Implementation of Kounin's Philosophy

As mentioned above the Five Main points of Kounin's work are:

1. "with-it-ness"

2. overlapping

3. momentum

4. smoothness

5. group focus

1."With-it-ness"

The teacher is responsible for inhibiting poor behavior. The teacher can always maintain this strategy by
making eye contact with students . The teacher should know each student on a personal basis (i.e.
name, interests, strengths, weaknesses, etc.) The teacher can use other non-verbal techniques to show
students that they are alert and care about the well-being of all students. The teacher may also want to
make a respectable suggestion to inform the student that their behavior is unacceptable. The teacher
should have communicated to all students the expectations and can have these displayed, so everyone
can be "with-it".

2.Overlapping

The teacher can have procedures that will allow the teacher to be effective when two situations occur at
the same time. For example, if a student is done with an assessment or an assignment early have
something for them to do such as moving on to another assignment, reading a book, or a quiet
enrichment exercise. While the early-finishers are staying busy the teacher can move around the room
to answer question or assist struggling students. Another example, if the teacher is in the middle of a
lecture and a student enters the room the teacher should make eye contact with the student, have an
area for the student to turn in work, and continue with the lesson. Once the students are doing their
work the teacher can go to the tardy student and tell them what they missed or answer any questions
from the homework assigned the night before.

3.Momentum

The teacher should make lectures short to allow students to group together and move around to gain
more knowledge of the content. The teacher should make sure that these exercises remain short so
students do not get bored. A teacher can keep a timer and assign roles to students to keep the students
moving and on a time deadline. If students are struggling the teacher can reflect on what they can do to
make the lesson more meaningful and easier to understand for their students.

4.Smoothness

The teacher can have students make hand gestures, that will tell the teacher whether the student has a
comment or question concerning the lesson. This technique allows the teacher to have an idea about
those students who may cause an unwanted tangent and those who may have a good question,
pertaining to utilize the time effectively. When placing students in group-work, the teacher can walk
around facilitating and listening to discussions of other students. The teacher can then intervene or take
the group to a different track if required.

5.Group Focus

The teacher can implement this strategy with several techniques:

A. Encourage Accountability: Make students aware that they will be graded for their participation and
contributions to the group.

B. The teacher can have a canister of popsicle sticks that have each student’s name on them. The
teacher can pick the popsicle stick at random to keep students on track and out of their seats with
anticipation for question/answer time, board problems, etc.

C. The students can facilitate a discussion. Once they have finished a task they can turn to each other or
they could pair up with those who are already done and compare answers.

For implementation to be effective the teacher must be well organized, communicate their expectations
to their students, and hold them responsible for their actions to encourage motivation and attention.

Elementary School

In an elementary setting, the teacher could pair up the class in groups of 4-5 students and assign a team
name. The time could be set for a certain time. Once the timer has elapsed the students would be
instructed of how to rotate. The teacher must not remain idle at any time. This should be used as
reinforcement/enrichment of the content in which the teacher has already covered the material and
could informally assess understanding and application of content. The centers assure the five strategies
by having directions at each center, a visual to state where students should be after the time is up, and a
way for teachers to actively listen to concerns/speed-bumps that are holding them back. The teacher
should make each center as kinesthetic as possible with many manipulatives at each station. It is very
important that elementary instructors maintain their energy and enthusiasm when presenting to their
students.

Middle School

Kounin's theories are very useful in a Middle School setting. The first two terms he uses, "With-it-ness"
and "Overlapping," can be used for preventing the misbehavior of other students. When one student is
about to throw a paper airplane or punch his friend in the shoulder, the teacher can make eye contact
with him and shake his head. The belief is that doing this will show other students that they will not get
away with this either. In Middle School, however, it usually becomes more necessary to make an
example of a student who willingly breaks a rule so that other students know they will share the same
fate if they do so as well. Also, the "overlapping" ability to do more than one thing at once is essential,
since most middle school students will capitalize on the opportunity to get away with outlawed behavior
while the teacher's back is turned. A final approach that seemed very effective was implementing lesson
plans with high participation formats. When every student always has something to do, each will not
become bored and find off-task behavior to engage in.

High School

In a high school setting, a teacher needs to incorporate all the aspects of Kounin's philosophy in their
teaching practice. This means that with-it-ness, overlapping, smoothness, momentum, and group focus
all must meld together to form a coherent whole. This could be implemented through teachers having at
least a week’s lessons ahead of time for them to be sure that lesson fluidity occurs. The "with-it-ness"
that comes with being an effective teacher is most often the fruit of planning and keeps students on
task. This takes a special ability to diffuse potentially distracting situations in which teachers need to
bring students back to the task at hand. In showing students the connections between one subject to
the next, using previous vocabulary to prepare students for learning new vocabulary, a teacher will show
overlapping. This overlapping ties into the momentum aspect. Students that feel they are learning will
make connections between old and new material. This confidence will allow them to contribute to the
momentum of the classroom. The group focus aspect in the high school setting really takes a quick
attention to detail. Keeping high school students on task and not thinking about tomorrow night’s
football game is a skill that is essential to promoting learning. A teacher needs to be able to spot check
for students not paying attention and rapidly engage them back into the subject, while holding the rest
of the class’ attention. This can be done through exciting announcements, demonstrations, or by
changing the atmosphere of learning.