Chapter 11 page 221
sure they count them. And if they say that there are a certain number of cattle killed by wolves
each year, I think they would be accurate.
Maia: Ramiro.
Ramiro: It’s not just the ranchers. The wolves are important for the ecosystem. The whole ecosystem.
[Maia points to Vanessa to speak next.]
Vanessa: That’s right. Without the wolves, the ecosystem gets all messed up.
Maia: OK, Ramiro and Vanessa have argued that the ecosystem gets messed up without the wolves. Is
there any evidence for that in the text? Ramiro?
Ramiro: Yeah. It shows a graph that the deer population is really high when there aren’t any wolves, and
it goes down lower when the wolves are brought back.
You have probably noticed many differences between the two discussions in what teachers and students
say. Develop a quantitative analysis of at least three differences between the two discussions. Then use your
findings to develop a hypothesis explaining why Maia’s classes are better behaved than Krysta’s.
In this chapter, we examine how to create a well-managed learning environment that enables all
students to learn. Our focus is classroom management, which refers to the processes that teachers use to
create smoothly-run classroom in which students are fully engaged in learning. Teachers with good
classroom management skills maximize the time that students spend learning and have little student
misbehavior in their classrooms. Teachers with poor classroom management skills have classes in which
students misbehave and spend a great deal of time off task, which means that the students are not focused
on learning. Instead, the students may be talking, goofing off, or just daydreaming.
The instructional lessons that teachers create are an important part of classroom management. In
the Reflection you just read, the teacher whose students were well behaved and engaged in learning asked
different kinds of questions than the teacher whose students often behaved badly. We will learn more later
in this chapter how effective classroom managers design instruction, as well as how teachers implement
other components of a well-managed classroom.
CHALLENGES IN MANAGING CLASSROOMSBeginning teachers, and even experienced teachers, often struggle with creating a well-managed
classroom in which students can learn (Jacques, 2000; Jones, 2006; Ladd, 2000; McCormack, 2001;
Stough, 2006). One reason why classroom management is challenging is that many teachers approach it
with some incorrect alternative conceptions. Consider your own answers to the two simple questions below.
(Write your answer down before looking ahead.)
Question #1: What is the first word or phrase that comes to mind when you hear the phrase
“classroom management”?
Question #2: What is the goal of classroom management?
When undergraduates beginning their study of education are asked these questions, they typically give
answers such as these:
Answers to Question 1: discipline, punishment, control,
Answers to Question 2: good behavior, orderly classroom, control, quiet
The idea that classroom management is mainly about discipline (or punishment) is an alternative
conception held by teachers that can actually interfere with effective teaching. In fact, effective managers
organize their classrooms so that they avoid most behavior problems and so do not have to worry about
discipline very often (Brophy, 2006; Evertson and Weinstein, 2006). As we will discuss in this chapter, a
focus on discipline as the main way to run classes will exacerbate behavior problems.
A second alternative conception that can create problems for teachers is the conception that the
central goal of classroom management is a well-controlled classroom in which students are quiet. It is true
that in well-managed classes, students are on task and are seldom disruptive, but they are not necessarily
quiet. Well-managed classrooms can be noisy and even a bit chaotic, as when students working in groups