Classroom Management

I have been doing some research into some classroom management strategies to synthesize some of the philosophies I have been exposed to over the years. In the process of doing that I have run across what at first appears to be conflicting information.

Many people will tell you that the most important skill a teacher can have is good classroom management. I don’t disagree with that statement personally, but when you look at Hattie’s research you will see that this does not have the greatest impact on student achievement. In fact out of 252 factors, classroom management lands almost in the middle at 134.

For those of you interested in the actual effect size numbers, Classroom management has an effect size of 0.35 which falls below the “hinge point.” The item with the greatest effect size is Collective Teacher Efficacy and it has an effect size of 1.57. Any factor with a positive effect size has a positive impact while a negative effect size has a negative impact but that is oversimplifying things a bit. That hinge point I mentioned earlier occurs at 0.4 and basically some say that if it falls below that marker, it really doesn’t have a significant impact therefore don’t focus on it. To see all the factors in the study here is a link to the Visible Learning page with the graphic.

But I would argue the opposite is true. Even though it falls below the “hinge point,” classroom management has much more significance than this study gives it. Here is why.

Of the factors in the study, about twenty of them are within the classroom itself. The rest of the factors fall into other categories like Curricula, Home, Student, School, Teaching or Teacher. So if we look at those twenty “Classroom” factors, Classroom management lands at number 7 in that area, but ahead of it are Acceleration and Enrichment programs as well as Behavioral Interventions, Positive Peer Influence, Small Group Learning and Strong Classroom Cohesion.

While it is great to break these down into smaller categories, to me they are all related. Without classroom management, small group learning will not occur. Without classroom management, you won’t achieve strong classroom cohesion. Behavioral Interventions will not succeed unless they are part of a great classroom management plan. You can’t have successful acceleration or enrichment programs without classroom management.

Granted I am not a researcher at this point in my career, but my experience has led me to understand that though all of these other factors may have a more significant impact on achievement, they cannot occur without effective classroom management. If your classroom management is done well it allows everything else to work much better.

I want to take some time over the next couple of posts to help you develop and implement your classroom management plan. So here are the next few posts in the classroom management category.

Plan to Succeed-Developing Classroom Management Plan

Success in Action-Putting your Classroom Management Plan into Action

Continued Success-Revisiting and Revising your Classroom Management Plan.
I look forward to sharing these ideas with you over the next few posts.

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