Classroom Management Style
Judging by my observations, the teacher uses a democratic leadership style. Communication and activity are based on creative cooperation: students are asked questions, and they try to reason independently, rather than receive ready-made information. Joint activity is motivated by the teacher, who listens to the opinion of the students. The teacher also supports the student’s right to his position, encourages activity, initiative, discusses the idea, methods and course of activity. Organizing influences prevail: by using the child-out zone, the teacher controls the educational process. This style is characterized by a positive-emotional atmosphere of interaction, goodwill, trust, exactingness and respect, taking into account the individuality of the individual. The main form of the teacher’s appeal in this case is advice, recommendation, and request. This style disposes pupils to the teacher, promotes their development and self-development, and causes a desire for joint activity. This classroom management style encourages students to independence, stimulates self-management, high adequate self-esteem and, most importantly, contributes to the formation of trusting, humanistic relationships.
Classroom Management Plan
The teacher being monitored used a comprehensive classroom management plan. Among the rules of behavior that the teacher adheres to is keeping calm and doing his job. Even when it seems that the behavior of the students is out of control, the teacher still manages his reaction. He gained much more authority among the students by remaining calm in any situation and acting in strict accordance with the rules of conduct established in advance. It is also in the principles of classroom management for this teacher to always evaluate which offenses deserve what punishments. It is very important for him that there is an appropriate punishment for each offense, and he strictly adheres to this plan. Moreover, the teacher does not waste energy in vain, punishing for every offense, and focusing on minor offenses. He has defined his extreme line, which cannot be crossed, and if such a line is passed, he methodically and consistently declares his requirements. (Berger & Girardet, 2020) A conflict with a student that occurs in front of classmates is often unproductive and irrational. Therefore, the teacher does not report a student who violates discipline in front of the whole class, but sends them to the child-out zone for a few minutes.
Classroom Routines
The standard lesson of this teacher is divided into several basic elements. It begins with the organizational moment when the children hand over their homework. The main task is to attract the attention of children, repeat the topic of the previous lesson, and familiarize with the goals and objectives of the lesson. There is a repetition of the material passed, and a check of homework. A preliminary check of the task for the digestibility of the previous material is carried out. An analogy is drawn with the planned material to begin explaining a new topic (Sanetti et al., 2018). After that, a new material is studied, in which the teacher speaks in detail and clearly, based on examples, with visual materials for children to memorize as soon as possible. Students in the classroom also work a lot on their own with textbooks.
Positive & Negative Reinforcers 137
Positive reinforcement is something desirable for students and refers to a system of methods of encouragement. Positive reinforcements for this teacher are favorable events or results that a person receives after the desired behavior. Reinforcement in the class is expressed in the form of praise, and the opportunity to take a reward from the treasure box. The behavior that is already manifested, even if not regularly, is fixed by the teacher with the help of positive reinforcement. The teacher promotes the formation of desirable behavior with words and actions and positively reinforces the right behavior at the right moment. The teacher also uses the jackpot technique – this is a significant reinforcement, which is a complete surprise for the subject, since the student does not know which treasure they will take (Praetorius & Charalambous, 2018). In this case, positive reinforcement follows good behavior. In order for the learned behavior to be firmly fixed, the teacher does not need to reinforce it every time, he only uses it on a weekly basis. In general, the reinforcement from the treasure box is small, but sufficient to interest the student.
Negative reinforcement is a method of changing undesirable behavior. It consists in an instant and unpleasant reaction for the learner to his undesirable behavior, which stops as soon as the behavior has improved even a little. Firstly, the teacher uses it only as an addition to the positive, against the background of positive reinforcement. The negative signal coincides with undesirable behavior and stops immediately as soon as the child stops doing that violates classroom discipline. Negative reinforcement is an unpleasant withdrawal from the general discussion in the case of negative behavior, coinciding in time with the violation of discipline that the teacher wants to influence. Negative reinforcement works well only if the learner is in a resource state, positive and ready to accept, including negative reinforcement. Therefore, at first the teacher returns him to a positive or calm state, and only then sends him to the child-out zone.
References
Berger, J. L., & Girardet, C. (2020). Vocational teachers’ classroom management style: The role of motivation to teach and sense of responsibility. European Journal of Teacher Education, 19(6), 1-17.
Praetorius, A. K., & Charalambous, C. Y. (2018). Classroom observation frameworks for studying instructional quality: Looking back and looking forward. ZDM, 50(34), 535-553.
Sanetti, L. M., Williamson, K. M., Long, A. C., & Kratochwill, T. R. (2018). Increasing in-service teacher implementation of classroom management practices through consultation, implementation planning, and participant modeling. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 20(1), 43-59.