elepahnt classroom.pdf

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THE ELEPHANT IN THE C LASS ROO M: THE IMPACTOF MISBEHAVIOR ON CLASSROOM CLIMATE

NANC Y J. RATCLIFFCATHY R . JONES

RICHARD H . COSTNEREMMA SAVAGE-DAVIS

GILBERT H . H UNTCoastal Carolina University

The research discussed here is based on a one year study of 34second and fourth grade teachers and their 588 students. Datawere collected in 40 minute obsei-vational segments; six unan-nounced observations took place in each teacher's classroom fora total of 240 tninutes per teacher. The data were analyzed inSPSS as quantitative data. Half of the teachers were rated asstrong by their principals and half were rated needs improve-ment by the same principals. The purpose of the study was todetermine the differences in the way that instructional and non-instructional interactions took place between teachers and theirstudents in these two types of classrooms. The results indicatedthat strong teachers interacted tnore with their students oninstructional m atters, and their students spent more time engagedin learning. The climate in the needs improvement classroomswere often characterized by the following cycle of behaviors 1)student misbehavior, 2) teacher's attempt to control the misbe-havior, 3) student persistence in continued misbehavior, teacherretreating in frustration, and 4) an increase in student misbehav-ior. The conclusions provide steps that teacher educators canshare with pre-service and in-service teachers to avoid thisunfortunate cycle of behavior.

Introduction for decades that the group dynamics of aC las sro om s are co m ple x soc ietie s classroom needs to be analyzed in order towhere students and teachers live and inter- fully understand how teache rs best func-act with each othe r. Te ach ers are the tion in their role and how students bestleaders of these societies and the way they learn (Bracey, 2009 a; Pianta, 20 06; Eis-exercise their leadership abilities greatly ner, 1984; Schlechty, 1976; Lo rtie, 1975;affect the quality of interactions that take Jac kso n, 1968 ; W aller, 196 1). Brac eyplace between teach ers and students as (2009b) noted that educational researchwell as the in teractio ns that take p lace should focus on the way teachers and stu-betwe en and am ong the students them - dents interact and how teachers structureselves. These interactions,both social and learning env ironments to promote theseinstructional, have a great impact on the interactions. Research that focuses on howacademic and social growth of the students the ave rage stud en t or avera ge teac he r


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The Elephant in the Classroom... / 307

ers and students interact in the learningenvironment and how the internal rela-t ionsh ips in a classro om imp act bothstudent and teacher behavior.The purpose of this study was to con-duct a comparative analysis in order todeterm ine w hat life is like for students andteachers in classrooms w here teachers havebeen categorized as strong by their prin-

cipals vis--vis those classrooms whereteachers have been categorized as needsimprovement by the same pr incipals .Specif ically, the relat ionship exist ingbetween student and teacher interactionsand student and teacher time-on-task wasanalyzed. The reported findings have sig-nificant implications for teacher educatorswho are guiding pre-service and in-serviceteachers in their development of produc-tive learning env ironments.Review of L iteratureTeachers have varied opinions regard-ing what they be l i eve are e f fec t ivetechniques for managing ch ildren's behav-ior in a c las s roo m se t t in g . In f ac t ,classroom management may be the mostdiscussed topic among teachers at all grade

levels and career stages. A number of stud-ies suggest that a direct link exists betweenteachers ' abil i ty to manage classroombehavior and their students' learning. Forexample, Baugous and Bendery (2000)suggested students are on task more inclassrooms that have fewer managementproblems; it has been reported that suchmanagement problems tend to distract bothteachers and students making it difficultfor either to focus on learning experiences

(1992) reported, the optimal teaching andlearning environment is one where theteacher puts an emphasis on preventingmanagem ent disruptions because such anenvironment will likely increase studentt ime-on-task and, of course, learning.Einally, Rimm-Kaufmann, La Paro, Down-er, and Pianta (2005) found that highclassroom quality was most consistentlyrelated to a low number of managementproblems.

