Unit 7 Teach to your audience

I remember as a beginning teacher taking a course on classroom management. The professor referred to the work of Jacob Kounin. Kounin claimed that the difference between teachers who have strong behaviour management and those who don't, begins with how they prevent misbehaviour in the first place.
A term that stuck with me for all this time is one he refers to as 'with-it-ness'. A description of that teacher who intuitively knows what to put in place before the class starts and how to adjust her style throughout a lesson. I tell new teachers to 'know their audience and to teach to their audience'. What do I mean by that? Learn to read your class and analyze why the behaviour is occurring. Is the lesson too long, too easy, too difficult...do I have students sitting beside each other who don't make the best choices together, is the configuration of my room adding to a problematic situation?
In my observations there are teachers who have this intuitive gift, they can scan a room and determine what needs to be done to fix a situation. Then there are those who it doesn't come naturally to but who can learn it. They listen to their colleagues who offer suggestions about what works best with a group and start planning from that point. There are others who don't get it, they blame the students or parents, worse yet they choose to ignore the situation, chaos ensues and everyone just has a bad year. Despite what might be out there, those scenarios are few and far between and hopefully there is a mentor or coach who can counsel that person to a new profession!
The key is not relying on one method for every class, I reiterate, you need to read your audience and adjust your teaching to the needs of the class.


Here is a link to an article on the Kounin Model.

Jacob Kounin