ABSTRACT
This study aimed to assess the classroom management practices of beginner teachers at Libjo National High School with the purpose of proposing mentoring activities to enhance their classroom management. Respondents of the study were 48 teachers with 1-5 years teaching experience. A researcher-constructed questionnaire was the data gathering instrument. Statistical tool used was weighted mean.
Findings of the study revealed that majority of the beginner teachers employed positive classroom management practices in addressing the behavioral, academic, and relational aspects of the teaching learning process. Results also showed that in facilitating discipline among learners, teachers let them become responsible for their behavior; while in improving learners’ academic performance, they let learners engage in learning when they recognize a connection between what they know and the learning experience. As to establishing home-school relationship, they collaborate with parents on a home-school behavior plan and share goals for learners. The behavior problems of learners were foremost among the problems experienced when it comes to managing their class. Recommendations of the study included the professional upgrading of the beginner teachers so as to enhance their classroom management and the continuous monitoring of other quality parameters such as their teaching competencies.
Keywords: Classroom Management practices, beginner teachers, classroom behavior
INTRODUCTION
Managing both student behavior and the learning environment, compounded with the development of skills and academic achievements of students are primary concern of all teachers. One of the foremost problems which teachers face almost every day is the management of the class and student behavior. Classroom management is one of the skills a teacher must master which is considered important and critical for teachers’ success or failure of their tasks. Teachers who play significant roles in the educational landscape are encouraged to believe that the learning environment that is orderly and quiet equates to effective teaching.
Undeniably, managing the class presents the greatest challenge to most teachers, especially those who are new in the profession. Classroom management is regarded as a make or break skill in the profession as it is absolutely essential to the teaching and learning process (Fry, 2007). Conversely then, beginner teachers are expected not to give control to their students but rather as the ones who control the class. The amount of control that beginner teachers have in class is often seen by the administration as a measurement of the quality of the teacher.
Hence, administrators are usually happy if a teacher never sends a student to the office and interpret this as a proof that the novice teacher is in control and must be doing good. As it is, classroom management is one of the most important roles that they must be able to master because it determines their teaching success. Capable beginner teachers appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels regardless of the levels they handle and that they are effective classroom managers when they understand and use specific classroom management techniques.
However, with the growing concern towards student-centered learning environment, puts teachers in position that calls for activities in which students take active roles that open up to sharing of ideas and information that makes the classroom noisy. In this view, the call on the quality of education that students get in student-centered classrooms, teachers are expected to be vital predictors to the learning outcomes of the learners amidst the noise and clamor. As it is, good schools are driven by teachers, principals and heads of school that are passionate about making a difference to the lives of children under their care. The challenges of 21st century global and technological advances have placed school heads and teachers under more pressure than ever before, especially on managing the class. Admittedly then, the monitoring and mentoring of teachers by their immediate heads and superiors provide a powerful opportunity for teachers to improve students’ learning experience and their classroom management, which is most especially true to novice or beginner teachers.
As Marei and Mustafa (2009), classroom order deals with the learners’ behavior discipline following systems and rules which facilitate the process of classroom interaction towards achieving the planned goals. As indicated, the behavioral problems may appear as a result of inappropriate skills which students learn, choice of inappropriate time for learning, and the restricted learning opportunities offered to students. Classroom management entails teachers and schools to create and maintain appropriate behavior in classroom settings alongside to nurturing students’ academic performance. Implementing classroom management strategies enhances the pro-social behavior and increase students’ academic engagement.
On this, the capacity to address learning environment difficulties given in the current learning condition has suggestion on the sorts of homeroom the teachers practice and ability of amateur instructors in taking care of their classes. It is accepted that educators are powerful to the achievement of their instructing learning measure and in meeting the school's objectives. So as a methods for enabling instructors, particularly the individuals who are new in the calling, school heads offer specialized help with the type of coaching. This empowers instructors to consider their training and to address what they have to do further as they approach their educating. As a type of collegial expert picking up, coaching requires cautious arranging and viable execution, with the goal that it gets installed into the way of life of the school upheld by plan and not by some coincidence.
As indicated in DepEd Order No.87 s. 2010, School-based Mentoring Program (SBMP) was institutionalized among all elementary and secondary schools to mobilize competent mentors to work out teachers’ capability. This also paved the way for mentoring to be part of the Teacher Induction Program (TIP) and Continuous Faculty Improvement (CFI) where beginning teachers are well-taken care of during their first year in teaching by way of contributing to them the sense of well-being and professional development. As agreed by Bilbao et al. (2013), TIP through mentoring has contributed positively to enhancing the teachers’ knowledge, skills, values, and commitment to the profession. The establishment of this then strengthened teachers’ commitment, maintained that teachers last in the profession, kept students on tasks, maintained students’ interest, established classroom atmosphere and demonstrated successful classroom management. Conclusively, mentoring has proven its worth to newly hired teachers.