Additionally, management problemscan affect the am ount and quality of inter-actions in the classroom. I t has beenreported that teachers are less apt to havepositive interactions with behaviorallychallenging students and even avoid con-tact with these students as stress levelsi nc r eas e ( Ab i d i n & Km et z , 19 97) .Schlechty's classic work (1976) describeda similar type of teacher behavior as retreat-ing; that is, the teacher failed to react whenstudents' violated previously written orstated rules for conduct.The Research Project

Recently, the authors conducted a studyto exa mine life in two distinctly differenttypes of classrooms: those with teacherscategorized as strong and those catego-rized as needs improvement. It is importantto note that, during the data collectionphase of this project, the researchers hadno knowledge as to how the teachers hadbeen categorized. Furthermore, visits wereunannounced to ensure that teachers wereunaware of the day or time that observa-tions would take place. Thirty-four secondand fourth grade teachers from ten public


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308 / Education Vo l. 131 N o. 2

olina school district were selected to par-ticipate in this study. To be included in thestudy, a teacher must have taught a mini-mum of three years, completed a traditionalcollege preparation program, and metNCLB standards for being highly quali-fied. The school district administrationasked principals to use teacher annual eval-ua t i on s , p r i nc i p a l wa l k t h r oughobservations, and student academic per-formance to categorize each teacher aseither strong or needs improvement. Ofthe 17 second grade teachers, eight werecategorized as strong and nine were cate-gorized as needs improvement; 14 wereCaucasian, three were African Am erican,16 were female, and one was male (a Cau-casian). Of the 17 fourth grade teach ers,nine were categorized as strong and eightwere categorized as needs improvement;12 were Caucasian, five were AfricanAm erican, and 17 were female.

A total of five hundred e ighty-eight stu-dents had been assigned to the 34 teachers'classrooms. Of the 588 students, 49% weremale, 51% female, 37% Caucasian, 58%African Am erican, and 5% Hispanic. Allclasses were heterogeneously grouped; theprincipals assigned students randomly bygender and race; class sizes were equalwithin schools and varied from 13 to 21across schools.

The researchers identified then opera-tionalized specific teacher and studentinteractions by developing a coding sys-tem. The observers recorded the numberand type of teacher and student interac-t ions as wel l as t ime-on- task . Thedefinitions of teacher and student interac-

Schlechty (1976) and discussed by Hunt,W isema n, & Touzel (200 9) . Teacherbehavior was identified as either instruc-t ion- or management - focused . Thoseteacher behavior managemen t interactionsreported on here were coded as one of thefollowing four categories: teacher nor-mative control, when the teacher askedstudents to change their behavior; teacherremunerative control, when the teachermanipulated a reward system to controlstudent behavior; teacher coercion, whenthe teacher used physical force, took awayproperty or freedom, or threatened to doeither; and teacher retreatism, when theteacher failed to react when stu den ts' vio-lated previously w ritten or stated rules forconduct.

The observers also completed five time-on-task scans during every 40 minuteobservation. The observers scanned theclassroom from right to left noting the num -ber of students obviously off-task. Studentswere considered on-task unless it was obvi-ous to the observer that they were notattending to or involved in a learning expe -rience. Time-on-task was recorded as afraction designating the number of stu-dents off-task over the total number ofstudents present during each scan.

ProceduresData for use in this study were collect-ed dur i ng 40 mi nu t e obs e r va t i ona lsegments in each classroom . Six observa-tions took place in each of the thirty-fourclassrooms for a total of 240 minutes, orfour hours, per classroom. The observa-t ions, conducted during the 2008-2009


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uled throughout the day to capture theteachers' instruction of reading/languagearts, mathem atics, science, and social stud-i e s . Data f rom the observat ions wereentered into SPSS as quantitative data foranalysis. The data were analyzed to pro-vide a description of what occurred d uringthe classroom observation. In particular,the researchers analyzed the frequency ofteacher and student interactions and thepercentage of time students spent on-task.FindingsDifferences between the climates inboth types of classroo m s were readilyidentifiable. Eor example, teachers char-ac ter i zed as s t rong in terac ted morefrequently with their students, asked m orequestions, and, in general, created a moreengaging, active climate than teachers char-acter ized as needs improvement . Thestrong teachers' classrooms tended to bemore productive places; instruction andlearning remained the primary focus, andthere were fewer instances of student mis-behavior. In s tark contrast , numerousinstances of misbehavior were observedin the classroom s of teachers identified as

