Classroom management

There is now a substan-tial knowledge base for classroom management that cannot be dismissed as mere “commonsense” or as “nuts and bolts” and that warrants attention from teacher educato

HANDBOOK OF CLASSROOM

MANAGEMENT

Research, Practice, and Contemporary Issues

Taylor & Francis C roup

NEW YORK AND LONDON

Copyright c 2006 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in

any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any

other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Handbook of classroom management : research, practice, and contemporary issues / edited by Carolyn M Evertson, Carol S Weinstein.

p cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8058-4753-7 (casebound : alk paper)—ISBN 0-8058-4754-5 (pbk : alk paper)

II Weinstein, Carol Simon.

2 Park Square, Milton Park Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

I: INTRODUCTION

Carolyn M Evertson and Carol S Weinstein

Jere Brophy

II: ALTERNATIVE PARADIGMS FOR THE STUDY

OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Jere Brophy

Timothy J Landrum and James M Kauffman

4. Process-Outcome Approaches to Classroom Management and Effective Teaching 73

Maribeth Gettinger and Kristy M Kohler

Ellen Brantlinger and Scot Danforth

8. Student and Teacher Perspectives on Classroom Management 181

Anita Woolfolk Hoy and Carol S Weinstein

III: RECENT AND EMERGENT PERSPECTIVES ON

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Mary McCaslin

9. Self-Regulated Learning and Classroom Management: Theory, Research,

Mary McCaslin, Amanda Rabidue Bozack, Lisa Napoleon, Angela Thomas,

Veronica Vasquez, Virginia Wayman, and Jizhi Zhang

v

10. Building and Sustaining Caring Communities 253

Marilyn Watson and Victor Battistich

11. Design-Based, Participation-Centered Approaches to Classroom Management 281

Daniel T Hickey and Nancy Jo Schafer

12. From Compliance to Responsibility: Social and Emotional Learning and

Maurice J Elias and Yoni Schwab

13. Connections Between Classroom Management and Culturally

Geneva Gay

IV: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT IN SPECIFIC CONTEXTS

Anita Woolfolk Hoy

14. Classroom Management in Early Childhood and Elementary Classrooms 373

Kathy Carter and Walter Doyle

15. Classroom Management in Middle and High School Classrooms 407

Edmund T Emmer and Mary Claire Gerwels

16. Classroom Management in Special Education Classrooms

Kathleen Lane, Katherine Falk, and Joseph Wehby

Leslie C Soodak and Mary Rose McCarthy

Cheryl Mason Bolick and James M Cooper

21. Organization and Management of Language Arts Teaching: Classroom

Environments, Grouping Practices, and Exemplary Instruction 559

Lesley Mandel Morrow, D Ray Reutzel and Heather Casey

22. Pervasive Management of Project-Based Learning: Teachers as

John R Mergendoller, Thom Markham, Jason Ravitz, and John Larmer

VI: RESEARCH AND THEORY WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Thomas L Good

23. A Social Motivation Perspective for Classroom Management 619

Kathryn R Wentzel

24. Extrinsic Rewards and Inner Motivation 645

Johnmarshall Reeve

25. Why Research on Parental Involvement Is Important to Classroom Management 665

Joan M T Walker and Kathleen V Hoover-Dempsey

26. Classroom Management and Relationships Between Children and

28. Research-Based Programs for Preventing and Solving Discipline Problems 735

H Jerome Freiberg and Judith M Lapointe

Sheri L Robinson and Sarah M Ricord Griesemer

David Johnson and Roger Johnson

31. Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support: Building Systems to Develop and

Timothy J Lewis, Lori L Newcomer, Robert Trussell, and Mary Richter

Irwin Hyman, Bryony Kay, Alexander Tabori, Meredith Weber,

Matthew Mahon, and Ian Cohen

VIII:TEACHING AND LEARNING ABOUT CLASSROOM

Kim Fries and Marilyn Cochran-Smith

37. The Convergence of Reflective Practice and Effective Classroom Management 983

Barbara Larrivee

IX: POLICY, LAW, ETHICS, AND EQUITY

Irwin Hyman

38. Classroom Management, Discipline, and the Law: Clarifying Confusions

David Schimmel

39. Schoolwide Discipline Policies: An Analysis of Discipline

Pamela Fenning and Hank Bohanon

Catherine Fallona and Virginia Richardson

41. Zero Tolerance, Suspension, and Expulsion: Questions of Equity

Russell J Skiba and M Karega Rausch

X: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON CLASSROOM

MANAGEMENT

Theo Wubbles

42. Contexts and Attributions for Difficult Behavior in English Classrooms 1093

Andy Miller

43. Classroom Management in Multicultural Classes in An Immigrant

Miriam Ben-Peretz, Billie Eilam, and Estie Yankelevich

Kjell Granstr¨om

45. An Interpersonal Perspective on Classroom Management in Secondary

Theo Wubbels, Mieke Brekelmans, Perry den Brok, and Jan van Tartwijk

Introduction

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Classroom management is a topic of enduring concern for teachers, administrators, and the lic Beginning teachers consistently perceive student discipline as their most serious challenge;management problems continue to be a major cause of teacher burnout and job dissatisfaction;and the public repeatedly ranks discipline as the first or second most serious problem facingthe schools Indeed, one noted author of a text on effective discipline describes the situation

pub-in these blunt terms:

Our schools are in the grip of a serious problem that is wreaking havoc on teaching and learning.That problem is student misbehavior If you are now teaching, you have had ample experiencewith it If you are preparing to teach, be forewarned: It is the major obstacle to your success andhas the potential to destroy your career (Charles, 2002, p 1)

Despite the concern of educational practitioners and the public, few researchers focusexplicitly on classroom management or identify themselves with this field An examination

of the annual meeting program of the American Educational Research Association (AERA)provides a telling example With over 22,000 AERA members, the annual meeting is an event

of enormous proportions, attended by approximately 13,000 people, with 3,000 presenters,and more than 1,500 program slots Nonetheless, there are generally only two or three sessionsexplicitly devoted to classroom management, and these tend to be poorly attended The lack

of interest is also exemplified by the pitifully small membership of the AERA Special InterestGroup on classroom management

Similarly, classroom management is often neglected in teacher preparation programs Citing

a Public Agenda survey of attitudes among professors who teach in schools of education (Farkas

& Johnson, 1997), Jean Johnson (2005) reports,

There is a substantial gap between the attitudes of teachers in the classroom and those of theprofessors who prepare them for their careers While virtually all classroom teachers (97%) saythat good discipline is “one of the most important prerequisites” for a successful school, fewer

3

than 4 in 10 education professors (37%) consider it absolutely essential to train “teachers whomaintain discipline and order in the classroom.” Only 30% say that their teacher education programplaces a lot of emphasis on teaching prospective teachers how to handle a rowdy classroom (p.3)

Consistent with these data, preservice teacher education often relegates the topic of room management to a few class sessions in an educational psychology or general methodscourse Even when a stand-alone course is offered, it may be an elective or limited to a singlecredit Moreover, there is little consensus about what should be included in classroom man-agement courses; some teacher educators emphasize strategies and skills for preventing anddealing with problem behaviors, whereas others present various models of classroom manage-ment (e.g., William Glasser’s Reality Therapy, Lee Canter’s Assertive Discipline, or FrederickJones’ Positive Classroom Discipline) and encourage students to adopt the model that seemsmost congruent with their own predilections In sum, preservice teacher preparation frequentlyfails to provide students with a comprehensive, coherent study of the basic principles and skills

class-of classroom management, well integrated with thoughtfully planned field experiences (SeeVernon Jones, chap 33, for an extensive discussion of this issue.)

What could account for this apparent neglect by educational researchers and teacher

educa-tors? Part of the problem may be that the term classroom management has acquired considerable

surplus meaning—and some of it is decidedly negative As McCaslin and Good (1998) pointout, classroom management is often thought of in terms of controlling students—getting them

to respond quickly to teacher demands, needs, and goals Whereas current views of lum and instruction emphasize independence, understanding, problem solving, and the activeparticipation of students, classroom management is sometimes equated with a mechanistic,authoritarian orientation that minimizes the importance of positive interpersonal relationshipsand maximizes control and compliance (See, e.g., Bowers & Flinders, 1990.)

curricu-It is also possible that professors of education see classroom management as a “bag of tricks”(Brophy, 1988), to be passed along from teacher to teacher, rather than a set of research-basedprinciples, concepts, and skills that warrant serious professional study This perception ismost likely reinforced by the fact that research relevant to classroom management has beenconducted by persons in different disciplines, appears in a wide variety of journals, and is oftennot identified as “classroom management research.” Additional reinforcement for the bag-of-tricks view comes from the lack of national standards that would mandate preparation in thearea of classroom management (see Laura Stough, chapter 34) And, of course, there is alwaysconfusion about where classroom management “fits” in the teacher preparation curriculum.Because classroom management is neither content knowledge, nor psychological foundations,nor pedagogy, nor pedagogical content knowledge, it seems to slip through the cracks.The situation we have just described provides the context for understanding the four major

goals of the Handbook of Classroom Management First, we hope that the Handbook will clarify the term classroom management, broaden the perspective with which it is viewed,

and suggest new ways to conceptualize its role in the educational enterprise Drawing on thework of educational theorists and researchers such as Jacob Kounin (1970), Jere Brophy (1988;1999), Walter Doyle (1986), and Marilyn Watson and Laura Ecken (2003), we define classroommanagement as the actions teachers take to create an environment that supports and facilitatesboth academic and social-emotional learning In other words, classroom management has twodistinct purposes: It not only seeks to establish and sustain an orderly environment so studentscan engage in meaningful academic learning, it also aims to enhance students’ social andmoral growth (see chapter 27 by Larry Nucci and chapter 40 by Catherine Fallona and Virginia

Richardson) From this perspective, how a teacher achieves order is as important as whether a

teacher achieves order

In the service of these two purposes, teachers carry out a number of specific tasks They must(1) develop caring, supportive relationships with and among students; (2) organize and imple-ment instruction in ways that optimize students’ access to learning; (3) use group managementmethods that encourage students’ engagement in academic tasks; (4) promote the development

of students’ social skills and self-regulation; and (5) use appropriate interventions to assist dents with behavior problems Clearly, classroom management is a multifaceted endeavorthat is far more complex than establishing rules, rewards, and penalties to control students’behavior

stu-The second goal of the Handbook is to demonstrate that there is a distinct body of

knowl-edge that directly addresses these tasks and to make this knowlknowl-edge more visible and moreaccessible to scholars and practitioners In the early 1980s, the ecological psychologist PaulGump wrote, “One time I struggled with people at ETS [Educational Testing Service] aboutdevising some test [for beginning teachers] to measure management knowledge Our problemwas that little general and basic material was being taught to students, so what could you testthem on?” (personal communication July 6, 1983) This situation was at least partly due to thelack of classroom management knowledge available in the early 80s, when teachers had to rely

on intuition and folk wisdom (like “Don’t smile until Christmas”) to prevent and respond toproblem behaviors Fortunately, times have changed (although, as we have noted, classroommanagement still constitutes a minor component of teacher education) There is now a substan-tial knowledge base for classroom management that cannot be dismissed as mere “commonsense” or as “nuts and bolts” and that warrants attention from teacher educators, administrators,staff developers, researchers, and policy makers who determine state and national standards.Indeed, Jere Brophy (chapter 2) asserts that the work on classroom management is one of

“the major success stories of educational research in the 20th century.” Our hope is that this

Handbook will constitute a comprehensive, easily accessed compendium of this work.

