2013
Training our
future teachers:
Revised January 2014
AUTHORS:
Julie Greenberg, Hannah Putman and Kate Walsh
OUR THANKS TO:
Research analysts: Laura Pomerance, with assistance from Katherine Abib
Graduate fellow: Natalie Dugan
Database design, graphic design and technical support: EFA Solutions
FUNDING FROM:
Carnegie Corporation of New York - Gleason Family Foundation - Laura and John Arnold Foundation - Michael & Susan Dell Foundation - Searle
Freedom Trust - The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation - The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation - B&L Foundation - The Rodel Charitable
Foundation of Arizona - Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock - Chamberlin Family Foundation - The Anschutz Foundation - Donnell-Kay Foundation - Rodel
Foundation of Delaware - The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation - The James M. Cox Foundation - The Zeist Foundation, Inc. - J.A. and Kathryn
Albertson Foundation - Finnegan Family Foundation - Lloyd A. Fry Foundation - Osa Foundation - Polk Bros Foundation - Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation - The Aaron Straus and Lillie Straus Foundation - The Abell Foundation - Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation - Barr Foundation
- Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation - Longeld Family Foundation - Sidney A. Swensrud Foundation - The Boston Foundation - The Harold
Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust - The Lynch Foundation - Treer Foundation - MinnCAN: Minnesota Campaign for Achievement Now - Foundation
For The Mid South - Phil Hardin Foundation - The Bower Foundation - Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation - The Bodman Foundation - William E.
Simon Foundation - George Kaiser Family Foundation - Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation - The Heinz Endowments - Benwood
Foundation - Hyde Family Foundations - Houston Endowment - Sid W. Richardson Foundation - The Longwood Foundation - Cleveland Foundation
- Walker Foundation
WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR:
The comments from two members of NCTQ’s Teacher Advisory Group: Freeda Pirillis and Sheryl Place
The helpful critiques from: Robert Pianta, James Cibulka, Jane Close Conoley, Barry Kaufman, Thomas Lasley,
Douglas Lemov and Robert Presbie
NCTQ BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
John L. Winn, Chair, Stacey Boyd, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Ira Fishman, Marti Watson Garlett, Henry L. Johnson,
Thomas Lasley, Clara M. Lovett, F. Mike Miles, Barbara O’Brien, Carol G. Peck, Vice Chair, and Kate Walsh,
President
NCTQ ADVISORY BOARD:
Sir Michael Barber, McKinley Broome, Cynthia G. Brown, David Chard, Andrew Chen, Celine Coggins, Pattie Davis,
Michael Feinberg, Elie Gaines, Michael Goldstein, Eric A. Hanushek, Joseph A. Hawkins, Frederick M. Hess, E.D.
Hirsch, Michael Johnston, Barry Kaufman, Joel I. Klein, Wendy Kopp, James Larson, Amy Jo Leonard, Robert H.
Pasternack, Michael Podgursky, Stefanie Sanford, and Suzanne Wilson
Note:
This January 2014 version of the report includes minor revisions of the original December 2013 version. The only
substantive revisions stem from changes to the analysis of four programs (of 122): these programs are now credited
with attention to all of the Big Five on the basis of their instruction on the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
model. Relevant gures and text have been updated as necessary to reect this new analysis.
i
Executive Summary
Executive summary
Every teacher wrestles with the challenge of keeping two or three dozen students
in a classroom engaged. While better instruction generally results in better
behaved students, the most brilliantly crafted lesson can fall on deaf ears
— or, worse, be upended by disruptive behavior. A strong, veteran teacher
may only occasionally have difculty handling disengaged or poorly behaved
students, but for new teachers, the strain of trying to deliver sufciently engaging
instruction and at the same time orchestrate appropriate behavior can be intense,
overwhelming and ultimately defeating.
In this new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, we investigate
the extent to which America’s traditional teacher preparation programs offer
research-based strategies to their teacher candidates to help them better
manage their classrooms from the start.
The wisdom accumulated from centuries of teaching — as well as ndings
from strong, recent research studies — recognizes that student learning depends
on both engaging instruction and a well-managed classroom.
What is behind a well-managed classroom? First, it is critical that teachers
plan and implement daily routines before any misbehavior has a chance to
erupt, and second, teachers should establish the right kinds of interactions
with students (e.g., praising good behavior rather than drawing attention to
bad behavior with criticism) to consistently maintain a focus on instruction.
Considerable research exists on classroom management, much of it consolidated
into three authoritative summaries of 150 studies conducted over the last six
decades. These studies’ agreement that some classroom management strategies
are more likely to be effective than others helped us isolate the ve most important
strategies on which to train teacher candidates:
1. Rules: Establish and teach classroom rules to communicate
expectations for behavior.
2. Routines: Build structure and establish routines to help
guide students in a wide variety of situations.
New teachers
deserve better.
It is time for teacher
prep programs to
focus on classroom
management so that
rst-year teachers
are prepared on
day one to head off
potential disruption
before it starts.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
ii
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3. Praise: Reinforce positive behavior using praise and other means.
4. Misbehavior: Consistently impose consequences for misbehavior.
5. Engagement: Foster and maintain student engagement by teaching interesting lessons
that include opportunities for active student participation.
These strategies are so strongly supported by research that we refer to them here as the “Big Five.” They serve as
the yardstick for this study, measuring the extent to which teacher preparation programs are training teachers in
research-based classroom management strategies. We also examine the integration of a handful of other strategies,
although their research bases are not quite as strong.
Everywhere but nowhere
By examining a sample of 122 teacher preparation programs in which we were able to review the full breadth of the
professional sequence — including lecture schedules, teacher candidate assignments, practice opportunities, instruments
used to observe and provide feedback on teaching episodes, and textbooks — we can conclude the following:
n Most programs can correctly claim to cover classroom management, with only a tiny fraction (<3 percent) in our
sample ignoring instruction altogether. However, instruction and practice on classroom management strategies
are often scattered throughout the curriculum, rarely receiving the connected and concentrated focus they deserve.
n Most teacher preparation programs do not draw from research when deciding which classroom management
strategies are most likely to be effective and therefore taught and practiced. Especially out of favor seem to
be strategies that impose consistent consequences for misbehavior, foster student engagement, and — most
markedly — use praise and other means to reinforce positive behavior. Half of all programs ask candidates to
develop their own “personal philosophy of classroom management,” as if this were a matter of personal preference.
n Instruction is generally divorced from practice (and vice versa) in most programs, with little evidence that what
gets taught gets practiced. Only one-third of programs require the practice of classroom management skills as
they are learned. This disconnect extends to the student teaching experience.
n Contrary to the claims of some teacher educators, effective training in classroom management cannot be
embedded throughout teacher preparation programs. Our intensive analysis of programs in which classroom
management is addressed in multiple courses reveals far too great a degree of incoherence in what teacher
candidates learn and what they are expected to do in PK-12 classroom settings. Embedding training everywhere
is a recipe for having effective training nowhere.
The false promise of instructional virtuosity
There is little consensus in the eld regarding what aspects of classroom management should be taught or practiced.
The closest the eld comes to an endorsed approach is the apparent conviction that teachers should be able to rise to
a level of instructional virtuosity that eliminates the need for dened strategies to manage a classroom. Defending the
lack of focused classroom management training in many teacher preparation programs, the eld’s intellectual leader,
Linda Darling-Hammond, argues that the teacher candidate should instead learn to “manage many kinds of learning
iii
Executive Summary
and teaching, through effective means of organizing and presenting information, managing discussions, organizing
cooperative learning strategies, and supporting individual and group inquiry.”
Another discouraging development concerns the edTPA, a performance assessment intended as a gateway for licensure,
which is now being rolled out in half the states with the strong endorsement of the eld’s leadership. Although in many
ways the edTPA is a commendable effort to insert greater rigor and accountability into teacher preparation, it has
yet to specify explicitly what teacher candidates ought to demonstrate as classroom managers. Given how important
the edTPA has already become, it is crucial that evaluation of teacher candidates’ classroom management skills be
incorporated more explicitly into the edTPA’s rubrics.
The silver lining is that, according to one survey, half of teacher educators aren’t entirely sure that the approach —
actually more of a non-approach — of relying solely on instructional virtuosity for classroom management works. It is
also clear that some programs are paying more attention to research and to the alignment of instruction and practice:
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington – Seattle are
notable for aligning instruction and practice with research-based strategies.
Other than calling out programs that do well on a particular aspect of classroom management training, this report
does not provide overall ratings on individual programs. Further, we could not identify a single program in the sample
that did well addressing all research-based strategies, identifying classroom management as a priority, strategically
determining how it should be taught and practiced, and employing feedback accordingly. Teacher preparation’s
misdirection in the area of classroom management — insisting that instructional excellence alone can maintain the order
necessary for learning — appears almost universally accepted by the eld’s leadership, and therefore this report
necessarily reaches conclusions that require attention by the eld as a whole.
Solutions
States
Unfortunately, we hold out little hope for a regulatory solution to this issue. While the regulations of every state at least
briey mention training in classroom management, most regulations are poorly informed by the research. Regulators
and legislators can and should use their inuence to make clear to programs their belief that training new teachers in
classroom management strategies is crucial. Unfortunately, policymakers may lack the tools to ensure that preparation
programs are actually training their candidates in these strategies.
Programs
It is up to programs to prepare their candidates in research-based classroom management strategies, beginning with
the rst foundational courses and continuing to their culminating experience as student teachers. Such integrated
preparation runs counter to current practice in higher education, where individual faculty members are too often permitted
to decide what to teach, with insufcient regard for programmatic goals. Instruction is needed that connects the dots,
with seamless transitions between content delivery and practice.
Because of largely avoidable instances of student misbehavior, the rst year of teaching can be a harrowing experience.
New teachers and our children deserve better from America’s teacher preparation programs, and training that is
carefully designed to prepare teacher candidates to be both effective instructors and effective classroom managers
will help make the rst year a happier and more rewarding experience for both teachers and their students.
v
Table of Contents
Preface page vii
1. Introduction 1
2. What the research about classroom management says 3
3. How this study was conducted 7
4. Findings 11
5. Programs that rise to the top 29
6. Recommendations 31
7. Conclusion 37
Appendices
(available separately online at http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/Future_Teachers_Classroom_Management_NCTQ_Report)
Appendix A: Teacher preparation programs included in this study
Appendix B: Methodology
Appendix C: Inventory of research on classroom management
in PK-12 classrooms
Appendix D: Crosswalk of classroom management models and the Big Five
Appendix E: Cross-program analyses
Appendix F: How NCTQ develops standards for the Teacher Prep Review
Appendix G: Sample demographics
vii
Preface
The purpose of this report is to investigate the extent to which traditional teacher preparation programs — where
most new teachers get their training — deliver content and provide teacher candidates with opportunities to practice
on a body of knowledge about classroom management. The examination complements rather than mirrors the analysis
of classroom management conducted in the 2013 edition of NCTQ’s Teacher Prep Review, which will be repeated
in the 2014 edition. Here we primarily address the classroom management instruction and practice that teacher
candidates receive before student teaching, while the Teacher Prep Review addresses the feedback on classroom
management skills that teacher candidates receive during student teaching.
We originally intended this study to serve as a pilot for an enhanced classroom management standard to be applied
in the Review. (See Appendix F for our approach to developing standards.) A new standard would have considered
coursework and clinical practice, as well as the feedback provided to student teachers. Unfortunately, that standard
is not feasible as long as so many teacher preparation programs decline to participate in the Teacher Prep Review
evaluation process. Absent their participation, it is simply too challenging to collect from the 1,100-plus institutions
rated in the Review full sets of syllabi and other materials for all professional coursework.
As an added complication, there are a multitude of textbooks used to teach classroom management (more than 140
different textbooks in the small sample for this study). This overabundance of textbooks has precluded the textbook
reviews that would be valuable additions to any discussion about what teachers should learn about classroom management
before going into the classroom.
