Back to Basics

Research begun in the 1960s provided the impetus for teacher educators to urge classroom teachers to establish classroom rules, deliver high rates of verbal/nonverbal praise, and, whenever possible, to ignore minor student provocations. In that there have been significant advances in the knowledge of what constitutes effective classroom management, a review of past-to-present literature was conducted to determine whether it is time to alter the thinking about one or more of these basic behavioral strategies. The research conducted over the years supports the basic tenets of these strategies, but with some important caveats. Finally, there are several newer strategies that warrant attention.