Third, the Handbook aims to bring together disparate lines of research and encourage

con-versations across different areas of inquiry As we noted earlier, even a quick review of currentjournals in education and psychology reveals that a considerable amount of work with relevancefor classroom management is carried out by individuals who are not classroom managementresearchers and whose primary academic identification is with other areas of inquiry Reflecting

a wide variety of topics such as motivation, moral development, self-regulated learning, caring,cultural diversity, conflict resolution, literacy education, parent involvement, and educationalequity, the research is published in diverse journals and difficult to track down; furthermore,

it is usually not identified as research in classroom management, or even as research that hasclear implications for classroom management If classroom management is to be perceived as

a legitimate field of inquiry, we need to create a community of scholars who agree on a set

of well-defined constructs and use a common language Similarly, if classroom management

is to assume its rightful place in preservice teacher education, we need to be cognizant of themany strands of inquiry that relate to and enrich our understanding of this multidimensionalconstruct

Finally, the fourth goal of the Handbook is to promote a vigorous research agenda for

class-room management Individual chapter authors have sometimes delineated research questionsthat warrant consideration For example, Edmund Emmer and Mary Claire Gerwels (chapter15) observe that “activity management in middle school and high school settings needs moreattention In particular, there is a paucity of research on how teachers in various subject mattersand grades/levels organize, structure, and conduct activities.” Leslie Soodak and Mary RoseMcCarthy (chapter 17), writing on classroom management in inclusive settings, note, “researchhas failed to investigate whether a student’s background affects his or her acceptance, learning,

or behavior in inclusive environments.” They also point out the need to study the intersection

of the inclusion movement and the current trend in using “exclusionary discipline policies

as a means of ensuring safe schools.” Cheryl Mason Bolick and James M Cooper (chapter20) discuss the lack of research studies on technology and classroom management and list afew potential research topics, such as the relationship between teachers’ managerial skills anddisposition to use technology and the ways that teachers keep students academically engagedwhen using technology In the chapter on extrinsic rewards and motivation, Johnmarshall Reeve(chapter 24) asks how teachers can provide an “autonomy-supportive” learning environmentduring “uninteresting lessons” and what the role of extrinsic rewards is in supporting students’autonomy Robert Pianta (chapter 26) wonders how a focus on teacher-child relationships, asopposed to discrete behaviors, might advance our understanding of classroom management.David Schimmel (chapter 38), writing about the confusion that exists about students’ rights andteachers’ authority, questions what teachers know about the law when they enter the classroomand what is the source of that knowledge.

We anticipate—indeed we hope—that the Handbook will raise as many questions as it

answers Since the heyday of classroom management research in the late 1970s and early

1980s, there have been few efforts to pursue classroom management questions per se, and

many pressing questions remain As Jere Brophy (chapter 2) points out, we need to focus

on effective management in the upper secondary grades, examine classroom management inconstructivist-oriented classrooms, investigate the effects of district policies like zero tolerance,and explore the interface between general and special education

THE ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT OF THE HANDBOOK

The Handbook begins with Brophy’s chapter on the history of research on classroom

man-agement as it developed across the 20th century This comprehensive overview focuses on thesubstance of this research, as well as its design and methodology It highlights major influencesand trends, introducing many of the topics that are elaborated in subsequent chapters

Jere Brophy also served as the editor for Part II, Alternative Paradigms for the Study of

Classroom Management, comprised of chapters that describe the varied perspectives from

which classroom management has been studied Each chapter delineates the assumptions,concepts, values, questions, methodologies, and interpretive frameworks that characterize itsparticular paradigm and that constitute a unique way of viewing classroom management Tim-othy Landrum and James Kauffman (chapter 3) address the behavioral approach to the study

of classroom management, certainly a “dominant and influential paradigm in both educationalresearch and the preparation of teachers.” Next, Maribeth Gettinger and Kristy Kohler (chapter4) describe the search for relationships between teacher behaviors (“processes”) and studentoutcomes (“products”) As they argue, this process-product research “has moved the field ofteaching closer to being a science, that is, beyond unsupported claims about effective classroommethods toward evidence-based teaching practices derived from credible data.” In chapter 5,Walter Doyle has abbreviated and updated his 1986 chapter, “Classroom Organization and Man-

agement” (appearing in the 3rd edition of the Handbook of Research on Teaching) to provide

a contemporary view of the ecological perspective on classroom management This ecologicalview opens classroom research to a range of influences from fields such as sociolinguistics,cognitive anthropology, and educational sociology Because this perspective has as much rel-evance today as it did 20 years ago, its inclusion in this volume provides a more completepicture of the way in which classroom management has been considered and what perspec-tives have power for understanding such complex social phenomena Chapter 6, by GretaMorine-Dershimer, explores the relationship between classroom discourse analysis researchand classroom management She underscores the fact that classrooms are “communicativeenvironments” and shows how familiarity with classroom discourse research (with its strong

focus on teacher-pupil interaction, peer-interaction, and comparisons of school and communitydiscourse patterns) can enrich our understanding of classroom management Ellen Brantlingerand Scot Danforth (chapter 7) take a critical theory perspective on schooling and address theways that students’ and teachers’ social class, race, and gender influence the dynamics of class-room life After identifying the major themes and theories in critical scholarship, these authorsdiscuss the ways that classrooms might be organized to eradicate injustice and contribute todemocratic societal reform Finally, the chapter by Anita Woolfolk Hoy and Carol Weinstein(chapter 8) looks across a variety of paradigms to review what we know about students’ andteachers’ perspectives on classroom management As the authors write, teachers and studentsare “the central participants in classroom interactions and their relationships are at the heart ofclassroom management concerns and consequences To ignore the thinking of these importantplayers is to court failure in teaching and teacher education.”

Part III, Recent and Emergent Perspectives on Classroom Management, edited by Mary

McCaslin, includes chapters that present new ways of thinking about classroom management,that are gaining currency and have important implications for how teachers can structure set-tings for learning In Chapter 9, Mary McCaslin, Amanda Rabidue Bozack, Lisa Napoleon,Angela Thomas, Veronica Vasquez, Virginia Wayman, and Jizhi Zhang highlight the contri-butions of seven theories of self-regulated learning (SRL) that have promise for informingclassroom management practices They identify theoretically based strategies that teacherscan implement in their classrooms to promote student SRL and suggest that a research agenda

in this area should focus on the “under-addressed” value judgments associated with SRL—the

“by whom, for whom, why, and how much.” Marilyn Watson and Victor Battistich (chapter 10)characterize “community” as the very foundation of classroom management; however, they domore than simply advocate the building and sustaining of caring communities in classrooms.Rather, they examine the classroom management and discipline practices of six different theo-retical approaches to creating classroom or school community and discuss the positive effects

of community as well as the dangers and impediments In chapter 11, Daniel Hickey andNancy Jo Schafer draw on sociocultural theory to propose a “participation-centered approach”

to classroom management They suggest that if teachers focus on students’ “collective ticipation in domain-specific discourse” (e.g., argumentation in science), they can achieve agreater degree of order, cooperation, and engagement than if they focus primarily on the activity

par-of individuals Maurice Elias and Yoni Schwab (chapter 12) review the literature on emotional learning (SEL) and describe steps to incorporate SEL into classroom management

social-to create a classroom system that integrates academic, social, and emotional learning Finally,Geneva Gay (chapter 13) examines discipline trends among students of color and discussesthe reasons for racial disproportionality She makes the case for culturally responsive teachingand discusses the implications for managing diverse student populations

Part IV, Classroom Management in Specific Contexts, edited by Anita Woolfolk Hoy, focuses

on classroom management in some of the most common settings in which teachers work—early childhood and elementary classrooms, middle school and secondary settings, specialeducation classrooms and resource rooms, inclusive general education classrooms, and urbanclassrooms Although not all settings are represented, the authors in this section recognizethat classroom management is not context-free, but rather is dependent upon the level ofschooling, the nature of the community, and the national, state, and local policy contexts.Kathy Carter and Walter Doyle (chapter 14) provide a comprehensive review of the extantresearch on classroom management in early childhood and elementary classroom settingsand sketch the complexities of disentangling the academic, social, emotional, and behavioralissues involved in educating young children They conclude with a recommendation for adding

to the knowledge base of developmentally appropriate classroom management through theuse of narratives and classroom stories that can enlarge understanding of daily life in early

childhood classrooms Edmund Emmer and Mary Claire Gerwels (chapter 15) review the socialimplications of adolescent development and teacher thinking and emotion about classroommanagement They present two middle school vignettes illustrating how these concepts playout in ongoing classroom life and how they are dealt with In Chapter 16, Kathleen Lane,Katherine Falk, and Joseph Wehby, whose work addresses special education classrooms andresource rooms, overview the seven phases of the acting-out cycle, describing the interventionprocedures for teachers at each phase Their chapter also includes functional assessment-basedapproaches that can be used as a guide for intervention Leslie Soodak and Mary Rose McCarthy(chapter 17) discuss research-based strategies to promote academic achievement, acceptance,and positive behavior in inclusive settings They delineate the factors affecting implementation

of effective practices (such as teacher attitudes and sense of efficacy) and raise issues for furtherstudy, including the changing view of disability as a “deficit-driven phenomenon.” In chapter

18, H Richard Milner provides a comprehensive review of the issues teachers confront whenteaching in urban classrooms and reveals the tensions between understanding and accepting thelegitimacy of the sometimes troubling behaviors of urban students while still holding them tohigh standards High expectations, as Milner points out, must clearly communicate caring forstudents, not criticism of their lives and culture, a difficult line to walk for white middle-classteachers

