Browsing by Author "Kuoppala, Katariina"

For many teachers, classroom management is one of the biggest challenges at school. The importance of classroom management in learning is considered essential, so it is important for the teacher to plan their teaching to support it. The purpose of this Master's thesis was to find out how classroom teachers can work to prevent and deal with discipline problems. The goal of this thesis was to increase my own professional skills and understanding of the subject, because it is so important in everyday school life. The approach of this research was a qualitative case study. The participants were four classroom teachers working in a primary school. I used both semi-structured theme interviewing and observing as data collection methods. I observed the lessons of each teacher for one school day. During the same day, I also interviewed the teacher I observed. I recorded the interviews so I could transcribe the material for analysis. In the analysis of the material, I used a theory-based content analysis. The classroom teachers prevented discipline problems using a variety of methods, which were divided into five different categories: structure, anticipation, quality of teaching, positive atmosphere, and safe authority. Teachers consider the prevention of discipline problems extremely valuable. When dealing with discipline problems, teachers' ways of working were divided into four different categories: non-verbal means, verbal means, sanctions and support from the work community. Teachers prefer using non-verbal means, but they also use verbal means and various sanctions when necessary. In addition, support from the work community seems to be relevant. The results of this thesis give teachers ideas and theoretical knowledge about preventing and dealing with discipline problems at school.