Teacher's Pocket Guide for Effective Classroom Management / Edition 1

by Timothy P. Knoster

Overview

Short and easy-to-follow, yet research-based, guide for every elementary/secondary educator who has students with behavior problems in his or her classroom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557669186
Publisher:	Brookes, Paul H. Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/01/2008
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

Tim Knoster, Ed.D., is an associate professor in the School of Education, College of Professional Studies, at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and also serves as Executive Director of the international Association for Positive Behavior Support. Dr. Knoster (or Tim, as he prefers) has been involved with preservice and inservice teacher training since the mid- 1980s. He has worn many hats throughout his career, including that of classroom teacher, Director of Student Support Services and Special Education, and Principal Investigator on federal projects focused on classroom and student-centered behavior intervention and support. In addition, Dr. Knoster has extensive experience in providing professional development for classroom teachers throughout the United States and has been the recipient of various awards for his endeavors in this regard. He has extensively published manuscripts, training materials, and other practitioner-oriented resources concerning the linkages among research, policy, and practice in the classroom. Most important, Dr. Knoster has an uncanny ability to help teachers interpret the research literature on behavioral matters in a way that enables them to translate that same research into practical strategies and approaches in their classrooms. Along these same lines, Dr. Knoster has a national reputation of being a dynamic advocate, leader, and presenter concerning classroom management and student-centered behavior intervention and support.

Read an Excerpt

Excerpted from The Teacher's Pocket Guide for Effective Classroom Management
By Timothy P. Knoster, Ed.D.
©2008. Brookes Publishing. All rights reserved.

So How Do I Prevent Problem Behavior in My Classroom?

Your perspective, whether limited to your classroom or more broadly in life, directly affects how you interpret the events in your daily life. Developing perspective is a funny thing because it is a highly personalized experience and, much like art, interpreted in the eye of the beholder. Mark Twain has been credited with saying, “It ain’t what you don’t know that will get you in trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Simply stated, a terminal degree of certainty is a dangerous thing to have about anything, most specifically about human behavior. The reality is that you will be unable to prevent all inappropriate behavior from ever occurring within your classroom—unless each of your students is either Mother Teresa incarnate or your classroom has no students. Rather, what you can do is establish a few basic operating procedures that will enhance the learning environment in a way that can dramatically reduce the likelihood of both nuisance and problem behaviors.

Nuisance behaviors are those that in and of themselves are essentially inconsequential, such as the student who appears fidgety and calls out to get your attention as opposed to raising his or her hand. It is often inconsequential behavior that should be ignored, however, that historically (or perhaps hysterically) has been known to get strong adverse reactions from teachers.

Yet, problem behavior must be immediately stopped, and the student must be redirected to act in a more appropriate manner. For example, a student who is taking materials from another student must be told by the teacher, “Stop taking John’s book and answer sheet. I want you to open your own book and do your work on your own.” Perspective—your perspective to be specific—comes into play in understanding that inappropriate behaviors are not always equal and, realistically, you will never be able to control all student behavior. This may seem like an odd statement to make from someone providing guidance on classroom management, but it is an important concept to understand because it can dramatically affect your perspective and subsequent approach to classroom management.

One of my personal pet peeves with regard to behavior management comes from the term management, which has become commonplace in the field. The very term implies this false notion of control in that it suggests that you will manage your students as if they were collectively nothing more than raw material to be organized within your classroom. I don’t know about you, but I know I have enough difficulty managing my own behavior (especially on tough days), let alone managing anyone else’s behavior. Now, having said this, there are things that you can manage that will help you have a direct positive effect on your students’ behavior. The nature of these things that you can control (or at least greatly influence) ironically has less to do with your students’ behavior and more to do with how you act or do not act on a daily basis in your classroom. I think a more accurate descriptor for group and classroom management is “Teacher Self-Management of Instructional Practice in Group Settings,” but this title is far too long and will understandably not be accepted in the field. So I will use the term classroom management for simplicity’s sake. Having said this, the important thing to keep in mind is not so much the term but the idea I am trying to communicate.