In Part V, Managing the Instructional Formats of Contemporary Classrooms, edited by

James M Cooper, chapter authors go beyond traditional formats (e.g., teacher presentation,recitation, and seatwork) to highlight the special managerial challenges associated with moreinnovative, student-centered formats for instruction The chapter authors recognize that the wayinstruction is organized and managed affects the opportunities students have to participate, andthat the nature of their participation (e.g., who gets a chance to talk, if their answer is evaluatedpublicly or privately, and how that answer is or is not built on by others) affects access to learn-ing Rachel Lotan (chapter 19) describes how teachers can orchestrate and manage group workproductively Acknowledging that group work is a “costly instructional approach, demandingmuch thought, effort, and time,” Lotan argues that its most important benefit is its potential

to close the achievement gap and to create caring, democratic, equitable classrooms CherylMason Bolick and James Cooper (chapter 20) address the potential managerial challenges thatteachers confront when they use technology in teaching and examine what little research exists

on how technology affects classroom management A recent innovation, the use of computersfor teaching and learning, suggests a whole new set of questions about the nature of learningand the managerial decisions that affect it In chapter 21, Lesley Morrow, Ray Reutzel, andHeather Casey address managerial issues specific to instruction in the language arts Focusing

on the effects of physical design, grouping practices, and social settings on students’ literacylearning, the authors draw on investigations of exemplary practice in language arts instructionand provide a case study of an exemplary language arts program John Mergendoller, ThomMarkham, Jason Ravitz, and John Larmer (chapter 22) define and describe the key features ofproject-based learning—an instructional model that “engages students in a series of complextasks that include planning and design, problem-solving, decision-making, creating artifactsand communicating results.” The authors identify the issues that are associated with each stage

of project implementation, and show how the teacher’s role changes with the nature of theinstructional tasks

Part VI, Research and Theory with Implications for Classroom Management, edited by

Thomas L Good, focuses on related fields of inquiry that have particular relevance for ers’ understanding of student motivation, development, and behavior In chapter 23, KathrynWentzel considers what it means to be a “socially competent” student and discusses ways thatteachers and peers can support students’ socially competent functioning at school She presentsresearch indicating that students will participate willingly in classroom activities when they

teach-perceive their relationships with their teachers and peers as emotionally supportive, ing, and responsive Johnmarshall Reeve (chapter 24) examines the “apparent truism” thatextrinsic rewards are an effective tool that teachers can use to motivate students He notesthat teachers can adopt two different motivating styles when using rewards—controlling orautonomy-supportive—and concludes that the efforts teachers make to use rewards in noncon-trolling and informational ways will pay off in terms of students’ motivation and engagement.

nurtur-In chapter 25, Joan Walker and Kathleen Hoover-Dempsey focus on the contributions of bothparents and teachers to students’ capacity for self-regulation, reviewing empirical studies ofparent-child and teacher-child interactions They argue that “parenting models provide a richtheoretical framework for examining teachers’ classroom management practices and theircontributions to child development.” Relationships between teachers and children are also atthe heart of chapter 26 Here, Robert Pianta summarizes research indicating that variation inthe quality of child-teacher relationships is related to children’s classroom adjustment, mo-tivation, self-esteem, beliefs about school, and academic success Larry Nucci (chapter 27)portrays classrooms as social environments that affect students’ construction of morality andsocial values He asks how classroom management can contribute positively to students’ moraldevelopment and suggests ways that teachers can “transform classroom management from asystem designed solely to sustain adult authority and control over students into an integraleducational component for students’ social and moral growth.”

Part VII, Programs for Classroom Management and Discipline, edited by Edmund

Em-mer, examines programs and approaches that have been developed to help teachers solve theproblem of order in the classroom, for example, how to intervene to stem student disruptivebehavior The first chapter in this part, by H Jerome Freiberg and Judith Lapointe (chapter28), provides an extensive and detailed review of 40 research-based programs (from a reviewprocess of nearly 800) that have been implemented in schools to prevent and solve disciplineproblems Freiberg and Lapointe propose the creation of a single clearinghouse that would beable to provide schools with continuing updates and assessments of program effectiveness Inchapter 29, Sheri Robinson and Sarah Ricord-Griesemer offer suggestions for teachers whosenormal repertoire of classroom management strategies and disciplinary interventions has notbeen able to eliminate the chronic, disruptive behaviors of one or a few typical students Origi-nally derived for use in special education settings, the intervention and assessment proceduresdiscussed in the chapter are appropriate for use in general education settings David and RogerJohnson (chapter 30) describe strategies for conflict resolution and peer mediation, focusing

in particular on the Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers Program developed in the 1960s In chapter 31, Timothy J Lewis, Lori L Newcomer, Robert Trussell, and Mary Richterargue that traditional systems of school discipline emphasizing punishments and “get tough”measures have been ineffective in reducing problem behaviors such as aggression, attendanceproblems, and disruptions They describe “Positive Behavior Support” (PBS), a broad range ofindividual and system-wide strategies for preventing problem behavior and fostering prosocialbehavior Finally, Irwin Hyman, Bryony Kay, Alex Tabori, Meredith Weber, Matthew Mahon,and Ian Cohen (chapter 32) look closely at the phenomenon of bullying They report on the fre-quency and types of bullying, the characteristics of bullies and victims, the destructive effects

mid-of bullying, and programs for intervening in student victimization

Part VIII, Teaching and Learning About Classroom Management, edited by Carolyn

Evertson, concerns teachers’ professional development and their lived experiences The chapter

by Vernon Jones (chapter 33) outlines ways that preservice teachers receive information aboutclassroom management in formal course work, how that information is organized and whatexperiences preservice teachers encounter that make it likely or unlikely that such informationwill have meaning for them in their own classrooms Laura Stough, in chapter 34, clearlydescribes the policy contexts, curriculum standards, and state licensure policies that often

neglect or omit competence in classroom management as part of the education of teachers Herchapter raises serious issues about how important information about classroom managementgets or does not get communicated to new teachers In chapter 35, Isaac Friedman argues thatteacher burnout is a result of the perceived professional failure that occurs when teachers’dreams—their “idealistic and altruistic aspirations”—are at odds with the harsh realities ofclassrooms and schools He emphasizes the pivotal role of teacher-student relations in thestress and burnout process Kim Fries and Marilyn Cochran-Smith (chapter 36) provide anexhaustive review of the available literature on teacher research and classroom management.They point out that all of these studies reflect the efforts of teachers who see teaching as a pro-cess of posing important questions and systematically collecting and analyzing data to addressthose questions In chapter 37, Barbara Larrivee reviews the assumptions behind reflectivepractice and describes four levels of reflection—surface, pedagogical, critical, and self—andhow the types of reflection in which teachers engage can influence management decisionsand practices She argues for an approach to classroom management that involves critical andself-reflection, which include pausing, reflecting, and reframing reactive responses to studentmisbehavior.

Part IX, Policy, Law, Ethics, and Equity, was edited by Irwin Hyman (until his untimely

death in February, 2005) The chapters in this section highlight the sometimes overlookedconnections between teachers’ classroom management decisions and the legal, policy, andmoral contexts in which their work is embedded In chapter 38, David Schimmel notes thatteachers’ lack of preparation in school law leads to two types of mistakes First, because they areunaware that their actions are restrained by the Bill of Rights, teachers may unknowingly violatestudents’ constitutional rights (e.g., freedom of expression) At the same time, teachers mayfail to take reasonable disciplinary action for fear of liability Chapter 39, by Pamela Fenningand Hank Bohanon-Edmonson, focuses on discipline codes of conduct, the documents thatcommunicate to students and parents a school or district’s expectations for behavior, and theconsequences that will be imposed for disciplinary infractions Although the study of school-wide discipline policies is in its infancy, the research to date suggests that discipline codescontain “primarily reactionary responses” (e.g., zero tolerance, suspension, and expulsion),despite the lack of evidence to support the use of these procedures Catherine Fallona andVirginia Richardson (chapter 40) consider the “curriculum of classroom management as a moralactivity to promote moral student conduct.” They examine two perspectives on moral activity in

classrooms: the implicit, which focuses on the moral dimensions inherent in classroom actions, and the explicit, which focuses on fostering morality through deliberate, conscious programs

and pedagogy In chapter 41, Russell Skiba and M Karega Rausch turn again to issues of zerotolerance, suspension, and expulsion Like Fenning and Bohanon-Edmonson, they concludethat a growing body of evidence raises serious questions about the equity and effectiveness

of such disciplinary interventions In particular, they point out that African-Americans areoverrepresented in zero tolerance measures, despite the lack of evidence that they engage inhigher rates of misbehavior

Theo Wubbels edited the final part of the Handbook, International Perspectives on

Class-room Management Here, scholars from England, Israel, The Netherlands, Australia, Sweden,

and Japan describe programs of research, lines of inquiry, issues, and traditions with respect toclassroom management in their respective countries First, Andy Miller (chapter 42) provides

a history of the study of classroom management in the United Kingdom and outlines the velopment of key legislation and governmental policy regarding classroom management Thechapter links this historical and political context to some of Miller’s own studies of teachers’experiences working with school psychologists and the attributions made by teachers, pupils,and parents into the causes of problem behavior In chapter 43, Miriam Ben Peretz, BillieEilam, and Estie Yankelevitch examine the discipline problems that are caused by the clash

de-among cultures in “multicultural, multiethnic” Israel They describe two strands of Israeliresearch—one focusing on the relationship between classroom management and educationalideology, and the other focusing on teachers’, students’, and parents’ perceptions of classroommanagement and discipline—and briefly discuss the place of classroom management in teachereducation In chapter 44, Kjell Granstr¨om discusses the origins of disruptive classroom behav-iors in Sweden, drawing from studies conducted in nine-year compulsory schools He makesthree main points: (1) numerous student misbehaviors stem from students’ personal needs(e.g., for belongingness and friendship); (2) teachers have difficulties handling such behaviors;and (3) different modes of instructional organization influence the probability of troublesomebehavior Theo Wubbels, Mieke Brekelmans, Perry den Brok, and Jan van Tartwijk (chapter45) from The Netherlands report on the results of a 25-year program of studies investigatingteacher-student interpersonal relationships in secondary classrooms This research has repeat-edly demonstrated that positive teacher-student relationships are characterized by a high degree

of teacher influence (leadership or dominance) and proximity (cooperation, support) towards

students In chapter 46, Ramon Lewis from Australia describes a series of studies on dents’ and teachers’ preferred disciplinary interventions, their perceptions of teachers’ actualdisciplinary practices, and the impact of discipline on students’ attitudes and responsibility.The results of his research lead Lewis to conclude that teachers need to decrease their use

stu-“coercive” power (aggression and punishment), since coercive strategies are “at best of limitedusefulness, and at worst counterproductive ” The last chapter in this part (chapter 47), byKanae Nishioka, describes trends in classroom management in post-World War II Japan She

outlines four forms of seikatsushido (life guidance) that were developed by teachers to foster

shudanzukuri—the feeling of community or “grouphood.”

