the education system. The teacher communicates easily with his/her students but it is more effective in the small number of students. I think horseshoes are the most effective seating arrangement because the student is more prominent than the teacher. It allows the student to focus on lessons and socialize the student with others. It increases the student’s self-confidence. Separate table seating arrangement can cause some discipline problems in the classroom. A student can be easily distracted and the teacher cannot maintain her/his authority after a while.
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To sum up, rules of class, student and teacher's attitude, seating arrangements are the important elements that determine the class management.
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