Classroom management may be defined as the process of organizing and controlling the physical and social environment in the classroom to achieve educational goals. It may also be defined as the efficient control and efficient use of available resources in the classroom to promote learning.
The physical environment includes tangible objects or physical entities like the teacher’s table and chair, pupils’ tables and chairs or desks, the chalkboard, duster, textbooks, audiovisual aids, wall charts and pictures, cupboards and cabinets, and the teacher and pupils. The teacher and pupils in a classroom constitute a social unit and the types of interactions between the teacher and pupils constitute the social environment.
Class management includes all the strategies that the teacher uses to bring harmony into the teaching and learning environment.
The teacher as a manager of his class performs some management functions. These include planning what to teach, how, and when to teach. This is done by preparing a lesson plan.
The teacher also budgets for the material and human resources he will need in the teaching-learning environment. He is also expected to organize by arranging, assembling, and using the physical and human resources to achieve stated objectives.
He also controls by directing the teaching-learning process from beginning to end until the set objectives are attained.
Finally, the teacher performs the management function of problem-solving by ensuring that the class environment is free of conflict and conducive for learning as well as helping individuals to deal with their personal, academic and social problems.
To perform these functions the teacher must have competence in subject matter knowledge (content) and inaction system knowledge (methodology). In addition to these, he must have a positive, consistent, and firm personality that will empower him to exercise the influence on his class to achieve his set objectives.
Elements of Effective Classroom Management
Classroom management strategies include routine ways of managing behavioral and instructional interactions in the classroom. Six key elements of effective classroom management are:
- Planning
- Establishing usable rules.
- Getting off on a good start
- Monitoring the classroom environment
- Keeping records efficiently
- Creating strategies for managing interruptions
