Case study A: Ms. Ford’s Classroom

Case study A: Ms. Ford’s Classroom

As a new teacher practicing in her first year, Ms. Ford had voluminous expectations for and from her grade three class. Initially, her classroom was peaceful, calm and well behaved, perhaps the only drawback was that she had a quiet classroom which did not participate in class discussions on a regularly basis. Ms. Ford was irresolute on what steps to take to address the situation, this is despite her previous preparation to handle and solve assorted classroom management problems.

There are many changes and adjustments that Ms. Ford construed after brainstorming the entire weekend with regards to the challenge she was facingin her classroom and the corresponding strategies to address them. The changes that the teacher made in her classroom all touched on classroom climate. According to Borich (2011, p. 165) classroom climate refers to the atmosphere or disposition on which interactions between the teacher and the students takes place. It is created by the approach, modus and extent to which a teacher exercises authority, displays warmth and support to the students, foster competitiveness and, or cooperation and teamwork, and consent to independent judgment and choice. There exist two aspects of a classroom atmosphere that make it one of the most effectiveapproach; the social environment and the organizational environment. Ms. Ford makes use of both.

The first classroom environment aspect that Ms. Ford endeavored to change is the social environment. The use of the social environment aims at promoting cooperation and interaction in the classroomsetting. The change that she made was the manner in which the students entered the classroom. She made the decision of greeting the students at the door as well as complimenting each one of them. This she opined would most likely positively impact the students moodsand attitude throughout the day and would also enable her provide the students with a sense of “with-it-ness” (Borich, 2011, p. 182).

The second countenance that Ms. Ford strived to modify in order to encourage classroom participation was the organizational environment of the classroom atmosphere. This was meant to improve and promote the physical and visual appeal of the classroom. Ms. Ford modified the arrangement of the classroom and positioned the tables into groups as opposed to positioning them in rows. By doing this, Ms. Ford envisaged more articulation and voicing of student’s opinions and views, improved student talk, and a greater spontaneityand impulsiveness in student response (Borich, 2011, p. 170). In positioning the students together into groups, Ms. Ford also anticipated that as Borich (2011, p. 180) stated, it would establish an open and risk free classroom climate.

In conclusion, as teachers, sometimes, taking a step backwards and reexamining and reassessing what one is doing, same way Ms. Ford did during that weekend, can massively help in classroom management.

 

References

Borich, G. D. (2011). Effective Teaching Methods: Research-Based Practice (7 ed.). Boston,

MA: Pearson.

 
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