needs improvem ent. Eor exam ple, childrenwere constantly sharpening pencils, talk-ing with friends, pointlessly roaming theclassroom, playing with rulers, crayons,and other materials, and arguing with theteacher. Thus, the researchers frequentlyobserved a cycle dreaded by all teachersand characterized by 1) student misbe-havior, 2) teacher 's at tempt to controlmisbehavior, 3) student persistence in con-tinued misbehavior, 4) teacher retreating in

misbehavior. Teachers spent more timemanaging behavior and less time teach-ing; as a result, they focused less on contentfocused instruction. Jennings & Greenberg(2009) found this cycle of behavior maylead to high levels of teacher frustrationand burnout.Significant differences also existed inthe amount and type of teacher control

strategies, the amount of teacher retreating,and the amount of student time-on-task inthe two types of classrooms. Examiningthese differences will show how life with-in the same school building can be verydifferent for specific teachers and their stu-dents depending on the clima te that existsin each classroom on a day to day basis.There were major differences betweenthe way strong and needs improvementteachers interacted with their students whenmanaging their behavior. To illustrate thismajor difference, in 37% of the observa-tions, needs improvement teachers usednormative control to manage students 'behavior from 21 or more times. That is,children were told to stop talking, sit dow n,open your books, sit up straight, and getbusy numerous times throughout a typical

40 minute observation period. When thestudents failed to comply with directives,the needs improvem ent teac he rs', at times,appeared to beg and plead with them tofocus on the task at hand. Einally, as teach-ers grew m ore frustrated, they resorted tocoercion in an attempt to get the studentsto behave. Eor example, teachers movedstuden ts' tokens on a behavior ch art, sentthem out of the classroom, threatened totake away recess or other privileges, and


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310 /Education Vol. 131 No. 2

all teach ers, at time s, must ask students tobehave and take away privileges as appro-priate, the climates of these classroomswere characterized by an abundance of thistype of behavior.Conversely, teachers categorized asstrong only interrupted instruction to usenormative control from 2lor more timesduring 11% of the visits. In fact, the needs

improvement teachers were using thesecontrol strategies almost three and a halftimes as often as the strong teachers. Inter-estingly, the strong teachers controlledstudent behavior with rewards significantlymore often than the needs improvementteachers. For example, strong teachers usedconcrete (such as tokens) or verbal rewardsto praise students in front of the wholeclass when desired behaviors were exhib-ited. In one classroom , students were givenpony dollars each time the teacher noticedthey were following p rocedures. On otheroccasions, teachers simply used verbalreinforcements such as "Thank you for fol-lowing directions." On an average visit,these teachers used praise and rewards fourtimes more often than needs improvem entteachers.

As discussed earlier, teachers are saidto retreat w hen they fail to respond to stu-dents who m isbehave after they have beentold to stop. During 50% of the visits,teachers categorized as needs improve-ment exhibited retreating behaviors morethan five times; those rated as strongretreated over five times during only 2%of the visits. Thus, when teachers retreat,they create an environmen t that is not con-ducive to learning. This cyc le, the elephant

is something all teachers strive to avoid.It should come as no surprise that thestudents in the needs improvement teach-ers' classrooms spent significantly less timeon task than the students in strong teach-ers ' classrooms. On average, 90% or moreof the students were found to be on-taskonly 30% of the time in the classroom s ofthe teachers categorized as needs improve-men t. In contrast, we found that on average,90% or more of the students were on-task7 3% of the time in the classrooms of teach-ers categorized as strong. This decrease oftime-on-task may b e explained, in part, byaddit ional data indicating that as theamount of time spent managing studentbehavior increased, the amount of timeteachers spent on instruction decreased.Teachers categorized as strong spent sig-nificantly more time keeping students ontask by asking questions, answering studentquestions, and providing feedback whichis further evidence that increases in behav-ior management problems tend to decreaseopportunities for teaching and learning.

