Jacob Kounin’s Classroom Management Theory

Presenters: Eileen Magallanes, Maria Pimentel, Sean Brown

Biographical Background

 Kounin began as an Educational psychologist.

 He began his research in 1970.

 Research is based on Glasser’s theory.

 Encouraging and maintaining optimal academics and social behaviors  Best known for two studies  Five year study  Videotapes of 80 elementary schools  Book: Discipline and Group Management in Classroom  Model focuses on preventive discipline

The Ripple Effect

The interaction of the teacher with an individual student affects the behavior of nearby students  When a student is reprimanded for poor behavior, nearby students will take note and may adjust their own behavior accordingly  When a student is praised, nearby students will notice and may alter their behavior to receive the same praise  Works better with elementary school students

Withitness

Perceived ability to know what all students are doing at all times; “having eyes in the back of your head” Make sure you can see the entire class as much as possible  Position desks so that you can always see everyone  Scan the room while working with an individual or group and don’t have your back to the rest of the class Always be alert to sights and sounds in the classroom Immediately identify the culprit and correct misbehavior so that it does not escalate

Overlapping

 The teacher’s ability to attending two or more tasks at the same time.

 Multi-tasking: Students are more likely to stay on task if they know that the teacher is aware of what they are doing.

 Prioritize problems  The teacher maintains a continuity of supervision and instruction.

 Kounin found that the teachers who are skilled at overlapping. Also are more aware of what is going on in the classroom.

 Closely linked to with-it-ness

Smoothness

This technique allows the teacher to have an idea of which students may cause an unwanted tangent and which students may have a good question that could pertain to utilizing the time effectively.

Example: The teacher can create a classroom gesture for students to use to let the teacher know whether they have a question or a comment.

During group-work the teacher can walk around and engage and listen to student’s discussions.

If a group gets off task the teacher can intervene and re-direct them to the classroom task.

Momentum

Teacher’s ability to maintain steady movement or pacing through a lesson; “to keep the ball rolling” Measured in terms of “slowdowns” Overdwelling – Behavior overdwelling, prop overdwelling, task overdwelling Fragmentation – “produced by a teacher’s breaking down an activity into sub-parts when the activity could be performed as a single unit”

Group Focus

Group focus is a strategy that teachers can use to hold students responsible for their actions and encourage motivation and attention.

How to implement:  Encourage Accountability: Make students aware that they will be graded for their participation and contributions to the group.

 The teacher can have a canister of popsicle sticks that have each students name on them. The teacher can pick the popsicle stick at random to keep students on track and out of their seats with anticipation for question/answer time, board problems, etc.

 The students can facilitate a discussion. Once they have finished a task they can turn to each other or they could pair up with those who are already done and compare answers.



Sources

Andrius, J. (2008, October). The Kounin Model. Retrieved May 2009, from Teacher Matters: http://www.teachermatters.com/  Kounin, J. (1970). Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms. New York: Holt, Rineheart and Winston.

 Kounin, Jacob. (2008, December). Retrieved May 2009, from WikiEd: http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Kounin,_Jacob  Merriman, C. (2009, March). Classroom Management Theorist and Theories/Jacob Kounin. Retrieved May 2009, from WikiBooks: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Classroom_Management_The orist_and_Theories/Jacob_Kounin