Sadia (279) & Ilsa (261)

7 Classroom Management Mistakes—and the Research on How

to Fix Them

Almost half of all teachers feel unprepared to manage their classrooms. This number includes
teachers with significant classroom experience.
In fact, classroom behavior management can be a struggle for new teachers. As expectations
increase and class sizes grow, this struggle becomes more difficult. At the same time, it
becomes even more important.
Misbehavior may also be a healthy part of a child’s social and emotional development. When
children reach adolescence, their allegiances shift from adults to peers, and their abstract
thinking skills sharpen dramatically, leading them to question—and even challenge—long-
accepted authority structures. What may look like rule-breaking is really a way for children to
test boundaries and assert their independence.

Mistake #1: Responding to surface-level behavior (and not the underlying

reasons)
If two students are misbehaving—for example, if they’re being disruptive—it may be for
different reasons. “A strategy that will eliminate the off-task behavior of one student might
worsen the off-task behavior of the other,” researchers explain in a 2010 study. Instead of
reacting reflexively, teachers should look for the underlying reasons for the misbehavior. If
one student is struggling with a stressful new condition at home, for example, that will
require a different approach than if another student is seeking attention from peers.
“Defining a misbehavior by how it looks tells us nothing about why it occurred and often
doesn't help in our behavior-change efforts,” the researchers explain.
For Nina Parrish, a special education teacher in Virginia, addressing misbehavior usually
involves looking for patterns. What happens before and after the behavior? Who is the
audience? When does it happen? “Behaviors help students obtain something desirable or
escape something undesirable,” she writes. If teachers can figure out what a student’s goals
are, they can address the misbehavior in a more productive way.

Mistake #2: Assuming it's not an academic issue

It’s easy to become cynical about student misbehavior, but it stems from well-intentioned
academic struggles more often than you might think. In a 2018 study, researchers compared
various reasons why students misbehave, such as a lack of discipline, lack of motivation, or a
desire to impress classmates. Surprisingly, they found that fully 20 percent of the time
misbehavior could be attributed to academic deficits: either students didn’t understand the
assignment, or the assignment was too difficult—and misbehavior was an outlet for their
frustration.
Mistake #3: Confronting every minor infraction
Inexperienced teachers may feel as though they need to catch and fix all misbehavior in the
classroom, but trying to stamp down minor disruptions can actually increase them in the long
run.
A 2016 study found that negative attention—pointing out when students aren’t paying
attention or are briefly talking in class, for example—often made students feel less connected
to the class, leading to more behavioral issues later on. The researchers point out that
“teachers can unwittingly engage in a negative reinforcement pattern,” a downward spiral
that “actually amplifies students’ inappropriate behavior.” The end result? A student who is
reprimanded for not paying attention is more likely to withdraw and stew in anger than
redirect their attention to their learning.
Instead of calling students out, teachers should highlight positive conduct, such as finishing
work on time or efficiently transitioning between activities. Nonverbal responses such as “the
look” or hand signals are also effective ways to subtly encourage students to pay attention.

Mistake #4: Using time-out corners

When used as a form of punishment, sending students to the corner can cause feelings of
shame or embarrassment, undermining your relationship with them and jeopardizing the trust
you’ll need for productive learning, a 2019 study shows.
“Children at school struggle to maintain self-esteem amid the battle for popularity, grades,
and social rankings,” write the researchers of the study. “When an adult induces the belief
that one is unworthy...then self-respect and self-assurance, central ingredients of thoughtful
autonomy, are undermined.”
A Fall-Hamilton elementary school in Nashville, every classroom has a peace corner—an
alternative to a time-out corner that gives students an opportunity to calm down, reflect on
their thoughts and feelings, and practice self-regulation skills. Principal Mathew Portell
describes it as a way for students to build the capacity “to be able to know what to do when
they're frustrated or when they're angry.”
Unlike time-out corners, which are typically perceived as a punishment, peace corners are
used by all students—students can go there themselves, within reason—“so it's not a place of
stigma.” Crucially, activities are scattered throughout the area to help students learn self-
regulation skills, from breathing exercises to a chart that helps them reflect on what choices
they make and the better choices they could make in the future.

Mistake #5: Writing Names and Other Public shaming

A common—but destructive—strategy is to publicly identify students who are disruptive or
act out. A 2019 study highlights several examples: At one school, the hallways are lined with
lists of students who have been given detention. At another school, teachers write students’
names on the classroom board to track misbehavior or use color-coded stickers as a scoring
system—red for bad behavior, blue for good. Student tardiness or absences are tracked on
data walls, which can further harm students by publicly displaying low test scores and grades.
These shaming practices “fail to inhibit future acts of wrongdoing and may even make
matters worse,” the researchers contend. Instead of calling students out publicly, teachers
should approach them privately and encourage them to reflect on the wrongdoing, think about
its source, and take responsibility for addressing it.

Mistake #6: Expecting compliance

It’s a losing battle to expect compliance from students without putting in the emotional work.
Demand it and many students will simply rebel, test boundaries, or engage in power
struggles. Good classroom management requires that you build a solid relationship based on
trust and empathy: “Classroom management is not about controlling students or demanding
perfect behavior,” researchers explain in a 2014 study. “Instead, effective management is
about supporting students to manage themselves throughout daily learning and activities.”
Teachers should focus on proactive strategies, such as positive greetings at the door,
intentionally building and working to maintain relationships, co-creating classroom norms
with students, and developing an active physical presence to help students develop the social
and emotional skills they need to be able to regulate their own behavior.

Mistake #7: Not checking your biases

Scores of studies show that teachers inadvertently perceive students of color as being less
capable and more aggressive than White students, and may apply rules inconsistently, which
can erode trust and relationships. For example, a 2019 study found that teachers often give
Black students fewer warnings to correct their misbehavior before being sent to the
principal’s office, when compared to their White peers.
Such perceived unfairness can contribute to a “trust gap” among students of color. “African
American students were more aware of racial bias in school disciplinary decisions, and as this
awareness grew it predicted a loss of trust in school, leading to a large trust gap in seventh
grade,” write the researchers of a 2017 study. This not only led to more discipline problems
but also decreased interest in applying to college.

REFERENCE:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/7-classroom-management-mistakes-and-research-how-fix-
them/