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- Discipline. Discipline refers to a variety of teacher actions focused on preventing and responding to
students’ misbehavior. Discipline does not only mean punishment, nor does it only mean what teachers
do after misbehavior occurs. Discipline includes teacher actions that keep misbehavior from happening.
As Figure 11.1 highlights, four of the five components of management (physical design, rules and
routines, relationships, and engaging instruction) are aimed at preventing misbehavior rather than
responding to misbehavior. The fifth component—discipline—includes both actions designed to prevent
misbehavior and actions that respond to misbehavior. Thus, it is crucial for teachers to understand that
most of their management activities are directed at preventing misbehavior, not at responding to
misbehavior. The more skilled a teacher is at preventing behavior problems (implementing the prevention
components), the fewer problems will arise.
ORGANIZING THE PHYSICAL DESIGN OF THE CLASSROOMThe physical layout of the classroom is important in well-managed classrooms. According to
teacher educator Walter Doyle (2006), one of the main factors determining how much time teachers spend
organizing and directing students and dealing with inappropriate and disruptive behavior is the physical
arrangement of the setting.
In a classic study, teacher educator Carol Weinstein (1979) reviewed research on the effects of
physical features of the classroom environment. She found that physical arrangements primarily affected
students’ attitudes and behavior rather than their achievement. She also found that it was important to
separate areas that serve different purposes and plan clear pathways for movement between areas. The
supplies area should be separated from the class library area, for example. If students need to move from
one part of the room to another (e.g., to get supplies), the pathways for this movement need to be wide
enough for students to move easily (Carter & Doyle, 2006).
Weinstein also found that the density of the classroom affected the frequency of misbehavior. In
dense classrooms, students are crowded into a relatively small space. In less dense classrooms, there is
more space per student. Students were more attentive, less distracted, and less aggressive in classrooms
with lower density. This relationship has been found at very different age levels—in preschools as well as
college classes (Weinstein, 1979), suggesting that students need adequate space to learn effectively.
In the following sections, we discussion several important components of physical layout. These
include arrangement of students desks as well as arranging other furniture and materials.
Arranging Students’ Desks
When laying out their classrooms, teachers must decide how to lay out the students’ desks.
Classrooms have an action zone (Doyle, 2006), which is the area of the classroom in which students
interact most frequently with the teacher. When desks are arranged in traditional rows, the action zone is
typically the front and the center of the room—the parts of the room that are closest to the teacher. Students
who sit in these parts of the classroom benefit from having more frequent interactions with the teacher
(Adams, 1969; Adams & Biddle, 1970). It is very important for teachers to be aware that they may have a
strong tendency to interact disproportionately with these students. Teachers should compensate by
circulating to all parts of the room during lessons and to make sure that they are interacting equally with
students in all parts of the room (Evertson, Emmer & Worsham, 2003; Savage & Savage, 2010; Weinstein
& Mignano, 2007).