INTRODUCTION

Classroom management means how the teacher works, how the class works, how the
teacher and students work together, and how teaching and learning happen. For
students, classroom management means having some control in how the class
operates and understanding clearly the way the teacher and students are to interact
with each other. For both teachers and students, classroom management is not a
condition but a process.
Classroom management can be defined as the process by which teachers create,
important and maintain an environment in the classroom that allows students the best
opportunity to learn. Teachers are faced with classroom issues such as excessive
talking during instruction, getting out of seat without permission, throwing objects
across the room, sleeping during classroom instruction and disrespect to the teacher. It
is important that teachers find creative ways to deal with the issues as well as provide
quality instruction in the classroom. Classroom management and classroom
instruction are connected.

IMPACT OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT ON LEARNING

It is obvious that not all students learn at the same pace or in the same way. Schools
and teachers may have to consider the extent to which education policies and
practices lead to the labeling of students or to promoting the view that learning
capacities are either limited or fixed. Educating the whole person is an important goal
of education in itself and teachers play their part in this process, by taking into
account and responding to individual differences in development and learning needs
in each classroom.
How a teacher perceives behavior management depends on how he sees his job as a
teacher and to what extent he believes that all students can learn. Learning outcomes
and behavior are aspects of education, which are very much influenced by teaching
quality. A teacher has control over many factors that influence motivation,
achievement and behavior of students. Factors such as a classrooms physical
environment, a students level of emotional comfort and the quality of communication
between teacher and students are important factors that enable or disable optimal
learning of individual students.
To be able to manage problems of students requires insight into where these
difficulties may come from and why and when they arise. A teacher has to care for
many different students, including those from poor, disadvantaged families, students
who may have to work before or after school, students from different ethnic, religious
or language minority groups and those with a variety of learning difficulties or
disabilities. Students may come to school hungry or tired, they may not have been
able to do home-work because of lack of electricity or parents who are illiterate and
not able to help them with their school assignments. It is important for a teacher to
know a childs socio-economic and family background to be able to understand these
non-academic or social factors that influence learning and behavior. These factors

cannot directly be altered, but understanding them will enable a teacher to place a
students learning failure or misbehavior in perspective and create learning
environments that reduce rather than increase the effects of such. Students may be at
risk of negative and meaningless school experiences if a teacher does not understand
the whole child and his/her background, and is not ready with responsive, effective
instruction and classroom strategies.
A teacher must however not only look at social backgrounds, but also at what happens
inside the classroom. How students behave is often a reaction to factors within the
school. A teacher needs to reflect on the learning environment he has created and
whether this engages all students actively and meaningfully. It is important for a
teacher to investigate how his style of teaching can affect progress and behavior of
different students. Timing of teaching-learning interactions is an essential part of
classroom management and improved management of the classroom environment and
timing of classroom activities can avoid many behavior problems.
Effective teachers and classroom managers address the needs of students both in
terms of what they teach and how they teach. Though teaching is generally a group
activity, learning is very individual. Effective teachers are sensitive to these
differences and take actions to accommodate these so that, ideally, each child is
provided an optimal learning experience.
Apart from imparting knowledge and skills, teachers also help students to define who
they are. From daily interactions with teachers, students learn whether they are
important or insignificant, bright or slow, liked or disliked. Teachers transmit these
messages by the way they speak to students, their facial expressions and gestures, and
by the amount of time they devote to each individual learner. Often teachers point out

students deficiencies more than praising them for their efforts and (small)
improvements. For many students this is very discouraging, and may result in feelings
of inferiority and failure. A teacher needs to realize this. From the messages that
students receive, they decide whether they are willing to risk participation in
classroom activities or not. Effective teachers recognize that such involvement does
not always come easy - it requires a trusting, psychologically comfortable learning
environment.
A quality, essential to a psychological comfortable classroom environment is mutual
respect. Too often, discussions related to respect focus mainly on the necessity of
students respecting teachers. However, teachers and students must respect each other
and respect has to be earned by both. It has to do with the way teachers and students
interact. Students may have negative classroom experiences because teacher or peers
ridicule them, or they repeatedly hear that they are disruptive or slow or dumb.
These and other negative messages telling students that they are not valued or
respected, often result in students giving up on classroom participation.

CONCLUSION
Classroom management is one of the greatest concerns of teachers and administrators
when addressing the safety and well being of students. Classroom management ranks
at or near the top for beginning teachers as a general concern. I do believe that quality
classroom instruction impacts student achievement more than anything else, but I also
feel that you cannot have quality classroom instruction without quality classroom
management skills.

REFERENCES
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Smith, Rick (2004). Conscious Classroom Management: Unlocking The Secrets of
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