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Classroom Management
I have to say that I do not entirely agree with the statement, "If mathematics teachers create appropriate learning environments for their students, classroom management is a non-issue." There will always be students who do not want to participate and will cause problems during the class period. If the teacher knows how to properly deal with classroom management situations they will be less of a problem. The students will also know that they can not get away with misbehaving which leads to fewer problems. Therefore, an appropriate learning environment will not eliminate classroom management problems.
There are many different learning environments that teachers can utilize, such as cooperative learning, lecture style, and individual work. Teachers are usually told that it is best to switch learning environments to keep the students interested and not get into a rut. This is due to the fact that students learn differently and one learning environment may be more beneficial to a student then another. Changing learning environments not only benefits students in this manner, but it also keeps the class from becoming "boring". Students do not know what to expect and will enjoy doing cooperative learning one day, while only having to listen to a lecture on another day. If done well, switching learning environments can benefit the students greatly. I do feel though that there are too many classrooms where the learning environment is changed and the students become lost in the shuffle. Students can become confused and uninterested if the changes in environments are unclear or interfere in the daily routine. My professor for Educational Psychology said that students need some sort of routine so that they know what to expect and can be prepared for what is ahead. Many times it puts unneeded stress and fear on students to not know what type of environment they can expect in their classrooms. Since the learning environment needs to be altered to benefit all types of learning styles, teachers can not create one environment that will make classroom management a non-issue.
I have had several experiences that have led me to this belief. In one class I had, Calculus, the teacher utilized the belief that she could teach everyone using one learning environment and rarely varied. Every day we had a lecture and were expected to learn everything from the notes she gave us in class. Only on occasion would she give us work to do in groups during the last half of class. Some students, including myself, really enjoyed this class because we learned well from lectures. There were other though who could not understand what was going on and would benefit from doing some group work and learning from other students. I felt that if the teacher had varied what was done during the class periods, more students would have benefited and learn more from the class. A second class I had, US Government, went very differently. The teacher utilized cooperative learning, lecture, and various other activities. Most days varied greatly from the previous day. When we arrived in class we were unsure about what we would be doing in class. On occasion she would lecture for several days and the switch to cooperative learning without notice. I was always nervous about going to class because I was unsure about what to expect. Many students were unnerved by the type of learning environment and when this occurs learning can not. Students need to be able to relax in order to learn and if the type of instruction constantly changes they can not relax and follow what is going on in the class. Thus I feel that there is no "one" appropriate learning environment.
Following from my belief that there is not one appropriate learning environment for a class of students, classroom management is always going to be an issue. Some students will always get bored, some students will always be confused, and some students will never want to be there. Mathematics, in particular, can be very difficult for some students and some students do not believe they need to be there, which can lead to numerous classroom management problems. Whenever any of these issues comes into play there will be an issue of classroom management. The best way, in my opinion, to make classroom management a non-issue is for the teacher to let the students know that there will be no tolerance of misbehavior. Students also have outside factors that effect they way they behave in the classroom and the teacher has no control over these influences. For example, my seminar leader for discipline said that she had a student that no matter what she tried to do in the classroom he always misbehaved. She found out that his family was going through a divorce and his dad had a girlfriend. The student?s home issues spilled over into aggressive behavior in the classroom. From listening to teachers talking and from my own experiences, I believe that classroom management will never be a non-issue, but it can be pushed to the background. The teacher needs to let the students know what she will not tolerate in the classroom and what will happen if they misbehave. The punishments do not have too harsh, but they must be consistent. When the students know that the teacher will not tolerate anything, classroom management becomes less of an issue and more learning can be accomplished. Therefore, I believe that there are always going to be classroom management concerns in any classroom, but it does not have to be the most pressing issue.
My beliefs about classroom management stem from my experiences in the classroom both as a student and as a student aide. My ideas about learning environment not affecting classroom management were established while I was a student in high school. I had a teacher who could not keep control of the classroom. My teacher liked to lecture most of the class time and there was one particular group of students who would talk out of turn or misbehaving in other ways. One day our teacher turned to them and lost her self-control and yelled at the group of students. She said that she was going to try something new and make us work in groups on worksheets and teach ourselves since people were not listening to her. For the next several weeks we did a numerous amount of cooperative learning, but there was still misbehaving only this time it was a different group of students. Our teacher became frustrated again and went back to lecturing since she did not feel that the group work was helping the situation. After my Educational Psychology course I realized that the teacher could not recognize that the students who were acting up did not learn well in the particular manner the teacher was using and misbehaved because they were having trouble. I now believe that you can not solve classroom management problems simply by dealing with the learning environment. Working at Northside High School as a student aide I realized that a teacher can keep a good deal of control if she lets the students know that she will not tolerate any misbehavior. My cooperating teacher said that she had set the rules at the beginning and stuck with them until she eventually did not have to think about it. From my observations the majority of the students behaved and acted like they wanted to be there. Only on occasion did the teacher have to make any comments about behavior. Thus, from talking with my cooperating teachers I feel that if you let the students know that nothing will be tolerated and stick to it from the beginning, classroom management will not be as big a problem as people make it seem.
There are many ways to structure the learning environment, but I do not feel that any environment will make classroom management a non-issue. Especially in mathematics students will struggle and see reasons that they do not need to learn the material making them more vulnerable to misbehaving. Students will always act up simply for attention, because they do not want to be there, or because of some outside causes. This does not mean that classroom management has to be the most important issue for any teacher. If the right strategies are used classroom management can be forced to the background and learning can occur more freely. The way a teacher approaches the issues of classroom management can lead to either a pleasant or a horrific learning experience for the student. It is all up to the teacher!