Running head: PHILOSOPHY OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT 1

Philosophy of Classroom Management

Jared Kaye

St. Thomas University

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Several months ago, if you were to ask me to describe classroom management I would

not have been able to provide you with a straight answer. If I were to think back to my own

experiences as a student I would say that each individual teacher is unique in not only how they

teach but how in how they control the classroom climate. Some teachers created an environment

that I would describe as unpleasant, and this was likely unintentional; however, I feel that when a

semester is started of with a syllabus that consists of more rules than it does educational aspects

the teacher is essentially creating a foundation for following direction opposed to guiding their

students to develop their ability to use logic when making choices in their lives.

Alfie Kohn argues that a school should be more of a community than a place where

students go to be dictated as to what is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. Kohn (2006)

defines a school community as “a place in which students feel cared about and are encouraged to

care about each other (p. 101).” This quote is further explored when Kohn wrote that students

will be more respectful when they feel respected and they will care about other more if they feel

that they are cared for by the adults in their community (Kohn, 2006, p. 111).

Kohn also argues that by relabelling punishment as a form of logical consequences

opposed to punishment you are simply making teachers feel better about punishing students and

are just teaching students to follow rules, conform to societal expectations, and are coercing

students to act in an ideal way by using bribes and treats (2006, p. 52-53).

When I first read Kohn’s research I found it to be was very idealistic. I felt that while his

intentions were very well thought out and would have a very positive impact on student

behaviour, I also believed it would be impossible to implement and that no forms of punishment

would result in absolute chaos in the classroom. I then revisited Kohn’s theories and re-evaluated

my position and found that I could not think of any logical reason for not at least attempting to
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build a sense of community in my classroom. I started to think that maybe if you started with

your own classroom and gained some success that other teachers may attempt to apply your

methods and that it could eventually restructure the entire school’s view on classroom

management. Kohn agrees with starting small and allowing time for the community to be

established as I think it would not be reasonable to expect this type of change to happen over the

period of a few hours, especially if those involved are completely unacquainted (2006, p.109).

By establishing a classroom community, the students will feel as though they are not in

their teacher’s classroom but are in their own classroom where they have a say in what happens

in the class; however, I would argue that there should still be a set of rules in place in order to

establish a sense of consistency for day-to-day activities and between classrooms. If all

classroom teachers in your school have rules and you do not, then it will create an imbalance that

may cause students to be uncomfortable. I believe that consistency creates comfort for both the

student and the teacher.

Establishing a set of rules does not have to be completely controlled by the teacher.

Levin, Nolan, Kerr, Elliott, & Bajovic (2016) wrote that rules can be constructed as a classroom

activity and discussion. If the teacher is still able to teach, the students are still able to learn,

there is no psychological or physical harm, and the school property is protected there would not

be any reason to disallow the students to assist in this process (Levin et al., 2016, p. 164). The

authors also provide a few steps in order to assist in this process stating that there should be a

class discussion about the goals of both the teacher and students for the year, word the rules that

have been decided upon into positive terms opposed to threats of consequence, and limit yourself

to a smaller number of rules such as four or five (Levin et al., 2016, p. 164).
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Having rules in a classroom, whether implemented with or without student input, would

suggest that there would need to be consequences to accompany these rules; however, I would

prefer to repackage consequences as reasonable responses. As I have previously stated, Alfie

Kohn (2006) believes that relabelling punishment as logical consequences is just a tactic to make

teachers feel better about punishing (p.53). Kohn would likely argue that this is exactly what I

am doing by replacing consequences with reasonable responses, but I would heavily disagree. I

believe that by constructing a community where each member has a say about how the classroom

will function there must also be a method to keep that community in order and by allowing those

community members to establish rules we should also allow them to have a say in what the

response will be when those rules are violated. By giving the students a choice and voice the

community would function similarly to a democratic society.

The establishment of reasonable responses would, at the end of the day, require different

responses based on different levels of severity. Instead of the teacher saying “these are our five

classroom rules that we have established together, now I am going to tell you what my responses

will be to each when you choose not to follow the rules,” we could have the teacher decide on

two or three different outcomes for when each rule is broken and keep these responses to

themselves. Then when a rule is broken the teacher can meet with the student, they can discuss

why the student made the decision to break the rule, and the student can be given options for

their reasonable response opposed to being told what they will have to do to make restitution.

After having this discussion, the teacher may have a reasonable response that they feel would be

more beneficial to the student and help them develop into responsible and logical citizens.

Malmgren, Trezek, & Paul (2005) wrote that not every situation will require a response

and that some situations can be ignored (p. 37). Levin et al. (2016) agree with this statement by
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writing that teachers should asses each issue before responding. The authors wrote that teachers

should evaluate if the actions are disrupting other students right to learn, act only if it is

reasonable to do so, lessen your response so it is not disrupting your other students, and manage

your response so that it takes little time to resolve the issue and your instructional time can

continue (Levin et al., 2016, p. 19). This is called the CALM approach and it will result in the

teacher making a reasonable response to student behaviour opposed to reacting with frustration

and emotion directed towards the student.

I would summarize my philosophy of classroom management down to four key lines:

establish a community, allow rules to be built with students, develop reasonable responses for

these rules, and ensure that you as a teacher have reasonable responses to behaviour in the

classroom. By establishing a community, students will learn to care for one another as well as

themselves and it will help them develop personal life skills on how to make logical decisions

opposed to following orders. Allowing the students to develop the rules along with the teacher

will assist in building this community as it will be key for students to work together towards a

common goal. Also, by having students create the rules along with the teacher you may have

good rules being formulated that you as a teacher had never even considered as it has likely been

a few years since you sat in a classroom as a student. When there are rules there must be

reasonable responses to these rules. These responses can be developed by the teacher, but I feel

that I would prefer to discuss the students’ actions with them privately before I make a final

decision on how to respond to the situation. Finally, the teacher should also be reasonable in their

approach to students who are not following the rules. The teacher should use logic to determine

how they will act and not emotion. This will set a good example for your students and I believe

these methods will result in a positive classroom community.

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References

Kohn, A. (2006). Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community. Alexandria, Virginia:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Levin, J., Nolan, J., Kerr, J., Ellitt, A., & Bajovic, M. (2016). Principles of Classroom
Management. Toronto, Canada: Pearson.

Malmgren, K., Trezek, B., & Paul, P. (2005). Models of classroom management as applied to the
secondary classroom. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues
and Ideas, 79(1), 36-39.