Mentoring is a key feature of the DepEd’s approach to deal with strengthening the classroom management skills of beginner teachers implemented also in the Schools Division of Batangas City. Hanford et al. (2008) explained that mentoring is an essential leadership skill and valuable development option that can be used as part of developing performance and induction processes to help teachers maximize their capabilities and work effectively.
Mentoring then becomes the avenue to which the present school head of Libjo National High School has taken into account in order to deliver assistance to her beginner teachers, in which mentoring appears to be her preferred support mechanism to provide immediate benefits to the beginning teacher. Mentoring, as it is in line with DepEd’s one mission, one vision, and one set of core values, is thought of as an essential component to increase the researcher’s teachers’ capability of effectively managing their classes. To the end of the researcher, she sees fit that providing mentoring activities to the beginner teachers may provide the best avenue to reach the expected standards of DepEd, hence, this study was conceptualized.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The following are the related literature and studies reviewed by the researchers in order to understand fully the nature of the study.
Classroom Management Strategies
Teaching is working with students to learn, develop, and succeed together and by having solid teacher-student associations, the classroom will be a place for every part to communicate their sentiments and work together. Consequently, scholarly achievement relies upon these cozy connections and direction that educators and students have with each other. On this, classroom management targets setting up students poise through a cycle of advancing positive student accomplishment and conduct. In this way, scholastic accomplishment, educator adequacy, and instructor and student conduct are straightforwardly connected with the idea of classroom management. Thus, academic achievement, teacher efficacy, and teacher and student behavior are directly linked with the concept of classroom management. As Evertson and Weinstein (2006) pointed-out, classroom management leads to class control and conducive teaching-learning environment to which educators have always rated discipline as one of the most serious obstacles to promoting effective teaching. Further, classroom management has two distinct purposes: it not only seeks to establish and sustain an orderly environment so students can engage in meaningful academic learning, but it also aims to enhance student social and moral growth.
Classroom management is a multi-faceted action and stretches out past the conventional conduct the board procedures prescribed to manage students with troublesome conduct. Educators ought to create mindful, steady associations with and among students; sort out and actualize guidance in manners that advance their admittance to learning; they may utilize classroom management techniques that energize student commitment with scholarly undertakings; advance the improvement of thier social aptitudes and self-guideline; and utilize fitting intercessions to help students who have conduct issue.
Teachers should develop caring, supportive relationships with and among students; organize and implement instruction in ways that optimize students’ access to learning; they may use group management methods that encourage student engagement with academic tasks; promote the development of student social skills and self-regulation; and use appropriate interventions to assist students who have behavior problems. Kounin (2016) also believed that if students were engaged in their lessons, they would be less likely to misbehave. If lessons are precise and completed at a steady continuous pace, students will have little time to misbehave or to get into conflicts. When students are engaged, they are concentrating on the lesson and focus on learning, and it prevents problems. It is important for the students to be part of the decision-making processes. If students are having fun, they will be engaged. When they are engaged in a lesson, they will not think about misbehaving, and will be focused on the task.
Gordon (2005) expressed that classroom management is a matter of concern among teachers everywhere. It was further indicated that managing a classroom can be a critical challenge, especially for beginner teachers, but even for experienced ones. Being the first professional activity to be developed, classroom management is assumed as part of teachers’ duties and one of their main responsibilities (Marzano, 2003). Hence, it is of high relevance for both teachers use and more likely to be used. This can be helpful for a number of reasons such as: to be aware of the techniques teachers mostly tend to use; to identify patterns of behavior; to find out which ones are more effective; to identify teachers’ beliefs behind their actions inside and outside the classroom; and, one of the most relevant ones; to enable pedagogical reflection by making teachers aware of their teaching process in order to identify weaknesses and strengths, as well as possible modifications of their practices. In fact, Martin, et al. (2016) concluded that classroom management is a powerful component of the overall classroom climate that affects students’ behavior, engagement, and, by extension, the quality of students’ learning.
Problems Experienced by Beginning Teachers in Managing their Classes
Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain (2005) explained that a teacher's first year on the job is often difficult. As researches imply, student achievement tends to be significantly worse in the classrooms of first-year teachers before rising in teachers' second and third years. The steep learning curve is hard not only on students, but also on the teachers themselves: 15 percent leave the profession and another 14 percent change schools after their first year, often as the result of feeling overwhelmed, ineffective, and unsupported.