THEMES THAT CUT ACROSS THE SECTIONS

The chapters in the Handbook cover a wide-ranging set of topics and are written by scholars

from different disciplines, with different theoretical orientations, and from different countries.Nonetheless, there are a number of themes that appear repeatedly across sections In fact, wewere surprised by how chapters converged on several key ideas First, the research reported

in the Handbook underscores the idea that positive teacher-child relationships are at the very

core of effective classroom management This emphasis on relationships is most explicit inthe chapter by Robert Pianta, who notes:

In analysis of classroom management, child-teacher relationships are a key unit of analysis Afocus on relationships rather than discrete behaviors, or interpreting such behavior in light oftheir meaning for relationships, is an important conceptual advance in the classroom managementliterature, and may be particularly important for teacher training

Other chapter authors echo Pianta’s emphasis on relationships Indeed, throughout the

Handbook, a relational conceptualization of management thoroughly overshadows a view of

management as a set of rules, rewards, and penalties, or a set of specific strategies designed

to promote engagement and minimize disruption Authors repeatedly cite the importance ofteachers’ being warm, responsive, caring, and supportive, as well as holding high expectations.This portrait of “warm demanders” appears frequently in discussions of effective teachers ofstudents of color who may feel alienated or marginalized (See the chapters by Geneva Gay andRichard Milner.) But it is apparent that ”warm demanders” have broader relevance and appeal.This characterization is obviously parallel to the authoritative parent described in the parentingresearch, and both literatures consistently report the positive outcomes that accrue when adults

are both caring and demanding (See, in particular, the chapter by Joan Walker and KathleenHoover-Dempsey.) That students appreciate and respond positively to authoritative teachers isalso clear from reports of students’ perceptions of “good” teachers (See the chapter by AnitaWoolfolk Hoy and Carol Weinstein.) According to both elementary and secondary students,

good teachers care: They are concerned about the students’ academic and personal lives, they

are “there for them,” and they know how to set limits and enforce expectations without beingpunitive and demeaning Clearly, when students perceive their teachers to be “good,” they aremore likely to engage in learning activities and to behave in prosocial, responsible ways Onthe other hand, if students perceive their teachers to be uncaring, unfair, and rude, they arelikely to engage in acts of resistance and sabotage In the words of one student, “If I don’t like

‘em I’m not gonna do anything for ‘em” (Stinson, 1993, p 221)

Second, the chapters draw attention to classroom management as a social and moral riculum This broader and more complex view recognizes that the managerial decisions thatteachers make affect not only students’ opportunities to learn, but also their social, emotional,and moral development This view is the explicit focus of the chapter by Fallona and Richard-son, who begin by asking: “What could be closer to the moral in the classroom than activitiesand teaching that are directed at and/or function to affect present and future student conduct?”Classroom management as a moral curriculum is also the focus of Nucci’s chapter He writes:

cur-All classrooms, no matter how they are run, constitute social environments that impact students’construction of morality and social values The issue, then, is not whether classroom manage-ment affects social development, but rather how classroom management may contribute positively

to students’ moral and social growth Viewing classroom management as an educational activityrequires teachers to engage in the same kind of critical analysis of practice as would be directed

to the teaching of subject matter This includes not only an awareness of available options orstrategies for how to handle classroom situations, but also a compendium of knowledge about the

“subject matter” of social and moral development and how it relates to a given set of practices

This way of thinking about classroom management appears frequently throughout the

Hand-book Authors consistently call for an approach to classroom management that fosters the

devel-opment of self-regulation and emotional competence McCaslin, Bozack, Napoleon, Thomas,Vasquez, Wayman, and Zhang comment on the importance of “talking it through”—explainingthe reasoning behind rules and expectations (again, much like authoritative parents) MauriceElias and Yoni Schwab comment that social-emotional learning and effective classroom man-agement are “two sides of the same coin,” since self-control and responsibility are the “ultimategoals” for both Watson and Battistich describe approaches to building classroom communitythat emphasize the importance of building students’ social and moral skills and understanding

In addition to reflecting on ways that management can support children’s social, emotional,and moral learning, numerous authors examine the ways that managerial decisions can promote

a democratic society Lotan, for example, urges teachers to use group work to build more

“equitable classrooms” that reflect not only a pedagogical, but also a “moral vision.” Brantlingerand Danforth discuss the importance of creating “moral classroom communities,” which avoiddiscrimination and contribute to a “new equitable social order.” Gay, Milner, Skiba and Rausch,and other authors report evidence of racial and socioeconomic disparities in terms of who getspunished and why, and make the case that classroom management is not just about order, butalso about social justice

A third theme in the Handbook is that managerial strategies relying on external reward and

punishment are not optimal for promoting academic and social-emotional growth and regulated behavior In particular, numerous authors voice criticism of coercive, exclusionarymethods of discipline Skiba and Rausch, for example, argue that out-of-school suspension

self-and expulsion “are associated with negative outcomes in terms of school climate, studentbehaviors, student achievement, and school dropout.” Fenning and Bohanon-Edmonson concur.They wonder “why school discipline policies have lagged so far behind what is known abouteffective behavioral interventions” and conclude that discipline policies “may be reflective

of a school culture that views discipline as punishment instead of an opportunity to teach.”Lewis, Newcomer, Trussell, and Richter contend that traditional disciplinary interventions thatemphasize punishment are ineffective in changing chronic patterns of problem behavior AndyMiller points out that students who are subject to, or witness, teacher coercion and aggressionmay react negatively, concluding that “the teacher hates me!”

At the same time, authors voice support for more proactive approaches to management anddiscipline Freiberg and LaPointe advocate moving beyond a stimulus-response paradigm to

an approach that emphasizes students’ self-regulation, social-emotional learning, and schoolconnectedness, trust, and caring David and Roger Johnson describe the benefits of teachingthe skills of peacemaking and allowing students to engage in negotiations to resolve theirconflicts Walker and Hoover-Dempsey stress the importance of providing support for studentautonomy and note that research suggests that “students are more likely to self-regulate theirlearning and behavior when they have opportunities to do so.” Autonomy support is alsounderscored in Reeve’s review of extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation He concludes thatextrinsic rewards are “not necessarily bad or counter-productive” if they are administered in anoncontrolling way and provide information about learning or performance

Finally, there is recognition across chapters that to create orderly, productive, and portive environments, teachers must take into account students’ characteristics such as age,developmental level, race, ethnicity, cultural background, socioeconomic status, and ableness.While principles of respect, caring, fairness, clarity of expectations, environmental predictabil-ity, and guidance apply to all students, there are also important variations among studentsthat mediate teachers’ managerial decisions and actions These decisions ultimately influenceteacher-student relationships, the very foundation of trust

sup-The chapters by Carter and Doyle, Emmer and Gerwels, and Nucci all elaborate on howdevelopmental level affects students’ receptivity to classroom norms Carter and Doyle, writingabout early childhood and elementary classrooms, stress the importance of establishing anenvironment with predictability and constancy Emmer and Gerwels highlight adolescents’need for autonomy and recommend that teachers increasingly allow secondary students to makedecisions for themselves and experience the consequences of those decisions (although theyacknowledge that “balancing adolescents’ need for autonomy and the teacher’s need to managebehavior can be a delicate task”) Similarly, Nucci explains that early adolescence is a difficulttransition as students begin to question and negate social conventions they upheld during middlechildhood and seek increasing control over areas like appearance, friendships, and access toinformation Nucci suggests that teachers who work with this age group distinguish betweenthe norms needed to ensure student safety and those that constitute a minor threat: “To put itanother way, it is important for teachers to realize that there are times when it makes moresense to say ‘yes’ in response to student noncompliance, than it is to simply say ‘no’ in aneffort to maintain consistency for its own sake.”

In addition to considering developmental level, teachers must be aware of the cultural clashesthat can occur when students and teachers come from different backgrounds Nowhere is thisclash more clearly illustrated than in the chapter by Ben-Peretz, Eilam, and Yankelevitch, whichdescribes the tensions of educating students from many cultures and religious backgrounds inIsrael The authors describe the real dilemmas of authority and power, wherein certain cul-tural norms and religious beliefs press teachers to be stern and to use punitive measures togain respect and claim authority In the United States, we face a similar challenge While theK–12 student population becomes increasingly diverse in terms of ethnicity, race, culture, and

linguistic background, the overwhelming majority of teachers remain monocultural and lingual European Americans Gay notes that unless teachers have been prepared in culturaldiversity and multicultural education, “they are likely to interpret the attitudes and behaviors ofstudents of color according to the prevailing middle class and Eurocentric-embedded normativestandards of schools.” Milner, writing on the managerial challenges of urban classrooms, urgesteachers to “understand and acknowledge that the students are not necessarily the problem,”and “take some of the responsibility, look inwardly and change their own behavior.”

mono-Likewise, a number of chapters point out that general education classrooms now contain

a greater number of students with disabilities, requiring teachers to acquire a new repertoire

of strategies Robinson and Ricord-Griesemer, for example, describe a number of possibleinterventions that require specialized knowledge and skills (e.g., functional behavioral as-sessment, differential reinforcement, group contingencies, and self-management procedures).Soodak and McCarthy examine ways that teachers in inclusive classrooms can promote

an environment of acceptance and friendship in which all children experience success andbelonging

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

In 1979, Daniel Duke edited the National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE) Yearbook

on classroom management Since then, there has been no comprehensive research handbookdevoted entirely to conceptualizing and reviewing the field of classroom management and its

related areas As noted, the third edition of the Handbook of Research on Teaching, published

in 1986, contained an outstanding chapter on classroom management by Walter Doyle, butthe latest edition, published in 2002, does not even include this topic The second edition of

the Handbook of Research on Teacher Education (1996) has an important chapter by Vernon

