Principles of Classroom Management That Everybody Can Agree On

The principles that need to be present are fairness, honesty, justice, respect and integrity. It is possible to add more, but these principles of classroom management are a sound base to start from.

Most educators know instinctively what values these words convey, and some think it's not necessary to do any more than simply acknowledge the need for these core principles to be present. This may be a mistake because we may end up assuming that we always know how to act when trying to follow these principles.

A useful training workshop exercise is to brainstorm exactly what teachers mean by terms such as fairness, respect and so on, and to identify exactly what we as teachers can do to make it clear we uphold those principles.Of course there will be a range of ideas, even though there is mainly universal agreement about what values these principles contain.

There are also other variables such as the age of the students and the stages they are at in their learning development.

These principles are quite high minded and we often draw on them to promote a strong 'moral climate' in the classroom, but these principles of classroom management also work on the level of practical learning and instruction.

Here are some examples of the ideas teachers often express in brainstorming sessions about specific actions attached to these classroom management principles.

Fairness and justice are closely linked and in practice are often interchangeable and in training workshops educators often consider these two principles as aspects of the same concept.

Fairness /Justice

• hear both sides of any 'story' before judging
• don't judge, simply decide what's the fairest action to take in the circumstances
• reprimand the behaviour shown not the student's personality
• make sure you ask questions to both sexes equally
• make students feel that you will deal with and protect them from unfairness from other students
• model correct behaviour between teacher and student and between student and student
• if you get things wrong, apologise to students
• have a clear system of consequences related to actions, so students see nothing is arbitrary
• show students how they can apologise to the teacher and to other students
• make sure you are fair to students by helping them learn in different ways
• do your students justice by providing learning activities that are engaging, challenging and fun

Respect

• have clear guidelines about how students talk to the teacher and to each other
• try to avoid speaking aggressively to anyone
• help students see the difference between aggression and assertiveness
• establish clear rules about personal space, property and personal safety
• treat students as individuals and not compare with any siblings or other students
• ensure there are no 'put downs' in your classroom
• show you respect your students by offering learning experiences that are worthy of them

Sometimes in workshops teachers stress that we can show we really respect our students by consistently teaching lessons that we would be happy for our own children to receive.

Honesty

• have clear expectations about how students need to communicate accurately and sensitively, especially if another student is involved
• be honest with students if you make a mistake - apologise and, if possible, explain what led you to make a mistake
• be honest if you don't know some specific knowledge - see it as an opportunity to lead the class in learning something new together

Integrity

• establish what it means for everyone to be able to trust each other in the classroom
• make it clear to students what can remain confidential information
• show students that your approach is positive - no bearing grudges or cynical behaviour
• accept that you might be wrong and learn from it
• 'do as you say' - model the strategies and behaviour you want your students to adopt

These are, of course, only a handful of the many ideas we might have. I think there are three important things to remember about these fundamental and vital principles of classroom management:

1 The very act of trying to add specific and detailed behaviours to exemplify these core principles heightens our awareness of how effectively we've incorporated them into our daily classroom practice - or failed to do so - and the more deliberately we practise them the more embedded they'll become.

2 We can learn these principles of classroom management ourselves and teach them to our students, so that everyone can benefit from the outcomes of these principles. The process of teaching others the ingredients of such desirable principles of classroom management strengthens them and raises their value in everyone's eyes.

3 We are human beings and therefore will not get everything right all the time. Getting things wrong can help us refocus and improve.

Here are a few more suggestions about how you can explore the core principles of classroom management to help you set your personal goals

• Talk to other teachers, who you trust and who think will react sympathetically. Ask them how they interpret these core value principles of classroom management. Maybe you could mention some specific scenarios - students arguing in class, or that you want to reprimand students but are not sure of the best way to do it. Listen to what they tell you and see how that fits with your own take on these core values.
• You could suggest that a brainstorming session about these principles of classroom management could feature as part of an in-service training programme. This might be particularly appropriate if you are a new teacher still going through an induction programme in your school or college.
• Try keeping a journal for a while.It doesn't have to be anything more than a simple notebook where you can note down, say, one specific observation per day - say what the issue was, how you handled it, what principle it related to and what you think you've learned from it. For example, let's say you become aware that students are talking over you in class. What was your response? What did you say? How did you say it? To what extent were you fair, respectful, honest? And what could you try next time to get students not to talk over you? How could you model the kind of behaviour you want your students to demonstrate?

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