Classroom Management Incidents, Teacher Reactions and Effects on Students: A Narrative Analysis of Unforgotten Classroom Memoirs

Year 2010, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 25 - 47, 01.02.2010

Osman Erol , Betül Özaydın Mustafa Koç

Abstract

Background Classroom management has been consistently regarded as the most serious challenge pre-service and beginning teachers (Başar, 2006; Erdoğan, 2001; Evertson and Weinstein, 2006; Jones, 1996; Weinstein, 1996). Student discipline related issues have been among primary reasons for leaving the profession for may teachers (Ingersoll, 2001). These studies indicate that managing student behavior is one of the strong teacher stressors. One of the prerequisites for coping with this stress is to have adequate knowledge and skills about possible incidents in the classrooms and how they can be resolved in an effective manner. Purpose The primary purpose of this study is to examine common classroom incidents by means of analyzing pre-service teachers' written stories of real classroom situations from their educational experiences. The research questions were: (a) What were the characteristics of classrooms in which reported incidents happened?, (b) What kinds of incidents were frequently mentioned in the stories, (c) How did the teachers react to incidents? and (d) How did the incidents and teacher reactions effect the individuals? Method This study was designed as a biographical inquiry. Data were collected through documentation obtained in the form of written stories. Participants were 58 senior students enrolled in the “Classroom Management” course during the 2008-Spring semester at the Faculty of Technical Education, Suleyman Demirel University. Senior students were asked to narrate an unforgotten classroom memoir in a written story format. The stories were analyzed by using content analysis. The data analysis process involved Miles and Huberman's (1994) three fundamental activities: data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing. Each researcher examined some stories to determine salient concepts and thematic issues. Then, researchers discussed their notes and then developed a consolidated coding list. Each researcher used this list to code the stories. After sorting and summarizing the coded data, categories were tabulated with frequencies and percentages. Finally, categories and relationships among categories were interpreted. Findings The findings were grouped into four main themes. The first one was related to the characteristics of classroom environments in which incidents took place. It was found that unforgotten classroom incidents in the stories took place mostly in high schools (45%), mathematics lessons (38%), and strictly-controlled classrooms (45%). The second theme focused on the types of common classroom incidents. The findings related to this theme were grouped into two sections as student-related and teacher-related incidents. Most of the incidents were negative and germane to disruptive/unwanted student behaviors. The first three most frequently reported student-related incidents were “speaking and laughing loudly” (26%), “neglecting lessons” (16%), and “being unsuccessful in the courses” (16%). Teacher-related incidents included three negative ones as “being unfair” (2%), “giving special attention to a student” (2%), “misunderstanding a student” (2%), and one positive one as “being adequately interested in all students” (2%). Teachers' reaction to resolve classroom incidents was the third theme of the study. The first three most frequent teacher reactions were “physical punishment” (34%), “dealing with the student to solve the problem” (14%), and “shaking students' confidence” (10%). The final theme that arose from the data analysis was the consequences of the incidents on the individuals, which were grouped into three parts as positive effects on the students, negative effects on the students, and positive effects on the teachers. Exhibiting negative attitude towards the course (24%) and the teacher (16%) and increasing the level of shyness (14%) were the most frequently reported negative consequences whereas understanding his or her mistake (12%), being successful (9%), and gaining positive attitude towards the course (9%) were the positive ones. Understanding his or her mistake and apologizing (5%) was the only consequence on teachers found in the stories. Conclusion This study indicated that teachers may encounter classroom management challenges mostly in the classrooms with adolescent students (grade 8 to 12), in the courses about which student are anxious and stressed (e.g. math), and in the strictly-controlled classrooms. Therefore, these results suggest that students' age, motivation, and teachers' classroom management strategies can be significant factors in predicting management problems. The study also suggested that teachers can encounter classroom incidents that are more likely related to disruptive student behaviors or discipline problems. Teachers are more likely to use aggressive and humiliating reactions to discipline problems rather than negotiation-oriented approaches. Past research shows that application of punishment is not an effective strategy for preventing from discipline problems, on the contrary, it is rather associated with increased misbehavior and loss of motivation (Lewis, 2001; Lewis, Romi, Qui and Katz, 2005). Similarly, in this study, generating negative attitude towards both the course and the teacher appears to be the consequences of aggressive teacher reactions to classroom incidents.

Keywords

classroom management , classroom incidents , teachers’ reactions to misbehavior

Sınıf Yönetiminde Karşılaşılan Olaylar, Öğretmen Tepkileri ve Öğrenciler Üzerindeki Etkileri: Unutulmayan Sınıf Anılarının Analizi

Abstract

Bu biyografik nitel çalışmanın amacı, sınıf yönetiminde yaygın olarak karşılaşılan olayların irdelenmesidir. Veriler dokümantasyon tekniği ile toplanmıştır. Öğretmen adaylarından geçmişteki öğrenim yaşantılarında sınıf ortamında karşılaştıkları ve unutamadıkları bir olayı yazılı kompozisyon formatında hikâyeleştirmeleri istenmiş ve bu belgeler araştırmanın veri dokümanları olarak kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen toplam 58 hikâyenin içerikleri betimsel olarak çözümlenmiştir. Araştırmadan elde edilen bulgular, olayın gerçekleştiği sınıf ortamının özellikleri, meydana gelen olay çeşitleri, olaylara karşı öğretmen tepkileri ve yaşanan olayın birey üzerindeki etkileri şeklinde dört ana tema altında özetlenmiş ve yorumlanmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda öğrencilerin unutamadıkları sınıf olaylarının genellikle eğitim kademesi olarak lise döneminde, ders türü olarak matematik dersinde ve sınıf davranış ortamı olarak ise katı kontrollü sınıflarda gerçekleştiği görülmüştür. Olaylar genellikle öğrenci kaynaklı olup “sınıfta konuşma ve gülme”, “derse karşı ilgisizlik” ve “dersten başarısız olma” ilk üç sırada yer almıştır. Öğretmenlerin bu olaylara tepkisinin ise genellikle olumsuz yönde olduğu ve sınıf ortamında çıkan problemlere karşı etkili olamadıkları ortaya çıkmıştır.

Keywords

sınıf yönetimi , sınıf olayları , istenmeyen davranışlara öğretmen tepkileri