1. Ecological Approaches to Classroom Management
Walter Doyle
University of Arizona

2. Four Sections of the Article
Introduction to the ecological perspective
Types of settings found in classrooms and program of actions that define order for these contexts
Consideration of processes and strategies for managing classroom events
Appraisal of current status and future prospects for an ecological approach

3. Introduction
The central idea surrounding the ecological approach is habitat, the physical niche or context with characteristic purposes, dimensions, features and processes that consequence
The ecological perspective emerged in the 1960s from Kounin and Gump

4. Nature of the Classroom
Multidimensionality is a large quantity of events and tasks that take place in a classroom
Simultaneity is when many things happen at once in the classroom
Immediacy is a rapid pace of classroom events
Unpredictability in classroom events often take unexpected turns

5. Nature of the Classroom (con’t)
Publicness in classrooms are public places and events, especially those involving the teacher, that are often witnessed by a large portion of the students
History is when classes meet for 5 days a week for several months
There is a common set of experiences, routines and norms which provide a foundation for conducting activities for the rest of the term or year

6. Classroom Management
Order in the classroom is about how order is established and maintained in classroom environments
Order in the classroom does not necessarily mean passivity, absolute silence or rigid conformity to rules
Within acceptable limits, the students are following the program of action for a particular event

7. Classroom Management (con’t)
Classroom management is the actions and strategies used to solve the problem of order in the classroom
Misbehavior is any action by one or more students that:
Threatens to disrupt the activity flow
Pulls the class toward a program of action that threatens the safety of the group
Violates norms of appropriate classroom behavior held by the teacher, the students or the school staff

8. How Life is Organized in the Classroom
A classroom is a behavior setting, an ecobehavioral unit composed of segments that surround and regulate behavior
The basic unit for classroom organization is the activity
Activities with different labels often have quite similar formats

9. How Life is Organized in the Classroom - Involvement
Work involvement or engagement is the most widely used student behavior
Involvement is used to label student behavior that reflects active engagement in working
Noninvolvement or off-task behavior often includes passive withdrawal, mild forms of inappropriate behavior and more serious forms of misbehavior
Involvement was:
Highest for students in teacher-led
Lowest for pupil presentations
Whole class recitations was higher than independent seatwork

10. How Life is Organized in the Classroom - Time
Contexts as programs of action as order is defined by the programs of action embedded in the classroom
Time
Does not just pass in the classroom
It is a rhythmic movement toward accomplishing an academic and/or social goal

11. How Life is Organized in the Classroom - Programs of Action
Recitation requires calling on individual students to give brief answers to public questions before the rest of the class
Seatwork is “supervised study” during which all students are assigned to work independently at their desks
Small groups and cooperative learning teams study together
Transitions are points in social interaction when contexts change

12. How Life is Organized in the Classroom - Pacing
Pacing, Signal Systems and Involvements
Involvement is higher in students who are externally paced (tests, recitation) than a student who is self paced
An emphasis is placed on the activity flow and the pacing of the lesson

13. How Life is Organized in the Classroom – Signal Systems
Continuity: the flow of information or signals to the individual participant
Lessons high in this are teacher presentations
Lessons low in this are group discussions, projects, and role playing
Insulation: degree to which the individual student is isolated from signals for inappropriate behavior
Lessons high in this have low off-task rate
Lessons low in this are music and movement

14. How Order is Achieved in the Classroom – Physical Design of Settings
The physical designs of settings is the compatibility between the program of action in an activity and the physical aspects of the setting
Classroom design and furniture arrangement have little effect on achievement but some effect on attitudes and conduct

15. How Order is Achieved in the Classroom – Establishing Rules and Procedures
Rules are intended to regulate forms of individual conduct that can disrupt activities
Teachers integrate their rules and procedures into a workable system and deliberately teach this system to their students
Effective managers monitored classes closely and stopped inappropriate behavior promptly

16. How Order is Achieved in the Classroom – Misbehavior and Interventions
Misbehavior is any behavior by one or more students that is perceived by the teacher to initiate a vector of action that competes with or threatens the primary vector of action at a particular moment in a classroom activity
Most misbehavior is related to attention, crowd control and getting work accomplished in classrooms

17. How Order is Achieved in the Classroom – Misbehavior and Interventions (con’t)
High-ability students are likely to engage in misbehavior towards the end of an activity. In contrast lower ability students misbehave during the activity
Interventions can repair temporary disturbances in classroom order
Interventions are, by their very nature, reactive

18. Conclusions and Future Research
Classroom management is fundamentally a process of solving the problem of order rather than the problem of disruption or misbehavior
An emphasis on program of action in the classroom is embedded in the activities teachers and students enact together as they accomplish work

19. Conclusions and Future Research (cont’d)
Order in classrooms is context specific and held in place by balancing a large array of forces and processes
Order is a permanent pressure on classroom life and a teacher continuously faces the need to monitor and protect the programs of action in class
Successful classroom management involves understanding the configuration of events in the classroom and skill in monitoring and guiding activities

20. Conclusions and Future Research (cont’d)
Little has been changed in the past two decades
There is a general decline in classroom management research
A challenge is to push the ecological approach toward a framework that integrates habitat, curriculum, action and cognition into a unified conception
Activity theory is a new framework which seems to hold promise for advancing work on an integrated conceptualization for classroom studies through goal-directed, tool-mediated, intersubjective and self-regulated actions