Effective Classroom Management Tips

Originally published on Jan 29 2018, updated Oct 18 2021 

Classroom Management is an important part of the AET qualification that suggests tips and management techniques along with managing a diverse classroom. The Award in Education course enables you to get into teaching and become a trainer for learners 16+ years of age. This course also assesses your ability to manage a classroom full of students. So, here are 5 tips that you can apply in your classroom:

1. Planning

Planning gives structure to how things work in a classroom; from ice-breaking to seating arrangements, catering to all learner types and abilities, and even assignments and feedback sessions. This also involves an understanding of student behaviours and relationships among the classmates themselves. Teachers and students need to know what to expect from each other within the classrooms. The classroom management plan allows the teacher to focus on teaching along with engaging the students. After understanding this, all the objectives are identified and activities organised to accomplish the desired goals. 

2. Organising resources and facilities 

Secondly, classroom operations are key to organising and ensuring you stick to the plan and implement it. Ground rules, room layout, facilities, technology, heating, lighting, and breaks are all key aspects to be considered. The AET course also teaches you how to organise and plan for resources in advance to cater to the different learning needs of learners. This means you are prepared in the classroom for various abilities and disabilities in learners and hence you will be more confident and able to manage different situations that may arise.

3. Communication 

The most important part of effective classroom management involves communication. It’s a 2-way process (rather than being directed from teacher to student) so it consists of exchanging ideas, messages, and information.  Therefore you must respect your students, repeat the message in different ways and remember the importance of nonverbal communication. Most importantly, keep checking the level of understanding of the student. Communication occupies a large part of the Level 3 teaching course. The importance of communication is education and training play a vital role in delivering knowledge to learners from diverse backgrounds. Some learners come from backgrounds where English is not their first language. It is important that trainers use methods of non-verbal communication to deliver the essence of the lesson. The AET level 3 qualification teachers trainers techniques to use different resources and activities that aid learners in understanding the concepts better.

4. Motivation

The learning environment is critical, you need to encourage social interaction and motivation. Providing incentives to students is key to motivating, this can build up healthy competition in class with strong social interaction. The motivations vary, sometimes the students want personal attention whereas sometimes it's just the appreciation or praise in general for the whole class. Prizes, leadership authority, prestige or group work can also motivate. The AET level 3 course consists of details about different motivational theories and their application in Education and Training. These theories are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Behavioural Models for Education, David Kolb’s Learning Styles, Gibbs – Reflective Cycle Model and more. These theories vividly discuss the logic and application in real-life situations.

5. Monitoring

Not everyone has the same level of understanding or learning capabilities. Hence, monitoring goes on at all times. Teachers should be active in this part and monitor progress. Teachers/Trainers who complete the AET qualification are more likely to monitor learners effectively while boosting morale, as they understand the theory and requirements of their learners better.

Teachers should keep a check on the implementation of the tasks. Monitoring helps to achieve discipline. There are times when the presence of the teacher in a supervisory role is enough. At the same time, monitoring assures the best performance from the learners. If you find this blog helpful, you should do an effective classroom management course to add to your CPD as it focuses on topics such as effective lesson planning, identifying & dealing with negative behaviours, theories of behaviour management, creating an inclusive learning environment, classroom management techniques and more.

In conclusion, effective classroom management requires sincere effort from the teacher/trainer. Classrooms can be unruly but one can manage it if they understand the technical aspect behind behaviour management and teaching techniques. We highly recommend you to do the award in education and training so that you can apply the learnt concepts more effectively. The main purpose of classroom management is to gain control over the class by engaging students. This can be made possible by providing them with a good learning environment. You can create a healthy classroom environment if you have the theoretical knowledge to back up your action.

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