In September 2023, I successfully defended my PhD dissertation on student teachers’ classroom management (CM) learning during their internship. In the Netherlands, student teachers finalise their teacher education with an internship where they learn teaching in practice and take part in the practice of a school during a full academic year. For my research, I studied Dutch student teachers who were in their final year of teacher education, working and learning full time while on teaching practice in secondary school.

Given that, as a general rule, teacher educator colleagues don’t make a habit of reading PhD dissertations, I wanted to write an accessible and helpful document, based on my research, with ideas about how teacher educators could help structure student teachers’ CM learning. In this blog post I introduce main ideas and provide a link to the publication.

Evertson and Weinstein (2006) argue that, in order to organise effective CM, teachers must create an interpersonal relationship with pupils; create a productive learning climate; create a safe environment in the classroom; support the development of social skills and self-regulation; and act on behavioural or order problems.

There is limited focus on CM in teacher education curricula (van Tartwijk & Hammerness, 2011) and not much is known about the role of the school internship in CM learning (Stough & Montague, 2015).

‘Given that, as a general rule, teacher educator colleagues don’t make a habit of reading PhD dissertations, I wanted to write an accessible and helpful document, based on my research, with ideas about how teacher educators could help structure student teachers’ CM learning.’

Student teachers’ struggle with the interpersonal relationship with their pupils

In the first phase of my research, I looked at the extent to which CM was a focus in theoretical sources, the teacher curriculum and in student teachers’ internship. I found that almost all student teachers struggled with the interpersonal relationship with pupils. This was also the conclusion of Wubbels et al. (2006), who argued that the teacher-student relationship is essential to other aspects of CM.

Patterns of student teachers’ CM learning during the internship and teacher educators’ role, the use of theoretical knowledge and student teachers’ self-regulation

In the second phase of my research, I focused on finding patterns in student teachers’ CM learning processes and learning outcomes during their internship, This involved analysing outcomes of course assignment, and interviewing student teachers, their teacher educators and a selection of student teachers’ pupils. Three aspects relating to CM learning during internship emerged: the teacher educators’ role; the use of theoretical knowledge; and student teachers’ self-regulation. In considering student teachers’ CM learning process, the research found four distinct CM learning patterns: knowledge-driven; feedback-driven; inspiration-driven; and practice-driven. Each pattern shared similar CM learning characteristics. There were no significant differences in CM learning outcomes.

Student teachers’ CM learning processes lack structure: specific activities could help them structure their learning process

My research found that student teachers struggled with CM in the final year of teacher education; the learning process during teaching practice does not always take place in a structured manner; and some student teachers need more time to learn in the school setting in the final year of teacher education. These observations led me to design an intervention to deepen student teachers’ CM learning and to encourage the structure and quality of the CM learning process. The intervention aims to help student teachers at the beginning of their final year to gain insight into CM challenges, and gives them ideas for useful activities (such as lesson observations, conversations with experts and role models).

Read the publication: ‘Classroom management learning at the workplace: How to support student teachers?’

References

Evertson, C. M., & Weinstein, C. S. (2006). Classroom management as a field of inquiry. In C. M. Evertson & C. S. Weinstein (Eds.), Handbook of classroom management: Research practice, and contemporary issues (pp. 3–16). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Stough, L. M., & Montague, M. L. (2015). How teachers learn to be classroom managers. In E. T. Emmer & E. J. Sabornie (Eds.), Handbook of classroom management (2nd ed., pp. 446–458). Routledge.

van Tartwijk, J., & Hammerness, K. (2011). The neglected role of classroom management in teacher education. Teaching Education, 22(2), 109–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2011.567836

Wubbels, T., Brekelmans, M., den Brok, P., Wijsman, L., Mainhard, T., & van Tartwijk, J. (2015). Teacher-student relationships and classroom management. In E. T. Emmer & E. J. Sabornie (Eds.), Handbook of classroom management (2nd ed., pp. 363–386). Routledge.