Effective Classroom Management Theories for ell

The three resources that I have read so far and would like to talk about are:

I feel like the most effective classroom management strategy in my classroom comes with Khon's student-directed learning model. Of course, the other theories by Skinner and Glasser are as valuable as Khon's but my students are more active and in control of their learning with self-directed ELL learning goals and plans.

Khon critiques many aspects of traditional education, namely the use of competition or external factors as motivation. He maintains that societies based on extrinsic motivation always become inefficient over time. This was exactly what I experienced in my Vietnamese classes. He questions the positions of authority as “unnaturally scarce,” and such systems assume that all people have a competitive nature which they appear to have the opposite in my case. I completely agree with him on the fact that positive enforcement only encourages students to seek out more positive enforcement, rather than truly learn. After using some tokens, candies, marshmallows as prizes for encouragement to best work effort, I ended up in frustration to find new options for prizes simply because they weren't satisfactory for my students anymore.

Kohn believes that the ideal classroom emphasizes curiosity and cooperation above all and that the student’s curiosity should determine what is taught. Because of this, he argues that standards should be kept very minimal and is critical of standardized testing. Kohn also argues that a strict curriculum and homework are counterintuitive to student needs. The Vietnamese education system as in all Asian countries highly depends on strict adherence to it. You may not diverge or unfollow what is prescribed since the students are going to regurgitate all the information back to the teachers in the exams, if not they fail. This means I need to make sure that all the students are learning what is taught. As a result, I followed Khon's advice and cut on the homework to reduce the stress levels of the students and tried new ways of making learning fun again, not only for exam purposes. By giving the students choice and voice in how they will demonstrate their learning outcomes, I helped them feel free in terms of achieving their goals. As Khon suggests, I keep cooperation in mind because when curiosity is nurtured, rewards and punishments aren’t necessary and I must admit that many behavioural issues are resolved after using this strategy in my classes.

Are there any strategies that work in your class and create wonders? Please comment in the blog so we can further our understanding together.