We are grateful to the institutions that provided the full sets of materials that made this study possible.
1
Introduction
Nearly every one of the
122 teacher preparation
programs included in this
study provides some kind
of instruction on classroom
management. It is likely
that the same is true for
the teacher preparation
programs housed in
1,450 institutions
nationwide. And yet,
despite classroom
management’s apparent
pervasiveness in
preparation coursework,
something is not working.
1. Introduction
A paradox exists in our classrooms. While many classroom management problems
are probably symptoms of poor instruction, it is unlikely that improving instruction
is the whole solution, or at least not the solution a teacher needs most immediately.
For that reason, specic attention to classroom management itself is necessary.
Conversely, even if instruction is adequate, it can be complemented, and its
impact enhanced, by good classroom management.
1
There is no question that dynamic instruction and a strong rapport with students
are both desirable in their own right and reduce the need for overt management.
However, the possibility always exists that a teacher will need to act in the
moment — for example, regaining the attention of a student who is losing
focus or handling an unusually chaotic return from recess.
2
Teachers who can
plan and implement daily classroom routines and patterns of interaction that
mitigate misbehavior, and also can address inevitable misbehavior, are able to
teach more effectively. Furthermore, classroom climate is highly predictive of
the teacher stability every school craves, particularly schools serving high-need
populations. Teachers are more likely to stay in schools where they feel
successful, having created functional classrooms with students who are behaving
appropriately and are academically engaged.
3
Some argue — particularly proponents of the nontraditional pathways through
which teacher candidates enter classrooms with little preparation — that classroom
management can only truly be learned through experience. No doubt, experience
helps, but the capacity to achieve a well-managed classroom need not be
developed only through trial and error from years of teaching experience.
Fortunately, there also is a clear body of knowledge that, if taught and practiced,
could help lessen the steepness of the new teacher’s learning curve. This
knowledge speaks to the most effective approaches to classroom organization and
techniques for interaction with students, developed over centuries of teaching
and conrmed by research conducted over the last half century.
Every teacher preparation program should impart this knowledge to the next
generation of teachers, developing as much competence in teacher candidates
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
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In a 2013
survey, classroom
management was
“the top problem”
identied by
teachers.
as possible through instruction and practice. Doing so will create a virtuous cycle
from day one in which a novice teacher’s functional classroom environment
helps to build relationships with students that, in turn, produce even more
functional and productive teaching and learning.
Nearly every one of the 122 teacher preparation programs included in this
study provides some kind of instruction on classroom management. It is likely
that the same is true for the teacher preparation programs housed in 1,450
institutions nationwide. And yet, despite classroom management’s apparent
pervasiveness in preparation coursework,
4
something is not working. Classroom
management continues to be one of the greatest challenges new teachers
face. Surveys repeatedly document that novice teachers struggle in this area,
and their school district supervisors concur.
5
n A 1997 poll revealed that 58 percent of PK-12 teachers said that behavior
that disrupted instruction occurred “most of the time or fairly often.”
6
n A 2003 survey of teachers found that nearly half indicated that “quite a
large number” of new teachers need a lot more training on effective ways
to handle students who are discipline problems.
7
n In 2012, over 40 percent of surveyed new teachers reported feeling either
“not at all prepared” or “only somewhat prepared” to handle a range of
classroom management or discipline situations.
8
n In a 2013 survey, classroom management was “the top problem” identied
by teachers.
9
In this report, we delve deeper into the practices of actual programs to better
understand the specics of preparation in classroom management. Our ndings
will shed light on why too many new teachers, by their own account or that of
their supervisors, are entering schools ill-equipped to move beyond behavioral
challenges and into the heart of instruction.
3
What the research about classroom management says
2. What the research about
classroom management says
Considerable research exists on classroom management, much of it consolidated into three authoritative summaries
relevant to the PK-12 grade span: a 2008 summary by Simonsen, Fairbanks, Briesch, Myers, and Sugai; a 2011 summary
by Oliver, Wehby, and Reschly; and another summary published in 2008 by the Institute of Education Sciences, Reducing
Behavior Problems in the Elementary School Classroom. (See Appendix C for our analysis of this research.) Together
these summaries examine over 150 studies conducted over six decades.
Despite the wide variation in research citations in these sources, there is congruence in their ndings on essentially
ve strategies for classroom management. These ve carry signicant evidence of their effectiveness. For that reason
we label them the “Big Five.”
THE BIG FIVE
Research-based classroom management strategies that every teacher candidate should learn and practice:
1. RULES
Teachers (or teachers and students collaboratively) should develop a limited set of positively stated expectations for
behavior. These expectations should not simply be posted in the classroom; rather, they should be explicitly taught
by discussion and practice and applied transparently and equitably.
2. ROUTINES
Teachers should teach routines and procedures, including specic guidelines for how to act in a variety of situations
(e.g., arriving in the classroom, handing in homework, working in groups). These routines should be taught at the beginning
of the school year and then revisited periodically throughout the year. In turn, teachers should sustain momentum for
instruction by orchestrating the management of time and materials by themselves and students, especially in transitions
between activities.
3. PRAISE
Teachers should reinforce positive behavior using praise and other rewards. Intangible rewards such as praise
10
should be specic (e.g., “Good job nding your seat quickly,” “Great work sharing your crayons,” “John, Neery, and
Dominic all have their homework ready to turn in — well done”) and abundant.
11
Rewards also may be tangible (e.g., a
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
4
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No one can
learn when the
learning environment
is not under control,
whatever that looks
like for each grade
and age.
– 3rd grade teacher
Respondent to
NCTQ survey
prize like a sticker or pencil, or a privilege like extra free time). Rewards can be
used for individual or group behavior and may be phased out over time as students’
behavior improves by habit.
12
(See the textbox below for more on praise.)
4. MISBEHAVIOR
Just as every parent learns that children will not always follow rules and has in
mind consequences for noncompliance, so, too, do teachers need to determine
the appropriate consequences for misbehavior and apply these consequences
consistently. Consequences generally follow different levels of severity, escalating
to one-on-one conferences with the teacher, detentions, meetings with parents
or guardians, and so on.
5. ENGAGEMENT
This technique is closely linked to the quality of instruction. Teachers should
constantly engage students in the lesson, whether through creating an interesting
lesson that holds students’ attention or through building in frequent opportunities
for student participation. Students who are involved in the lesson generally
have less inclination to act out.
Praise can be used effectively and appropriately
Perhaps because using praise effectively is more complicated
than simply telling a student “Good job!,” it is frequently neglected
in teacher preparation.
13
Researchers have identied the Do’s and
Don’ts of successful use of praise and positive reinforcement:
Do…
n …be specic about the behavior you are praising.
14
n …make praise contingent on the student actually doing the
target behavior.
15
n …be sincere in the way you praise a student.
16
n …give praise immediately following the appropriate behavior.
17
n …consider the individual student’s characteristics, such as age.
18
n …give praise frequently as a student acquires a behavior
and taper off with students’ mastery.
19
n …praise the process or action.
20
Don’t…
n …praise the person or trait (e.g., “Jill is such a good girl”).
21
n …use reinforcers for a task that students already want to do
absent a performance target.
22
n …ignore the student’s individual response to praise.
23
5
What the research about classroom management says
Secondary strategies
In addition to the Big Five, there are other strategies that do not enjoy the same level of research consensus but still
have a place in any preparation program. For that reason, they should be viewed as valuable topics to address in
teacher preparation after the Big Five:
n Manage the physical classroom environment: This technique refers to thinking strategically when setting up
the classroom; for example, ensuring that the teacher can see all students at all times, considering the ow of
trafc for different classroom activities, and considering how to group desks to maximize student engagement.
n Motivate students: This topic is distinct from engagement in that it focuses on whether students want to learn
or follow the rules. While some people distinguish between internal and external motivation, and fear that a
focus on rewards for good behavior may reduce students’ intrinsic motivation to behave, research evidence is
reassuring that this need not occur.
24
n Use the least intrusive means: This topic refers to using subtle techniques to prevent or quickly halt budding
misbehavior. These techniques include using proximity, giving a rule reminder, giving a “teacher look,” or asking
off-task students substantive questions to redirect attention back to the lesson.
n Involve parents and the school community: Involvement can mean making phone calls home, meeting with
parents or taking other actions that engage stakeholders beyond the classroom.
n Attend to social/cultural/emotional factors that affect the classroom’s social climate: This interaction
technique focuses on maintaining a positive affect in the classroom and being culturally sensitive.
The importance of relationships
Virtually all teachers with whom we have discussed this report, including the experienced teachers who advise
NCTQ (http://www.nctq.org/about/teacherAdvisoryGroup.jsp), believe that building relationships with students
is just as essential for a functional, productive classroom as anything mentioned above, and that these relationships
can preclude the need for heavy-handed classroom management. We agree. Research indicates that effective
teacher-student relationships are not established by teachers taking on a “buddy” role. Rather, teachers build
relationships by providing clear purpose and strong guidance—the types of purpose and guidance that are
conveyed by fair rules and productive routines, as well as by clear learning goals and expectations.
25
7
How this study was conducted
Examples of lecture topics:
n Managing the Classroom
Environment
n Discipline and Consequences
n Establishing Rules and
Procedures
n Schedule of Reinforcement
n Routines and Procedures
Examples of common
pencil-and-paper assignments:
n Write a set of rules for
a classroom
n Write a personal philosophy
of classroom management
Examples of common
practice assignments:
n Videotape yourself teaching
a lesson and present the video
in class for discussion
n Teach a lesson and receive
feedback from a cooperating
teacher
3. How this study was conducted
The methodology is explained in more detail in Appendix B. See the
textbox on page 10 for a primer on the nature of instructional and
clinical coursework in teacher preparation.
The study examines the degree to which 122 teacher preparation
programs teach and provide opportunities to practice research-based
classroom management strategies and techniques. (See Appendix A
for a list of programs and Appendix G for sample demographics.)
These programs are housed in 79 institutions across 33 states, and
include most types of programs (undergraduate and graduate, elementary
and secondary). All programs were willing (sometimes voluntarily, but
generally by means of open records requests) to provide NCTQ with
full sets of materials for their professional coursework, making this
analysis possible.
Preparation in classroom management in both instructional and clinical
coursework should theoretically be seamless, meaning that skills
build upon each other and follow a natural progression. Ideally teacher
candidates learn about and practice these skills in foundational
coursework, practice in more challenging situations (e.g., real classrooms)
in clinical coursework, and receive detailed and critical feedback in
a full-scale teaching situation in student teaching. This principle of
seamlessness underlies the three kinds of analyses undertaken for
this study.
For the rst, broadest analysis, we identied 213 courses in our sample
that could conceivably address classroom management. Our analysis
included: 1) instructional coursework where content is delivered
(and in which there is often eldwork in PK-12 classrooms), and 2)
practica closely aligned with classroom management-focused
instructional coursework. These categories of coursework are referred
to in the report as “foundational coursework.”
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
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For all foundational courses, we examined the syllabus, pulling out lecture topics, student assignments, and required
textbooks. Each lecture topic, student assignment, and textbook was then coded to distinguish which were relevant
to classroom management and what precisely was being addressed.
Example of coding a lecture description from a syllabus
For more examples of how lectures and assignments were coded, see Appendix B: Methodology
Sample lecture schedule from course entitled “Classroom Management”
Aaren tic:
• Rne an rcv aegie;
• Tm an aerial anagemen;
• Oganiza clar
Ce: B v aeg: Rne;
cdar aeg: Physica envirmen
Aaren tic:
• Respdin disrupv behavi;
• Respdin inimal disrupv behavi
Ce: B v aeg: Misbehavi;
cdar aeg: Leas nusiv ean
II. COURSE OUTLINE AND SCHEDULE. Tentative schedule
Meeting 4 Review/Application Activity
Discuss Unit C Part I — Typed Discussion Questions due!
