Teach English in Guqianbao Zhen - Datong Shi

Classroom management is extremely important, sometimes more important than the teaching material itself. Without proper classroom management the class would be in chaos and whether or not you have the best teaching material and the best classroom equipment the students would not be able to learn effectively. With good classroom management the teacher is able to efficiently present a certain topic, observe individual students and facilitate activities. The class becomes more productive overall. There are several different types of class management. There is the “rigid teacher control” where the students only speak when directly asked a question by the teacher. The teacher is a figure of authority and power and the students are meant to respect and perhaps even fear their teacher. The teacher probably implements punishments and uses strong/ harsh language if the students aren’t listening. Then there is “little to no teacher control” where the class is largely student run. The students seem to have the final say in what happens and they mostly do what they want. They pay attention if they want to and use their phones if they don’t want to. Finally there is the “controlled active”. In this type of classroom the students actively take part in the lessons but are also quite and attentive when needed. These are the three general descriptions of types of classes and different teachers management styles will fall somewhere between the three. The techniques of maintaining classroom control are abounding, and naming all of them would be impossible. To name a few we have altering the voice (pitch, volume, and tone), body language and eye contact, classroom arrangement and teacher positioning, giving instructions and knowing your students. These are once again general techniques and some teachers may prefer certain techniques over others and use them more often. The use of these techniques leads me to wonder whether teachers from different countries favor certain classroom management styles. We know that there are certain formalities/ conventionality that need to be observed in different countries based on their cultural norms. This would therefore almost definitely shape the way teachers interact with the students and therefore have an effect on the way that the teacher manages the class. For example in a lot of African and Asian schools there tends to be more of a “rigid teacher control” philosophy. Therefore if you go to teach in an African school the students will most likely treat you as a person to be respected/ feared and would probably not be comfortable with you becoming over friendly, asking personal questions and having a more relaxed management style in general, because they are not used to that. You would therefore have to adapt to their known management style in most cases. Similarly if you were to hypothetically teach in an American school the “rigid teacher control” would likely have the opposite effect as lessons there are more student led/ controlled. Additionally the laws of that country may not allow certain “punishments” or certain ways of speaking to students and it would be grounds to sue. This is why I believe that due to external factors, classroom management style differ from country to country and teachers may have to adapt to the norms of that country in order to get through to the students. On the other hand classroom management styles that are new and different to what they are used to may be more effective due to their novelty. In any case classroom management style does not affect students learning, they will learn regardless of what your management style is. That is not to say that there should be no class management, simply that the teacher should choose what method they are comfortable with and adapt to the individual classes.