Creating and Implementing Rules and Procedures CREATING POSITIVE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS University of the People Annabelle Villamarin April 2020 What does a positive classroom look and feel like? Positive learning involves students gaining knowledge through authentic activities based on real-life contexts that bridges their interests and diverse background. A positive classroom encourages students to accept the role of being learners who gather and construct knowledge in multiple ways and through collaborative learning. This classroom facilitates students in their productive learning so that their gained knowledge is explicit, not rote. A positive learning experience for a class exists when all students are treated as essential members of the classroom environment. According to Education and Training, Victoria Australia, "Student agency refers to the level of autonomy and power that a student experiences in the learning environment. Student voice and agency are intrinsically linked. Agency gives students the power to direct and take responsibility for their learning, creating independent and self-regulating learners". Teachers are often expected to facilitate a systematic approach to classroom management and work with the students on how to apply non-competing ways to manage the way teaching and learning happen in the classroom. By doing so, the teacher provides transparency of the methods being used to manage learning. A class may consist of members who come from diverse cultural, socio-economic backgrounds, who have different educational experiences, some different from the teacher's background. An effective teacher should consider understanding the needs of each student, maintain a list of personalised and appropriate care and attention in terms of how the community aims to shape the classroom and meet academic expectations. Recognising the value and learning experiences of each student as individuals learning in a group can help teachers to formulate class activities that benefit all members and focus on helping each student to achieve their fullest potential. Productive learning in a diverse classroom can be enhanced by including students in the process of developing and implementing classroom rules so that students gain a sense of belonging, develop an awareness of their rights, learn both standards of appropriate behaviour and consequences for inappropriate behaviour. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs highlights the importance of self-esteem, being respected by others, respecting others, belonging and being safe. Role of the Teacher Successful classroom management involves much more than rules and discipline. Indeed, investigations into classroom management confirm that effective teachers are proactive about student behaviour, and they include students in the process of establishing and maintaining rules and routines (Stronge, 2007). For successful classroom management, effective teachers respond to common classroom issues of order. The rule system and teachers' interventions to maintain rules in everyday school life are equally complicated, difficult for students as well as teachers to overview and contain inconsistencies which create some challenges for students when trying to make meaning of rules and teachers' expectations of appropriate behaviour. By being unarticulated, hidden rules lead to many unexplained exceptions, which evoke confusion and criticism from students. Teachers and students are constructive meaning-makers (cf. Hargreaves, 1984), but the students appear to lack an adequate understanding of how to act and how teachers will act in many situations. Shared common and pre-established meanings of what is expected in the actions of the participants, and which they can use to guide their behaviour, as Blumer (1969) puts it, at least in part, not constructed among them. In this approach, learning is a process in which the students take an active role. What does this involve? According to Stronge (2007), creating a productive classroom atmosphere includes effective planning, such as developing practical floor plans with the teacher and student work areas, wall spaces, and furniture placed within the classroom for maximum advantage. Experienced classroom teachers work with the students to create a setting that responds to the progress of the students. Another area of contention is the commitment to having consistent positive culture facilitated by the teacher. Teachers should leave their personal difficulties at the door, as students get easily effected by moods and behaviours of others. According to veteran teachers, finding as many ways as possible to praise students, work well to make them comply with the classroom rules. Giving students the respect and guidelines they need as well as being consistent and fair will turn to a positive classroom environment. A classroom is a place of learning where appropriately modelled behaviour is taught so that positive learning experiences are optimised. All these factors can likely, in part, explain why teachers at times behave inconsistently regarding students' rule infractions. Other difficulties, according to teachers, are that they have not had enough teacher faculty talks and reached an agreement about which rules will be enforced in which circumstances, teachers have different viewpoints and the problem of not having an overview of all rules by themselves. Some teachers also argue that they missed this topic in their teacher training. Reference Alber, R. (2017). Rules and routines in the classroom. Retrieved from April 26, 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/rules-routines-school-year-start-classroom-management Blumer, H. (1969) Symbolic interactionism (Berkeley, CA, University of California Press). Dimension: Empowering students and building school pride. (n.d.). Department of Education and Training Victoria. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/management/improvement/Pages/dimension3 empowering.aspx Hargreaves, A. (1984) The significance of classroom strategies, in: A. Hargreaves & P.Woods (Eds) Classrooms and staffrooms: the sociology of teachers and teaching (Milton Keynes, Open University Press), 64-85. Investigating primary school teachers’ views about their classroom management behavior. (2016). Journal of Advances in Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.20474/jahss-2.2.2 Leichsenring, A. (2012, December). Managing an elementary class of diverse learners. Academia.edu - Share research. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.academia.edu/16383488/Managing_an_Elementary_Class_of_Diverse_Learners# Maslow's hierarchy of needs explained. (2019, February 25). ThoughtCo. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4582571 Stronge, J. H. (2007). Qualities of Effective Teachers, Association for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment Alexandria, 2nd ed. VA, USA Thornberg, R. (2007). ‘It's not fair!’-voicing pupils’ criticisms of school rules. Children & Society, 22(6), 418-428. h ttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2007.00121.x Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. ASCD.