Discuss Video Self Assessment of Teaching
Assignment: Read Unit C Part II (pgs. 116-145)
Space, Time, and Routines
Causes of Disruptive or Inattentive Behavior
Group work on presentations
Through this analysis we were able to discern how much time programs are dedicating to classroom management and
which topics they are addressing, including which of the Big Five (and secondary topics as well) are being addressed, if
they are addressed at all.
In the event that two different interpretations of lectures or assignments were possible, we used context clues from other
parts of the syllabus or applied the most generous interpretation. For example, a reference to a lecture on “intervention
strategies” might refer to instruction on responding to either or both off-task behavior using least intrusive means or
disruptive behavior using consequences for misbehavior. If context clues did not help us discern which, we credited the
lecture to coverage of both relevant strategies. Or, for example, it was sometimes necessary to discern if a course is
teaching “student engagement,” one of the Big Five, as a means to a well-managed classroom, or if it is teaching that
student engagement is a feature of a well-constructed lesson. When it was not possible to discern the difference, credit
was given for covering it as a management strategy. In cases in which topics could not be discerned, the syllabus was
removed from the analysis.
In a second, more focused analysis of 25 programs, we looked for classroom management instruction and practice in
general clinical coursework designed to provide PK-12 classroom experiences that touch on a variety of professional
skills. The purpose of this analysis was to determine the extent to which such coursework provides additional classroom
management content and practice opportunities beyond the foundational courses treated in our rst, broader analysis.
9
How this study was conducted
Lastly, in the third analysis, we conducted intensive “cross-program” analyses that traced preparation from start to
nish for a sample of nine programs, effectively case studies. This analysis determines the level of coherence in training
in all classroom management strategies, beginning with foundational coursework, running through clinical coursework,
and culminating with the feedback on the execution of classroom management strategies in student teaching. It provides
a comprehensive portrait of what teacher candidates typically experience in the way of training in this area and provides
a clear sense of whether embedding such training is adequate.
Fig. 1 How we sampled coursework in three different analyses
Analysis 1:
Foundational coursework
Analysis 2:
General clinical coursework
Analysis 3:
All coursework (“Cross-program”)
What is it?
Instructional courses and closely
aligned practica that explicitly
address classroom management
in whole or in part.
General clinical coursework
that does not explicitly address
classroom management, but
is designed to provide PK-12
classroom experiences on a range
of professional skills that may
or may not include classroom
management.*
Foundational, general clinical
experience, and student teaching
courses (for observation/
evaluation instruments).
What was
evaluated?
Examples of foundational courses:
n Classroom Organization
and Management
n Curriculum and Methods
of Teaching in Elementary
Education
Examples of general clinical
coursework:
n September Experience
in the Schools
n Elementary Education
Capstone Seminar
n Elementary Methods
Practicum III
Sequence of relevant courses from
a graduate elementary program:
n Field Experience –
Elementary Education
n Instruction and Assessment
n Teaching Associateship –
Elementary Education
n Student Teaching Evaluation
Instrument
What did we
look for?
Instruction and practice in 213
courses in the 119 programs
(of 122) that have foundational
coursework.
Instruction and practice in
43 courses in 25 programs
randomly selected from the
full 122-program sample.
Instruction, practice and feedback
in all courses in nine programs
selected in a stratied random
sample from the full 122-program
sample.
Why did we
look here?
To determine if programs lay a
foundation for teacher candidates
to understand and use classroom
management strategies.
To determine the extent to which
this increasingly common type
of clinical experience adds to
teacher candidate understanding
and capacity to use classroom
management strategies.
To provide a deeper dive
that shows if what’s taught in
coursework relates to what’s
evaluated in student teaching.
(These cross-program analyses
complement a 93-program statistical
analysis that provided information
on coherence.)
* Student teaching seminars were included. In keeping with the rationale for including subject-specic secondary practica in Analysis 1
(see Appendix B), subject-specic clinical experiences were included in Analysis 2.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
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In my undergraduate
studies, it was all about
developing a classroom
management philosophy,
but nothing about the
practical routines and rules
that work in the classroom
and that are backed
by research. I had to
research and learn these
on my own.
– 17- year veteran
Respondent to
NCTQ survey
A primer on instructional and clinical coursework in
teacher preparation
While classroom management may be a difcult topic to teach
because it is hard to substitute for sustained whole-class
experiences, and opportunities for those are scarce, traditional
teacher preparation seems relatively well congured for the task.
Traditionally, the rst part of a teacher candidate’s preparation
is “instructional” coursework, with light doses of eldwork in
PK-12 classes. The second part is “clinical coursework,” with a
gradual and increasing infusion of PK-12 classroom experiences
that culminate in a semester-long placement in a PK-12 classroom
generally called “student teaching.”
Instructional coursework for the most part takes place on the
college campus. With the exception of some hours of associated
eldwork in PK-12 classrooms, this coursework is generally
analogous to the coursework taken by other undergraduate or
graduate students on a campus. Especially on larger campuses,
most instructional courses are taught by academically specialized
faculty with advanced degrees. However, former practitioners
hired as adjunct faculty can also serve as instructors.
Clinical coursework
26
encompasses a broad range of
coursework for which programs often take very different
approaches. Clinical coursework is largely or entirely based
in PK-12 classrooms. To varying degrees, clinical coursework
entails some class meetings. These, in turn, have varying degrees
of similarity to class meetings in instructional courses in terms
of expectations for organized instruction and assignments,
both for the instructors and for teacher candidates.
In most cases, the individuals who oversee teacher candidates
in clinical coursework are contract employees (often former
teachers or school administrators) whom we refer to as “university
supervisors.” These university supervisors may also serve as
instructors who convene class meetings associated with clinical
coursework.
The teachers in whose classrooms clinical coursework takes place
go by many titles, but we refer to them as “cooperating teachers.”
Programs vary on how much they depend on cooperating
teachers for the formal observation and evaluation of teacher
candidates in their clinical coursework.
11
4. Findings
To answer the basic question, “Are teacher candidates provided with the knowledge and practice opportunities that
will prepare them to competently manage a classroom from day one?” we turned over a lot of rocks. We did not
predetermine under which rock we had to nd such evidence — in effect deciding for programs in which course or
semester they must teach classroom management — only that there needed to be evidence somewhere that programs
draw upon research-based strategies.
Finding 1: While virtually all programs have coursework that claims
to teach classroom management, many actually give the
subject short shrift.
Programs can correctly claim to cover classroom management, with only a tiny fraction of programs (<3 percent) in
the sample ignoring it altogether.
Our analysis examined 213 courses in 122 programs where classroom management might conceivably be addressed.
In almost all programs it was readily apparent which foundational courses were designed to address classroom
management. The average time in candidates’ coursework spent on classroom management — dened to include anything
having to do with classroom management, whether research-based or not — is the equivalent of eight class periods,
or about 40 percent of a single course (with most programs requiring somewhere between 10 and 15 courses prior to
student teaching).
27
This amount holds true regardless of type of program (elementary or secondary, undergraduate or
graduate), although elementary programs spend slightly more time on classroom management than do secondary programs.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
12
www.nctq.org/teacherPrep
1. Rules:
Establish and teach
rules.
2. Routines:
Build structure and
establish routine within
the classroom.
3. Praise:
Reinforce positive
behavior using praise
and other means.
4. Misbehavior:
Address misbehavior.
5. Engagement:
Foster and maintain
student engagement.
Fig. 2 What proportion of a course do teacher prep programs
devote to instruction on classroom management?
100
80
60
40
20
0
0% 1-25% 26-50% 51-75% 76-100% 101-125%
Percent of one course spent on classroom management
Percent of all programs
(N=76 programs)
Five percent of programs devote less than a single lecture or class in
foundational coursework to any classroom management strategies or topics,
while 16 percent of programs devote most of a course (76% or more), or
even the equivalent of more than one course.
Note: This analysis is based only on the 73 programs that identify individual
topics in all classroom management-related course schedules, with the
addition of the three programs that do not have any coursework on classroom
management, 62 percent of the 122 programs evaluated for this report.
Finding 2: On average, programs
expose teacher candidates
to roughly half of the
core content on effective
classroom management
techniques and approaches.
Research provides a clear consensus for the ve most effective strategies
teachers should know for managing a classroom. (See p. 3 for full
descriptions.) In our analysis we searched for how many of these
Big Five strategies were addressed in candidates’ coursework.
28
The
mean number hovered between two and three addressed in each
program.
29
Again, as with the rst nding, this pattern holds true
regardless of type of program (elementary or secondary, undergraduate
or graduate).
13
Findings
Fig. 3 How many of the Big Five strategies are addressed by teacher prep programs?
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Number of Big Five addressed
Percent of programs
(N=105 programs)
Thirty-four teacher prep programs (32 percent) address at least four of the Big Five classroom management strategies (rules,
routines, praise, misbehavior and engagement) in foundational coursework. Only 22 programs (21 percent) address all ve.
Which of the Big Five are taught?
While three strategies (“rules,” routines” and “misbehavior”) are addressed by more than half of teacher preparation
programs, two are seldom addressed, including “praise,” the strategy that is arguably the most strongly supported
by decades of psychology research.
Fig. 4 Which of the Big Five strategies are addressed by teacher prep programs?
Rules
Routines
Praise
Misbehavior
Engagement
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percent of programs
(N=105 programs)
38%
do not address
misbehavior
51%
74%
24%
29%
do not address
engagement
do not address
praise
do not address
routines
do not address
rules
While the strategy of “routines” is the most commonly addressed of the Big Five, it is still neglected by foundational coursework
in nearly a quarter of programs. “Praise,” which is supported by strong research, is addressed in only 26 percent of programs.
While our analysis focused primarily on the Big Five, other strategies can play a valuable role in helping teachers
proactively prevent disruptions and maintain a focus on instruction. The most common of the second-tier strategies
taught (see p. 5 for a full listing) is “least intrusive means” (e.g., using proximity or eye contact to prevent misbehavior),
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
14
www.nctq.org/teacherPrep
We note that programs
that are generally doing
a good job covering the
Big Five also are more
likely to teach second-
tier strategies.
taught by 75 programs (71 percent). Next most common is “motivation,”
which 45 programs (43 percent) address.
Programs that are generally doing a good job covering the Big Five
also are more likely to teach these second-tier strategies.
In many cases, teacher candidates are introduced to the topic of
classroom management through class discussion of common behavior
models such as “Assertive Discipline” or “Cooperative Discipline” (not
to be confused with whole school behavior programs). These models
(see Appendix D) generally incorporate a collection of strategies. For
the most part, programs do not rely solely on these models to teach
the research-based strategies, with the exception of “praise.” Of the
programs that address praise (again, a surprisingly small number given
its evidentiary base), a third do not provide any explicit instruction or
assignment apart from discussion of a behavior model in which praise
is integral.
Finding 3: Only a third of programs
require teacher candidates
to practice classroom
management skills as
they learn them.
For this somewhat involved analysis of foundational coursework, we
explored any area that might provide evidence that programs are taking
a systematic, coherent approach to developing classroom management
skills in their candidates. We examined lecture schedules to determine if
a classroom strategy was presented in lectures or applied in assignments
required of teacher candidates. We then turned to any associated eld
work and looked at the full breadth of the practicum designed to align
with coursework, seeking some evidence that what was being taught
was then practiced by teacher candidates, whether through a simula-
tion exercise conducted with fellow teacher candidates (found in only
a few foundational courses) or before real students.
Almost all of the programs in the sample (98 percent) do require
assignments of teacher candidates that are related to classroom
management. (See the textbox on p. 16 for common features of
assignments.) In addition, 87 percent of programs for which practice
opportunities can be discerned provide practice opportunities in PK-12
classrooms. Yet most assignments never move past paper-and-
pencil exercises — such as teacher interviews or note-taking
during observations of teachers — into real practice.
