Remember the strict mathematics teacher in school that scared you the most? Or, the considerate art teacher that you could confide in? All of them were teachers, then why were their styles of dealing with the students so different?
Classroom management is one of the most basic practices that every educator has to grasp in their career. Just like students, every teacher is different and thus has a different style of managing the classroom. Teachers are responsible for making sure that the students are learning well and are safe in the classroom. Classroom management styles are the unique ways using which teachers try to achieve these goals.
The four popular types of classroom management styles:
Authoritarian
This overly structured classroom management style keeps the teacher in the spotlight. Eradicating any kind of peer collaboration and student autonomy, the Authoritarian teaching style gives all the power to the teacher as they decide what and how should the students be taught.
Students start to feel that their feedback doesn’t matter. High levels of control and low level of involvement breed rebellion and personal resentment in the classroom.
Authoritative
Similar to the Authoritarian style, the Authoritative style also thrives on structured rules and regulations. However, there is a balance between control and involvement brought by the teacher that is missing in the Authoritarian style.
The rules are more flexible and don’t suppress the students’ autonomy. Teachers also take regular feedback from students to make sure that the rules are not too restrictive and that the students genuinely enjoy the learning process.
Permissive
This management style seems like the most disconnecting with a low level of control and a low level of student involvement. Teachers who lack the passion that most educators possess, opt for this style of teaching as they do not care enough about the learning process of their students. With a lack of structure and planning, students’ behavior gets out of hand once in a while.
Indulgent
Teachers with an Indulgent management style let students express themselves in the classroom. As a result, these teachers become the crowd favorite of the school. With very a very low level of control and a high level of student involvement, Indulgent classrooms are usually student-led.
Another very particular trait of an Indulgent style is that the students feel safe and comfortable confiding in their teacher leading to a better student-teacher relationship.
So, how do these classroom management styles affect students in the long term?
According to research done with Baumarind (1971), classroom management styles directly affects students in a way that shapes their personality as an adult! The effects are;
- The Authoritarian style helps to produce students who are ineffective at social interaction, and somewhat inactive.
- The Authoritative style helps to produce students who are socially competent and responsible.
- Both Indulgent and Permissive styles help produce immature students, show poor self-restraint, and exhibit poor leadership skills.
Every classroom is different and thus the needs of the students may differ from classroom to classroom. Thus, educators must be cautious about how they are handling their students. To produce a responsible, confident, and innovative next generation, teachers need to keep the balance between having control over the classroom and letting the students express themselves to a healthy extent.
At Great Principals, we hope to bring about a necessary change in the ways of Indian Education. Each new generation is far more capable than the last, and we owe it to evolution. But as humans evolve, we are required to transcend from our old ways and look at things from a different perspective, one that shapes the untapped minds of the children for the ever-growing world.
We are here to capture the journeys of marvelous School Leaders and Principals through an interactive talk show. We hope to inspire the parents who are the true changemakers in a child’s growing life. Our goal is to bring about a much-needed change in how we educate our kids. Feel free to check out our episodes on YouTube www.youtube.com/c/GreatPrincipals
