Classroom management has always taken a backseat. Now it’s sitting in the trunk.
Since the (official) end of the pandemic, behavior standards have fallen down a mine shaft and have yet to hit bottom.
It’s maddening.
In recent articles, I’ve covered why this is so devastating to student behavior, motivation, and mental health.
Today, I want to talk about learning. Along with a teacher’s expert knowledge of content, classroom management has the greatest impact on academic progress.
What follows are seven benefits of effective classroom management that can’t be found in any other strategy, method, or approach to learning.
1. Time on task
In an exceptionally well-managed classroom, students are focused and working for hundreds of more hours than a typical classroom.
The result is that more learning is taking place. It’s a simple formula. And the difference in outcomes—be it reading, writing, or any other academic skill and ability—is staggering.
2. Culture
Effective classroom management allows for a culture of purpose, wherein learning is viewed as sacred and the whole point of being in class.
The truth is, in standard classrooms many students don’t even know why they’re there, what their role and purpose is, or the seriousness of their education and its impact on their future.
3. Focus
When interruptions are eliminated, and any threat of bullying and being made fun of is vanquished, students can relax and focus on the goals and objectives they’re given.
They can get lost in the intrinsic joy of learning when they’re free from phones, social media, behavior disruptions, disrespect, chaos, and trying to be cool.
4. Consistency
It takes awhile for students to get into the groove of focused, inspired learning. It takes day after day of calm, consistent peace, trust in their teacher, and compelling lessons.
Developing the habits of successful students take a wholesale change in thinking that can only happen in a well-behaved, counter-culture environment where learning comes first.
5. Challenge
You can’t adequately challenge students without effective classroom management. You can’t continue to push and ask for more if you’re putting out fires and being interrupted.
Just getting through the day—which is where many teachers find themselves—will not get students from A to B and beyond. It will only leave them further behind.
6. Maturity
A well-managed class has a maturity level that grows throughout a school year to two years greater than the typical class next door. This has profound implications on learning.
With seriousness of purpose and commitment, not only will students look and act different, but their progress accelerates, often doubling compared to the previous month—because they’re ready to handle more and more.
7. Success
Effective classroom management entails teaching students how to behave in a way that is best for them and their learning. It takes clarity, detail, demonstrability, and practice.
It takes guiding students to behavioral success—no matter who they are or their problems of the past. This success, then, in doing things the right way, transfers to everything they do.
One Thing
This article wasn’t written in a vacuum.
If you have questions about how to create a well-behaved classroom no matter what grade you teach or where, please spend time on our website. There are now nearly 700 articles in the archive (sidebar at right).
We also have seven books and three e-guides available (also at right) and dozens of videos, all explaining exactly what to do.
In the meantime, if you do just this one thing, if you commit to becoming an expert in classroom management, which is far easier than most teachers think, it will have a monumental impact on your students.
And not just their behavior.
Test scores, reading levels, writing and math abilities, work habits . . . you name it. All indicators of academic growth will skyrocket because of the undeniable, unstoppable benefits listed above.
If you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.
This is a wonderful, concise explanation of the benefits to teachers and students when classroom management is the first order of business in schools.
Students will do as much as the teacher allows and as much as the teacher expects.
We like to talk about what students have done as if it is 100% their responsibility without accepting that we, their teachers, have created the culture of what is acceptable in the room. Punishment is not our first or second line of defense. Outside of immediate safety for others, misbehavior can be handled privately and respectfully with the student at the first sign of trouble. Students who test boundaries and do not receive feedback that lets them know they are beyond what is accepted, they will continue to push.
When students don’t have prerequisite content skills, we support them to reach the grade level. Behavior skills are no different.
No matter the grade level, they are still kids in heart and in mind. We are teaching not just content, we are teaching humanity. Parents send us the best they have. We must make sure they all can thrive and grow as students and community members.
Exactly! I’m thinking about several colleagues as well as my grade 7 granddaughter’s teacher, who proudly proclaim, in front of students and even student teachers, that they don’t address ‘girl drama’. When a female student comes to them for help, they label it as girl drama and tell the student to work it out herself, even though it’s often clearly 3-or-more-on-1 bullying. That’s lazy, sexist, and unacceptable, in my opinion, and it leads to the student feeling shamed and even more isolated and unsupported. I’m so frustrated by it.
That is appalling! Yes, girls of a certain age can be melodramatic but they need to be taught the skills to cope and they need to be supported in their endeavours to come to a resolution. I hope you and your grand daughter are able to find some relief.
I am looking for an article about how to help students resettle into learning after outside-the-room disruption. For example, we have many students both with and without IEPs with issues this year. Yelling over the PA, banging against class walls, screaming and swearing. I now teach with my doors locked at all times, in a school where this was not the case last year. Right now I gently say “someone is having a tough day, let’s let them be” but is there an article about other ideas?
I think this is wonderful for an effective classroom I am starting with grade 1 next year,this will be my first experience in that grade,I never teach this grade and am little bit nervous.May I please be assisted with disciplinary processes specifically designed for the little ones(How to maintain a positive classroom environment where learning and teaching take place in an effective way
yes, I agree. Effective classroom management is one of the keys to a successful out look on effective teaching and learning. The better the classroom is managed the smoother the flow and more time is spent on learning new materials which is more likely to be retained.