15
Findings
Clearly programs integrating content with practice are the minority. We estimate that likely only a third, but at most 44
percent,
30
have assignments that can reasonably be assumed to involve actual practice of classroom management
skills with feedback. In fact, by the strictest categorization — only counting assignments that explicitly state that they
provide candidates the opportunity to practice with feedback on classroom management — only 12 programs (10
percent) provide such opportunities.
Missed opportunities to learn from cooperating teachers and to self-evaluate
Teacher candidates are often not asked to critically evaluate their own teaching performance. An investigation of
foundational classroom management coursework in 40 randomly selected programs that require candidates to spend
time in PK-12 classrooms revealed that only 11 of them (28 percent) require teacher candidates to self-evaluate. Only
about half of these 11 programs require an in-depth or structured analysis; the others simply ask teacher candidates
to reect on their performance (with one program’s syllabus providing too little detail to analyze).
Similarly, teacher candidates’ observations of master teachers are infrequently targeted to classroom management.
Twenty-three of the forty programs (58 percent) include some observation of teachers. However, only about half of
these 23 programs clearly focus at least one observation on teachers’ classroom management. Others focus only on
instruction, or do not identify the relevant teacher behavior for observation in the syllabus.
While not ubiquitous, opportunities to practice become more prevalent in programs that address the Big Five classroom
management strategies.
Fig. 5 Teacher prep programs offering opportunities for practice in foundational coursework (N=118 programs)
24%
No opportunity for
practice provided
32%
Unlikely to provide practice
10%
Has eldwork,
but assignments unclear
24%
Presumed to
provide practice
10%
Explicitly provides
practice and
feedback
Across 118 programs, only a third (34 percent) can be reasonably assumed to offer teacher candidates an opportunity to practice
their classroom management skills and receive feedback in foundational courses. In the remaining programs, due to the
nature of in-class, eldwork or practica assignments, such practice and feedback is unlikely, or denitely does not occur.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
16
Fig. 6 Practice in teacher prep programs relative to how many of Big Five are addressed in
foundational coursework
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Number of Big Five strategies addressed by a program
Practice
Percent of programs
(N=106 programs)
While only twenty percent of programs that teach none or one of the Big Five classroom management strategies also offer
opportunities to practice in foundational coursework, 52 percent of programs that teach four or ve of the Big Five do so.
Note: The 12 programs with eldwork or practica assignments whose type cannot be determined have been removed from
this calculation.
High-quality paper-and-pencil assignments, which require candidates to demonstrate that they
have absorbed and can apply new knowledge, are rare. Following are three exceptions:
n You will read one case study that presents one or more classroom management issues, locate and review
current research articles from peer-reviewed scientic journals that address the same or similar issues and
possible solutions, and write a paper in which you recommend a course of action. Case studies, a list of
appropriate journals, and specic guidelines will be provided by the instructor.
— Central Washington University undergraduate elementary program
n Teacher candidates write an organizational plan that describes the classroom’s physical environment,
procedures and routines, strategies to respond to misbehavior, and other components of a management
plan and reference course readings.
— University of Virginia graduate secondary program
n During eldwork, this course instructs teacher candidates to observe a class with regard to a specic aspect
of teaching. In the rst structured observation, teacher candidates focus on the classroom environment:
they draw a diagram of the classroom layout, describe what’s posted on the walls, and comment on how the
classroom layout affects instruction, peer interactions, and other elements of the class environment. In the
second structured observation, teacher candidates track students’ on-task and off-task behavior. In the third
structured observation, teacher candidates focus on teacher, tracking both instructional and managerial
behaviors (e.g., using praise and specifying rules).
— University of Virginia graduate elementary program
17
Findings
Most assignments do not build on any content a course may have taught. Here are two
representative examples:
n Students will provide indications of learning through weekly online discussions on Blackboard and/or active
classroom participation on the course content. You will maintain a log which will indicate your thoughts,
reections, critical review, and connections to readings and to experiences from the eld.
n Students will develop (or rene) their philosophy paper on the topics of their beliefs about instructional
strategies/classroom arrangement and classroom management and provide a three to ve page paper.
Finding 4: General clinical coursework delivers neither much
content on classroom management, nor (ironically)
well-focused practice.
Virtually every initiative to improve traditional teacher preparation endorses a greater amount of clinical coursework.
Generally, the impetus to increase clinical coursework is attributed to the uneven quality of instructional coursework and
the perception that it is too theoretical to be useful. However, as important as clinical practice in teacher preparation
is, it appears poorly suited to deliver both consistent foundational content and oversight of practice. The inherent variability
in PK-12 classroom situations in which teacher candidates nd themselves — placed with different classroom teachers
and typically supervised by a variety of contract employees — means that the experiences are difcult to predict and
inconsistent across candidates.
We applied this analysis exclusively to the general clinical coursework (see Fig. 1) at 25 programs. We uncovered
only a few instances where classroom management was explicitly being addressed, that is, using assigned
readings with relevance to classroom management and dedicating at least one class session to a classroom management
topic. One out of six of the programs (17 percent) meets that standard. Only about one-third of programs have specic
classroom management assignments; the most common of these are developing a classroom management plan and
completing an assignment related to the physical organization of the classroom.
Leaving aside student teaching (in which teacher candidates are in a classroom daily for a full semester), each of the
general clinical courses reviewed for this particular analysis places candidates in classrooms for anywhere from 10
to 140 hours. Most of those hours are spent observing teachers. Few courses list any specic requirements
about what candidates are supposed to observe, suggesting only general observations about classroom
management or none at all. For example, “Complete a daily journal entry reecting on the personal impact of the
following: Observations made concerning effective classroom management.” Only one course contains an assignment
with a prompt that requires discussion of specic aspects of observed student or teacher behavior: “What are the
stated and unstated rules of the teachers? How are the rules applied?”
As for practice, virtually all the courses, ranging from clinical experiences that precede student teaching to student
teaching seminars, include some type of small-group or whole-group instruction. This practice teaching presents an
opportunity for candidates to critically examine and analyze their own performance. However, only four of 43 courses
(9 percent) in the general clinical coursework analysis require teacher candidates to do self-evaluations of
their own use of classroom management strategies.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
18
www.nctq.org/teacherPrep
Bright Spot on smart uses of
clinical experiences
At Great Basin College in Nevada, the
“capstone seminar” accompanying student
teaching requires multiple observations
and reections related to classroom
management, each with a specic goal.
At one point, teacher candidates reect
on a targeted observation of a lead
teacher’s procedures and routines (to
accompany reading the text The First
Days of School). Later, teacher candidates
analyze their own ability to manage their
classroom, using a checklist from a text
entitled Qualities of Effective Teachers.
At another point, teacher candidates
develop ve rules they would use in the
classroom and reect on how they are
managing students’ time effectively. And
there’s considerable practice. Teacher
candidates videotape themselves teaching
and assess themselves on classroom
management-related issues like maintaining
an appropriate pace to instruction to ensure
student engagement.
Teaching episodes also presumably include some feedback from a
cooperating and/or a university supervisor on classroom management,
as well as a range of other skills.
31
However, if feedback is provided
in clinical experiences, it is probably provided using observation/
evaluation instruments similar to those used in student teaching,
and if the analysis conducted on such instruments (see p. 20) is any
guide, the feedback bears little relationship to strategies covered in
foundational coursework.
32
Finding 5: Few programs draw
a straight line between
what is learned about
classroom management
in coursework and
what is evaluated in the
culminating experience
of student teaching.
Student teaching is the component of traditional teacher preparation
that comes closest to the “real thing” — where candidates can take
what they have learned in their program and put that into practice
for extended periods — and is therefore crucially important for the
consolidation of classroom management skills.
Regardless of the extent of the training of supervisors and
cooperating teachers, few of them are intimately involved in
the curriculum of the programs with which they become afliated.
For this reason, the observation/evaluation instruments they use to
provide feedback to teacher candidates represent the best and
perhaps the only opportunity for the program to communicate to all
parties the specic aspects of teacher candidate performance it
considers central, including in the area of classroom management.
33
A coherent program would emphasize the same specic strate-
gies of classroom management in coursework as in observation/
evaluation instruments.
To get a better sense of how well programs connect the foundational
coursework addressing classroom management to student teaching,
we compared the results from this coursework study with the
scores for the 93 programs in this study that were also reviewed on
Bright Spot on teaching use
of praise
Teacher candidates at Hunter College
of The City University of New York are
asked to view a video of their own teaching
and “count the number of positive as well
as negative statements that you make.”
Candidates are then asked if the positive
statements outweigh the negative.
19
Findings
Programs appear to often
evaluate student teachers
on their skill at using
classroom management
strategies that the candidates
never practiced or even
encountered in previous
coursework.
our Classroom Management Standard in the 2013 edition of the Teacher
Prep Review. Program scores on that standard are based on the nature
of the feedback provided to student teachers by university supervisors.
Unfortunately, we found virtually no relationship between coursework
and how student teachers are judged. Indeed, in some instances we
found the opposite. Programs that dedicate lecture time to “managing
misbehavior,” for example, are actually less likely to evaluate teacher
candidates on their skills using this strategy than programs that don’t
spend lecture time on the strategy. No program taught candidates
about the Big Five classroom management strategies and then evaluated
them on how well they implemented the strategies in student teaching.
Bright Spots
St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s graduate elementary and
graduate secondary programs and the University of Washington
– Seattle’s graduate elementary program all teach three of the
Big Five (rules, routines, and misbehavior) in addition to at least
one of the other second-tier strategies (least intrusive means)
and address each of these strategies in their student teaching
feedback.
We also undertook an exhaustive “cross-program” analysis of nine
programs to see if we could nd examples of how teacher preparation
threaded training in classroom management through all required
courses and student teaching. Though the sample was small, the
systematic coherence lacking in the 93-program analysis described
above was, not surprisingly, no more apparent.
Following is a summary of what was found.
Of the nine programs included in these case studies, seven show a
very inconsistent relationship between what is taught in coursework
and what is evaluated in student teaching. Indeed, these programs
often evaluate student teachers on their skill at using classroom
management strategies that the candidates never practiced or even
encountered in previous coursework.
34
One program achieves coherence
between coursework on classroom management and feedback, but in
the worst possible way: addressing classroom management in neither.
What explains the incoherence? The absence of an institutional
consensus about how teacher candidates should be prepared in
classroom management (which will be discussed more in this report’s
conclusion), combined with a higher education tradition of deferring
20
?
No
course
Secondary strategies
CBD
No course
CBDCBD
Big Five
No course
CBDCBDCBDCBD
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
At least 1 lecture
At least 1 assignment
Student teaching feedback
Program AProgram BProgram CProgram DProgram EProgram FProgram GProgram HProgram I
Fig. 16 Summary of cross-program analyses
CBD means “could not be determined”
The classroom management topics found on the student teaching observation/evaluation instruments are generally not
addressed in candidates’ earlier coursework, and vice versa. The topics on these instruments do not always connect to any
lecture or assignment. Strategies that were taught in coursework often cannot be found on student teaching instruments.
Rules
Routines
Praise
Misbehavior
Engagement
Least intrusive
means
Physical
environment
Motivation
Parent/Community
involvement
Diversity/Cultural
factors
Social/
Emotional factors
Other (e.g., school
management
plans, student
responsibility)
Classroom
management:
Topic not specified
Big Five Secondary strategies
Classroom management strategies
21
Findings
to faculty prerogatives, produce a muddled form of preparation. All too often, individual instructors are allowed to
decide what is important to teach and what is not, with little regard for the overall integrity of the training provided by
the program, which may or may not have even articulated a picture of how its training should be constituted.
These full analyses — including a wealth of information taken from syllabi, textbooks and observation/evaluation
instruments in all of a program’s courses addressing classroom management — are found in Appendix E.
