Misbehavior, disrespect, inattentiveness, low motivation, slow academic progress.
The things most teachers stress over aren’t a concern for experts in classroom management.
It’s true.
If your students behaved like you wanted them to, if they were motivated and respectful, if you had your dream class, what would there be left to complain about?
What problems or concerns do you have right now that aren’t related, one way or another, to classroom management?
Sitting in staff meetings?
Okay, I’ll give you that one. But everything else is made markedly better with effective classroom management.
Even test scores.
Naturally Higher Test Scores
Standardized test scores are noticeably higher, year after year, in classrooms with exceptional classroom management. It doesn’t matter who is on the roster.
Teachers with black belt-like skills never have to worry about test scores.
Here’s why:
Time on task
Teachers with spot-on classroom management have a huge academic advantage over those who don’t. The reason is simple: time on task.
Over the course of a school year, the difference in quality learning time between a typical classroom and one taught by a classroom management expert can be staggering—amounting to weeks, even months, more in learning time.
Ability to focus
In classrooms with few interruptions, the ability of students to concentrate increases tenfold. Exceptional classroom management allows the teacher to gradually extend the time spent in focused independent learning, giving students the freedom to noodle over their work without interruption.
This uninterrupted learning time strengthens the mental muscles needed for prolonged periods of active, thoughtful reading, creative problem solving, and complex thinking; the very skills needed for successful test taking.
Attention to detail
Students in expertly managed classrooms grow accustomed to doing things the right way and at a high level of precision. The teacher requires, expects, and demands that everything be done correctly.
This hyper attention to detail is an important test-taking skill that develops over a period of months and is best learned through experience. Direct instruction of this skill, commonly given before important tests, will go in one ear and out the other.
Ability to follow directions
In poorly managed classrooms, the output rarely matches the input. In other words, what you ask of your students is not what you get.
The ability to follow directions is a test-taking skill students learn primarily through the practice and repetition of routines and procedures. In a well-run classroom, following directions becomes a habit that transfers to everything students do.
Trust in you
Effective classroom management requires knowing how to build trusting rapport with students. This is important because if your students don’t trust you, they won’t have faith in what you say—making them difficult to motivate.
Plain old effort is a frequently overlooked factor in successful test taking. If your students don’t like and trust you, your encouragement will fall on deaf ears. If students simply give their best, if they merely test to their ability level, your test scores will be higher than they’ve ever been.
Keep Learning And Getting Better
With effective classroom management, these test-taking skills are automatic. They develop naturally. But becoming an expert in classroom management must be your top priority.
Make a commitment to keep learning, to keep getting better.
You’ll experience fewer and fewer of the concerns most teachers carry with them every day, and before long your test scores will take the kind of jump that will get your principal and fellow teachers wondering…
What is she/he doing to get those students to perform like that?!
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I understand it’s important to keep students on task, keep student’s focused, and pay attention to details. Could you post examples of specific situations where teachers have done this? What words they can say? By the way, I loved your book Dream Class. It has had a major impact on my teaching.
Hi Bob,
Yes, I’m happy to write in more detail about each of these. I think you’re right. On-task and focused behavior and attention to details are important areas that deserve their own articles. I’ll put them on the list and will get to them soon!
Michael
Dear Michael,
I enjoy reading your posts and thinking how I can apply your ideas to my middle school classroom.
Can you reference any studies that support the claim that time on task results in or correlates with higher test scores? And that it is stronger than other factors to determine high scores?
Thank you for your weekly, interesting posts.
Hi Jeff,
When posting an article, I’m assuming that readers understand that what is written is based on my experience. I don’t seek ideas from other educational sources. But I’m so confident in my methods and enthusiastic about them–including the effectiveness of raising test scores through expert classroom management–that I occasionally have to rein myself in. That said, I shouldn’t have made such a statement–regardless of how strongly I believe it. Upon a second review, it does beg the question you ask. However, I believe it–and know it to be true–based on year after year of my own classroom experience and test results. I appreciate you pointing this out to me and keeping me on my toes. I made the correction, removed the sentence, and will be more careful in the future.
Michael
Great article, particularly your point about following directions. When I taught younger kids, I used to teach following directions explicitly. I used to tell the kids that their success was based on their ability to follow directions and then give them sets of directions to follow, sometimes in groups and sometimes individually. These lessons were like mini-scavenger hunts, with each answer found based on following very specific sets of directions. They were quite entertaining and really made following directions a top priority. These lessons made managing my classroom much, much easier.
Chris Bowen
Author of, “Our Kids: Building Relationships in the Classroom”
Hi Chris,
I love your idea–excellent!
Michael
Hi Michael,
As usual, you focus on a very pertinent question with insight and perception. I take your point about not seeking advice from other educational sources but your own experience is endorsed by some top quality research, at least in so far as good teaching and learning cannot happen without good classroom management.
Many teachers instinctively know this, and a major UK study a couple of years ago recommended a new focus on improving classroom bahaviour, precisely because, although teaching young people to behave appropriately is a good thing in itself, good classroom behaviour leads to better standards of teaching and learning, and by extension to higher levels of student attainment.
I guess the question arises, which comes first. Does great teaching and learning lead to good behaviour, or does good class behaviour enable good teaching and learning to happen? It’s a complex interaction, but my experience tells me it’s harder to deliver great teaching and learning when classroom management is threatened, than it is to build on great classroom management to improve teaching and learning standards, that ultimately lead to students being more successful.
Thanks Bill! I always appreciate your thoughtful comments. And I think your experience is right. Great classroom management comes first.
Michael