Jones, but the emphasis here is on how teachers develop competence in classroom management.Innumerable textbooks are devoted to helping preservice teachers as they learn to teach, butscholarly books on the topic are rare and considerably narrower in scope We believe that this

Handbook of Classroom Management will provide an important resource for scholars, teacher

educators, administrators, and teachers

In the editor’s preface to the 1979 NSSE Yearbook, Dan Duke wrote:

After pondering classroom management for more than a year, writing a chapter for this volume,and reading various versions of the other chapters, I reluctantly have come to realize that classroommanagement defies simple, straightforward exposition Confusion exists among practitioners andresearchers alike about where instruction stops and management commences Some argue for moreattention to classroom management, while others decry the fact that too much time already is wasted

on “clerical” and “police” duties The literature boasts books full of managerial tips and insights, butfew efforts to place classroom management into a context where it can be systematically delineated,observed, analyzed, evaluated, and improved In short, classroom management, although a verypractical, “real-world” issue, is anything but simple (xi)

Twenty-five years later, after editing this handbook, we are convinced that we have come along way Nonetheless, like Duke, we have an increased appreciation for the multi-dimensional,complex nature of classroom management And like Duke, we have found that classroommanagement is anything but simple

As we sorted out the complexities, we were ably assisted by our outstanding section editors

We are grateful for their willingness to be part of this project and to undertake the often tediouschores of reviewing, cajoling, nudging, and, of course, editing We are privileged to have

had the opportunity to work with such a remarkable group of scholars We especially want

to acknowledge the contribution of Irwin Hyman, who completed much of this editing workbefore his death on February 7, 2005 We appreciate his boundless energy and his keen intellect,and we regret that he will not be able to see the result of his efforts We are also grateful forthe assistance of the external reviewers for each chapter; their names are listed at the end

of the chapter they reviewed Their knowledgeable, insightful comments certainly improved

the quality of the Handbook We also thank Joanne Bowser, our production manager, for her

wisdom, patience, and diligence in helping this project come to fruition Finally, we must

thank Lane Akers, our editor at Erlbaum It was Lane who first conceived of a Handbook of

Classroom Management In response to his suggestion, we initially laughed—convinced that

there wasn’t enough research to constitute such a volume We were wrong

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors thank Jere Brophy, Michigan State University, Edmund Emmer, The University ofTexas, Austin, and Anita Woolfolk Hoy, Ohio State University, for their insightful commentsand suggestions on the final draft of this chapter

Brophy, J E (1999) Perspectives of classroom management: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow In H J Freiberg (Ed.),

Beyond behaviorism: Changing the classroom management paradigm (pp 43–56) Boston: Allyn & Bacon Charles, C M (2002) Essential elements of effective discipline Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Doyle, W (1986) Classroom organization and management In M C Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (pp 392–431) New York: Macmillan.

Duke, D L (Ed.) (1979) Classroom management (The 78th Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education) Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Farkas, S., & Johnson, J (1997) Different drummers: How teachers of teachers view public education New York:

Public Agenda.

Johnson, J (2005) Isn’t it time for schools of education to take concerns about student discipline more seriously?

Teachers College Record, Retrieved February 14, 2005, from http://www.tcrecord.org.

Kounin, J S (1970) Discipline and group management in classrooms New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

McCaslin, M., & Good, T L (1998) Moving beyond management as sheer compliance: Helping students to develop

goal coordination strategies Educational Horizons, 169–176.

Stinson, S W (1993) Meaning and value: Reflections on what students say about school Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 8(3), 216–238.

Watson, M., & Ecken, L (2003) Learning to trust: Transforming difficult elementary classrooms through mental discipline San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

of a knowledge base on the subject, introducing many of the bodies of theory and researchthat are elaborated in detail in subsequent chapters and outlining a big picture within which tolocate them.

SCOPE

To delimit the chapter, it was helpful to distinguish management functions from other teaching

functions, such as instruction, motivation, or assessment Hereafter, classroom management

refers to actions taken to create and maintain a learning environment conducive to successfulinstruction (arranging the physical environment, establishing rules and procedures, maintainingstudents’ attention to lessons and engagement in activities) Although management is thechapter’s primary focus, two related functions also receive attention because they are closely

associated with it Student socialization refers to actions taken to influence personal or social

(including moral and civic) attitudes, beliefs, or behavior Socialization includes articulation ofideals; communication of expectations; and modeling, teaching, and reinforcing of desirablepersonal attributes and behavior (done mostly with the class as a whole); as well as counseling,behavior modification, and other remediation work with students who show poor academic

or social adjustment (done mostly with individuals) Disciplinary interventions are actions

taken to elicit or compel improved behavior from students who fail to conform to expectations,especially when their misbehavior is salient or sustained enough to disrupt the classroommanagement system As a practical matter, successful classroom management requires morethan creating appropriate physical settings and managing the class as a group It also includes

17

establishing and working within personal relationships with students (or at least, those studentswhose special needs or personal characteristics frequently make them unable or unwilling tocomply with instructions that are sufficient for the rest of the class).

The chapter addresses what is known about teachers managing the students and activities thatoccur in regular classrooms Only passing references are made to the roles of administrators

in managing the school as a whole and the roles of specialists (counselors, social workers,resource teachers, etc.) who work in other settings

BASIC ASSUMPTIONSThe chapter assumes the following about classroom management as a component of schooling:Most fundamentally, schools are established to equip students with desired learning outcomes,

so classroom management is not an end in itself but a means for creating and maintaining alearning environment that is optimal given the intended curriculum Curricular goals shoulddetermine instructional methods, materials, and activities; these in turn imply desired studentroles, and these in turn imply optimal managerial expectations, rules, and routines Managementtheory and research focuses on how teachers can establish and maintain these expectations,rules, and routines, as well as respond effectively and restore desired patterns when they aredisrupted

Recognition that management is a support for learning carries implications for what isdefined as success and how it ought to be assessed For example, although a low frequency

of disruptions is relevant, desired student roles typically go beyond passive compliance tocall for actively engaging in activities in ways that support progress toward learning goals.Physical setting, task flow, and discourse management need to be designed to create optimalimplementations of the intended curriculum This requires preparing students to enact differentroles in different situations Also, ideal learning environments typically involve optimizingrather than maximizing A teacher can have too much control as well as too little, or the wrongkind (authoritarian rather than authoritative)

RESEARCH METHODSGiven these and other complexities, it is not feasible to use classical experimental methods

to develop and test comprehensive management models That is, it is not possible to holdconstant everything else that is known or suspected to affect outcomes while investigatorssystematically vary a single component Classroom events are only partly controllable (oreven predictable) by teachers, so much of good management involves adapting effectively

to emerging developments There have been applications of hypothetico-deductive methods

in which investigators adapted models developed elsewhere (e.g., applied behavior sis) for application in classrooms, trained teachers accordingly, and assessed outcomes Inthese studies, fidelity of implementation of an explicit model is one criterion for managementsuccess

analy-More typically, investigators have chosen to work inductively, using interviewing or servation to conduct “policy capturing” analyses of effective managers’ methods, and thenformulating principles of practice Some have used primarily qualitative methods to producethick descriptions of the management methods of individual teachers Others have used mixedmethods to compare expert managers with novices or with experienced but less successfulmanagers These studies usually rely on principals’ or professors’ recommendations or other

ob-“reputation” information to identify ostensibly expert managers, although they sometimes

begin by observing a larger number of teachers and then selecting a smaller number for thickdescription.

In evaluating a teacher’s managerial success, investigators typically use direct indicatorssuch as time spent engaged in lessons and activities (relative to time spent getting organized

or dealing with chaos), the efficiency of transitions, or the frequencies of problems such asoff-task behavior, disruptions, or disciplinary referrals Some include less direct but potentiallyimportant indicators such as achievement gains or students’ attitudes toward the teacher or theclass

These characterizations apply mostly to research done relatively recently, however For thefirst two thirds of the 20th century, the managerial advice in teacher education textbooks wasmostly confined to common sense (“Arrange for smooth-flowing traffic patterns and places forstudents to store personal belongings”) and aphorisms presented as wisdom of practice (“Don’tsmile until Christmas”) Citations were infrequent and mostly to theorists or other textbooks.Some authors cited surveys of opinion or reported practices, but they could not cite studiesthat included systematic observation of teacher behavior, because no such studies existed yet

THE PRE-EMPIRICAL ERAThe Turn of the 20th Century

A noteworthy example of these early treatises is that of William Chandler Bagley (1907) Hispreface promised management principles interpreted in the light of psychological principles,based on data gathered from four sources: (1) Bagley’s observations of teachers he viewed

as efficient and successful, (2) textbooks on classroom management and teaching, (3) hisown personal experience as a teacher, and (4) general psychological principles that had been

“subjected to actual test before being included.”

Bagley’s language was very different from today’s For example, he spoke of “slowlytransforming the child from a little savage into a creature of law and order, fit for the life ofcivilized society” (1907, p 35) Yet, his basic assumptions were very familiar Because school

is intended to prepare children for life in civilized society, potential management principlesneed to be considered not just in terms of short-term efficiency but also the larger purposes

of schooling Unnecessarily punitive or anxiety-inducing methods are inappropriate, as areexcessively competition-oriented methods that may make students selfish or even antisocial.Bagley distinguished “routine factors” (confusion, disorder, irregular attendance, poor hy-giene) that could be handled by training students to develop desired habits, from “judgmentfactors” (inattention, cheating, slow learning) that required conscious teacher attention andindividualized adaptation Habits could be ingrained by applying the law of habit building:Whatever is to become a matter of invariable custom must be made conscious to the students

at the outset, then drilled explicitly and held to rigidly, until all tendency to act in any otherway has been overcome This may require detailed instructions early in the year, followed

by practice of the desired procedures Certain routines will need to be installed from day one(traffic patterns, toilet policies, having needed materials available, keeping the blackboardsclean)

On the first day, stick to work with which the students are familiar, but do real teachingrather than busywork, to establish seriousness of purpose Have everything prepared whenthe students arrive, greet them pleasantly, and direct them to seats Implement a prearrangedplan for handling hats and coats If seats have not been preassigned, make a seating chartand quickly begin referring to students by name Appoint monitors and distribute supplies Asneeded, instruct and drill students in procedures

Much of this is very similar to advice given in today’s textbooks Bagley went on to saythat only an irreducible minimum of classroom procedures needs to be routinized in thisway and some of even those routines can be faded as students become capable of exercisingmore individual responsibility He also suggested scheduling the most challenging or fatiguingsubjects during prime learning times and being prepared to shift to recess or another subject iffatigue sets in.

