ABOUT MY RESEARCH...

I've made some research on the things I want to study and so here is my background of the study. It's quite tough but lucky I managed.

BACKGROUND OF STUDY...

Classroom management and organization are topics that have been looked thoroughly among the school administrators and  have recently attracted more attention from teacher educators and researchers because a teacher’s ability to effectively manage the classroom and to organize instruction are basic components of teaching (Evertson, Emmer, Sanford & Clements, 1983). Moreover, classroom management strategies have a strong potential to positively influence student achievement and learning. There are also outstanding amount of concern for many teachers, especially new incomers and teachers who are using or applying a new instructional approaches for the first time (Delong & Winter, 1998).

There are many studies and research showing that classroom management is one of the main factors that influence learning. For example, in their study, Wang, Heartel and Walberg (1993) identified that classroom management as being the first in a list of important factors that influence school learning. Also, Marzano and Marzano (2003) got the same results with Wang and his colleagues (1993) by identifying that classroom management is the most important factor which could influence the school learning. Other than that, Ben (2006) also states that effective classroom management strategies are significant to a successful teacher’s delivery of instruction. Effective classroom management prepares the classroom for an effective instruction which is important for the learning process.

Throughout the years, various researchers and educators have defined the terms classroom management differently according to their research or ideas. Generally, classroom management refers to the actions and strategies that teachers or educators use to maintain order (Doyle, 1986). Martin, Yin and Baldwin (1998) define classroom management as a larger and complete ways that describes all teachers’ effort to oversee a big number of activities in the classroom including learning, social interaction and students behaviours. Classroom management constitutes three broad dimensions; person, instruction and discipline. (Martin & Baldwin, 1992)

Trickett and Moos (1974) examined the relationship between the classroom environment and students’ satisfaction and mood. They found that different dimensions of classroom environment related differentially to students’ satisfaction and mood. For example, students give a good feedback which shows that greater satisfaction and security in the classroom which emphasized high student involvement, personal student-teacher relationship, and teacher’s support. Students were less satisfied in classrooms which were low in teacher’s support.

Student needs, interests, experiences, and personalization into learning activities could be fulfilled by a good classroom organization. The purpose of the classroom activities is to manage students’ self-expression, encourage consideration of others’ opinion, to develop good listening skills and to encourage critical thinking. Students learning environments may be in various forms. Bereiter and Scardamalia (cited in Elen et al., 2007, p. 1) for instance, distinguish between ‘messing around’, ‘hands-on learning or guided discovery’, ‘learning through problem solving’, ‘curiosity driven inquiry’, and ‘theory improvement inquiry’. Although students learning environments and different in form and purpose, they also share common basic features. In most so-called students learning environments, students are given certain difficult task so that they could learn through the experiences. For instance, rather than presenting information on a good listening skills, students are asked to make a short play or their own presentation in showing ways of how a good listener should react in different circumstances.