Yet, most general teacher training programs don’t require a full course in classroom management or behavior management. Those courses are typically limited to special education teachers. All teachers need that training. Also, let’s stop blaming the kids (with disability labels) and start focusing on parent and teacher training.
Yes, and in addition, Tom, where classroom management courses are offered, they often take the form of practical, but only modestly influential recommendations regarding arrangement of desks, creation of bulletin, boards, development of classroom rules, and such. They only sometimes provide additional practical recommendations about actually encouraging and promoting appropriate student like behavior. That is, the usual classroom management courses do not address how to teach children to behave appropriately. Some that go beyond bulletin boards and such, may focus on valuable skills and knowledge about how to build warm, supportive, interpersonal relationships, but relationships are not necessarily going to lead to appropriate student behavior. In fact, I would say that teachers ought to establish warm supportive relationships with their students as a given, regardless of whether they will produce appropriate behavior. Such relationships should be foundational in teacher-student interactions. (Teachers who don’t care about their kids probably should change professions.) Somewhere along line teachers need to learn how to teach behavior. Because you’ve written textbooks about it, Tom, you know that there's a shipload of research documenting how to do that very thing.
"The percentage of elementary schools where educators say they need more training on classroom management increased from 51 percent in May 2022 to 65 percent last year."
Tom is right. General ed teacher prep curricula don't include training in classroom management, despite teachers calls for this. I haven't read the Hechinger Report yet, but from your summary, it appears that educators are casting about for solutions rather than searching out what works. If medicine operated this way, we'd still be applying leaches and trephination to patients.
Good one, Mike! It’s really important to adopt solutions that work, not just those that appeal to our intuition. We need to employ behavior and classroom management methods have been systematically tested and found to produce objective benefits. Allowing children to chose items from a treasure box might be effective, but I suspect that when it causes changes in children’s behavior, the practice has been employed quite systematically and consistently. One wouldn’t expect that keeping a bottle of disinfectant in the kitchen cabinet would result in a germ-free house.
Yet, most general teacher training programs don’t require a full course in classroom management or behavior management. Those courses are typically limited to special education teachers. All teachers need that training. Also, let’s stop blaming the kids (with disability labels) and start focusing on parent and teacher training.
Yes, and in addition, Tom, where classroom management courses are offered, they often take the form of practical, but only modestly influential recommendations regarding arrangement of desks, creation of bulletin, boards, development of classroom rules, and such. They only sometimes provide additional practical recommendations about actually encouraging and promoting appropriate student like behavior. That is, the usual classroom management courses do not address how to teach children to behave appropriately. Some that go beyond bulletin boards and such, may focus on valuable skills and knowledge about how to build warm, supportive, interpersonal relationships, but relationships are not necessarily going to lead to appropriate student behavior. In fact, I would say that teachers ought to establish warm supportive relationships with their students as a given, regardless of whether they will produce appropriate behavior. Such relationships should be foundational in teacher-student interactions. (Teachers who don’t care about their kids probably should change professions.) Somewhere along line teachers need to learn how to teach behavior. Because you’ve written textbooks about it, Tom, you know that there's a shipload of research documenting how to do that very thing.
"The percentage of elementary schools where educators say they need more training on classroom management increased from 51 percent in May 2022 to 65 percent last year."
Tom is right. General ed teacher prep curricula don't include training in classroom management, despite teachers calls for this. I haven't read the Hechinger Report yet, but from your summary, it appears that educators are casting about for solutions rather than searching out what works. If medicine operated this way, we'd still be applying leaches and trephination to patients.
Good one, Mike! It’s really important to adopt solutions that work, not just those that appeal to our intuition. We need to employ behavior and classroom management methods have been systematically tested and found to produce objective benefits. Allowing children to chose items from a treasure box might be effective, but I suspect that when it causes changes in children’s behavior, the practice has been employed quite systematically and consistently. One wouldn’t expect that keeping a bottle of disinfectant in the kitchen cabinet would result in a germ-free house.