Chafouleas, S. M., Sanetti, L. M. H., Jaffery, R., & Fallon, L. M. (2012). An evaluation of a classwide intervention package involving self-management and a group contingency on classroom behavior of middle school students. Journal of Behavioral Education, 21(1), 34-57.
In this article, the authors, researchers from the University of Connecticut, implement an intervention package in a sample of middle school students and study its effectiveness. Contained within this intervention package were best practice strategies meant to foster self-management and group contingency in middle school students, and were measured by the Direct Behavior Rating and external observation. According to the results, the intervention provided moderate improvements in classroom behavior, to varying results among all classrooms and targets.
This article is particularly useful for this subject, as it discusses the importance of factors like self-management and group contingencies in classroom management, as well as evidence-based practice for facilitating these attributes in students. The intervention itself is conducted with a fair amount of scientific rigor, and the limitations of the study were mentioned and accounted for within the paper itself (e.g. not collecting baseline data for one classroom due to circumstances beyond their control). As a result, this study carries a tremendous amount of utility for a working intervention in a middle school setting.
Ladd, H. F., & Sorensen, L. C. (2014). Returns to teacher experience: Student achievement and motivation in middle school. Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research Working Paper, 112.
This working paper from the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education makes use of longitudinally matched administrative data from North Carolina students and teachers to link the number of years of teachers’ experience with their effectiveness in classroom management, student achievement and motivation. According to the results, teachers with more years of experience tremendous returns on motivation and higher test scores, as well as student behaviors such as lower absenteeism. The authors indicate that these results show an ability for teachers to learn better strategies for classroom management over time.
The paper focuses on middle school teachers, and provides multifaceted student outcomes that lie beyond test scores, making it particularly useful for this subject. This paper overcomes many of its limitations by statistically controlling for teacher fixed effects to determine individual teacher quality. Furthermore, the authors offer a slightly different perspective on this issue, as classroom management is perceived to be an organically-developed strategy over time, rather than a set of intervention strategies that can instantly be implemented.
Mitchell, M. M., & Bradshaw, C. P. (2013). Examining classroom influences on student perceptions of school climate: The role of classroom management and exclusionary discipline strategies. Journal of school psychology, 51(5): 599-610.
In this article, the researchers performed data analysis on a large sample of nearly 2000 students within 37 school classrooms, utilizing structural equation modeling procedures. This was done to determine whether classroom management strategies, such as positive behavior and negative reinforcement/punishment, related to school climate, which includes factors such as student-teacher relationships, academic motivation, and more. According to the results, exclusionary discipline strategies were linked to less discipline and order in classrooms, while positive behavior supports made classrooms more amicable and conducive to learning. These strategies are recommended to further school climate.
Mitchell and Bradshaw, researchers at Johns Hopkins, discuss the implications of positive behavior supports as a means for facilitating positive classroom environments as opposed to disciplinary measures, which is important for classroom management. This paper goes hand in hand with Chafouleas et al. in encouraging positive development of students as a means of classroom management, and its multilevel model approach offers a strong case for its findings.
Wang, M. T., & Dishion, T. J. (2012). The trajectories of adolescents’ perceptions of school climate, deviant peer affiliation, and behavioral problems during the middle school years. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(1), 40-53., 599-610.
Wang and Dishion, researchers from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, performed a longitudinal study to examine change trajectories in how adolescents perceive school climate along four dimensions – behavior management, peer social support, teacher social support, and academic support – as well as how these changes affect problem behaviors in middle school students. According to the results, school climate decreased as deviant peer affiliation and behavioral problems increased, resulting in a clear association between the establishment of a positive school culture and the reduction of aberrant student behavior.
Examining the issue of classroom management from a student perspective provides a much-needed contrast to the teacher-focused work in Chafouleas et al. and Ladd and Sorensen. The authors are clear about the limitations of the study, including the independent factors of social desirability problems, as well as the difference between objective and subjective aspects of school climate and their effects on school behavior. However, this still provides a fundamentally important element to the consideration of this topic, as it describes the independent factors teachers must understand of students in order to address these issues.