The bottom line on Findings 1 though 5
Teacher educators often make the claim that NCTQ analyses fail to discern various aspects of professional training
because the training is “embedded” in preparation in a holistic manner that simply can’t be detected in reviews of
coursework materials. Whatever the nature of this “embedded” training, we believe that our ndings to this point,
especially Finding 5, demonstrate that embedding classroom management training everywhere is a recipe for adequately
covering it nowhere.
Findings 1 through 4 summarize what we found in the way of classroom management instruction and practice under
the many different rocks we uncovered, and it was generally far too little. Finding 5 lines up in a row all of the rocks
in a program to illustrate how classroom management instruction, practice and feedback would be experienced by
individual teacher candidates.
The exhaustive cross-program analysis we performed for Finding 5 paints a clear picture of how classroom management
instruction, practice and feedback is actually experienced by individual teacher candidates. What is embedded is incoherent:
Most of the programs we examined evaluate teacher candidates on their skill at using classroom management strategies
that the candidates have never practiced — or even encountered in previous coursework — or teach skills on which
candidates are never evaluated.
35
Given what we have found — and the prerogatives accorded to higher education faculty, with each instructor given
leeway to teach what he or she wants — it is hard to see how embedding classroom management training can actually
help teacher candidates master the skills they need to enable learning in their classrooms.
Finding 6: The eld of teacher education has not reached any sort
of consensus on the “who, what, where, when or why” of
classroom management preparation.
Most programs do not appear to draw from the research when deciding which classroom management strategies are
most likely to be effective and therefore should be taught and practiced. Especially disfavored are research-based
strategies suggesting that teachers need to frame consequences for misbehavior, foster student engagement, and
— most markedly — use praise to reinforce positive behavior. Half of all programs ask candidates to develop their
own “personal philosophy of classroom management,” as if this is a matter of personal preference.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
22
As NCTQ has found in its other studies of teacher preparation, there is no common approach the eld of teacher
education takes to deliver the instruction and practice teacher candidates need.
There is no agreement on how many courses are needed.
The number of courses in which classroom management is addressed ranges from none up to ve per program. Most
programs embed classroom management topics in an average of two courses, though those courses also address
several other unrelated subjects.
As shown on p. 12, only 4 percent of programs dedicate the equivalent of a full course or more to classroom management
alone.
36
Fig. 7 In how many courses do teacher prep programs address classroom management?
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Number of courses
Percent of programs
(N=122 programs)
Programs are almost evenly divided in their choice to consolidate classroom management instruction in one course or
distribute it across more than one course.
There is also no consensus about where in the sequence of coursework classroom
management should be taught.
Most often classroom management is embedded in methods courses, but it can also be found in educational psychology
courses, special education courses and, of course, in a fair number of courses appropriately titled “classroom management.”
23
Findings
The absence of instruction on classroom management in
special education courses is glaring.
While the Big Five are general strategies relevant for all classrooms,
the behavior issues posed by some students with special needs do
demand specic treatment. Yet only 15 percent of the programs address
classroom management in special education coursework taken by
elementary and secondary teacher candidates.
Fig. 8 Where is classroom management taught?
50
40
30
20
10
0
Methods Classroom Education Special Assorted All others
management psychology education practicum
Percent of courses
(N=213 courses)
Type of course
Classroom management is most commonly addressed in methods, classroom
management, and educational psychology instructional coursework.
Research does not generally inform what gets taught.
As discussed earlier, only a third of programs address at least four
of the Big Five. It is telling that the likelihood of doing so does rise if
a program dedicates a course to classroom management. Consistently,
praise is barely mentioned in any type of course, including in educational
psychology courses in which one would expect it to gure prominently
due to its connection to psychological theories regarding the nature
of positive reinforcement as an operant principle.
37
Your best lesson plan of
the year won’t go well
if you don’t have good
classroom management.
– 3rd year teacher
Respondent to
NCTQ survey
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
24
Fig. 9 Which Big Five classroom management strategies are addressed by each of the course types in
which classroom management instruction is commonly offered?
Special education
(N=17 courses)
Education psychology
(N=32 courses)
Classroom managment
(N=48 courses)
Methods
(N=64 courses)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Percent of courses
(N=161 courses)
Rules
Routines
Praise
Misbehavior
Engagement
Each type of instructional course addresses a different mixture of the Big Five. Compared to any other type of course, classroom
management courses consistently address more, but not all, of the Big Five strategies.
Note: Thirty-three courses that only contain ambiguous references to classroom management topics were removed from
the sample.
Textbooks used to teach classroom management content reveal the incoherence in the eld.
Most foundational courses in this study (166 courses) use at least one textbook addressing classroom management,
but few courses share the same text, as 141 different texts across the programs are required. Almost all of these
texts (70 percent) are only used in a single course for a single program on a campus. Only a handful of textbooks are
used by four or more programs. This nding is similar to the nding on reading preparation: NCTQ’s recent review
of reading courses identied 866 different reading textbooks among 692 programs, and more continue to ood the
eld.
38
Only about half of the programs (56 percent) have a course assigning a textbook that focuses primarily on issues surrounding
classroom management. Courses in the remaining programs either never assign a classroom management textbook
(6 percent) or assign one that only devotes a few chapters to the topic (38 percent).
39
25
Findings
Classroom management
texts most commonly used
in foundational coursework
n Charles, C. M., & Senter, G. W. (2008).
Building Classroom Discipline (six
programs at six IHEs).*
n Evertson et al. (2009). Classroom
Management for Elementary Teachers
(ve programs at four IHEs).*
n Marzano, R. J. (2003). Classroom
Management that Works: Research-
based Strategies for Every Teacher
(four programs at three IHEs).*
n Weinstein & Novodvorsky (2011). Middle
and Secondary Classroom Management
(four programs at four IHEs).
Largely unscientic textbook:
n Kohn, A. (2006). Beyond Discipline: From
Compliance to Community (ve programs
at four IHEs).
Commonly used textbook
addressing classroom management
and other topics:
n Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. S. (multiple
editions). The First Days of School: How
to Be an Effective Teacher.
* More information on these textbooks can be
found in Appendix E.
Of the six most commonly used textbooks (used by four or more
programs, see textbox to the right), ve address the Big Five.
Only Beyond Discipline by Ale Kohn disagrees with the bulk of
scientic research.
Finding 7: State standards on
teacher prep do not
focus on the classroom
management strategies
for which research
support is strongest.
The vast majority of public school teachers are recommended for
certication by traditional teacher preparation programs in institutions
that have been approved to offer certication by state agencies.
In turn, these agencies base their
approval on a program’s adherence
to regulations that speak explicitly to teacher preparation itself or
to professional competencies for all teachers.
40
While every state has regulations that have at least a glancing
mention of the need for teachers to know how to manage a
classroom, most states’ regulations seem to be poorly informed
by research. For example, the approach to classroom organization
that is strongly supported by research — the need for teachers to
employ a combination of both rules and routines — is mentioned
in regulations of less than half of all states (19). More commonly,
state regulations do address engagement (29 states), but nearly
as many address motivation (24), which lacks strong research
support. States are more likely to mention strategies for which
the research base is not as strong — such as managing the
physical classroom environment (24 states) and maintaining student
motivation (24 states) — than some research-supported strategies,
such as addressing misbehavior (13 states) and using praise
(only two states).
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
26
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Regulations in
California, New Mexico,
Oregon and Texas are
strong and address
four of the Big Five.
Fig. 10 How many states have regulations addressing the Big
Five strategies?
50
40
30
20
10
0
Rules Routines Praise Misbehavior Engagement
Number of states
State regulations provide a oor for what teacher prep programs must
teach. “Routines” is the only strategy addressed by a majority of states,
whereas “praise” is addressed by only a few.
Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia rely to some extent on
accreditation standards in their state approval processes. While these
standards are changing as NCATE evolves into CAEP, it is notable that
the accreditation standards used by NCATE until 2013 contained only
a passing reference to classroom management in program standards,
and then only in a program standard for elementary teacher preparation.
It is a step forward that InTASC standards for the teaching profession
(adopted by about half the states) have been incorporated into the
new CAEP teacher preparation program accreditation standards, and
that the InTASC standards include indicators on the ability of teachers
to address at least three of the Big Five: building structure and routine
into the classroom, establishing and teaching rules, and maintaining
student engagement.
41
However, CAEP and InTASC are each silent on two strategies: the use
of praise and other positive reinforcement and appropriately addressing
misbehavior.
27
Findings
Positive reinforcement
was a focus of my
training. It’s something
that takes a lot of
practice to make
natural.
– 1st year teacher
Respondent to
NCTQ survey
What is meant by “creating a positive
learning environment”?
The phrase “creating a positive learning environment” is often
found in state regulations, as well as in information on licensing
examinations, and in the indicators found in instruments used
to evaluate student teachers, but we can nd no clear or consistent
indication of what the phrase means. References to “positive
learning environments” are scant in instruction and virtually
nonexistent in textbooks. Teacher preparation program
accreditation standards used the phrase “positive learning
environments” until recently, and the current InTASC standard
for the teaching profession has a set of “learning environment”
standards suggesting that this phrase refers to “positive social
interaction.” The new term is no clearer.
In fact, in NCTQ’s Teacher Prep Review 2013 we suggested that
observation/evaluation instruments used for student teaching
placements should include language “specically addressing
the student teacher’s ability to establish a positive learning
environment.” In application (see the standard’s scoring
methodology for more detail),
42
we interpreted this to mean
that the instruments should provide feedback on establishing
a productive learning environment by maintaining engagement
and managing time and materials. In the revised version of this
standard (to be applied in Teacher Prep Review 2014), we use
this more exact language in an indicator so that what we mean
by a “positive learning environment” is absolutely clear. A
separate indicator deals with positive reinforcement using
praise and other means.
We suggest that the use of this general phrase provides little
meaningful guidance for agencies or organizations approving
or accrediting programs, to programs as they develop coursework,
or — most important — to teacher candidates who might receive
feedback in student teaching on whether they have created a
“positive learning environment.” Just as NCTQ has abandoned
it, so too should others.
29
Programs that rise to the top
5. Programs that rise to the top
Programs vary widely in how they approach classroom management. However, though no program here did well on
all aspects of classroom management, some programs rose to the top. These programs appear to have identied
classroom management as a priority and may be more strategic in how they address this essential part of teacher
preparation.
What did we look for to identify programs that rose to the top?
Programs should offer adequate foundational coursework addressing the Big Five as well as other classroom
management strategies, with eldwork in this coursework providing observation and practice opportunities. In
addition, programs should ensure the alignment of clinical practice before and during student teaching through
use of observation/evaluation instruments that address the Big Five. These instruments should address classroom
management, not just in ambiguous or general terms, but with specic language that allows the teacher candidate
to make the best use of feedback. All too often these instruments have general indicators such as “Manages
classroom well.” The presence or absence of a checkmark on this type of indicator provides the teacher candidate
with scant information.
Bright Spot on aligning instruction and student teaching.
In the University of Virginia’s graduate secondary and graduate elementary programs, every strategy
strongly supported by research has at least a lecture or assignment (and often both) addressing it. Furthermore,
four of the Big Five are included in the student teaching observation/evaluation instrument. While the
coverage of any given strategy is sometimes spread across different courses, these programs appear to
have a fairly comprehensive and coherent treatment of classroom management.
Both aspects of classroom management preparation — instruction and practice — deserve careful institutional
attention. In any case, programs should not rely on clinical practice alone to prepare teacher candidates in classroom
management. These courses often lack instruction on classroom management skills, and do not always target
their practice to classroom management.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
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Bright Spot on teaching the Big Five, with some assignments demonstrating
understanding.
Seventeen programs address all of the Big Five in their foundational coursework, and eight of these include
opportunities for practice and feedback. A standout among these programs is Western Washington
University’s undergraduate secondary program. This program has several instructional courses that
incorporate classroom management, as well as associated practica courses. One course, Secondary School
Methods, devotes more than half of its time to specic classroom management topics, including classroom
norms, building student-teacher relationships, altering unproductive student behavior and establishing routines.
