Keeping a Positive Perspective: Creating Relationships
With Students to Improve Classroom Management
In my experience as a new teacher, classroom management is an area of teaching in which I have the most uncertainty. An article by Mary Ellen Beaty-O’Ferrall, Alan Green, and Fred Hanna, “Classroom Management Strategies for Difficult Students: Promoting Change through Relationships,” provides some practical insight into the topic. Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues, discuss the importance of high-quality relationships between students and teachers and three approaches to building relationships with students for developing a positive classroom environment.
The relationship between students and teachers correlates with the effectiveness of classroom management strategies. The notion that a teacher must earn their students’ respect requires the teacher to establish meaningful relationships with the students. According the Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues (2010), respect is gained through positive interactions with each individual student, which in turn enhances student achievement and decreases inappropriate behaviour. High-quality relationships involve mutual respect between the teacher and students, as well as, students feeling that they understood by their teacher. The questions for new teachers to ask are: How do I build those relationships and how do I deal with difficult students?
Classroom Management and Relationship Building
Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues provide strategies for creating positive relationships with difficult students that are based on meeting student needs. The approach emphasises the ability to earn students’ respect rather than demanding it because of the teacher’s title (Beaty-O’Ferrall et al., 2010). The most important strategy is to know and understand each student and how they are able to learn the most effectively. A teacher must first take an interest in their students to begin creating relationships and learning more about their students’ needs.
To meet each student’s needs, an effective teacher gives their students confidence by focusing on developing all aspects of a student’s learning experience, not just their behaviour. Students need to be aware of their own strengths and needs, and see their teacher as someone who cares about them and is willing to help. Social interactions, academic performance, self efficacy, and independence are all areas a student needs encouragement in order to develop. Also, teachers need to incorporate the uniqueness of students by using different strategies with individuals. An approach may not work with every student, but getting to know each student through relationships makes teaching more rewarding.
Strategies for Building Meaningful Relationships
Every teacher dreams of having the ideal classroom where there is a strong connection with the students, students are engaged and challenged, and there are no behavioural issues. The reality is that humans are individuals and have different ideas about what is acceptable behaviour; thus, causing them to naturally misbehave. Barrie Bennett and Peter Smilanich (1994) explain that, “no matter how well you prepare or how much students respect you, some students will still misbehave and you are expected to deal with that misbehaviour, as well as to assist your students in dealing with it” (p. 21). Building relationships with students provides the background for implementing strategies to handle misbehaviour, as well as, decreases the occurrence of misbehaviour. There are three useful approaches Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues (2010) outline for building relationships with students to improve classroom management: building empathy, admiring negative attitudes and behaviours, and leaving your ego at the door. Each of these approaches act as guidelines to gain understanding of students and provide modelling of acceptable behaviour.
In order to build empathy, the teacher must attempt to understand where a student is coming from. This may be done by using any information that is known about the student as an opportunity to show them that the teacher cares. Listening to what a student has to say and working with them to find a solution to a problem, provides guidance and re-assurance. The student feels that the teacher is there to help and has the student’s best interest in mind. If given the opportunity to express themselves and having a teacher take an interest in a student’s ideas, he or she feels understood and appreciated.
While building empathy is important, another effective strategy to building relationships may be admiring negative attitudes and behaviours. This involves turning a negative behaviour into something constructive. Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues (2010) give an example of a manipulative behaviour of a student being used as a skill. While a student who is manipulative can get others to do what they want, their persuasiveness could be seen as a leadership skill. Discussing the behaviour as a skill with the student may encourage the student to use their natural ability toward something constructive.
Lastly, to be an effective teacher, one must leave their ego at the classroom door (Beaty-O’Ferrall et al., 2010). This means that for teachers to develop relationships with their students, inappropriate behaviour from students cannot be taken personally. To teach students to handle situations effectively, teachers are to maintain composure and respond strategically. Because students are very good at reading teachers and sometimes focus on the things that are agitating, it is always important to model appropriate responses to poor behaviour. Authority comes from being self aware of one’s own vulnerabilities, thus rather than responding defensively, a teacher must respond strategically.
The Reality of it All
Not only has Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues outlined a practical and reasonable approach to classroom management, but they focused on appreciating the individual student as a means to earn respect. In her article, “This They Believe: Young Adolescents Reveal Their Needs in School,” Margaret Zollar Booth (2011) focuses on the individual student and their needs. She explores the general needs of students in: the school, the classroom, as well as effective teachers who care about them and who establish positive relationships with them. Everything that we have read as education students says that you need to have a positive classroom environment, and it all starts with the teacher.
I agree with both Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues and Booth, in that the basic needs of students need to be met to establish relationships, but it is not always as easy as it sounds. When students rarely attend class, have low participation, or seriously lack motivation to communicate with you, it becomes difficult to establish a relationship. Obviously it is important to seek every possible opportunity to communicate with those students, but one-on-one time can be difficult to find at times. The idea of taking a personal interest in each student makes sense, but, for instance, it is entirely possible to miss chances for interaction in a busy classroom with a few very quiet students.
The idea of being empathetic is exceptionally promising, although there is always the potential to become frustrated easily. After trying a number of approaches to help a student who is misbehaving, a teacher’s patience may be exhausted. Thus, it may not feel as though progress is being made when a student gives the same reason for their behaviour time after time. Again, it is important to remember that different approaches may be required for different learners; therefore, teachers, in general, need to be empathetic toward their students’ needs and avoid giving up on them.
Although I appreciate Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues’ approach of admiring negative attitudes and behaviours, I feel that it would be a skill that would come after plenty of experience. It is a necessary skill for teacher to see the positive side of their students, but viewing misbehaviour as something to admire would be challenging. As a new teacher, the misbehaviours of students would be frustrating more than inspiring one would think. Possibly it is most important to be positive and look for potential in your students as much as humanly possible. I think that the idea is encouraging and an important lesson to keep in mind, although it may not work with every one of my students, I will keep into account that I need to always be looking for a way to see every student’s skills.
A concept that appears to be less challenging than admiring students’ misbehaviour is leaving one’s ego at the door. I think that new teachers are often uncertain of so many things and are being pulled in so many directions, that it is hard not take things personally. The need to have control and prove oneself as an effective teacher is constantly stressing teachers, but it is important to remember that students cannot be controlled entirely. Each is an individual and needs the freedom to express themselves while the teacher can only control how they, as the teacher, act and respond to the students. Therefore, I agree with Beaty-O’Ferrall and colleagues that teachers need to be aware of their own vulnerabilities and use them as “teachable moments.”
Conclusion
Having effective classroom management helps to establish an environment that is safe and promotes learning. Eliminating the negative aspects of school, such as misbehaviour and lack of safety, creates a positive learning atmosphere for students. In order to improve classroom management, teachers need to develop positive relationships with their students. Although there are some great resources for successful approaches for teachers to take, strategies are unique to the teacher and to the students. The main idea is to have a positive perspective and appreciate the uniqueness of each student.
References
Beaty-O’Ferrell, M.E.; Green, A.; & Hanna, F. (2010, March). Classroom Management Strategies for Difficult Students: Promoting Change through Relationships. Middle School Journal, 41(4), 4-11.
Bennett, B., & Smilanich, P. (1994). Effective Teachers and Ineffective Teachers. Classroom Management: A Thinking and Caring Approach (pp. 20-33). Toronto: Bookation Inc.
Booth, M.Z. (2011, January). This “They” Believe: Young Adolescents Reveal Their Needs in School. Middle School Journal, 42(3), 16-23.
