Running head: [CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT] 1

Students Centered on Motivation

My Classroom Management Style
Julie Anne Quackenbush
Viterbo University
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Abstract

At this point in my education, I think that my classroom management style will be like a

Constructivist approach, where the student is actively involved in creating their own

understanding and making sense of the information they learn. I hope to help my students build

skills socially, emotionally and intellectually. I hope to motivate my students and build positive

relationships with them. My goal is to establish trust. From our text, James Duplass says

learning should be meaningful, engaging, and active to help maintain the focus of the students. I

would like to become a Special Education teacher. The role of a Special Education teacher is to

help the students become self-sufficient, learn to reach their full potential, and .actively create

meaning.
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Students Centered on Motivation

My Classroom Management Style

The Constructivist view of learning says that the student (or learner) is actively involved

in creating (or building) their own understanding and making sense of information they learn.

While there is not really a centralized constructivist view of learning, Anita Woolfolk suggests in

her book, Educational Psychology, that researchers such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Jerome

Bruner, etc, seem to agree that students (learners) play an active role in building their own

knowledge. The knowledge that students build is developed and built upon while interacting

socially with other people (Woolfolk, 375). Constructivists feel that students engage with the

learning process and try to make sense of the concepts they are learning. William Glassers

theory of choice, put more options on what is being learned into the hands of the student. He

believes that students have a choice about how they behave and they will behave how the want

to. A students can choose how to react, just as a teacher can choose what to teach.

James Duplass Weighs In

If you have meaningful, engaging, and active lessons with discussions, questions,

examples, exhibits, and tasks prepared and ready to fill up every minute of every class, every

day, the students will not have the time or desire to create classroom management problems.

(Duplass, 137). Duplass also says that the practices of the Constructivists are important to

concept formation, problem solving, decision making, and lifelong learning. (Duplass, 45).

The student actively creates and transforms their mental schema for cognitive growth.

So Says the Opposition,

On the opposite of theory from the Constructivist, sits the Behaviorist. When you look at

Behavioral theorists such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, they speak in volumes about how
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students learn, process, store, grow, retrieve, create, etc They describe in detail the notion that

learning is part of you and you are part of it. Behaviorists such as B.F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov

feel that the learner responds to stimuli. Understanding comes from learning concepts in bits and

pieces. James Duplass says behaviorists feel that knowledge acquisition is best learned if it is

divided into logical, sequential set of steps with reinforcement based on the accomplishment of

each task assigned to each step (Duplass, 44). Behaviorists believe in the implementation of a

reward and punishment approach to learning. In other words, learning is a learned reaction.

Where Do I Stand (or putting it into perspective). My goal is to become a teacher in

the Special Education department of a school. Special education teachers must adjust their style

of teaching to fit the situation at hand. Students in the Special Education program are a diverse

group of learners. In my opinion the job of a Special Education teacher is to help the students

become self-sufficient and learn to reach their full potential. Each student is unique in their own

regard. The way they learn and what they learn is different from each other. The teacher

working with these students must be able to adjust their teaching style to fit the needs of the

developing student. While I tend to lean towards an authoritarian style of teaching, as my results

from our management style survey suggest, I also scored high in the laissez-faire management

style. How can this be possible, sense they seem to be opposing styles? Based on my

experiences as a substitute teacher, I think this is true because I am constantly having to change

my approach based on the needs of the students. What I have learned is that although I may be

grounded in the belief that I need to place firm controls and limits on certain students; this

approach doesnt work with every student. If I push too hard on a second grade student with an

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), whom is not wanting to cooperate during a math lesson, it is a

good probability that chairs will be flying across the classroom as he has a tantrum! This style
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doesnt work for him. In the same manner of speaking, if I am too soft with a third grade student

whom has ADHD, then he will not focus on any of his work. Nothing will get done for the day.

I have to find the approach that fits the needs of my students on any given day, even for the same

student. This approach would probably cause mixed signals for a general classroom teacher, but

for a Special Education teacher, it is what needs to be done. Helping the students succeed is my

main goal. I need to do what is best for them. I have to assess the situation as it unfolds and be

prepare to adjust accordingly.

Pulling it all together. Using key elements of multiple management styles will serve me

well in the future as a Special Education teacher. Social Constructivist, Alfie Kohn suggests that

teachers need to grab control of their classrooms from the first day of school for the year. Be in

control, but not controlling. Genuinely praise students both verbally and non-verbally when they

warrant it. Dont praise the student, praise their effort (Duplass, 75). I hope to find a balance

that works. I hope to guide my students in building skills socially, emotionally and intellectually.

I hope to motivate my students to want to learn and to try to learn, by building positive

relationships with them. I need to make sure that the lessons I teach are both interesting and

engaging to help maintain the focus of my students. At the same time, I will be dealing with

some younger students whom I think Behaviorist approaches like B.F. Skinners Operant

Conditioning will work best. For these students whom cannot gain control of their actions,

implementations such as using a clip chart as they go to specials may prove to be effective. Once

they receive a weeks work of gold stars they earn a prize. I think that learning and using a

variety of techniques may serve me best when dealing with multiple personalities in the Special

Education department.
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References

Duplass, James A. (2006). Middle and High School Teaching: Methods, Standards, and Best

Practices. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Woolfolk, A. (2015). Educational Psychology (13th ed.).United States: Pearson.