The course also incorporates both in-class role-playing activities (e.g., role-playing interventions) and eldwork
(involving both co-teaching a lesson and lming it), which give teacher candidates opportunities to practice
management strategies. An educational psychology course that includes classroom management strategies
among its objectives likely reinforces this introduction to classroom management.
It is difcult to prescribe a hard and fast number of classroom sessions and practice opportunities. Sufce it to
say that those programs providing only one class session on classroom management in foundational coursework
(12 percent) are doing their teacher candidates a great disservice. The following programs appear to be devoting
an adequate amount of attention to classroom management preparation, even though they use different program
structures.
Bright Spots on addressing classroom management in different course structures.
Eastern Illinois University’s undergraduate elementary program addresses all of the Big Five in lectures,
offers a pencil-and-paper assignment (designing a classroom discipline plan) and provides opportunities for
practice in eldwork contained within one instructional course.
43
Minot State University’s undergraduate
elementary program instead diffuses classroom management instruction across four courses — one
focused on classroom management and three that incorporate this topic among others. Between lectures
and assignments across the four instructional courses, teacher candidates learn about or have assignments
on each of the Big Five and have eldwork that allows for practice.
44
This program also requires two
clinical practice courses prior to student teaching, one in elementary curriculum and instruction, and one in
multicultural/disabilities.
31
Recommendations
6. Recommendations
Develop coordinated foundational and general clinical coursework that addresses
classroom management strategies with the strongest research support
Current research identies a number of essential strategies for classroom management, including that teachers
should know how to establish and teach rules, build structure and routine into the classroom, use praise to reinforce
positive behavior, address misbehavior and maintain student engagement.
Program leadership needs to determine when instruction on these areas should occur, when teacher candidates will
have the opportunity to practice and how these areas are to be evaluated during student teaching. This work cannot be
left up to individual instructors who cannot see the full picture of preparation within the program.
Use data from surveys of graduates and their employers for program improvement
New teachers and their principals consistently report that classroom management is a tremendous challenge. While
we recognize that teachers will need to continue to improve their skills in many areas after entering the classroom,
better classroom management preparation will mitigate some of the difculties faced by rst-year teachers. Teacher
preparation programs should gather information from their graduates and their employers about the nature of the
classroom management issues they are encountering. They could then use this information to determine the nature
of instruction on research-based strategies that might best receive emphasis in their programs.
Instruct with videotapes of real classrooms taught by real teachers
There is no guarantee that a full range of management situations will arise in clinical coursework (including the student
teaching placement). For that reason, having teacher candidates view purposefully edited videos of teachers engaged
in classroom instruction while documenting salient features of instruction seems likely to provide an opportunity to
identify strategies in execution.
45
Unfortunately, we found little evidence of the use of videotapes in instruction. (Videotaping
of teacher candidates is often used to provide feedback on clinical coursework practice.)
46
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The most clear-cut case for use of videotapes was made in a syllabus for a course in a graduate secondary program
(University of Michigan – Ann Arbor) that uses videotapes in two class meetings of a practica taken simultaneously
with a “recorded teaching” course. We could not improve on the syllabus’ explanation of the value of videotaping for
instruction, so we quote it here at length:
Why is it important as a beginning teacher that you use and learn from digital records of practice? Very simply
it allows a beginning teacher to examine and analyze their teaching and the teaching of others by capturing,
interpreting, organizing, annotating, and storing records of practice. There are many compelling reasons to use
records of practice as a critical component of teacher preparation…[T]hey allow beginning teachers to visit
and revisit events and artifacts of teaching so that they not only begin to internalize the important theories and
conceptions of good teaching, but also begin to visualize what these theories and conceptions actually look
like in a real classroom.… Studying digital records of practice with proper guidance and strategies makes
decisions, actions, choices, and teaching maneuvers more visible; and therefore, through close and careful
examination of teaching, beginning teachers learn how to unpack what is otherwise difcult to see.
47
Use of videos for instruction
The University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education (whose graduate elementary and secondary programs
are included in the study’s sample) makes extensive and varied use of videos as one approach to prepare
teacher candidates. Videos are used in methods courses (across all subjects and levels) and in courses that
address classroom management. The list below is not exhaustive but provides an overview of the types of
videos used by faculty:
n Excerpts of videos about Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports on PBISvideos.com, including
“Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports.”
n Videos or DVDs available in Wong & Wong, The First Days of School, and Lemov, Teach Like a Champion.
n Consented videotapes from the university’s research projects, including the Responsive Classroom
Study, M-SCAN studies and CLASS.
n “Here They Come” and “TB2” by Randy Sprick, accessed at http://safeandcivilschools.com
n Videos from other web-based resources (http://teachingchannel.org; http://explicitinstruction.org/;
http://www.teachertube.com/)
n Videos from ASCD, BERC (Powerful Teaching & Learning in Action), Annenberg, and other organizations.
Dr. Robert Pianta, Dean of the Curry School, indicates that there are two key features of video analysis threaded
through all the ways in which teacher candidates observe and work with video. First, analysis of videos is directed
and guided by an analytic approach that ties into a larger framework of evidence-driven practices. That is, video
is viewed and analyzed through a lens and language that is common across the program and its specialties and
is pegged to evidence and coursework. This approach enables an integrated approach to acquiring classroom
management knowledge and competence. Second, analysis of video is active and guided; that is, teacher
candidates are not simply asked to “go watch video and describe what you see,” but rather watch for a specic
purpose and target (aligned with the evidence framework presented in coursework).
33
Recommendations
Kendal College’s undergraduate elementary program makes use of Virtual Field Experience™ assignments
(developed by Laureate Education), which pair videos of experienced teachers with writing assignments on
each segment. The video segments both show the experienced teacher in action and include an interview with
the teacher about what happened in the classroom and why the teacher made specic decisions. The videos
are accompanied by lesson plans, student work samples, teacher reections and other artifacts that give the
full context of the video. The company developing this resource has only ve clients in the United States, but
is used more widely elsewhere.
48
Another institution included in the sample — the school of education at Hunter College of The City University
of New York — also makes extensive use of videotapes in instruction. Hunter College has such a strong institutional
commitment to the use of videotapes that it has recently compiled its own library, the largest preservice teacher
preparation video library in the world. This catalogued library comprises 11,000 video clips of teaching episodes,
200 of which are tagged as addressing especially powerful examples of classroom management techniques.
According to Dr. David Steiner, Dean of Hunter College’s School of Education, for the past six years the college
has used its own highly user-friendly and sophisticated video software to record teachers in action, including a suite
of analytical tools to facilitate evaluation and discussion of the teaching. In addition, since 2008 all teacher
candidates have been required to video themselves during student teaching and other eldwork and to analyze
their performance with peers and faculty as they develop the competencies required for effective teaching.
Several educational organizations have licensed the college’s online system and analytical tools for use in
professional development.
Make better use of classroom observations and practice
When teacher candidates observe classroom teachers’ demonstrations of classroom management skills or view
videotapes of their own teaching, candidates can gain a better grasp if they have to produce more than a general
“reection,” and instead are required to comment on the specic strategies that were or were not employed.
Improve both on-campus and PK-12 classroom practice
Simulations may afford the best opportunities for on-campus practice in instructional coursework. In fact, in-class
simulations can be more valuable than practice in the eld, especially at the beginning of training: They don’t require
the program to nd placements for candidates who are probably not yet ready to take over a classroom even for just
one teaching episode, and they allow teacher candidates to repeatedly practice isolated individual skills (like dealing
with an extremely hostile and disruptive student) that would occur rarely in a good eld placement. Simulations need
not involve technology, although an approach to simulation that is very technologically advanced is described in the
textbox here.
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Learning through classroom simulations
More than 10 years ago, University of Central Florida faculty began collaborating to create a virtual classroom
intended to develop effective teaching skills for teacher students. Today, the product of their efforts, a teaching
program called TeachLivE, has partnerships with about 20 IHEs.
49
The program is not designed as a replacement
for teaching internships and “real” practice, but rather to supplement preparation work, functioning as a tool
for developing discrete skills before entering a classroom.
50
For a video on the program, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDzc61iW_Bo, and for more information
on the program see the TeachLive website: http://sreal.ucf.edu/teachlive/
To date there is no evidence that teacher candidates trained in such simulated environments are more effective
in the classroom than those that are not. If that evidence is generated by solid research, the virtual classroom
could be a welcome addition to teacher training.
We note that another classroom simulation entitled SimSchool (www.simschool.org) is also now being launched,
but it focuses more on simulating the effects of instructional decisions made by the teacher candidate.
Align feedback from teaching episodes with what is taught in foundational
coursework
When teacher candidates begin to have practice opportunities in PK-12 classrooms, formal observations should
reinforce the same skills that teacher candidates have learned and practiced previously. All observation/evaluation
instruments associated with clinical coursework and student teaching should be examined to ensure their consistency
with the Big Five, as well as with other research-based classroom management approaches and techniques.
An exemplary observation/evaluation instrument from the Teachers College of Western Governors University,
posted as a resource on NCTQ’s website, addresses the Big Five in language that is sufciently specic to provide
useable feedback to the teacher candidate. It can be accessed at http://www.nctq.org/teacherPrep/resources/
elementary/classroomManagement.jsp
Increase the amount of feedback on practice in PK-12 classrooms
A post-observation conference with a cooperating teacher, university supervisor or both to discuss a recent teaching
episode provides valuable feedback to a teacher candidate. The impact of feedback can be further enhanced if videotaping
is included to allow the candidate to match the feedback from observers to specic actions. Earbuds allowing in-time
feedback from supervisors or mentors (increasingly used in both preservice and in-service) are another way to ensure
that each teaching episode for which an expert observer is available is fully exploited for training purposes.
35
Recommendations
Improve the selection process for classroom teachers who are partners in
clinical coursework
When attempting to improve any aspect of teacher preparation, teacher educators often seize on the possibility of
requiring more clinical coursework. Here we borrow from our work in earlier studies: NCTQ’s take on clinical practice
(with regard to preparation in all aspects of professional practice, not just classroom management) is not that more is
needed, but rather that “better” is needed. As documented in our national study on student teaching
51
and the Teacher Prep
Review 2013, the quality of any clinical coursework is largely dependent on selecting effective cooperating teachers
who are also skilled adult mentors. As we discussed in Teacher Prep Review 2013,
While more clinical practice may create a more polished novice teacher, it does not necessarily create a more effective
novice. If the ultimate goal is to improve PPK-12 education rather than preserve the status quo, the logic of trying
to do so with earlier and longer placements in indiscriminately chosen classrooms with potentially mediocre (or
worse) teachers is puzzling.
Only classroom teachers who are both effective instructors and good adult mentors should be selected as cooperating
teachers for clinical placements. Those who are selected should be well-trained on the use of the observation/evaluation
instrument to ensure that they clearly understand the nature of the feedback they are expected to provide on classroom
management skills.
State Policymakers and Accrediting Organizations
Ensure that all performance assessments, including the edTPA, assess a
teacher’s knowledge and ability to manage a classroom
The edTPA is a performance assessment that is being heavily promoted by the AACTE and many teacher educators
as a new instrument to provide states with evidence that teacher candidates deserve a teacher license. The extent of
the role that the edTPA will play in licensing decisions is unsettled, but the investment by the teacher education eld
in its development ensures that it will play some role.
Currently, the edTPA suffers from key shortcomings; specically, it contains almost no reference to classroom management
except to cast it as somehow antithetical to learning (i.e., Candidate provides a learning environment that serves
primarily to control student behavior, and minimally supports the learning goals). By evaluating the “learning environment”
only through a lens of student engagement, it conveys to teacher candidates that the only tool they will ever need to
manage a classroom is to hit instructional notes high enough to consistently engage students.