Implications for Classroom PracticeResearch has shown that managing theclassroom effectively is one of a teacher'smos t i mpor t an t t a s ks ( Mar zano &Marzano, 2003) . I t i s imperat ive thatteacher candidates and experienced teach-ers connect classroom practices with thefindings from current research and exist-ing l i t e ra tu re r eg ard ing ef fec t ivemanagement strategies. The following sug-ges t ions come f rom the researchers 'observations of the strong teachers in thisstudy and are supported by current litera-


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Be alert and quickly redirect off-taskbehaviors. The researchers noted that thestrong teachers were alert to what studentsin their classroom s were doing and quick-ly re-engaged off-task students beforeproblems could occur. Kounin (1970), apioneer in the study of classroom man-agement, referred to this teaching trait aswithitness. Strong teachers demonstratedwithitness in this study; for exam ple, theyused a sti-ategy recommended by Good andBrophy (2003) by scanning the classroomcontinuously and making eye contact withstudents as they taught to prevent prob-lems before they could erup t . Strongteachers in this study also often controlledclassroom environment through seatingarrangem ents and small group m ake-up toavoid placing students in stressful situa-tions and to create a positive learningenvironment. Moreover, these teachersmoved throughout the classroom at timespurposely placing themselves near studentswho w ere easily distracted during instruc-t ion. Marzano, Gaddy, Foseid, Foseid,Marzano (2009) stressed the importanceof these types of preventive measures andreferred to these strategies as forecastingproblems in their research.Avoid retreating. Strong teachers rarelyretreated when students did not complywith stated rules and teacher requests. InSchelchty's (1976) early research in thesociology of education, he based the con-cept of retreating on the research of therenowned socio logi s t Ami ta i Etz ioni(1968) focusing on control in social com-munities. As applied to teaching, if theteacher retreats from the role of leader in

take over the direction that the group takes.Strong teachers in this study em ployed theapproaches Hunt , Wiseman, & Touzel(2009) suggested in order to avoid retreat-ing. They used behavior controls onlywhen student behavior w as harmful or dis-ruptive; they observed students to see thatdirectives were being followed; they exhib-ited a calm confidence; and they avoidedconfrontations in front of the class.Strong teachers rarely used threateningcomm ents, such as, "Don 't make m e tellyou this again."; "I have told you four timesnot to do that;" and "If I have to tell youthis aga in, you will lose recess." Finally,strong teache rs waited for students to com-ply for example during one observation astudent was told to open his book and puthis finger on the correct line on the page.The teacher paused, watching while thestudent complied, and then continued w iththe experience; this practice is also rec-ommended by Marzano, Gaddy, Foseid,Foseid, Marzano (2009).Appropriately use praise and rewards.Although the study of the effects of prais-ing students who are exhibiting on-taskbehavior a re mixed (Rathvon, 1990;

Rosenberg , S indelar , & Stedt , 1985;Amato-Zech, Off , & Doepke, 2006), i tshould be noted that the strong teachers inthis study used significantly more praiseand rewards and significantly fewer threat-ening and punishing behaviors. It seemsreasonable to suggest this research sup-ports the findings of Brophy (2004) who,in a summ ary of research, concluded thatc h i l d r e n ' s d e v e l o p m e n t a l o u t c o m e simprove when teacher-student interactions


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312 / Education Vo l. 131 No. 2

ty, and emo tional support. Since the class-room is a social setting, the impact ofgiving appropriate, sincere praise andrewards in front of the entire group shouldnever be underestimated. When studentsearn praise and perhaps a reward, the otherstudents clearly notice and are more like-ly to exhibit the behaviors they see theteacher rewarding. The other studentsclearly notice, and a ripple effect occurswhen these students exhibit the rewardedbehaviors (Kounin, 1970). Something assimple as saying , "Thank you for m akinga wise choice," may have a powerfulimpact on every student in the classroom.Be aw are of pacing and keep children

engaged. It is important to remember thatbusy, engaged children who are on-taskand working toward meeting an instruc-t iona l goa l have much l ess t ime tomisbehave. Teachers categorized as strongwere m ore aware of pacing and kept chil-d r e n e n g a g e d b y a s k i n g q u e s t i o n s ,answering ques tions, and giving feedback.Literature suggests that providing studentsnumerous opportunities to interact witheach other, to explore materials, to gener-ate questions or answers to questions, andto participate in class discussions occurredin classrooms where students were on -task(Pate-Clevenger, Dusing, H ouck & Zuber,2008; Gupta, 2004; Mueller & Fleming,2001; Baugous & Bendery, 2000).

