The case under reflection concerns a teacher who teaches amidst an uncontrollable class. The teacher entered the class together with the students, wrote notes while students were chatting with one another, discussed football with two of the students, and could not notice some bad behaviors by some students, as he was busy talking with a bunch of others. The behavior of the teacher is unacceptable and has a huge contribution to the student’s noise in the classroom. Glasser’s choice theory of classroom management posits that total behavior is made of four components, among them, acting (Glasser, 2010). As per Kounins’ eight principles of classroom management, the teacher did not observe the principle of withitness, which requires a teacher to gain control of the classroom before it becomes uncontrollable (Tuckman&Monetti, 2010). Instead, the teacher encouraged the talkative behavior of the students. In addition, the teacher violated Konuin’s principles of momentum, smoothness, group alerting, encouraging accountability and transitions.

In Frederick Jones’s Preferred Activity Time (PAT) system, both the teacher and the students can benefit. However, the students are supposed to have fun, only after earning from the learning. Additionally, in positive reinforcement by Frederic Jones, a teacher should initiate some simple procedures that teach the students how to behave well in class. Such is supported by the National Professional Standards for Teachers’ guidelines. Under BOSTES’ professional standards for teachers, the discipline starts with the teacher. In the case scenario presented, the teacher made two major mistakes. He made fun with students before teaching them, and in the middle of the lesson. Worst of all, he chatted with groups of students, and not the whole class. Secondly, instead of using positive reinforcement to initiate good behavior, he used to shout to the students. Since the teacher is also contributing to the disorderliness of the classroom, he is less likely to achieve order in the class. In essence, the teacher should have called for order, teach, and make only the necessary fun after students benefited. Additionally, the teacher should not have talked to only a few students, leaving others to discuss irrelevant topics in class.

References

BOSTES.(2014). Australian professional standards for teachers. Sydney South, NSW: Author.

Glasser, W.M. (2010).Choice theory: A new psychology of personal freedom. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Tuckman, B., &Monetti, D. (2010).Educational psychology. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.