The edTPA needs to be revised to ensure that candidates are evaluated on the two additional types of classroom
management skills that every teacher needs and that can realistically be expected to be in evidence in any discrete
episodes of whole class instruction: reinforcement of positive behavior using praise and demonstrations of student
understanding of established classroom routines.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
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Revise state regulations on teacher prep programs or teacher professional
competencies to address the Big Five
Regulations in California, New Mexico, Oregon and Texas provide the best models for how to send a clear message to
teacher preparation programs about the need for adequate preparation in the strategies for which research support
is strongest. While state regulations provide no guarantee of effective classroom management preparation, they can
send a message to teacher preparation programs that comprehensive preparation entails coursework and practice
that addresses all of the Big Five.
Incorporate into accreditation standards ALL the classroom management
strategies for which research support is strongest
The accreditation process is involved in some way in the state approval process in 27 states and the District of Columbia.
52
This means that improving accreditation standards is an important avenue for improving teacher preparation in classroom
management. As previously noted, InTASC standards for the teaching profession (adopted by about half of the states),
now incorporated in the new CAEP teacher preparation program accreditation standards, include indicators on the
ability of teachers to address only three of the Big Five: establishing and teaching rules, building structure and routine
into the classroom, and maintaining student engagement.
53
CAEP’s standards should also include indicators on the use
of praise (and other forms of positive reinforcement) and addressing misbehavior.
37
Conclusion
The inadequacies
noted in this report do
not manifest themselves
solely because programs
are not teaching research-
based strategies. Rather,
these inadequacies are
rampant because the
programs are not providing
comprehensive training
on much of anything
about classroom
management.
7. Conclusion
The inadequacies noted in this report do not manifest themselves because
programs are not providing comprehensive training on the research-based
strategies we have termed the “Big Five.” Rather, these inadequacies are rampant
because most programs are not providing comprehensive training on much
of anything about classroom management. A lack of coherence is evident in
how (or whether) any strategy is introduced in coursework, how (or whether)
candidates have the relevant practice opportunities before student teaching
and how (or whether) they receive feedback on their practice of the relevant
skills in student teaching.
It is also worth noting that those alternative certication providers that rely
primarily on clinical experiences to teach classroom management are also
likely shortchanging their teacher candidates. Without a solid grounding in the
research-based strategies that is reinforced in clinical experiences, classroom
management strategies are based less on professional than on folk wisdom.
Admittedly, the task of preparing teacher candidates to manage a classroom
is not an easy one. Unlike other aspects of teaching in which intermediate
steps (e.g., conducting a tutorial, small-group instruction) can serve as a
bridge to full-edged practice, learning how to manage a classroom of several
dozen children or adolescents would require no less than having a real classroom
repeatedly available to teacher candidates. This is a tall order. Even in a
program in which eldwork and clinical experiences are extensive, full-class
instruction by teacher candidates is almost exclusively found in student teaching;
there, the period of full-time teaching is limited to a few weeks, and the classroom
environment has been conditioned to a large extent by practices of the cooperating
teacher.
Given that the classroom management challenges faced by novice teachers
have been evident for decades, why do so few programs provide adequate
preparation? We postulate that the inadequacy is the product of three factors.
The rst is an errant ideology espoused by many of the eld’s leading thinkers
as to what causes classroom management problems to begin with. The second
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and third factors are prominent features of current approaches to teacher preparation. We explore each of these factors
in more depth.
1. Programs have an expectation that “instructional virtuosity” will take care of any
need for classroom management.
Consistent with other NCTQ ndings about teacher preparation, there is little consensus in the eld for what aspects
of classroom management should be taught or practiced. The closest the eld comes to an endorsed “approach”
is the apparent conviction that teachers should be able to rise to a level of instructional virtuosity that would largely
negate any need to consciously and deliberately “manage” a classroom using a variety of dened strategies. This
conviction goes beyond an appreciation of the importance of engagement as one of a repertoire of management
strategies. An approach which only views student engagement as an integral component of strong instruction, and
which overlooks its application as a classroom management strategy, limits candidates’ understanding.
Linda Darling-Hammond, the intellectual leader of the teacher education community, mentions classroom manage-
ment only a few times in her book Powerful Teacher Education, for reasons made clear in the longest passage she
dedicates to this topic. Defending the lack of courses explicitly addressing classroom management in some teacher
preparation programs she identies as exemplary, she argues that the teacher candidate should instead learn to “man-
age many kinds of learning and teaching, through effective means of organizing and presenting information, managing
discussions, organizing cooperative learning strategies, and supporting individual and group inquiry.”
54
Her views appear to be broadly accepted by other teacher educators in positions of inuence. A voluminous exam-
ination of teacher preparation self-described as a “benchmark and a guide to what research on teacher education is
and can be,”
55
the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Studying Teacher Education (2006), fails to
mention either current or needed research on preparation in classroom management.
The silence can be deafening and quite consequential — and it is not just a matter of scholarly musings. The edTPA, a rela-
tively new performance assessment administered to teacher candidates before they graduate and scheduled for adop-
tion in about half the states, fails to address most classroom management skills, only evaluating candidates on how
they are “instructing and engaging students” in videotaped teaching episodes.
56
With the edTPA rapidly becoming a
culminating assessment of classroom performance, evaluation of teacher candidates’ classroom management skills
should be made more explicit in its rubrics.
It bears noting that teacher educators themselves, perhaps due to a better grounding in the realities of today’s
classrooms, are understandably on the fence about this topic, with only half of them agreeing with teacher education
leadership and institutions that a teacher having management problems has simply failed to sufciently engage students
in instruction.
57
39
Conclusion
2. The eld is reluctant to embrace scientically based approaches.
The second feature is the eld’s general distrust for restricting itself to instructional approaches with a scientic
basis.
58
We noted, for example, in Teacher Prep Review 2013 that 866 different reading textbooks, the majority of
which are partly or wholly unscientic, are used to teach the seminal skill needed by elementary and special education
teachers. We also noted the nearly ubiquitous endorsement by teacher educators of the use of student “learning
styles” in planning instruction, an approach to planning that has been shown conclusively by extensive research to be
a waste of teachers’ precious planning time.
59
In the area of classroom management, this lack of interest in scientic content manifests itself in a widespread
neglect of about half of what can be argued to be the comprehensive body of knowledge on what research has
determined does and does not work in classroom management — especially how to use praise and other forms of
positive reinforcement.
3. The eld eschews responsibility for training teachers.
The third pervasive feature at work is the eld’s perception of its purpose. This observation is one that we’ve explained
in some detail elsewhere
60
and revolves around the difference between a perceived mission of “training” teacher
candidates and one of encouraging instead their “professional formation.” To this end, teacher candidate coursework
is short on assignments ensuring that candidates have actually mastered content (see textbox beginning on p. 16) or can
demonstrate specic instructional “moves,” and long on “philosophy of education” and “reection” assignments.
Clearly, for many teacher educators, teaching classroom management falls into the category of mere “technical
transmission” of skills, a function that the eld has largely rejected
61
and replaced instead with the mission of forming
professional identities.
What can be done?
These constraints must be overcome by a combination of coordinated foundational and general clinical coursework
including:
n Strong content delivered in lectures and textbooks
n Ample use of videotapes for instruction
n Simulations for initial practice and
n Maximum exploitation of time spent in classroom observations and teaching episodes using well-conceived
assignments, videotaping and/or earbuds
Only this approach will produce graduates who possess a foundation on which classroom management competence
can be built during the rst few years of teaching. Further support and professional development can then be organized
along the lines convincingly described by Doug Lemov and fellow authors in Practice Perfect, with the same rehearsal
of skills that are unquestionably accepted in any other performance profession.
62
Needless to say, all aspects of this
preparation should focus rst on classroom management strategies for which research support is strongest.
NCTQ’s profound belief — stated rst in Teacher Prep Review 2013 and worth repeating here — is that new teachers
and our children deserve better from America’s teacher preparation programs.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
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Report endnotes
1 A 2013 OECD report found that “in 61 countries and economies that participated in PISA 2009, students in schools where
the classroom climate is more conducive to learning tend to perform better.” Do students perform better in schools with
orderly classrooms? PISA in focus. 32. Accessed at http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisainfocus/pisa%20in%20focus%20n32%20
(eng)--v07.pdf on November 14, 2013.
2 The mainstreaming of students with special needs such as autism and emotional disturbances into general education classrooms
has been mentioned by teachers with whom NCTQ consults as adding new challenges to managing the classroom. See p. 23
for more discussion of this issue.
3 Allensworth, E., Ponisciak, S., & Mazzeo, C. (2009). The schools teachers leave. Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School
Research. PDF le.
4 A variety of Praxis II examinations on pedagogy, used for licensing purposes in many states, also include classroom man-
agement questions in their sections on “Students as Learners.” However, as is true for the content tests that are used more
commonly for licensing, each test contains many sections, with no separate cut-scores for each. We estimate that between 6
and 12 percent of the questions on these pedagogy tests could be connected to classroom management questions broadly
dened.
5 Jones, V. (2005). How do teachers learn to be effective classroom managers? In C. Evertson, & C. Weinstein (Eds.), Handbook
of classroom management: Research, practice and contemporary issues (pp. 888-889). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
6 Langdon, C. A. (1997, November). The fourth Phi Delta Kappa poll of teachers’ attitudes towards the public schools. Phi Delta
Kappan, 79(3), 212-220.
7 Farkas, S., Johnson, J., & Duffett, A. (2003). Stand by me: What teachers really think about unions, merit pay and other
professional matters (Report from Public Agenda). Retrieved February 7, 2013, from http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/
standbyme/standbyme.htm
8 Coggshall, J. G., Bivona, L., & Reschly, D. J. (2012, August). Evaluating the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs
for support and accountability. Washington, DC: National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. This study analyzed data
from the 2007-2008 Schools and Stafng Survey gathered by the National Center for Education Statistics.
9 The New Teacher Project. (2013). Perspectives of irreplaceable teachers. Retrieved August 19, 2013, from http://tntp.org/
assets/documents/TNTP_Perspectives_2013.pdf
10 There is a difference between praise (telling students they did something well) and acknowledgement (thanking students for
what they did). In some cases, the use of acknowledgement rather than of more effusive praise may be more appropriate if
a student is simply meeting expectations rather than exceeding them. Regardless of whether they overtly praise or simply
acknowledge appropriate behavior, teachers should recognize what students are doing right rather than focusing on what they
are doing wrong.
11 Although we were not able to nd explicit support for this in research, many practitioners, especially in special education,
advocate a three-to-one ratio of praise to critical comments.
12 The use of praise and positive reinforcement as a classroom management technique has mixed support from the eld.
On one extreme, Ale Kohn argues that rewards offer only “temporary compliance,” and that rewards for the purpose
of student compliance are akin to punishment (Kohn, A. [2006]. Beyond discipline: From compliance to community [pp.
32-34]. Alexandria, VA: ASCD). However, a wealth of research disagrees. A meta-analysis of over 100 studies on various
positive reinforcements found that “Verbal rewards were found to signicantly enhance both free-choice intrinsic motivation
and self-reported task interest,” and that tangible rewards were effective when based on the quality of performance rather
than on the number of units completed (Cameron, J., Banko, K. M., & Pierce, W. D., [2001]. Pervasive negative effects of
rewards on intrinsic motivation: The myth continues. The Behavior Analyst, 24(1) 1-44). This study further identies a number of
methodological concerns with an earlier meta-analysis by Deci et al., which found that positive reinforcement had negative
effects on students’ intrinsic motivation (Deci, E. L., Ryan, R. M., & Koestner, R. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments
examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627-668). Overall, studies
nd in favor of using praise and positive reinforcement; however, these studies encourage and nearly always include a
“fade-out” period in which the rate of reinforcement decreases so that students become accustomed to engaging in the
appropriate behavior without rewards.
