Current Trends in Classroom Management and Handling Difficult Situations
Current Trends in Classroom Management and Handling Difficult Situations
R. Stephen Bliley
Grand Canyon University: EDU-5000
6-9-12
Current Trends 2 There are various trends in classroom management that are currently popular. Four main strategies that are current include: Wong’s Pragmatic Classroom; Kagan, Kyle, and Scott’s Win-Win Discipline, Canter’s Behavior Management Cycle/Assertive Discipline, and Morrish’s Real Discipline. Each strategy has strengths and weaknesses. There are various negative classroom conditions and behaviors that also are current today. Five of these problems will be analyzed to see if any of the current classroom management styles would work in those situations. The first classroom management strategy is Wong’s Pragmatic Classroom. The expectation of Wong’s strategy is that everything is planned out for the students. The whole day “clearly defines expectations for students and how to achieve those expectations” (C). Students are directed on “where to sit in the classroom and they are to begin on an assignment that is laid out for them upon entering the classroom” (C). This is an easy to follow classroom strategy because all the student has to do is follow the instructions. The teacher has the ability to control the classroom because of the clearly defined layout of the class work and the schedule. Wong’s Pragmatic Classroom provides “structure, order, and discipline” (C). When a teacher establishes an order and routine for students to follow every day, “students experience an order that allows learning to flourish in the classroom” (C). By having the day planned out, the teacher can “focus on being productive to prevent problems rather than wasting time reacting to problems (C). This is a heavily structured and very rigid classroom management strategy. One disadvantage to this strategy is that if class is disrupted for any reason,