Please answer these open-ended questions completely. There is no right or wrong answer. 1. What is classroom management? Why is it/is it not important?
2. What more do you feel like you need to learn about classroom management to be more effective? 3. Describe (or imagine) a time when you used an effective classroom management skill and how that impacted the classroom.
4. From where/who did you learn your most effective classroom management strategies?
5. Does classroom context (e.g., student demographic, school structure, community) play a role in classroom management? Why or why not?
Consider your current teaching context (e.g., grade level, subject, students). You prepared two main activities for one class period. The first half of the class is primarily lecture-based on a new concept, with students taking notes on the material. The second half of the class, you will have the students work in small group stations, between 3-4 students per group.
159 1. In the middle of the lecture, you notice two students in the back of the room throwing a ball of paper at each other every time you turn you back. No other students in the class notice. List two different strategies that would help to resolve this situation.
2. After explaining what each station is about, you release the students to go to their designated station. Only a handful of students get up from their desks, with a large contingent of students chatting with one another and discussing non-academic related items. List two strategies that you could attempt to manage the class.
160 Appendix C: Program Outcomes Not Included in Field Instruction Rubric
Additional Program Outcomes 6. Assess student learning
a. Multiple forms of assessment b. Criterion for assessment c. Data tracking
7. Design intentional teaching and learning units a. Unit plans
b. Lesson development
8. Relate and communicate effectively with parents, families, and community a. Communicates with families and communities
9. Reflect on practice and leadership, and contribute professionally to the learning community
a. Reflect on lessons and practice b. Builds relationships with colleagues c. Professional development
161 Appendix D: Total Data Collected By Participant (Date)
Participant Ms. Babkin Ms. Chatman Mr. Frank Mr. Sand Mr. Vante Pre-Survey (9/10/13) X (9/12/13) X (9/10/13) X (9/14/13) X (9/29/13) X Post-Survey (5/15/14) X (8/30/14) X (8/30/14) X (5/15/14) X (5/15/14) X Weekly Recording #1 X (2/24/14) 3/5 (3/6/14) 4/5 (4/14/14) 4/5 (2/10/14) X (2/10/14) Weekly Recording #2 (5/12/14) X (4/28/14) 2/5 (5/12/14) 4/5 (5/5/14) 3/5 (4/28/14) X Weekly Recording #3 (6/2/14) 3/5 (6/2/14) 2/5 0 (6/2/14) X (6/2/14) X Field Visit #1 X (5/7/14) X (3/19/14) X (4/29/14) X (4/29/14) X (3/18/14) Field Visit #2 (6/2/14) 2 hours (5/13/14) X (6/5/14) X (5/28/14) 2 hours (5/12/14) X Journal Entries Completed 7 1 3 6 5 Interview #1 X (12/4/13) X (11/21/13) X (4/10/14) X (12/4/13) X (12/5/13) Interview #2 (6/23/14) X (6/19/14) X (6/17/14) X (6/23/14 X (6/16/14) X Note: X = Complete set of data
162 Appendix E: Classroom Management Interview Protocol
Introduction
I appreciate your willingness to come today and participate in this interview. This study seeks to learn more about teachers’ thoughts, feelings, and attitudes about classroom management. Please do your best in verbalizing affirmation and answers as we discuss information with one another. There is no judgment involved with your answers; I appreciate honest and authentic answers to best understand how teachers think about classroom management. If at any point, you feel
uncomfortable and do not wish to participate, you may skip a question or stop the interview. I will be following this script of questions that I have laid out. I would be glad to clarify or rephrase questions, however I want to learn about your thoughts. If you care for my opinions about certain questions, if you could wait until the conclusion of the interview, I can (selectively) answer them at that point. Are there any questions before we begin?
Researcher’s note: red text refers to questions from the pre-survey. They are meant to build on the participants’ answers that were provided.
Interview Questions
1. Could you please state your name and what you teach?
2. If you had prior experience with teaching, could you expand on what that prior experience was? Management Beliefs
3. How do you define classroom management? a. Classroom management is…
4. What impact do you believe classroom management has on a classroom?
5. How important do you think classroom management is, relative to other teaching practices that you need to learn as a beginning teacher?
a. Why?
b. Practices such as lesson planning, attendance, differentiation, etc…
6. Do you feel like effective managers can be prepared or is it a primarily innate skill?
7. Is there a relationship between what you know or learn about classroom management, and how you enact classroom management?
a. Is your knowledge of management and your action of management related?
b. Can you act what you know or are you unable to act what you know? Or is it a matter of knowing more?
c. Or is there a disconnect between the two? Why or why not? 8. Why does a student misbehave?
a. Do your students misbehave? Why?
Management Strategies
9. What is your general approach to managing the classroom?
10. What are effective classroom management strategies that you employ? a. Explain more…
11. When you think of different management strategies, are there specific categories or sets of strategies that you group together?
a. What are those groups? b. What do they accomplish?