In talking about maintaining order and discipline, Bagley anticipated Baumrind’s (1971)distinctions among authoritative, authoritarian, and laissez-faire approaches Teachers havegoverning responsibilities and must have the courage to assert authority without worrying aboutbecoming unpopular, tact in exercising it effectively, and persistence in following through.Yet, they also must be fair and good natured Problems can be minimized by keeping studentsoccupied with worthwhile activities and providing incentives for good work (the principle ofsubstitution is preferable to the principle of suppression) Penalties should be imposed only as

a last resort, should emphasize natural consequences when possible, and should be inflictedprimarily with an eye toward promoting the welfare of the class as a whole The best penaltiesare efficient in stopping the undesired behavior, specific to the impulse toward that behavior,and no more severe than necessary Corporal punishment often meets these criteria, especiallywith elementary students, because it can be more humane than scolding and because “moralsuasion” often is not effective until students begin to understand the reasoning why theirbehavior is inappropriate (as they enter adolescence)

Based on interviews with about 100 reputedly successful teachers, Bagley offered 15 ples for punishing effectively: the teacher (not someone else) should administer the punishment;little time should elapse between the misbehavior and the punishment; children should not bepunished in the presence of their peers; do not punish while angry; punish intentional andpremeditated offenses; punish repeated offenses; do not punish offenses not apt to be repeated;not all children require the same punishment for the same offense; children should alwaysunderstand why they are being punished; punishments tend to reform students if they can seetheir justice; suspension should be the last resort; do not punish for the sake of “making anexample”; do not use sarcasm, ridicule, or satire as punishments; most parents favor corporalpunishment; and do not use school assignments as punishments

princi-Picking up on the idea of keeping students profitably occupied as preventive ment, Bagley offered several motivational principles He acknowledged the value of makingschool activities interesting and enjoyable, but noted that this principle has limited applica-bility because children are instinctively oriented toward immediate gratification and variety,whereas school calls for sustained work on activities with ultimate purposes that are dis-tant and fuzzy Therefore, students need short-term incentives Rewards are preferable topunishments, following the “well-known psychological law that depression chokes up thechannels of energy, while hope and buoyancy tend to liberate energy and make it avail-able” (1907, p 162) However, some students may need scolding or even punishment to spureffort

manage-Bagley warned against competitive prizes of intrinsic value because only a few studentswill have realistic chances to get them and this can lead to rivalry or jealousy Nonintrinsicallyvaluable rewards, such as merit badges or medals, are preferable, but only if given out in away that allows the full range of students to earn them Immunities are unwise because theymake regular school activities or tests look like punishments Privileges and honor rolls can

be useful if not overdone in a way that constantly reminds poorer students of their inferiority.Exhibition of good work is advised so long as it doesn’t lead to emphasis on form over content.Praise is useful but needs to be offered sparingly and justified by the effort that went intothe accomplishment Students can become dependent on praise, to the point that they become

“depressed and discouraged, sour and morose,” whenever their efforts are not commended

(1907, p 182) Finally, there is much to be said for appealing to ideals such as sense of duty,sense of self-respect, or appreciation of a job well done.

The rest of Bagley’s book deals with issues that are obsolescent today (guarding againstthe spread of contagious diseases) or outside of the topic of classroom management (play-ground supervision, achievement testing) Although it was rooted in instinct theories of psy-chology, his advice was more similar to than different from what we offer today Reflect-ing his time, he was less respectful of children’s cognitive and metacognitive capacities, so

he placed more emphasis on habit training and less on supporting self-regulation Also, heemphasized competition (although with misgivings) and made no mention of cooperativelearning

The Early Decades of the 20th Century

Although classroom management has always been recognized as crucial for teachers in generaland beginning teachers in particular, and although Bagley produced an extended treatise onthe subject in 1907, there was little development of theory and research on the topic until the1950s In part, this was because management had not established an identity as an independentsubfield of educational studies As Breed (1933) noted, it had slipped between the cracks ofknowledge bases that were developing at the classroom level (focusing on curriculum andinstruction in the subject areas) and the school level (focusing on administering the school as

a whole) One could even argue that attention to management faded as the first third of thecentury progressed

Breed’s own book is an example Even though he recognized the problem and entitled his

book Classroom Organization and Management, most of it addressed testing, homogeneous

versus heterogeneous grouping, class size, grading and promotion policies, curricular issues,extracurricular activities, class scheduling, and other primarily school-level topics Classroommanagement was treated in only two chapters, one on organizing routines and one on recon-structing the behavior of pupils

The latter chapter included a review of Wickman’s (1928) study entitled Children’s

Behavior and Teachers’ Attitudes, a source cited routinely in subsequent decades and even

occasionally today Wickman surveyed 511 Cleveland teachers to elicit their levels of concernabout various child behavior problems and compared their responses with responses elicitedfrom mental health specialists The teachers expressed the most concern about overt behaviorslikely to disrupt classrooms (sexual activity, obscenity, theft, disobedience, defiance, etc.),whereas the clinicians emphasized mostly covert problems (unsocial, suspicious, unhappy,resentful, fearful, overly sensitive or suggestible, etc.) Wickman concluded that teachers wereunderattentive to anxiety, depression, and other symptoms indicating a need for charactereducation or mental treatment

Breed’s advice about classroom routines cited Bagley and other sources of practitionerwisdom, and his advice on reconstructing the behavior of students was limited to a few basicprinciples Rejecting genetics or instinct as explanations for character and dismissing preaching

or global generalities as unhelpful, he urged teachers to prioritize the character traits they valuedmost and emphasize these in socializing students (such as by presenting them with fictional

or historical models that embody the traits and specifying in detail behaviors expected inparticular situations) Both the doctrine of expression and the doctrine of repression would

be avoided in favor of direct instruction in desired traits and behaviors As sources he citedCharters (1927) on the teaching of ideals, Watson (1926) on behaviorism, and several texts

on character education and delinquency The only citation to data collected in a school settingwas to a survey by Haggerty (1925) on the frequencies with which various forms of studentmisbehavior were observed in public schools

Other early texts resembled those by Bagley (1907) and Breed (1933): They sized the authors’ personal experiences and observations, buttressed by citations to author-ities (mostly authors of similar texts) and to selected psychological principles The citationsappeared to be ex post facto: The authors began by distilling the wisdom of practice andthen dressed it up with citations, rather than beginning with a set of theoretical principlesand then proceeding deductively Consequently, there was a great deal of overlap in whatwas recommended, even when there was little overlap in the authorities or theoretical prin-ciples cited Citations to empirical studies were limited to surveys of teachers’ attitudes orreported frequencies of various behavior problems Ostensible classroom management textsalso included chapters on other teaching functions and on school-level administrative functions(e.g., assessing and classifying students), because at the time the topic of classroom manage-ment was subsumed within broader conceptions of school efficiency (Johnson & Brooks,1979).

empha-The Middle Decades of the 20th Century

These trends continued into the 1950s, as exemplified by Brown’s (1952) text entitled

Manag-ing the Classroom: The Teacher’s Part in School Administration Brown emphasized Christian

values, school as preparation for democratic citizenship, and child-centered, progressive cational methods His text is similar to Bagley’s in that it contains comprehensive advice onclassroom management, but similar to Breed’s in that it also contains several chapters on otherteaching functions and on school-level administrative issues (as well as on dressing, grooming,avoiding scandal, and making a good impression in the community)

edu-Brown’s text was much more respectful of students than the earlier texts, and it featuredideas rooted in his progressive philosophy (e.g., involve students in developing basic rules andprocedures, do not emphasize discipline so much as helping students progress from externaltoward increasing levels of internal self-control) Once he got to specific advice, however,Brown echoed the same principles emphasized by his predecessors: evaluate potential rules andprocedures in terms of consistency with larger learning and motivation goals, not just situationalefficiency; do not impose needless or overly rigid demands; emphasize developing individualand collective responsibility among the students over momentary control of behavior; somebehaviors should be routinized immediately, others might be routinized later, and still othersshould not be routinized at all; it is better to prevent problems before they occur than tohave to deal with them afterwards, so keep everyone profitably busy, build good school spirit,maintain good relationships with individuals, and emphasize enduring values; when it doesbecome necessary to enforce rules, avoid reactions that will disrupt relationships with students

or create other problems; focus punishments on deterrence and reformation, not expiation orretribution; and be prepared to begin the school year productively by clarifying expectationsand helping students to develop good behavior and learning habits

Brown devoted a few pages to what he described as principles derived from 50 years ofstudy of how children learn (frequency, recency, satisfaction, punishment, immediacy, sym-bolic drive, and interest), citing texts in psychology and educational psychology However,his management advice did not seem to flow from these principles He included many morereferences than Bagley or Breed had, but the vast majority were to other textbooks rather than

to research reports Exceptions included two survey studies (Charters & Waples, 1929; Witty,1947) suggesting that teachers should display virtues such as kindness, sincerity, tact, polite-ness, cheerfulness, patience, and fairness Another exception was the Wickman (1928) study,along with two subsequent studies indicating that the views of teachers and of mental hygienespecialists concerning the relative seriousness of various child behaviors and symptoms weremore similar by 1940 than they had been in 1927 However, these and later studies (e.g., Fuller,

1969; Schrupp & Gjerde, 1953; Stern, 1963) continued to show that teachers were especiallyconcerned about behaviors that threatened their classroom control.

