Contents of Classroom Management: What Is Necessary, What Is Possible, How Is It Done at School?

Abstract

Classroom Management (CM) comprises broad knowledge and skills of teachers. Since CM has been only given little proportion in teacher education, knowledge about the relevance and usefulness of CM contents (CMC) is important. We want to contribute to the knowledge about relevant CMC with four studies. These studies explore the following research questions: Which CMC are needed? What is possible? Are CMC useful for teaching at school? All studies are carried out with the participation of teacher students. In Study 1, we explore the baseline of Classroom Management Knowledge (CMK) of teacher students to deal with challenging situations (N = 158). Study 2, we explore the CMK baseline of teacher students and examines whether CMK which is acquired in a classical seminar can lead to an increase in CMK (N = 17; T1, T2). In Study 3, CMK is validated: How does it affect the practical knowledge of teacher students (N = 58; T1, T2) when facing challenging situations? Finally, we examine the question of Study 4 that asks whether CMK in the classroom can be converted into skills at school (N = 13). The results show that a significant increase in CMK is acquired through a seminar; but the acquired knowledge is very unlikely to be transferred without an intense, long lasting and supportive training of skills. The relevance of these findings is critically related to teacher education.

Teaching Geography in Secondary School: Teachers Perceptions and Experiences

“…Classroom management comprises broad knowledge and skills of teacher (Steins, Wittrock and Haep, 2015). Classroom management is the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to keep students organized, orderly focused, attentive and ensure that their classrooms runs smoothly without disruptive behavior of the student during class room.…”

Technology of the Self and Classroom Management—A Systematic Approach for Teacher Students

“…In addition, knowledge about social processes is helpful. In our research we tried to include the basic knowledge that might be important for CM in our seminars and described the contents in more detail (Steins, Wittrock, & Haep, 2015).…”

“…How does it compare with the content of classic CM? In our previous research we tried to gain knowledge about the possibilities of content arrangements (Steins, Wittrock, & Haep, 2015). Here, we aim to include the teacher students' perspective on the contents' usefulness on a deeper level.…”

“…The theoretical content of CM included the following topics: definitions of CM, research on CM, parenting styles, cultural aspects of educational ideas, REE and REBT, ecological psychology, Positive Behavior Support Systems, and social perception were discussed for approximately equal amounts of time (for a more detailed descriptions of these contents see Steins, Wittrock, & Haep, 2015). Bullying as a special topic was only relatively briefly mentioned.…”

Intercambios comunicativos y práctica pedagógica en el aula de los docentes en formación

“…Por ejemplo, la observación de las interacciones con los alumnos, la comunicación que se establece en el aula, el manejo de tiempo y la resolución de conflictos en el aula, entre otros aspectos de la experiencia práctica, no están suficientemente integradas en la observación y evaluación que realizan los supervisores de las actividades prácticas de la formación inicial (Sánchez y Jara, 2016;Steins et al, 2015).…”