Developing a classroom management plan can appear daunting from the onset. I mean, there are just so many things to take into account and plan for, and then you have to think about individualizing for unique student needs. Although there are various aspects to consider when designing a game plan for your classroom, it helps to keep things simple. For example, classroom management can be viewed as having two main themes: prevention and intervention. Understandably, it is easy to become preoccupied with finding the answer(s) to the question, “What do I do when a student does X?” Although you will need a set of standard operating procedures to efficiently and safely redirect student problem behavior, the primary emphasis in effective classroom management is preventing problem behavior in the first place. A simple way to think about this is as follows: If you consider all of the time that you will invest in managing student behavior in your classroom, then a minimum of 80% of that behavior management time should be invested in preventative approaches. This so-called 80–20 split (80% prevention, 20% intervention) is generally accepted within the professional literature and is borne out daily within effective classrooms. Having noted this proportional weighting of your invested time in behavior management, there are precise tactics of teaching, or principles of practice, that are relevant to both prevention as well as intervention of student problem behavior. In particular, three specific principles of practice in prevention serve as the foundation for effective classroom management that are within your immediate control as a classroom teacher. Regardless of the type of classroom you operate (e.g., elementary, secondary general, or special education), the following principles of practice are relevant for you.

1. Rapport
2. Clear expectations
3. Reinforcement of expected behavior

These three approaches, when viewed in total and in concert with one another, may best be visualized as a three-legged stool of prevention in which each component is somewhat interdependent on the presence of the other two components in order to bear the weight of student behavior in your classroom.

The importance of establishing rapport with your students is (for the most part) a universally accepted understanding in our schools today. Oddly enough, however, many teachers struggle on a daily basis with establishing rapport with all of their students, especially those who appear difficult to reach. In other words, we kind of have an understanding as teachers as to why connecting with our students is important, but as a field, we are somewhat limited in our understanding of time-efficient, systematic practices that we can use to establish rapport. Thinking of your own personal experiences in your classroom, you most likely have established rapport with those students with whom you are most comfortable. More often than not, these are the kids who provide you with a lot of reinforcement and are least likely to develop problem behavior over time. As such, you likely would describe these kids as your favorites. To be clear, and for the record, you are a person first and a professional second. Therefore, you will have favorites, and acknowledging this reality is an important first step to establishing rapport with your students who are more difficult to reach. In our personal lives, we get to choose those with whom we hang out. As teachers, however, we don’t have the luxury or right to pick and choose whom we will successfully work with within our classrooms.

You will likely find yourself naturally gravitating toward your favorite students, as this is human nature (hey, we all would rather hang out with others who make us feel good). The professional challenge is to 1) understand this aspect of human nature and 2) reach out and connect with those students who appear more distant from you in terms of personal comfort. Therefore, it is important to have a few time-efficient methods in your teacher “bag of tricks” that can help you establish a conducive level of rapport with each of your students—not just the ones toward whom you naturally gravitate. When it comes to effective teaching and rapport, the bottom line is that most kids don’t care what you know as a teacher until they know that you really care about them as people (Albert, 1996). As such, it is helpful to put into practice some simple rapportbuilding techniques on a regular basis that will help each of your students increasingly understand that you really do care about them on a personal level. If you are anything like most teachers that I know, you are a nurturing, fun-loving, and approachable person, but for a number of reasons, not all of your students will see you in this light (at least not right away, and especially not those students who may appear to be most at risk to develop problem behavior). I will describe these rapport-building strategies in greater detail in Chapter 4 as they should prove helpful to you in reaching out and sufficiently connecting with all of the kids in your classroom.

Establishing a classroom environment conducive to learning (and developing rapport with each of your students) is enhanced by establishing a clear set of behavioral expectations. In other words, rapport becomes a byproduct of your endeavors within the classroom, and although some teaching strategies can help you to establish rapport, the effect of these tactics is greatly enhanced when used in tandem with clear social-performance expectations. Establishing expectations is all about developing a set of cultural norms within your classroom and ultimately about fostering social competence in all of your students. To be clear, I am not talking about simply creating a list of rules or a list of “thou shalt nots.” Rather, what I am referring to is identifying between three to five broad expectations toward which you will foster growth and progress with each of your students on an ongoing basis (e.g., be respectful, be responsible, be safe). Now, I am sure you may be thinking, “This is too simple. I mean, it can’t be that simple, can it?” Well, although there is more operational detail regarding expectations that you will need to address, starting at such a basic level steers you in the right direction. As the Greek philosopher Seneca noted, “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” Simply stated, you want to be sure that you are sailing in a direction that has some promising land ahead, instead of large icebergs to strike. Focusing your students’ attention toward what you want them to do (instead of what you don’t want them to do) is one of the most important first steps you can take.

Your second step is to focus attention on more operationally defining these three to five expectations across important settings (and routines) throughout your given classroom day, thus creating not only a road map for behavior for your students but also a radar system for you to use in terms of reinforcing your students as they demonstrate appropriate behavior per your expectations. Establishing three to five broadly stated expectations (and subsequently defining these expectations across settings and routines with your students) also creates a healthy degree of predictability that helps your students realize that they can influence or have some degree of power over their own personal degree of success in your classroom (also known as locus of control). Steps and procedures to use to engage your students in the process of establishing behavioral expectations for your classroom are provided in Chapter 5.

