Browsing by Author "Laine, Jenni"

Purpose of the review. According to previous research, especially preventive practices are the key to successfully prevent disciplinary problems from occurring. Despite the preventive practices, disciplinary problems may occur, whereupon some kind of interventions are needed. There are several guide books about the topic but the interest of this review lies on the actual teacher practices. The purpose of this review was to study what kind of classroom management strategies teachers use to maintain productive atmosphere in their classes. This literature review seeks answers to the following research questions: What kind of preventive actions do teachers use, what kind of interventions do teachers use to cope with discipline problems and which interventions and actions do teachers perceive as effective in classroom management? Methods. This study was conducted as a literature review. Because of the use of explicit selection some criteria for the articles included were set. Twelve peer reviewed research articles written in English in the 2000s were selected to the review. The topic of these articles were the practices teachers use to manage their classrooms. The principles of typification and content analysis were applied, where appropriate, to study the practices which are commonly used among teachers. Findings and conclusions. In many studies, teachers reported using preventive strategies, such as planning, relationship building, and rules. When discipline problems occurred teachers tried to understand, not to humiliate, the misbehaving student. Therefore, many teachers perceived hinting and private conversations relevant and successful strategies to cope with misbehaviour. Some teachers reported using rewards and punishments, too. As a result, it can be stated that generally speaking, teachers aim to manage their classrooms with preventive strategies. They engage their students in maintaining the productive atmosphere with respect and discussion.