STUDIES OF INFLUENCE TECHNIQUES, LEADERSHIP STYLE,

AND GROUP CLIMATEEmpirical studies perceived to be relevant to classroom management began to accumulateduring the middle decades of the 20th century Some were isolated individual studies Otherswere parts of more programmatic lines of research, that is, research that took place in settingsother than classrooms and addressed questions not directly related to classroom management(e.g., group leadership, social climate) Systematic research on the topic did not begin untilthe 1950s

Several early studies contrasted reward versus punishment or praise versus blame as niques for influencing children’s behavior Some were childrearing studies focusing on parents(Sears, Maccoby, & Levin, 1957, and later Baumrind, 1971) Others were experiments con-ducted by psychologists, initially with animals but later with humans, especially children(Estes, 1944; Kennedy & Willicutt, 1964; Solomon, 1964; Thompson & Hunnicutt, 1944).These studies generally found reward or praise to be superior to punishment or blame as in-fluence techniques, although a few reported punishment or blame to be effective with certainsubgroups (extroverts, underachievers) McDonald (1965) interpreted these exceptions as sug-gesting that individual children’s previous experiences with praise and blame condition theirresponses to these influence attempts in the classroom

tech-Kounin and Gump (1961) extended these findings to classrooms They used ratings toidentify the most and least punitive of the first-grade teachers in three schools, then asked theirstudents, “What is the worst thing you can do in school?” They found that students of punitiveteachers more often mentioned aggression and were more concrete in their descriptions (“HitGeorge in the mouth”) In contrast, students of nonpunitive teachers more often talked aboutbehaviors that would interfere with learning or about violations of school values and rules,using more abstract language (“Be mean to people”) Kounin and Gump concluded that thenonpunitive approach was more successful for socializing students’ values and behavior.Complementary findings emerged from several lines of research on leadership style andgroup climate Anderson and his colleagues (Anderson, 1943; Anderson, Brewer, & Reed,1946) used classroom observation methods in several studies comparing “dominating” teachers(unilateral, forceful) with “leading” teachers (inviting input, working with students) Theyreported that domination tended to produce either teacher dependency and rote conformity

or conflict and resistance In contrast, when teachers worked with their students, the studentsworked with them and their engagement in learning activities featured more spontaneity andcollaboration

Lewin, Lippitt, and White (1939) conducted a classic study of leadership and social climate

in groups of boys supervised by group leaders who consistently implemented one of threecontrasting leadership styles: authoritarian (leader determines all policies, assigns tasks andwork companions, gives step-by-step instructions, praises or blames boys individually); demo-cratic (policies negotiated in group discussion; boys encouraged to assume responsibility forplanning and carrying out tasks, but with input from leader as resource person; group membersdecide how to divide the work and collaborate; leader is more task-focused and impersonal inpraising or criticizing progress); or laissez-faire (group members left on their own to determinewhat to do and how to do it, with ostensible leader participating as little as possible) Findingsindicated that the boys in the democratically led groups were the most responsive and spon-taneous in working on the tasks, and were able to continue working productively without the

supervision of the leader The boys working under authoritarian leadership were more apatheticand less personally involved in the tasks, frequently frustrated, and likely to become involved

in conflict if the leader was not present The boys in the laissez-faire condition had difficultynegotiating what to do and how to do it, so they were confused, frustrated, and ultimately notvery productive This study was and still is cited very frequently in books and chapters onclassroom management Its findings appear to generalize well to the classroom, although it isimportant to clarify that the “democratic” leadership style was not actually democratic in theusual sense of the word (policies determined by majority vote, etc.) In fact, it was very similar

to the style that Baumrind (1971) later characterized as “authoritative.”

Ryans (1952) and Ryans and Wandt (1952) reported findings from two studies based on ings averaged across three or four observers who each visited a given classroom several times.Ratings focused on students’ participation in classroom activities and teachers’ personal char-acteristics and leadership styles In the elementary study of 345 third- and fourth-grade classes,higher ratings of student alertness, orderliness, responsibility, constructiveness, participation,and initiative were found in classrooms taught by teachers characterized as democratic, kindly,systematic, calm, confident, mature, responsible, and consistent Within this pattern, studentswere rated as more docile when their teachers were rated as systematic but in an inflexibleand autocratic way, whereas students were rated as more initiatory when their teachers wererated as more democratic, understanding, and original but less organized Many of these find-ings were replicated in the study of 249 high school classes, although at this level ratings forteacher democracy and kindliness did not show significant relationships with ratings of studentbehavior, and a newly added rating of dull versus stimulating instruction showed the strongestrelationships

rat-The 1950s and 1960s ushered in a spate of studies of teacher leadership style variouslydescribed as autocratic versus democratic, demanding versus permissive, dominative versusintegrative, teacher-centered versus learner-centered, or direct versus indirect Withall andLewis (1963) noted that these studies reflected a blending of influences from educationalpsychology (focusing on teacher characteristics and instructional methods), the mental healthmovement (focusing on causes of anxiety or other blocks to learning or motivation), andsocial psychology (focusing on leadership style, social climate, decision-making processes,and patterns of participation) Many were conducted by investigators committed to progressive

or child-centered teaching philosophies, and their proliferation was fueled by the development

of reliable classroom observation systems by Flanders (1970), Withall (1960) and others

Most of the observation systems included in Mirrors for Behavior (Simon & Boyer, 1970), a

compilation of systems developed through the late 1960s, focused on these leadership styleand climate aspects of classrooms

These studies indicated that teachers typically were more dominative, direct, etc than grative, indirect, etc Correlations with achievement gains were weak in magnitude and mixed

inte-in direction, but more positive pupil attitudes and motivational inte-indicators typically were served in classes taught by relatively more integrative teachers (Wallen & Travers, 1963).Reviewing these findings, Dunkin and Biddle (1974) suggested that relationships might beclearer if teacher directness and indirectness were considered separate clusters of behaviorsrather than treated as poles of the same dimension, and especially if observation systems anddata analyses were designed to distinguish teachers’ personal warmth versus coldness fromthe directive versus permissive aspects of their leadership styles They also noted that leader-ship style and classroom climate studies had limited potential for developing knowledge abouteffective classroom management because they typically were confined to frequency counts ofteacher behaviors such as lecturing, asking questions, giving directions, praising, or criticiz-ing Data collection and analysis methods that would retain the connections between theseteacher behaviors and relevant student behaviors would make it possible to study sequences of

ob-classroom interactions They concluded that management is an interactive phenomenon thatneeds to be investigated as such.

RESEARCHERS BEGIN TO FOCUS EXPLICITLY

ON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENTEarlier, more generic research generally supported the conclusions that positive, reward-oriented influence techniques were preferable to negative, punishment-oriented ones, and thatauthoritative leadership that balanced teacher directiveness with encouragement of studentinput and self-regulation was preferable to the extremes of either authoritarian or laissez-faireapproaches It was time to address more specific aspects of managing classrooms and studentseffectively

Initial movements in this direction came from two very different sources The first wasbehaviorists Working deductively from a rich and theoretically integrated knowledge basedeveloped from experimental studies, behaviorists began probing classroom management ap-plications of key concepts and principles, and in the process developed many new techniques.The second source was ecological researchers, who developed concepts and principles induc-tively by documenting variation in observed student behavior, initially with respect to variations

in classroom settings but later with respect to variations in teacher behavior

BEHAVIORAL RESEARCHMost behavioral research and development regarding classroom management has featuredapplied behavior analysis, known alternatively as operant conditioning or the experimentalanalysis of behavior Behaviorists emphasize using reinforcement to “bring behavior understimulus control.” The stimulus is a cue that tells students that certain forms of behavior aredesired in the situation and performing these behaviors will gain them access to reinforcement

If they are not able to perform the desired behaviors immediately, gradual improvement towardtarget performance levels is shaped through successive approximations Once the desiredperformance level is established, it is maintained by reinforcing it often enough to ensureits continuation Any behaviors that are incompatible with the desired pattern are extinguishedthrough nonreinforcement, or if necessary, suppressed through punishment

Behaviorists favor experimental research methods, typically relying on a four-stage quence of studies to test hypotheses about the reinforcement contingencies currently con-trolling behaviors of interest and verify the effectiveness of recommended interventions:(a) baseline documentation of the rates of problem behaviors along with attempts to determinewhat situations and cues are eliciting them and how they are being reinforced, (b) introduction

se-of treatment procedures (typically followed by measurable improvement from baseline, played graphically on time charts), (c) removal of treatment procedures during an extinctionphase (in which the problem behaviors typically revert to baseline levels), and (d) reinstitution

dis-of treatment procedures (typically followed by a return dis-of the improvements seen earlier) Thesequence is persuasive because the first two stages provide empirical evidence of significantchange in behavior, and the extinction and reinstitution phases demonstrate that the observedbehavior changes are due to the specific treatment procedures used (and not to special attentiongiven to the student, changes in teacher or student expectations, etc.)

Early applications of behavioral techniques to classroom management were mostly limited

to shaping the behaviors (such as staying in the seat or remaining quiet) of individual dents through reinforcement Laboratory-generated principles called for reinforcing desired

stu-behaviors with praise or material rewards and extinguishing undesired stu-behaviors by ignoringthem (it was assumed that teachers’ typical responses to students’ undesired behaviors weresomehow reinforcing them, so teachers could extinguish the behaviors by withdrawing thisreinforcement) These direct generalizations of laboratory techniques were soon supplanted

by modifications better suited to classrooms (Axelrod, 1977; Brown, 1971; Homme, 1970;Krumboltz & Krumboltz, 1972; Madsen & Madsen, 1981; O’Leary & O’Leary, 1977).First, it was recognized that unlike animals, students possess language, so it is possible tocue desired behaviors by stating expectations and giving reminders, instead of just waitingfor these behaviors to appear spontaneously and then reinforcing them “Rules, praise, andignoring” soon became the watchwords of behaviorally based classroom management.Second, it became obvious that laboratory methods of monitoring behavior and supplyingreinforcers were not feasible for application in classrooms where teachers work with 20 or morestudents It is not possible for the teacher to simultaneously monitor the behaviors of all of thesestudents and provide immediate reinforcement whenever desired behaviors appear To addressthis problem, behaviorists shifted from reinforcing discrete behaviors to reinforcing packages

of behaviors (e.g., attending to lessons, completing assignments, and doing well on tests) thatextended over longer time periods, with the teacher articulating the reinforcement contingenciesverbally and then following up accordingly Refinements were gradually added to address otherproblems (e.g., awarding earned point credits because this is less cumbersome than passingout and collecting tokens; providing opportunities to select from reinforcement menus as away to avoid reinforcer satiation), as well as to introduce opportunities to individualize (e.g.,equalizing opportunities to earn credits by awarding them according to individuals’ degrees

of improvement over their own prior performance levels, customizing behavior contracts tofocus on individual students’ behaviors most in need of improvement)

Over time, behaviorists maintained their characteristic theoretical concepts and empiricalorientation, but expanded their repertoire of recommended techniques far beyond the originallaboratory-based collection One reason for this was the failure of some principles to generalizewell to the classroom For example, the principle of “extinction through ignoring” is appli-cable only to those student behaviors that are performed to elicit reinforcing responses fromteachers For most students, this is a low percentage, relative to the percentage of behaviorsperformed because they are intrinsically rewarding or are reinforced by peers Also, certainproblem behaviors are too disruptive or dangerous to be ignored, so some kind of teacherresponse is required Finally, research by Kounin (1970), Brophy and Evertson (1976), andothers indicated that effective managers acted quickly to nip potentially disruptive behaviors

in the bud, rather than allowing them to develop and then waiting for them to be extinguishedthrough nonreinforcement Consequently, ignoring has faded from prominence as a frequentlyrecommended behavioral technique