Reinforcement is the third principle of practice in this three-legged stool of preventative approaches to classroom management. Look, we all know that we can attract more bees with honey or more ants with sugar. What I mean to say is, the best way to help students develop appropriate behavior is by being clear on expected behavior and, as the saying goes, “catching them being good.” I know, I know, this is not a novel concept, but I never said I was going to share new earth-shattering ideas with you. What I did say—even promise you—was that I would help you to develop a new perspective about classroom management that enables you to bring together (in full force) the basic aspects of prevention that will help you to increasingly become a more effective educator. Simply stated, reinforcement serves as one of the three cornerstones of prevention (well, if you can have cornerstones associated with a three-legged stool).

Aristotle has been attributed with saying, “We are what we repeatedly do, therefore excellence is not an act—but a habit.” Let me expand a bit on this notion: Each of us is going to form habits, and our habits, good or bad, develop over time in association with what we are reinforced for doing. Whether it is the habit of kindness or of thievery, the principle of reinforcement (along with other factors) is in play. Instructionally, the goal becomes to help your students develop behavioral habits that are consistent with the social competencies you wish to see in your classroom. Reinforcing your students for performing expected behavior should increasingly become the norm in your classroom. In addition, it is important to understand that there are various forms of reinforcement and that not all reinforcement procedures—and most certainly not all reinforcers used by you as a teacher—will be equal. As such, it is important to understand the nature of positive and negative reinforcement and to further appreciate that what is actually reinforcing is (much like interpreting a work of art) in the eyes of the beholder (or the one being reinforced). Make no mistake about it, both positive and negative reinforcement are just that: forms of reinforcement to increase the likelihood of future recurrence of desired behavior. Positive reinforcement, however, is the name of the game as you will see in greater detail in Chapter 6.

Rapport, expectations, and reinforcement serve as three principles of practice in prevention of student problem behavior in your classroom. Each principle of practice is important in its own right; however, the sum is worth far more than the total of its parts. As such, let’s turn our attention to each of these principles of practice and, in turn, focus on specific teaching strategies along these same lines.

Table of Contents

So Who Is This Guy?
Acknowledgments

1. So Why Should I Read This Book?
   
   
2. So Why Do Kids Act the Way They Do?
   
   
3. So How Do I Prevent Problem Behavior in My Classroom?
   
   Building Rapport
   Establishing Clear Expectations
   Reinforcing Expected Behavior
   
   
4. So How Close Should I Get with My Students?
   
   
5. So How Do I Go About Establishing Expectations in My Classroom?
   
   
6. So How Hard Is It to Use Reinforcement in My Classroom?
   
   
7. So Does It Really Boil Down to Classroom Climate?
   
   
8. So What Else Can I Do?
   
   
9. So How Do I Connect the Dots?
   

References and Resources for Further Reading
Appendix

Editorial Reviews

"An outstanding, easy-to-read guidebook that will be immensely useful for teachers, written by an author who knows what he is talking about. It is authoritative but written in an enjoyable, conversational style."

University of South Florida - Glen Dunlap

"Valuable and practical . . . I thought of all my teacher friends and colleagues and how such a readable resource might improve their teaching lives and classrooms."

University of South Florida - Don Kincaid

"The perfect book to read at the start of each term to remind and refocus [educators]."

Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Development and Graduate Studies, University of Missouri - Tim Lewis

"Very user-friendly, with tons of great ideas and strategies to use in the classroom to create a climate of acceptance and success for all learners."

West Virginia Department of Education-Office of Special Programs, Coordinator of Emotional/Behavior Disorders - Frances E. Clark

"Dr. Knoster hit the nail right on the head: Relationships are everything, especially for struggling learners. This book has been long overdue. I hope that all future teachers will have the opportunity to read it."

parent of a student with autism - Sharon Ann Ballard-Krishnan

"Filled with powerful principles to promote successful classrooms, this easy-to-read book is a must read for all teachers."

Lehigh University - Linda M. Bambara

"A valuable resource for administrators and school leaders, particularly those planning to lead inservices on classroom management."

Educational Research Service

"Written in a light hearted manner sure to please educators who have been looking over thick textbooks all day . . . Essential for any teacher of a primary or secondary classroom class and for community library education collections."

The Midwest Book Review

"A valuable resource for administrators and school leaders, particularly those planning to lead inservices on classroom management."

From the Publisher

“An excellent resource . . . The strategies provide a practical approach to addressing evidence-based practices within a multi-tiered system of positive behavior support.

Howard S. Muscott