Classroom Management

by Lisa Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Elements of classroom management vary. In researching this topic, it is clear that a common understanding for the term management might be useful. For this purpose, management refers to issues of supervision, refereeing, facilitating, and even academic discipline. Not all student behaviors require intervention or confrontation while some are serious enough in nature to warrant formal disciplinary action. Rest assured that while there are current studies in higher education literature that suggest a growing trend of rudeness and even overt animosity towards faculty by students, the vast majority of classroom experiences are not dramatic.

Since many professors teach for years without encountering some of the management instances we discuss here, our intent is to move beyond identification of classroom problems to suggest preventative strategies and practical solutions. For some faculty, teaching comes quite naturally and the notion of management in the classroom is irrelevant. But situations within the classroom do occasionally occur that lead us to seek out advice in order to maintain the learning environment for students not to mention our personal sanity.

Typical classroom management topics are listed in faculty handbooks to reflect pragmatic concerns such as policies on classroom breaks, adds and drops, disruptive and dangerous students, emergency procedures including weapons and drugs in the classroom, location of phones, etc. Keeping essential records is a component of this topic and is addressed in the previous Read section.

A rule of thumb for faculty is to keep current on policies regarding student and faculty interactions as well as the role of your teaching assistants, if you have one. Know your college and state policy on student conduct.

As a new faculty member, I was terrified that I would not know how to handle students who were older than I. I wanted very much to hear "for instances" from other faculty. Serendipitously, our campus Staff Learning Department instituted an online discussion forum where faculty could seek collective advice on issues of classroom management. Your campus may use the services of the 4faculty discussion forums.  If your campus doesn’t utilize the 4faculty system, you might encourage them to do so or ask if you might work with your Professional Development Office or Information Technology to establish this valuable communication forum on your campus.

Some common conduct issues identified by Gerald Amada in his research for Coping With Misconduct in the College Classroom (1999) are listed in the table below. In discussing what constitutes problematic classroom behaviors with colleagues, I have decided to add to Dr. Amada’s list. While his approach does not necessarily align with learner-centered teaching, his work does cover many sticky issues of navigating the uncomfortable situations that occur from time to time and suggests several strategies for working with student services and other administrators to remedy situations.

Issues / Solution Suggestions Table

A few notes on confronting the behaviors listed above:

Avoid calling a student to the carpet publicly. This can be humiliating and break down respect and the sense of a safe environment that students need in the classroom.

Start with a positive statement if possible: for example, if a student is monopolizing class discussion, you might start by saying, "I’m really pleased that you take such an interest in discussions and have a lot to share. But I was wondering if you might have suggestions to help others get equally involved?"

Document incidents that you feel might continue or are egregious enough to warrant a paper trail. Keep in mind that your dean will likely suggest you take a graduated approach: verbal warning, written warning, meeting with the dean, etc.

Remember that you were once a student. Think before you act. Take a deep breath if necessary before saying or doing anything you might later regret.

Setting the Classroom Atmosphere

You may wish to revisit and reflect upon the importance of the first day of class. A successful first day and week often contributes to a semester free of classroom management problems. Setting ground rules, as discussed in Module 4, can be particularly helpful.

If you have an early morning, after lunch, or after dinner class time, you might notice some problems with rhythm and attentiveness. You might start these classes with brainteasers or wake up exercises that get students ready to focus. Being aware of circadian rhythm might save you some frustration in getting used to timing issues with your class.

New instructors often become surprised by how even the best-laid lesson plans go awry. It is often the case that students will lead the discussion off topic and the instructor, pleased to have such lively interaction, will not be able to bring the class back on track. As mentioned in Making a Good First Impression, a handy practice is to have key phrases pre-planned to bring class back to topic such as "time to come together now, please wrap it up in 2 minutes."

Some classrooms don’t have clocks where faculty can see them, so as is practiced in Toastmasters (the professional speaking organization) it might be useful to select a timekeeper whose function it is to notify you when discussion time is up and transition is needed. I often write a reminder to the class not to let me get off track or talk past a certain time amount when we have a good amount of material to be covered or group activities planned. With this reminder written on the board under the daily agenda, students aren’t as hesitant to let me know that while they are fascinated by my words, I have exceeded a self-imposed limit.

