Principles of Classroom Management

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Principles of Classroom Management

• Michael A. Lorber, Ph.D.

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Questions or Comments? Contact

• Michael A. Lorber, Ph.D.
• Department of Curriculum and Instruction
• College of Education
• Illinois state university
• Normal, IL 61790-5330
• E-mail malorber_at_ilstu.edu

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Broad Goal

• Helping students develop the self-control needed
  to live and work cooperatively and successfully
  in a democratic society.

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Precise Instructional Objectives

• Given a need in Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, use
  cause-effect reasoning to orally explain how
  teachers can help students meet that need.
• Using cause-effect reasoning explain at least two
  unique features of each of the following
  Operant Conditioning, Reality Therapy, and the
  Lets Keep It Small Approach.

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Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

• Background - 1943 Abraham Maslow published his
  Hierarchy of Needs
• Divided needs into two groups - deficiency needs
  and growth needs
• Within the deficiency needs each lower need must
  be at least partially met before moving to the
  next higher need.

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Deficiency Needs - Maslow

• 1. Physiological - Life Support
• Hunger, Thirst, Air, Bodily comforts,
  Elimination, Sex
• 2. Safety - Security / Out of danger
• Peers, Curriculum, Teachers-Administrators
• 3. Sense of Belonging - Being affiliated with,
  and accepted by, others
• Physically and psychologically safe haven.

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Deficiency Needs - Maslow

• 4. Esteem - To achieve, be competent, and be
  recognized has both an internal and an external
  component.
• (You as the teacher have the most control over
  helping students meet this esteem need. You
  control the extent to which work is challenging
  and rewarding.)

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Growth Needs- Maslow

• Once the deficiency needs have been at least
  partially met individuals are ready to act upon
  growth needs. Maslow originally conceptualized
  only one growth need Self-actualization - To
  find fulfillment and realize ones potential - a
  concern for personal growth.

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Growth Needs - cont.

• Self-actualization - To find fulfillment and
  realize ones potential - a concern for personal
  growth.

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Growth Needs - cont.

• Maslow later added two growth needs prior to
  self-actualization and one after it. The needs
  added prior to self-actualization are
• Cognitive - a need to know, understand, and
  explore, and
• Aesthetic - a need for symmetry, order, and
  beauty

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Growth Needs - cont.

• The need added after Self-Acutalization was
  Transcendence - To help others find self-
  fulfillment and realize their potential.1

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Maslow - Other Views

• Since 1943, when Maslow published his hierarchy,
  other psychologists such as William James, Gordon
  Allport, and others developed other hierarchies.
• Ironically, Maslows hierarchy remains the most
  popular despite the lack of any empirical
  evidence to support the idea.

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Operant Conditioning

• Credited to B.F. Skinner (1953). Classical
  conditioning / behaviorism. Manipulating the
  environment (providing rewards or
  punishments) to bring about a behavior
  change in someone else.
• Someone else is the prime mover.
• Regardless of how benevolent the reason, the
  students opportunity to make a free choice is
  reduced or eliminated.

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Reality Therapy

• 1. Credited to William Glasser (1965) and used in
  clinical psychiatry.
• 2. Past events not allowed to excuse current
  behavior.
• 3. Student identifies consequence of behavior and
  decides if it is acceptable.
• 4. Student is the prime mover in deciding on, and
  implementing, a plan to avoid unacceptable
  consequences.

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Lets Keep It Small Approach

• 1. Assumes that if there is a behavior problem,
  the student wants to minimize the number of
  others who get involved.
• 2. Depends on keeping anecdotal (written)
  records, i.e., name, date, problem, and on the
  approval of your principal to use this approach.

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Lets Keep It Small Approach (cont.)

• 3. Involvement goes from
• a. student and teacher to
• b. student, teacher, and parents to
• c. student, teacher, parents, and
  school counselors and/or administrators.
• 4. Anecdotal records document systematic attempt
  to solve problem without administrative
  assistance.

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Lessons From Parris Island

• 1. Tell the truth.
• 2. Do your best, no matter how trivial the
  task.
• 3. Choose the difficult right over the easy
  wrong.
• 4. Look out for the group before looking out
  for yourself.

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Lesson From Parris Island (cont.)

• 5. Dont whine or make excuses.
• 6. Judge others by their actions, not their
  race.2

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Three Guidelines for Success

• 1. The more opportunities students have to make
  choices, the more likely they are to learn to
  make wise choices.
• 2. Rely on natural consequences.
• 3. Let your pupils honor be as dear to you
  as your own.3

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Footnotes

• 1. http//chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/
  maslow.html
• 2. Ricks, Thomas E., A Few Good Truths,
  Parade, The Pantagraph, Sunday, Nov. 9, 1997,
  p. 4-6.
• 3. Gates of Prayer, Rabbi Elazar ben Samua,
  Chapter in Fathers, 4.15, p. 23.

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• The End