These principles “Management Strategies in The Educational Setting: COMP and Kounin Theory” equip educators to effectively manage a diverse classroom by ensuring seamless activity flow and minimizing disruptions.
COMP and Kounin Theory for Management Strategies in The Educational Setting
COMP
A widely used classroom management system is the Classroom Organization and Management Program (COMP) developed by Carolyn Evertson at Vanderbilt University (Evertson, 1995; Evertson & Harris, 1999).
The program emphasizes rules and procedures, but also addresses techniques for organizing the classroom, developing student accountability, planning and organizing instruction, conducting instruction, maintaining momentum, and getting off to a good start. Some strategies for getting off to a good start according to Evertson, Emmer, and Worsham (2003) in COMP are:
- Establish expectations for behavior and clear up student uncertainties.
- Make sure that students experience success. Difficult tasks can be assigned later.
- Be available and visible. Let students know that they can approach you.
- Be in charge. Establish the boundaries between what is acceptable and not acceptable in your classroom.
The main points of COMP are that a carefully planned system of rules and procedures is the best way to communicate teacher expectations. Rules focus on general expectations or standards of behavior. They are usually few in number and deal with general welfare, courtesy, and security. Procedures apply to specific activities aimed at accomplishing something.
Procedures are not aimed at stopping something but rather should be stated in the positive. Procedures are generally greater in number and may vary with the activity described. Procedures include collecting assignments, due dates, use of equipment, laboratory or classroom safety, procedures for entering and leaving the classroom, emergency procedures, and materials safety.
Procedures should be written as “do” statements and not as “do not” or “never” statements. For example, “Always wear protective eye wear and intact latex gloves when exposed to blood or body fluids,” is better than “Do not handle blood or body fluids with your bare hands.” The COMP program also requires that the teacher develop systems of accountability that focus on managing student work, communicating assignments, monitoring student progress, and providing student feedback.
Students should be taught to take responsibility for their own behavior and use techniques of self-monitoring and self-evaluation. COMP checklists for student accountability might include:
- What standards will you set to guide students in succeeding?
- How will you post assignments?
- How will you collect and hand back student work?
- How will you keep track of completed assignments?
- How will you and the students keep track of work in progress?
- How will students make up missing work?
- How will absent students know about assignments?
- How will you give feedback to students?
- How will you grade assignments?
- How will students manage their own assignments and progress?
At the beginning of the semester these rules and procedures should be taught to the students and should be reinforced and even re-taught throughout the semester. On the first days of the semester the critical features of the management system should be introduced to the students in a way that involves the students.
One module focuses on specific suggestions regarding room arrangement, storage, or equipment and materials, and procedures for individual and group participation in the course. Student involvement in the creation of rules or in these orientation activities encourages students to take responsibility for their behavior.
While Evertson and her colleagues emphasize prevention in the COMP program, Jacob Kounin (1977) has also described a system of proactive classroom management that is more useful on a day-to-day basis. Kounin’s approach to classroom management is often described by a term that he coined in his research “withitness.”
Kounin Theory
The main points of Kounin’s theory are that prevention of misbehavior is more important than handling misbehavior. He also believes that instruction and discipline are closely connected. Lesson management and variety are integral to a well-managed classroom.
Effective teaching influences classroom management more than classroom management strategies. When instructors and students create environments where students feel safe and comfortable and where academic and personal skills are maximized, learning is enhanced and effective skills are developed.
The most important classroom management strategy, according to Kounin, is to keep students actively engaged and accountable for their own behavior and academic performance.
Kounin’s main points are as follows:
- Withitness: being aware of what is going on in the classroom and on top of the situation
- Overlapping: dealing with more than one thing at a time—multitasking, working with a small group, but still knowing what is happening in the rest of the classroom
- Smooth Transitions: keeping things running smoothly in the classroom to minimize down time and keeping the momentum going—things moving along
- Ripple Effect: behavior ripples or spreads; a teacher needs to be timely at dealing with negative behavior and encourage positive behavior
- Accountability: keeping students involved and attentive by calling on them regularly
- Variety and Interest: implementing lessons that are enjoyable and varied, and actively involving the students; keeping up teacher enthusiasm
- Group Alerting: gaining and focusing students’ attention and communicating expectations
Physical Environment
The last proactive strategy is often overlooked even by experienced instructors. The physical environment of the instructional setting is extremely important. Four basic principles identified by Evertson, Emmer, and Worsham (2003) include:
- Reduce congestion in high-traffic areas. Separate work areas and make them as accessible as possible.
- Make sure that you can see all students easily. All instructors and nursing instructors in particular, must be able to monitor all students. You must have clear sight lines to see all students and all work areas.
- Make often-used teaching materials and student supplies accessible. This will make preparation time and cleanup time easier as well as save precious instructional time.
- Make sure that students can see and observe classroom presentations. Establish a particular place where you and all students will make presentations.
Equally important is one’s classroom management style, which affects both teacher performance and ultimately the strength and personality of the students with whom they interact.
Classroom Management Style
Classroom management style is also a critical part of creating a positive classroom environment. Classroom management style may be defined as how the instructor keeps order and brings about the appropriate student learning outcome. Is the instructor warm and friendly?
Is the instructor personal or aloof? Is the instructor supportive or punitive? Although not a strategy per se, classroom management style affects classroom climate and also has demonstrable results in student learning.
After analyzing hundreds of parenting studies, Diana Baumrind (1971) has identified 114 7 Management Strategies in the Educational Setting 07Moyer(F) four parenting styles: authoritarian, authoritative, neglectful, and indulgent. These styles may be analogous to classroom management styles. These same styles have been applied to teachers (Santrock, 2001):
- Authoritarian classroom managers are restrictive and punitive and focus mainly on keeping order in the classroom rather than on instruction or learning. Students in authoritarian classrooms tend to be passive learners, fail to initiate activities, have anxiety about living up to teacher expectations, and have poor communication skills.
- Authoritative classroom managers encourage students to be independent thinkers and doers but still provide effective monitoring. Authoritative teachers engage students in verbal give-and-take and show a caring attitude toward them. They know how to set limits when needed. Their students tend to be self-reliant, get along well with their peers, and show high self-esteem.
- Permissive classroom managers allow students a great deal of autonomy but provide them with little support for developing learning skills or managing their behavior. Students in permissive classrooms tend to have inadequate academic skills and low self-control.
- Indulgent classroom managers, similar to permissive classroom managers, are highly involved with their students but place few restrictions on their behavior. They believe that placing few restrictions on students will produce creativity. Students in indulgent classrooms also tend to have inadequate academic skills and lack organizational skills and self-control.
The Third Pillar: Dealing With Misbehavior
Despite our best planning and proactive strategies, some students will misbehave. Choosing strategies that respond to students who are uncooperative or who are not performing at a level necessary to meet their professional standards is the third “pillar” of classroom management.
Having a variety of practical strategies to deal with misbehavior will help the nursing instructor to feel that he is prepared to deal with almost any situation. The instructor who intervenes early and intervenes effectively with student misbehaviors will have fewer incidents later in the semester.
These “corrective” strategies will solve problems at the moment of misbehavior. But long-term solutions also need to be considered. These will be discussed in the fourth “pillar” of classroom management. Sociology and psychology have contributed a great deal of theory to the question of why students misbehave. Freudian psychologists emphasize the role of parents as role models.
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