Synthesis of Research on Classroom Management.

Abstract

E ffective classroom management consists of teacher behaviors that produce high levels of stu dent involvement in classroom activi ties, minimal amounts of student behaviors that interfere with the teacher's or other students' work, and efficient use of instructional time. These criteria have the advantage of being directly observable. Classroom management should be viewed as one major dimension of effective teaching, rather than syn onymous with it. Teachers also pro vide instruction, evaluate students, choose curriculum, promote self-ad justment, and influence student atti tudes. Hence, effective teaching en compasses varying degrees of different tasks, fiut the centrality of classroom management to the teacher's role, as well as its relationship with learning, make it worth our while to inquire further about teacher behaviors that produce well-managed classrooms. The modern era of research on classroom management began with Kounin's (1970) study of 49 firstand second-grade classrooms. Each class was videotaped for a full day. The behavior of selected children was coded for work involvement and deviancy every 12 seconds dur ing student recitation and seatwork. Teacher behaviors were scored on the following variables.