It also became necessary to qualify the characterization of teacher praise as a form ofreinforcement Brophy (1981) reported that correlations between frequencies of teacher praiseand measures of student achievement gain were weak and mixed rather than consistentlypositive, and cited other data indicating that teachers often do not praise in ways likely to beexperienced as reinforcing by students, and that even when they do, some students do not valuesuch praise and therefore do not feel reinforced by it Behaviorists eventually finessed theseand other difficulties with attempts to specify classes of reinforcers by using Premack’s (1965)definition of a reinforcer as anything that increases the frequency of a behavior when access

to it is made contingent on performance of that behavior, and by incorporating reinforcementmenus into their classroom applications

Many educators oppose behavioral approaches on philosophical grounds In addition,among those who are potentially more accepting, a major barrier to embracing behavioral tech-niques has been persistent concerns that the improvements they produce in students’ behavior

are likely to disappear once they are no longer being reinforced systematically Their ownconcerns about this problem led many behaviorists to shift from Skinner’s operant conditioning(Skinner, 1953) to Bandura’s social learning version of behavior modification (Bandura, 1969),supplemented by Meichenbaum’s cognitive behavior modification (Meichenbaum, 1977), astheir primary theoretical base Gradually, notions of imposing external control by reinforcingconformity to rules gave way to notions of building self-regulation capacities and dispositionsthrough techniques that combine modeling with verbalized self-instructions (McLaughlin,1976) The teacher initially demonstrates the desired process, not only by showing the physicalmotions involved but also by verbalizing the thoughts and other self-talk (self-instructions, self-monitoring, self-reinforcement) that guide the activity Students then are given opportunities toperform the activity themselves, at first with extensive teacher guidance, then primarily on theirown with self-guidance (initially spoken aloud, then whispered, then covert self-instruction).Proliferation of techniques continues Contemporary behaviorists typically distinguish be-tween procedures for increasing desired behavior and procedures for decreasing undesiredbehavior (see Chapter 3) The former techniques include token reinforcement programs,earned points credit systems, praise and approval, modeling, programmed instruction, self-specification of contingencies, self-reinforcement, establishment of clear rules and directions,and shaping through successive approximations The latter techniques include extinction, re-inforcing incompatible behaviors, self-reprimands, time out from reinforcement, relaxation(for fears and anxiety), response cost (punishment by removal of reinforcers), medication,self-instruction, and self-evaluation Some of those interventions place heavy emphasis onself-regulation and little or none on external reinforcement, so they overlap considerably withstrategy training treatments used by nonbehavioral psychologists working from theories of

learning and cognition For example, the Think Aloud program (Camp & Bash, 1981)

fea-tures self-instructional strategies, sometimes supported by cue cards, that enable students totalk themselves through adaptive responses to selected situations, such as paying attention tolessons, writing a report, or coping with anger or frustration

Many popular approaches to classroom management taught in packaged workshop programsfeature behavioristic principles, most notably the Assertive Discipline program developed byCanter and Canter (1992) It began as a largely behavioral program that emphasized specifyingclear rules for student behavior, tied to a system of rewards and punishments Over time,however, the Canters incorporated revisions that place less emphasis on reinforcement andmore on clarifying the rationales for rules and supporting student self-regulation They havenot conducted systematic research on their program, however

ECOLOGICAL STUDIESResearchers who adopt an ecological perspective analyze environmental settings with an eyetoward the kinds of activities they support (affordances) and prohibit (constraints) (Bronfen-brenner, 1989) They view the adaptation potential of different species or different individualswithin species as a function of the closeness of fit between their general characteristics and thedemands of their environment Classrooms are environmental settings (ecologies) that can beanalyzed accordingly, with the added understanding that they are human inventions constructedand maintained to accomplish particular purposes Consequently, when the notion of person-environment fit is applied to classrooms, one needs to take into account the affordances andconstraints created by teachers, peers, and other human actors, not just the settings’ physicalcharacteristics

Ecological research on classroom management grew out of studies of the characteristics ofdifferent classroom settings (e.g., whole class, small group, individual) and the unfolding of

the activities that took place in them Studies of classroom tasks and settings continued (e.g.,Bossert, 1979), but some investigators shifted attention from the settings’ affordances to andconstraints on activities to the role of the teacher in establishing and maintaining the activities.

In an early study, Kounin and Gump (1958) observed in 26 kindergarten classrooms during thefirst four days of school, focusing on desist incidents in which teachers directed interventions

at students who were behaving inappropriately Observers took running notes of classroomevents as they unfolded, then expanded them into “specimen records” formatted for coding.Desists were coded for clarity (about how the students were misbehaving or what they should

be doing instead), firmness (an “I mean it” and “right now” quality), and roughness (expression

of anger or exasperation)

Kounin and Gump were interested in ripple effects on audience students who observe desistsdirected at peers Audience reactions were coded as: no reaction, behavior disruption (anxiety,confusion, etc.), increased conformance, increased nonconformance, and ambivalence (mixture

of conformance and nonconformance) Analyses indicated that desist clarity was associatedwith greater subsequent conformity among audience students Two other findings did not hold

up for students in general but did apply to students coded as deviancy linked (because theyeither were misbehaving themselves at the time of the desist or were watching the misbehavior

of the target of the desist) For these deviancy-linked students, desist firmness was associatedwith subsequent conformity and desist roughness was associated with behavior disruption.However, these effects were strongest on the first day and weaker on subsequent days, andlater studies at higher grade levels failed to replicate them

Kounin pursued classroom management issues in subsequent studies of elementary rooms (Kounin, Friesen, & Norton, 1966; Kounin, 1970; Kounin & Doyle, 1975) In theprocess, he made two significant changes that produced original and enduringly influentialsets of findings First, he enriched his data base by shifting from specimen records developedfrom observers’ notes to videotapes of classroom events The opportunity to replay the videosrepeatedly made it possible to code more, and more subtle, aspects of both teacher and studentbehavior, during both lessons and seatwork activities Second, he shifted from his originalnarrow focus on desists to include a much broader range of teacher actions Analyses of thevideotapes continued to show that measures of teachers’ responses to disruptive behavior (i.e.,desists) were not reliably related to the teachers’ overall effectiveness as classroom managers.Instead, the secret to management success was preventing students from becoming disruptive

class-in the first place by maclass-intaclass-inclass-ing the momentum of classroom activities and nippclass-ing potentialproblems in the bud before they could escalate Several key variables emerged from subsequentanalyses:

r Withitness Remaining “with it” (aware of what is happening in all parts of the room atall times) by continuously scanning the classroom, even when working with small groups

or individuals

r Overlapping Doing more than one thing at a time, such as using eye contact or physicalproximity to restore certain students’ attention to a lesson while continuing the lessonitself without interruption

r Signal continuity and momentum during lessons Teaching well-prepared and brisklypaced lessons that focus students’ attention by providing them with a continuous aca-demic signal which is more compelling than the noise of competing distractions, and bysustaining the momentum of this signal throughout the lesson

r Group alerting and accountability during lessons Using presentation and questioningtechniques that keep the group alert and accountable, such as waiting and looking aroundbefore calling on someone to answer a question, avoiding predictability in choice ofrespondent, interspersing choral responses with individual responses, requiring students

to hold up props or signify answers visibly, or calling on listeners to comment on orcorrect a peer’s response.

r Challenge and variety in assignments Encouraging engagement in seatwork by providingvaried assignments pitched at the optimal level of difficulty

PROCESS-OUTCOME (TEACHER EFFECTS) STUDIES

Beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 1980s, several different research teams plored relationships between classroom processes (particularly teacher behaviors and teacher-student interaction patterns) and subsequent outcomes (particularly adjusted achievementgain) Process measures typically were developed from codings and ratings made during orimmediately following classroom observations Several of these studies included measuresadapted from Kounin’s work They generally replicated and extended Kounin’s findings (An-derson, Evertson, & Brophy, 1979; Brophy & Evertson, 1976; Crawford, 1989; Crawford etal., 1978; Good & Grouws, 1977)

ex-However, some of these studies also suggested qualifications on those findings In a lational study at second- and third-grade (Brophy & Evertson, 1976) and in an experimentalstudy of first-grade reading groups (Anderson, Evertson, & Brophy, 1979), withitness, over-lapping, and smoothness of lesson pacing and transitions all were associated not only withbetter classroom management, but with greater achievement gains However, these studies didnot support some of the accountability techniques They suggested that in certain situations,especially in the early grades and when teaching small groups, it is more important to makesure that everyone gets a turn and discourage peers from calling out than to use unpredictability

corre-as a way to hold students accountable for sustained attention

In a study of fourth-grade mathematics learning, Good and Grouws (1977) found thataccountability was related curvilinearly to student achievement gain: Teachers who used amoderate amount were more successful than those who used too much or too little Thesemixed findings on accountability should not be surprising because this technique pressuresstudents to pay attention, which is necessary only when students are not attentive in the firstplace High frequencies of accountability behaviors indicate that inattentiveness is a frequentproblem and suggest that the teacher is not doing enough of the more fundamental and positivethings that tend to sustain student engagement

Findings also were mixed concerning the value of choral responses Unless the group is smallenough to allow the teacher to monitor each individual, a chorus of correct responses from themajority of students can drown out mistakes and cover up failures to respond at all This is often

a problem with students in the early grades, who seem to need individualized opportunities torespond and get feedback from the teacher (Anderson, Evertson, & Brophy, 1979)

Some of the teacher effects studies also extended Kounin’s findings concerning ment of students’ work on assignments Various studies indicated that effective managers(a) provide sufficient advance preparation to enable most if not all of their students to beginseatwork and other independent activities smoothly (so that they do not quickly becomeconfused and require the teacher to repeat or elaborate earlier directions); and (b) circulate

manage-to monimanage-tor progress and provide individual help where needed, but keep these helpinginteractions brief and primarily private (to minimize potential embarrassment to the studentsbeing helped, avoid distracting peers who are working productively, and free themselves toget back into circulation quickly) (Evertson, Anderson, Anderson, & Brophy, 1980; Fisher

et al., 1978; Helmke & Schrader, 1988)

In addition to process-outcome studies, some behavioral studies also touched on issuesraised by Kounin For example, Kounin’s ripple effects research indicated that rough desists