EDU 523: K-12 Classroom and Instructional Management

Overview

The issue of classroom management has been a long-standing concern of educators and the public. Today, that concept of discipline, with the idea of dealing with misbehavior, has been replaced by a more comprehensive approach to creating classroom environments in which students’ personal and academic needs are met, thus preventing behavior problems in the first place. Successful teachers and principals are more than disciplinarians. They are effective managers of instruction, the classroom, the school environment, and student behavior.

According to Burden (2006, p. 2), the teacher will organize the physical space, manage student behavior, create an environment of respect, facilitate effective instruction, promote safety, and communicate/collaborate with parents and the community.

The purpose of classroom and instructional management is to help future teachers learn how to create a positive learning community and then take steps to maintain that environment by guiding and correcting behavior when necessary (Burden, 2006, p. 2).

To summarize, this course focuses on four dimensions: environmental management, instructional management, classroom management, and behavioral management. Students will learn the variety of strategies for dealing with building-wide, classroom, and behavior issues that every teacher and administrator needs to know to be more effective educators.

Introduction

Students enrolled in JIU’s School of Education will work with sponsors for their professional synthesizing projects to ensure their work addresses the authentic needs of specific learning communities. It is important for students to identify a sponsor early in the course in order for the sponsor to collaborate with the student on the project. You can read more about the sponsor and download the forms from the Sponsor Workbook.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Select and implement a philosophical model of classroom management and discipline.
• Organize the physical and instructional environment, and set expectations for learning and behavior.
• Create a respectful, supportive learning environment that motivates students to learn.
• Utilize prevention strategies to maintain classroom behavior.
• Develop a repertoire of intervention strategies to deal with challenging or violent students.
• Address issues of diversity in order to create an inclusive classroom environment.
• Establish ongoing communication and involvement with families, colleagues, and administrators around issues of classroom behavior and the code of conduct.

Required Texts
EDU 523 texts are available from the JIU/MBS bookstore