In order to benefit from these sugges-tions, teacher candidates and experiencedteachers alike must have the opportunityto take part in both personal and collabo-rative refiection about their own classroompractice. These reflections will give both

the opportunity to examine their classroombehavior as it relates to their professionaldisposi t ions and student learning. Theopportunity to interact with other profes-sionals is an important component of thisreflective p rocess . Feedback and questionsfrom the university supervisor, the coop-erating teacher, or a peer can facilitatepositive changes in the way teachers andstudents interact in the classroom and ulti-mately to improve student achievement.We believe that the implications of thisresearch will become helpful only whenteachers focus reflections on their actualclassroom performance to make realistic,data-driven decisions. M cConn ell, Lun-deberg, Koehler, Urban-Lurain, Zhang,Mikeska, Parker , Zhang, & Eberhardt ,(2008) reported that videotaped records ofactual classroom b ehavior have proven tobe helpful in this type of collaborativereflection.

ConclusionThe intern, who shared her frustrationabout misbehavior interfering with her abil-i ty to teach, was very perceptive. Theteachers discussed in this article who w ere

classified as strong created classroom cli-mates that fostered good teaching andstudent learning in an environment virtu-al ly free of mult iple disruptions. Thisintern, who had w hat she referred to as anelephant in her classroom, was referringto the fact that she could not focus on teach-ing and her students could not focus onlearning beca use of the cycle of 1) studentmisbehavior, 2) teacher's attempt to con-trol misbehavior, 3) student persistence in


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ing in frustration, and 5) an increase in stu-dent misbeha vior. Future teachers andteachers alike would dowell to model theirpractice on what we observed strong teach-ers doing: being alert and redirectingoff-task behaviors, avoiding retreating,using appropriate praise and rewards, andbeing aware of pacing and keeping chil-dren engaged.

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Etzioni, A. (1968). The active society: A theory ofsocietal and political processes. New York:The Free Press.Good, T. L., & Brophy, J. E. (2003). Looking inclassrooms (9th ed.). Boston: AUyn & Bacon .Gupta, M. L. (2004). Enhancing student perfor-mance through cooperative learning inphysical sciences. Assessment & Evaluation inHigher Education, 29(1), 63-73.Hunt, G. H., Wiseman, D. G., & Touzel, T. J.(2009). Effective teaching: Preparation andimplementation (4th ed.). Springfield, IL:Charles C. Thomas Publisher, LTD.Jackson , P. W. ( 19 68). Life in classrooms. NewYork; Holt, Rhinehart and W inston, Inc.Jennin gs, P. A. & G reenberg, M . T. (200 9). Theprosocial classroom: Teacher social and emo-tional competence in relation to student andclassroom outcomes. Review of EducationalResearch, 79(\), 491-525.Kounin, J. (1970). Discipline and group manage-

ment in classrooms. New Y ork: Holt, Rinehart,& Winston.Lortie, D. C. (1975). School-teacher: A sociologi-cal study. Chicago, IL: The University ofChicago Press.Marzano, R. J., Gaddy, B. B., Eoseid, M. C , Fos-eid, M. P., & Marzano, J. S. (2009). Ahandbook for classroom managem ent thatworks. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Edu-cation, Inc.Marzano, R. J., & Marzano, J. S. (2003). The keyto classroom management. Educational Lead-ership. 61(1), 6-18.McConnell, T., Lundeg ert, M ., Koehler, M. Urban-Lurain, M., Zhang, T., Mikeska, J., Parker, J.,Zhang, M., & Eberhardt , J . (2008). Video-based teacher reflection-What is the real effecton reflections of inset-vice teachers? Paper pre-sented at the 2008 International Conference ofthe Association of Science Teacher Educ ators,Saint, Louis, MO .Mueller , A. , & Fleming, T. (2001, May/June).Cooperative learning: Listening to how chil-


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Pate-Clevenger, R., Dusing, J., Houck , P., & Zuber,J. (2008). Improvement of off-task behaviorof elementary and high school students throughthe use of cooperative learning strategies.(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.ED500839).Pianta, R. C. (2006). Classroom management andrelationships between children and teachers:Implications for research and practice. In Car-olyn M. Evertson & Carol S. WeinsteinHandbook of classroom managemen t:Research, practice and contemporary issues.

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