12. Are there effective management strategies that you have seen or heard that you would want to implement?
a. Explain more…
163
Management Supports
13. Can you name different supports (i.e., people, books, internet) that have helped you learn about classroom management?
a. Can you expand on the supports you listed from your pre-survey?
14. Can you describe how those supports helped you become a better manager? a. Are they doing/saying specific things?
b. Does frequency of this person play a role?
Management Intervention
15. How could you have been better prepared to be a better manager when you first entered your classroom?
16. How could you currently be better supported to improve on your management skills?
a. Are there strategies that would have been better learned through preparation and some that is better through experience?
That is the completion of this interview. I appreciate your time and your honest responses. Do you have anything else you would like to add?
• Turn off recording
• Ask for any additional questions
• Set up and clarify observation procedures o Is there a need for recording equipment?
o Please record 1 class period, focusing the camera primarily on you if possible.
o Feel free to choose a class that best shows you utilizing different management strategies o I will collect, review, and make observations
o I will provide you the observations that I see; if you want to separately debrief or review my observations, that is available
§ Note: I will need to balance my role as a researcher and as a teacher educator. That means I will need to potentially filter some of what I say with you during that debrief. Upon completion of data collection from you, I will gladly have a lengthier discussion if desired.
164 Appendix F: Screenshot of Journal Entries
166 Appendix G: Categorization of Classroom Management Units
Purpose: Find relevant units from the raw data.
• Identify relevant units of classroom management data from raw data. A unit for this study is defined as an explanation of a classroom management belief; the description and/or attempt of a spoken or non-verbal strategy to control student behavior, engagement, or interaction; or an explanation of how an influence supported the teachers' development in classroom
management.
• Label the unit of data with one of three categorical codes about classroom management: o Belief- a complete statement about what the teacher thinks about classroom
management. This can be about classroom management in the abstract, through personal experiences, or how teachers may have ideally wanted to manage a situation. Beliefs can also include groups of practices that the teacher implements that could accurately describe the thought process of having that particular group of practices. It is better to error on making belief units too large to capture a full idea or an entire episode because it can be multiple coded.
§ “Classroom management is the ability to manage student behavior toward productive, curricular tasks.”
§ “My class was disorderly, it didn't matter what I had in my lesson plans, or what group activities I had or what I was doing. It was my number one priority.” § “And the other part was that I think on some level I disagree with it. It seems
like from a behaviorist perspective in psychology, conditioning is entirely reliant on context. If you take a subject out of that environment, if you take a student out of the classroom, they won't behave the same way as out of the classroom.” o Action- teachers’ descriptions or observations of a specific repeatable action to control
student behavior, engage students in learning, or build/facilitate interactions in the classroom. More specifically, classroom management actions can be preventative and reactive techniques to control student actions by promoting appropriate classroom behavior while discouraging misbehavior; actions that teachers use to engage students in content by using content to draw student attention or drawing student attention to content; or actions include facilitating positive interactions in the classroom by building relationships. Actions can be verbal or non-verbal, and are independent of one another. These are actions only performed by the focal teachers.
§ “[Student], check fold (your hands.”
§ Teacher snaps for one student's attention and again walks closely up to that student before returning back to the center of the classroom.
§ “There is a lot going on in this one. I was talking to them about expectations for low volume. This is how loud I am going to talk. If you talk louder over me, you're going to miss something. He was moving around a lot; I said [Student], take a break. I'll talk to you. He went out and came back in. I think it was effective when I did it but it took a lot of time to always be saying I'm talking at this level if you can't hear me and you can't hear me. I've done it in a couple other classes that I think it went pretty good. A lot of them want to hear what I'm saying and they will shush each other. And that's more effective than me yelling at them.”
o Influence- person, object, experience, or designated resource that helps the teacher develop or implement classroom management. This is any external source that measurably impacts teachers to make a positive or negative change within their
167 management practice. Though people may be in contact with the focal teachers, there must be a self-reported response that the participant described that changed how they thought about or implemented management.
§ “[My ACP-FI] tries and she's a good person and her advice is definitely helpful but not exactly where I need it.”
§ “My curriculum coordinator did a lot. She helped me to build up positive feedback and stuff. Positive rewards, systems. I just messed up on my end and wasn't really consistent. She pushed me to set them up, which was helpful. I think that was the hard part.”
• Data labeled as beliefs, practices, or influences are transferred into the corresponding Microsoft Excel sheet for further analysis. Place one piece of data per cell.
168 Appendix H: Coding Data Units
Purpose: Code categorized data using codebook
Directions: Once data are transferred into the Excel sheet, label each piece of data with one of the following codes in an adjacent column. Use your best judgment to consider the complete idea that represents each data piece best. Make note of any discrepancies or questions that arise. Code one category of data at a time.
Beliefs: a complete statement about what the teacher thinks about classroom management.
1. Beliefs About Managing for Student Learning of Content: Teachers’ descriptions about the