More so, the biggest challenge that surfaces for new teachers is classroom management. A 2004 Public Agenda survey found that 85 percent of teachers believed that new teachers are particularly unprepared for dealing with behavior problems in their classrooms. On the other hand, a separate survey of 500 teachers found that teachers with three years or fewer on the job were more than twice as likely as teachers with more experience to say that student behavior was a problem in their classrooms (Melnick & Meister, 2008). Furthermore, many of these beginning teachers said that their pre-service programs did little to prepare them for the realities of classrooms, including dealing with unruly students (Fry, 2007).
Mentoring of Beginning Teachers
A teacher’s work is regularly unclear, unsupported, and now and then unrecognized and underestimated, hence restricting the potential for positive effect. Learning new educational plans, managing classroom and order, incorporating students with uncommon requirements, utilizing innovation, individualizing understudy programs, planning extracurricular exercises and being responsible to the different partners of training are only a couple of the positions instructors do. Huge numbers of these obligations are hard for the most experienced proficient, so one considers how starting educators make due, since they are normal, on their absolute first day of business, to carry out the responsibility of a prepared veteran. Many school locale, seeing a need to sustain the new age of instructors, have set up formal mentorship programs.
Mentoring then is needed as it considered a nurturing process, in which a more skilled person, serving as a role model, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels and befriends a less skilled or less experienced person for the purpose of promoting the latter’s professional development. Mentoring functions are carried out within the context of an ongoing, caring relationship between the mentor and the protégé (Anderson and Snyder, 2003).
As Bago (2008) emphasized , the roles of school heads focus on the different dimensions like in curriculum implementation, utilization of learning resource center and materials, preparation of reports and financial statements, conduct of research, participation in training and seminars, and in carrying out health and safety practices, including classroom management. Thus, instructional supervisors are expected to provide technical support on the above-mentioned dimensions to improve access and delivery of quality basic education. A teacher graduating from university commences teaching with the same responsibilities as more experienced teachers in the school; yet it is widely recognized that beginning teachers need support in their first few years of teaching (Le Maistre and Paré, 2010), particularly with teachers leaving the profession in those early years with a seemingly “sink or swim” approach from many schools.
In this manner, Howe (2006) highly emphasized on assistance of beginning teachers with teaching rather than assessing them in these formative years of teaching, in which mentoring appears to be a preferred support mechanism as it draws upon the expertise of existing school staff who can provide immediate benefits to the beginning teacher. However, increasing benefits to beginning teachers that include mentoring for effective teaching require quality preparation and careful selection of mentors. This calls for trained mentors who can effectively guide beginning teachers through what may well be one of their most difficult years of teaching. Through quality mentoring, beginning teachers can develop a repertoire of problem-solving strategies for dealing with the practicalities and complexities associated with contextual school and teaching situations
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This study aimed to assess the classroom management practices of beginner teachers at Libjo National High School with the end-view of proposing mentoring activities to develop their teacher leadership.
Specifically, the following questions were answered:
1. What classroom management strategies are employed by beginner teachers to facilitate the teaching - learning process in terms of:
1.1 behavioral;
1.2 academic; and
1.3 relational?
2. How may the beginner teachers describe their classroom management strategies in terms of:
2.1 facilitating discipline among learners;
2.2 improving learners’ academic performance; and
2.3 establishing home-school relationship?
3. What are the problems experienced by respondents in managing their classes?
4. From the findings, what mentoring activities may be proposed to enhance classroom management of beginner teachers?
METHODOLOGY
This study used descriptive quantitative research design in order to carry out its objectives. Descriptive research concerned with the condition of relationships that exists, opinions that are held, processes that are going on and trends that are developing. This method also deals with the gathering of data in order to test the hypothesis or to answer the questions regarding the current study (Calderon, 2014). The researcher chose the descriptive design because it was perceived to be the most appropriate research design for the study and that the methods and techniques associated with the said design would meet the needs of the study.
Moreover, a researcher-made questionnaire was used as the main data gathering instrument. This was validated by school principals from Batangas City Division and English teachers who checked the technical aspects on grammar and appropriate words used therein. The final copy of the questionnaire was pilot-tested to a group of teachers who were not the target respondents. This resulted to a Cronbach-alpha level of 0.80. Then, the prepared questionnaire was administered to the 48 beginner teachers from Libjo National High School, Schools Division of Batangas City who have taught for 1-5 years only. This comprised the total population sampling of the respondents. Data were then collated, tallied, and statistically treated using frequency count and weighted mean computation.
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