Managing Student Behavior

Teachers are a combination of who they are and what they've learned--with a bit more emphasis on what they've learned. It helps to be a born comedian or a motivational speaker, but it isn't necessary. What is necessary is a great desire to teach children and knowledge of how to manage student behavior to keep students engaged academically and behaving responsibly. Managing student behavior and improving student motivation involves knowing what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Put another way, teachers need to know how to manage the mechanisms that will have a positive impact on student behavior. Some teachers do this instinctively, without any training. They avoid power struggles, communicate high expectations, remain calm in difficult situations, and inspire and motivate even the most recalcitrant students. For those who do not come to this instinctively, however, those skills can be learned. Administrators have the responsibility of ensuring that the teachers in their schools know about those mechanisms and have access to tools that manipulate them effectively. The more training that administrators can give teachers in the way of identifying and manipulating the mechanisms that shape student behavior and the more that teachers have the opportunity to master those mechanisms, the better able they will be to intelligently (even unconsciously) prevent problems, increase student motivation, and evaluate and address problems calmly when they do occur. Knowledge of a full and varied set of mechanisms is empowering, giving teachers the confidence to reach even the most difficult of students. The acronym STOIC can describe the major variables that teachers can control in their classrooms: structure, teach, observe, interact, correct. Using STOIC as a guideline, the diligent teacher can identify mechanisms (variables to manipulate) that will help him or her establish a calm, safe, and orderly environment that is conducive to learning. In this article, the authors present four specific examples of procedures (mechanisms) that teachers can manipulate to have a positive impact in their classrooms.