13 See endnote 12 for more discussion.
41
Endnotes
14 Conroy, M. A., Sutherland, K. S., Snyder, A., Al-Hendawi, M., & Vo, A. (2009). Creating a positive classroom atmosphere:
Teachers’ use of effective praise and feedback. Beyond Behavior, 18(2), 18-26. Hester, P. G., Hendrickson, J. M., & Gable, R.
A. (2009). Forty years later – the value of praise, ignoring, and rules for preschoolers at risk for behavior disorders. Education
and Treatment of Children, 32(4), 513-535. Brophy, J. (1981). Teacher praise: A functional analysis. Review of Educational
Research, 51(1), 5-32.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Hester, P. G., Hendrickson, J. M., & Gable, R. A. (2009). Forty years later – the value of praise, ignoring, and rules for
preschoolers at risk for behavior disorders. Education and Treatment of Children, 32(4), 513-535.
19 Conroy, M. A., Sutherland, K. S., Snyder, A., Al-Hendawi, M., & Vo, A. (2009). Creating a positive classroom atmosphere:
Teachers’ use of effective praise and feedback. Beyond Behavior, 18(2), 18-26.
20 Kamins, M. L., & Dweck, C. S. (1999). Person versus process praise and criticism: Implications for contingent self-worth and
coping. Developmental Psychology, 35(3), 835-847. Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success, how we
can learn to fulll our potential. New York: Ballantine Books.
21 Ibid.
22 Cameron, J., Banko, K. M., & Pierce, W. D. (2001). Pervasive negative effects of rewards on intrinsic motivation: The myth
continues. The Behavior Analyst, 24(1), 1-44.
23 Hester, P. G., Hendrickson, J. M., & Gable, R. A. (2009). Forty years later – the value of praise, ignoring, and rules for
preschoolers at risk for behavior disorders. Education and Treatment of Children, 32(4), 513-535.
24 See endnote 12 for more discussion.
25 Marzano, R. J., Marzano, J. S., & Pickering, D. J. (2003). Classroom management that works: Research-based strategies for
every teacher. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
26 Unfortunately, the CAEP glossary’s (http://caepnet.org/resources/glossary) denitions of “eld experiences,” “clinical
experiences” and “clinical practice” are not suited to the categorization needed for this report.
27 Total time was calculated by using the lecture schedule in each syllabus to calculate the proportion of class meetings that
discussed topics related to classroom management and adding that time across all courses addressing classroom management.
To calculate the average percent of a course devoted to classroom management, the aggregated number of lectures on
classroom management was divided by the average number of lectures in a course for that program. Any program with a
course whose lecture schedule could not be determined was removed from the sample.
28 Almost all (86 percent) in the sample of 122 programs included in our foundational coursework analysis have syllabi for which
it is possible to determine the topics addressed by lectures or assignments (both pencil-and-paper and practice assignments).
The remaining 14 percent identify “classroom management” as a lecture topic without providing more specic information,
do not provide any lecture topics (N=4) or do not offer any course on classroom management (N=3). While it is possible that
these programs do address some research-based techniques, there is no reason to think that their coverage of strategies is
any different from that of programs for which techniques can be categorized.
29 The one difference that emerged was between public and private institutions: Private institutions tended to address more
of the Big Five than did public institutions. Public institutions addressed an average of 2.3 of the Big Five, while private
institutions addressed an average of 2.9. This difference was moderately statistically signicant (p=0.10).
30 This number may be as high as 44 percent in the unlikely event that the eldwork not described does contain opportunities
for practice rather than simply observing classrooms. The one-third gure refers to programs that either explicitly require
feedback on classroom management or include eldwork with some sort of teaching or student interaction, which presumably
would lead to feedback on classroom management.
31 It is often difcult to discern in syllabi whether a clinical course instructor or a different person operating solely as a eldwork
supervisor provides feedback on whole class instruction. In only three programs (10 percent) did it appear likely that the
course instructor provides feedback.
32 We did not obtain or identify such instruments used for clinical coursework taken before student teaching.
33 In this vein, observation instruments such as the CLASS (http://www.teachstone.com/about-the-class/) have classroom
organization and management of time, behavior and activity as one of three core elements of effective teaching.
Training our future teachers: Classroom management
42
www.nctq.org/teacherPrep
34 The forms also often contain very general indicators (e.g., “Manages classroom well”) that are not helpful to a teacher
candidate learning how to manage a classroom, whether or not the indicator is checked as satised.
35 Ibid.
36 While almost a quarter of programs have a course entitled “classroom management,” these courses often address one or
more topics only tangentially related, such as developing grade books or managing student work. As a result, even programs
with a Classroom Management course and lecture schedules for all relevant courses may dedicate less than a full course to
actually teaching classroom management.
37 Motivation -- a technique that is not among the ones more strongly supported by research -- tends to dominate instruction in
educational psychology courses to the extent that the topic of instruction can be determined. (Education psychology courses
are more likely than other courses to identify an unspecied “classroom management” topic on their syllabus.)
38 See page 40 of the report accessed at: http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/Teacher_Prep_Review_2013_Report
39 For an in-depth analysis of what some of these textbooks cover, see the cross-program analysis. The cross-program analysis
reviews an earlier edition of Charles & Senter, but the content is presumably similar. This report does not provide information
on the quality of these textbooks; rather, it is reporting on their prevalence and a fairly supercial analysis of the strategies
addressed, with virtually no attention paid to whether they were addressed correctly or adequately.
40 In only 23 states is the approval process completely divorced from accreditation processes. For more information, see page
48 of the NCTQ 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook, accessed at: http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/2011_State_Teacher_
Policy_Yearbook_National_Summary_NCTQ_Report
41 Standard #3 Learning Environments: Performances: 3(d). The teacher manages the learning environment to actively and
equitably engage learners by organizing, allocating, and coordinating the resources of time, space, and learners’ attention.
Progressions (3.1.1 for Performances 3(a)): The teacher articulates explicit expectations for a safe, positive learning environment,
including norms for behavior that include respect for others, as well as responsibility for preparation and completion of work.
S/he develops purposeful routines that support these norms. Accessed Oct. 21, 2013, at http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/
Publications/InTASC_Model_Core_Teaching_Standards_and_Learning_Progressions_for_Teachers_10.html
Unfortunately, the two InTASC indicators that touch on these three elements are contained in a section of the InTASC standards
that are so divorced from the reality of classroom management in challenging classroom environments that a teacher candidate
and novice teacher would be excused from considering them irrelevant. For example, in another section of Standard #3 we
nd Performance 3(b), whIch states ambitiously: The teacher develops learning experiences that engage learners in collaborative
and self-directed learning and that extend learner interaction with ideas and people locally and globally.
42 Accessed Oct. 21, 2013, at: http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/SM_for_Std10
43 In terms of clinical coursework, this program also requires two practica courses prior to student teaching, one in elementary
curriculum and instruction and one in multicultural/disabilities. We are unable to comment on additional instruction and practice
in the former because we did not have the syllabus available for analysis; the syllabus for the second indicates that the only
potential classroom management-related topic is “conict management.”
44 In terms of clinical coursework, this program also requires two practica courses prior to student teaching, one in elementary
curriculum and instruction and one in multicultural/disabilities.
45 We say “seems likely” because – at least as recently as 2005 when the AERA published Studying Teacher Education – there
was no evidence of the efcacy of the use of videotapes in instruction.
46 As mentioned earlier, however, the candidate’s assignments regarding use of the videotape may not require much self-
examination on specic classroom management strategies.
47 Unfortunately, other than these two class meetings, there is no other instruction on classroom management in the program,
so we question the overall efcacy of this abbreviated videotaped introduction to classroom management, no matter how
well-conceived.
48 A map showing the network can be accessed at http://www.laureate.net/OurNetwork
49 Only one of the IHEs included in this study is now partnering with TeachLivE developers, and that IHE (Western Michigan
University) began the partnership in 2011. Both because we examined syllabi from the IHE’s undergraduate elementary
program from 2010 and 2011, before this partnership was in place, and because TeachLivE focuses on middle school rather
than elementary school, we were not surprised to nd no indication in the syllabi of the use of this simulation program
(http://www.wmich.edu/education/about/pdfs/2011fall.pdf , p. 6).
43
Endnotes
50 Dieker, L. (2011). Impatient optimists: Teachers learning in a virtual world (including comments). Impatient Optimists – The Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved November 18, 2013 from http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2011/10/Teachers-
Learning-in-a-Virtual-World.
51 Accessed at http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/Student_Teaching_United_States_NCTQ_Report
52 See page 48 of the NCTQ 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook, accessed at: http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/2011_State_
Teacher_Policy_Yearbook_National_Summary_NCTQ_Report
53 Standard #3 Learning Environments: Performances: 3(d). The teacher manages the learning environment to actively and
equitably engage learners by organizing, allocating, and coordinating the resources of time, space, and learners’ attention.
Progressions: The teacher articulates explicit expectations for a safe, positive learning environment, including norms for
behavior that include respect for others, as well as responsibility for preparation and completion of work. S/he develops purposeful
routines that support these norms. (3a) Accessed Oct. 21, 2013, at http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Publications/InTASC_
Model_Core_Teaching_Standards_and_Learning_Progressions_for_Teachers_10.html.
54 Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Powerful teacher education: Lessons from exemplary programs (pp. 92-93), San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass. Ironically, having insinuated that a focus on student discipline inherently indicates an “absence of concerns for
teaching and learning,” Darling-Hammond’s laudatory descriptions of the classroom management practices of a rst-year
teacher who has graduated from a program she identies as exemplary are sufciently detailed to make clear that the teacher
is very deliberately using all of the Big Five strategies (pp. 71-72).
55 Cochran-Smith, M., & Zeichner, K. M. (Eds.). (2005). Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research
and teacher education (p. viii). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associated.
56 Only one of the TPAs that we’ve evaluated involves assessment of classroom management, and that is the one developed by
and used exclusively at the California State University, Fresno, which requires candidates to submit a classroom management
plan and to evaluate how they “proactively preclude off-task behavior” in whole class instruction.
57 Half of teacher educator respondents believe that if teachers have behavior problems it is because their lessons are not
sufciently engaging. Farkas, S., & Duffett, A. (2010). Cracks in the ivory tower? The views of education professors circa
2010. Washington DC : Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Retrieved August 19, 2013, from http://www.edexcellence.net/
publications/cracks-in-the-ivory-tower-1.html, p. 16.
58 It is tting for traditional teacher preparation to distinguish itself from “fast track” alternative certication providers because
it has the capacity to provide a scientically grounded intellectual foundation to professional preparation. It is disingenuous to
argue -- as Susan Fuhrman, dean of Teachers College, did recently in a critique of alternative certication -- that preparation
should not cut itself off from “scholarship and from emerging research” when it has never actually exercised that capacity to
rmly harness itself to either. (Keller, B. [2013, October 20]. An industry of mediocrity. The New York Times, Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/opinion/keller-an-industry-of-mediocrity.html?_r=0
59 Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2009). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science
in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105-119. Retrieved March 3, 2013, from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/
PSPI_9_3.pdf
Howard Gardner has recently critiqued the use of learning styles: Access at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/an-
swer-sheet/wp/2013/10/16/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-are-not-learning-styles/
60 For more on the teacher education community’s perspective on its mission, see Walsh, K. (2013, Summer). 21st century
teacher education: Education schools don’t give teachers the tools they need. Education Next, 13(3). Retrieved April 25, 2013
from http://educationnext.org/21st-century-teacher-education/.
61 The evolution from a training purpose to a preparation purpose started in the 1970s and is described in detail by the coeditor
of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Studying Teacher Education (2005) and Boston College education
professor Marilyn Cochran-Smith, who dismisses training as a “technical transmission activity.”
62 Lemov, D., Woolway, E., & Yezzi, K. (2012). Practice perfect: 42 rules for getting better at getting better. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
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