Taking this a bit further, the act of student input into the pacing of the class adds to a sense of empowerment and lessens the sense that they are powerless to mood or whims of the instructor. Finally, if you have taken the advice to audio or video tape your instruction but still find that you are prone to tangents, you might bring a kitchen timer with a soft bell to keep track of time limits on lecturing or group projects. This is especially helpful with question and answer times following student presentations. With limited time allotted to groups or individuals to present, a timer can serve to maintain the sense of fairness.

Students can feel disconnected and disoriented in a new class. Returning students might feel self-conscious about their age and out of place returning to school while younger students might bring emotional remnants of negative high school experiences with them to their first college classroom.

Breaking the ice is essential in establishing this connection. In Planning for the First Day of Class, you found solid advice for the first day of class. Some ideas for lessening the tensions that might exist from lack of familiarity include:

Know your philosophy regarding education and tell your students what it is. This can be an enlightening experience for them to realize that you consider your career to be deeper in meaning beyond merely collecting a paycheck.

Take digital photos (with permission) of the class to let them know that you value them and want know their names and faces as soon as possible. Other options are name tents in on their desk, or practice as a group with name memory tricks. Harry Lorraine is a memory expert whose video "Memory Power" teaches name and face recognition tricks. There is also ample information available on the Internet for getting students names learned quickly.

Present a visual depiction of your life such as a Power Point that contains family photos, pictures of a pet, a mission statement, examples of artwork, hobbies, short biographical sketch, etc. Allow students to ask questions within your comfort zone. I have found this to be a useful introduction to technology in presentations as well as breaking down student-perceived barriers. See Sample

Share an instance when you struggled as a student and how you dealt with it.

Share your memories of your best and your worst instructors when you were a student. Let them know that you are evolving as an instructor and hope to develop into one that learns to meet student’s expectations.

Distribute a questionnaire. I usually distribute a single-page (confidentially and with a clear statement that the decision to not answer the questions does not constitute lack of participation) for students’ e-mail address, phone number, age, number of children, hobbies, favorite books, expectations about the class, favorite movies, music, number of hours worked, special information that would help them succeed in the class, favorite subject in high school, plan of study, and more. Answers to the questionnaire are later discussed with the class in terms of averages and areas of interest. Often students make connections with each other when they hear commonalties.

Let the students know what you want them to call you. "Miss," "Mr.," "Mrs.," "Ms.," "First Name," "Professor," or "Dr." are the choices most commonly agreed upon. Remember, some students will not feel comfortable being required to call you by your first name based on cultural background or prior educational experience, so it’s recommended that they are not forced to do so. Conversely, be aware that some students interpret the informality of being on a first name basis or the discovery of commonalties as permission to try to bend boundaries or challenge standards. There is much to be gained from balancing friendliness with expectations.

Announce your boundaries for communication. Be it e-mail or talking after class, let them know what you will and will not accept. Tell students that you want to have outside of class communications but you need a certain amount of time for replies and need courtesy in communication. For example, I give a separate e-mail address to my students than my home address and let them know that they may not Spam me, add me to chain e-mail lists, send me unsolicited or unidentified attachments, nor add me to their instant message buddy lists without prior permission. Additionally, let them know that you want to be equitable in sharing your office hours with others students, so they might be asked to come to office hours with concrete questions or concerns.

Walk your talk: give students a list of things and behaviors they can expect from you. If you agree to give assignments back graded within one week, do so. Avoid contradicting yourself or appearing indecisive. Model the behaviors you expect of your students.

Allow students to form a list of expectations they have for you, the instructor. This can serve to empower students as well as provide a forum to discuss what their fears, concerns, expectations, and needs as students really are. This activity will most likely aid in the classroom sense of fairness and serve to prevent later challenges to fairness and or documentation issues by students.

Research into student retention suggests that students drop out of college most frequently citing lack of connection as the key factor. With this in mind, it is good practice to pepper the first few classes of the term with connection building activities. Having established a connection amongst peers, students will be more likely to contact each other outside of class for support, ask each other for missed notes, feel safer to offer answers aloud during discussions, and ask for advice regarding other academic and personal concerns. One of the most gratifying feelings as a new faculty was to witness my students staying after class to chat informally.

Some suggestions for fostering student connectedness are:

Distributing this list of desirable and undesirable behaviors can serve to avert management issues in that some students simply do not realize that their behavior is negative or disruptive to the instructor or to their classmates. The following table identifies some common positive and negative behaviors that provide students with a guide for managing themselves as students. You might wish to distribute this list to your class at the time you discuss your syllabus or set class norms as a group. Feel free to modify this list as needed for your students.