Classroom Management Skills

Classroom management skills is a key element for being a good teacher. Wright (2005) explains the relationship between the teacher’s characteristics and classroom management skills as follows:

1) The aggressive teacher
The teacher uses punishment and very rarely teaches pupils how to behave. A
considerable amount of bellowing of orders, and anger and contempt are used.
The teacher believes he/she has the right to get what he/she wants but has little
understanding of the rights of the children. Belittling children is a common
characteristic of the teacher.

2) The passive teacher
The teacher understands the importance of being adult and a leader in the
classroom but confuses the various qualities that a good teacher needs to have. The teacher has a lack of self-belief that he/she can lead and manage the
pupils.

3) The proactive teacher
The teacher is assertive and able to get what he/she wants in the classroom.
He/she is confident of his/her ability to manage the children and committed to
creating an environment that will help them feel safe, secure and liked. The
teacher has effective classroom management skills.

This shows that the proactive teacher’s role is expected from a good teacher. Wright’s(2005) views are supported by Robertson’s (2006) study, which was a panel discussion about good teachers in the US. Pupils from grades 3 to 5 mentioned that ‘the teacher knows how to control students without screaming at them’. In the B.B.C – cbbc opinion



survey (2005), Jobhan defines ‘A good teacher has to be able to control the class and needs to make lessons fun’. Jamie says that ‘Basically, someone who can control the class and truly inspire young people to fulfil their true potential. It sounds really cheesy and everything but it's true’. Leelah, says that ‘A good teacher can control a class’.

These views are further supported by Kutnick’ and Jules’s (1993) study about pupils’ perceptions of good teacher in Trinidad and Tobago. They found that ‘mid-aged pupils (age from 12 to 13) valued the range of classroom control used by the teachers, actions involved in the teaching process and growing awareness of the individual needs of pupils’ as important for a good teacher. In addition, Robertson (2006) showed that ‘the good teacher knows how to control students without screaming at them’.

Jules and Kutnick (1997) study found that ‘boys showed greater concerns regarding teacher control and use of punishment’. Beishuizen et al.’s study (2001) indicated items with high loadings on the ability side of the dimension as ‘the teacher takes care of the classroom’.

Desai et al. (2001) found that ‘the teacher informs students and stresses attendance policy’ as important. However, pupils appreciated less that the teacher ‘be in the class before students and be last to leave’ and ‘teaches a full class period on the first day’.

TEACHING AS A PROFESSION

It is essential for any country to recruit the most capable individuals into the teaching profession, provide them with quality pre-service initial teacher education, use effective mechanisms for their deployment and ensure opportunities for them to upgrade their knowledge and skills continuously over the full length of their professional career. To attract the most able to the teaching profession and retain them in-service, the government has to take steps to improve the status and motivation of teachers through better salaries and working conditions, improved autonomy and responsibility and promising career pathways that contribute to the enhancement of their professionalism as well.

One of the significant steps that have been taken towards achieving this aim is that ‘establishment of Colleges of Education for pre--service teacher education in Sri Lanka by parliament Act No.30 of 1986. This enabled capable young people who have passed G.C.E. A/L examination to be attracted to the teaching profession. The three year National Diploma in Teaching offered by the Colleges has two year institutional period and one year internship period’. (The Development of Education-National Report: 2004) Pre-service teacher education thus became an essential requirement in recruiting non graduate teachers to the system, and made redundant the 16 Teachers Colleges and the large scale Distance Education Programme of the National Institute of Education that provided initial teacher education to practicing teachers. ‘Recognizing the importance of Continuing Teacher Education, the same reforms also paved the way for the establishment of 100 Teacher Centres so that each educational zone of the country had at least one Teacher Centre. The purpose of this new initiative was to provide short term, non- residential continuing teacher education to upgrade teacher skills at least once in every seven years. Identifying the need for residential continuing teacher education of a longer duration, a decision was also made to retain some of the Teachers’ Colleges as Teacher Education Institutes’.(The Development of Education- National Report:2004)

The Institutional provision of teacher education in the past was expected to meet educational needs of the country by contributing to the academic, professional and personal growth of teachers and enhancing their professional status. ‘A National Authority on Teachers Education (N.A.T.E.) was established in 1997 to address this issue of uncoordinated development of teacher education’. (The Development of Education-National Report: 2004). The teacher education network of Sri Lanka today, consists of the National Institute of Education and four University Faculties/Departments of Education,(Faculties of Education at the University of Colombo and the Open University, Departments of Education at the University of Peradeniya and University of Jaffna),17 Colleges of Education, 4 Teacher Education Institutes,100 Teacher Centres and 30 Regional English Support Centres that had been there for sometimes to provide in-service continuing teacher education for English teachers of the system.
Table 1.2 shows that teacher training colleges and National Colleges of Education (N.C.O.E.) and are the key institutions for teacher training in Sri Lanka. The teacher training colleges were the oldest teacher training mode and whereas N.C.O.E. now become more prominent in teacher training.

Teacher Training Colleges

No: of Colleges -10
No: of Teacher Trainees -1,922
No: of Teacher Educators -156
No: passed out during the inter censual period
(1st June 2004 to 31st May 2005) -702

Table 1 : Teacher Training Colleges and National Colleges of Education in 2006 (Source: Preliminary Report- School Census: 2006)

Seventeen National Colleges of Education have since been established to give pre-service training and Advanced Level qualified student teachers are admitted to N.C.O.E. based on their Z score. The three-year teacher training programme, consists of two years residential training and a one year internship period in schools. ‘The course itself comprises two years of coursework and one year of practical in-service training for teachers specializing in subjects. Teachers who qualify from these courses are designated 'trained teachers' and are awarded the Trained Teachers' Certificate’. (Analysis report on teacher training system in Sri Lanka: 2007)

Furthermore, in 2008, the cabinet has approved a memorandum submitted by the Education Minister to formulate a national policy on teacher recruitment making first degree mandatory for recruitment to teachers’ service from 2009 on wards. According to this proposal ‘graduates below 30 will be recruited to 18 National Colleges of Education and given training for one and a half years. During this period they will be paid an allowance. On successful completion of the training programme, they will be awarded the Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (P.G.D.E.) by the National Institute of Education’. (National policy on teacher recruitment of teachers from 2009 onwards: 2008)

In addition, the Open University and the National Institute of Education (N.I.E.) have their own regional centres to offer undergraduate and postgraduate programmes on an island wide basis. These programmes help to meet current and emerging needs of the system by providing opportunities for both aspiring and practicing teachers of their country to acquire qualifications in education. ‘N.I.E. was established in 1986 and it is the prime institute in the country responsible for providing leadership for the development of general education with quality, quantity and relevance in a pluralistic society’. N.I.E general information (2005).