From College to Classroom: Using Virtual Collaborative Inquiry to Support First-Year Teachers With Classroom Management

Abstract

This study describes an initiative to support first-year teachers and address the following questions: During a year-long, asynchronous support/study group to help first-year teachers with classroom management, what SEL practices would the teachers identify as effective in supporting their classroom management and what SEL competencies would those practices help their elementary and secondary students develop? Data were collected from questionnaires and wiki space discussions. Findings demonstrate that the first-year teachers’ initial conceptions of classroom management became increasingly aligned with the ways in which culturally responsive SEL practices can support classroom management and help elementary and secondary students foster important SEL competencies.

Keywords

classroom management social-emotional learning mentoring practitioner inquiry professional development case study and technology

Introduction

This paper describes an asynchronous classroom management support/study group for first-year elementary and secondary teachers working in urban contexts. The group was designed to address a challenge that became apparent when alumni from a teacher education program were surveyed about their preparation. The teachers reported that they did not possess the skills to effectively manage their classrooms and asserted that the behavioral management practices they had been taught were not sufficient to address the complex challenges they faced. One first-year teacher wrote, “Getting my students to quiet down and focus is my biggest challenge. They don’t listen to me or each other. I feel that all I do is try to enforce rules, and I’m not good at it.” Another wrote, “I was not prepared to deal with the constant disruptions from some students or students who just won’t participate. They get off track when they are anxious, they are bored, or frustrated. I don’t feel like a teacher. I feel like a babysitter or a jailer.”

The alumni described their students struggling to listen to one another, empathize with others, and manage their emotions. Given the nature of their responses, one teacher educator, the researcher, hypothesized that the student behaviors her former teacher candidates described were affiliated with their students’ social and emotional challenges. She wondered if highlighting social-emotional learning in their classrooms might support their management efforts. With this idea in mind, she devised a classroom management support/study group and offered it to alumni who were first-year teachers.

Literature Review

Classroom management refers to the maintenance of an orderly learning environment that is physically and emotionally safe. Successful classroom management is crucial to a teacher’s success (Fry, 2007; Melnick & Meister, 2008), but many novice teachers lack classroom management skills (The New Teacher Project, 2013; Wexler, 2014). Like the teacher preparation program highlighted in this study, programs do not always offer sufficient educational experiences with classroom management (Eisenman et al., 2015).

The consequences of this lack of preparation can be devastating for the students of novice teachers. They may lose precious instructional time when their teachers focus on behavior management instead of academic learning. Also, struggling novice teachers may default to controlling student behavior “through the use of rules, rewards, and penalties” (Evertson & Weinstein, 2006; Kwok et al., 2020, p. 5), which often encourages a deficit view of students, particularly students of color (Losen & Martinez, 2013) and students with disabilities (Cartledge & Kourea, 2008). What results is often an unproductive cycle of attempting to enforce rules and consequences, which often leads to chaotic classrooms, chronic emotional stress, poor relationships between students and teachers, and sometimes, a premature abandonment of the profession (Brown, 2004). Indeed, deficient classroom management skills and the disorderly classrooms that result have been identified as keys factor in the attrition of novice teachers (Kelchtermans, 2017; Newberry & Allsop, 2017). The researcher sought to address this challenge and support her program’s recent graduates with their induction into the profession by providing professional development to address the classroom management struggles described in the alumni surveys and in the literature.

One promising method to help teachers with their classroom management is the integration of social-emotional learning (SEL) into one’s classroom, as effective classroom management and SEL can be considered “two sides of the same coin” (Elias & Schwab, 2006, p. 335). The Collaborative of Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (2022) defines social and emotional learning as

the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

The Collaborative of Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning identifies five “interrelated areas of competence” including self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness (2020). When teachers promote SEL competencies, they report “significant improvement in students’ social and emotional skills, their attitudes about themselves and their school, and their social and classroom behavior” (Durlak et al., 2011, p. 2). Elias and Schwab (2006) describe “action steps” that teachers can employ to help students develop SEL competencies. For example, one can introduce a “discrete” competency such as self-management, and then explicitly connect this learning to various classroom management situations through practice and reinforcement with reminders, feedback, and cuing (p. 322). Responsible decision-making can be taught by “sharing responsibility with students” (p. 334) through collaboration, creating, and monitoring classroom rules and procedures together. Developing relationship skills will support positive relationships in the classroom (Emmer & Stough, 2001; Marzano, 2003). Elias and Schwab (2006) recommend “building caring relationships,” by guiding students to consider the perspectives of others and practice “an empathic awareness of diverse others” (p. 335).

Strong, positive relationships can also be accomplished when teachers get to know their students so that they can support their unique needs (Brackett et al., 2012). Thomas et al. (2019) remind teachers, however, that “knowing your students isn’t as easy as it sounds” (p. 7). And Kwok (2021) asserts, “Even if [classroom management] preparation was sufficient, teacher education would need to be explicit about how classroom management could be adapted, integrated, or reconceptualized towards shifting classroom demographics” (p. 207). In other words, the SEL must be culturally compatible. McCready and Soloway (2010) stress that effective, SEL-based classroom management must reflect the cultural context in which one teaches, so vigilance about implementing SEL in culturally competent ways is crucial (Evertson & Weinstein, 2006; Deckman, 2017). Learning about and honoring the diverse backgrounds, needs, and perspectives of students (Marks, 2010) may be accomplished with culturally relevant/responsive and sustaining pedagogies (Gay, 2002; Paris, 2012). Johnson and Valazquez (2019) recommend addressing the CASEL competencies in culturally competent ways to create environments that both support students to develop SEL competencies and prevent discriminatory practices that unfairly and disproportionately punish Black students (Martin et al., 2016). McManus (2021) asserts that any SEL program that serves to “correct” perceived cultural deficits and impose white-dominant cultural values on students will fail to serve them and will inhibit relationship development.

For a teacher, acknowledging cultural biases in oneself, the school context, and the community, is crucial if positive relationships are to be developed in support of a well-managed classroom (Weinstein et al., 2003). Culturally relevant and sustaining practices to engage diverse students with SEL may include taking the time to learn about students’ lives and checking in frequently during instruction (Kwok, 2017, p. 359), as well as engaging in conflict resolution and providing explicit instruction about how to effectively work in teams (Watson & Battistich, 2006) to develop “communities of learners” (Cartledge & Kourea, 2008, p. 360), employing peer tutoring or “buddy systems” (p. 361) and incorporating students’ interests and backgrounds into SEL instruction (p. 364). Duggins-Clay (2022) advocates using restorative justice practices informed by SEL to support trusting relationships, resolve conflict, and develop empathy. Claessens and Wubbles (2017) emphasize the importance of positive teacher/student interactions outside of the classroom, including in school hallways, during field trips, and community interactions. Milner and Tenore (2010) advocate several important SEL-affiliated principles for diverse classrooms, such as being attentive to power structures among students, taking an interest in students’ worlds by engaging in meaningful communications with students, therefore “conceiving school as a community of family members” (p. 560). Under those circumstances, teachers can facilitate constructivist, participatory, and democratic approaches to classroom management (Adeyemo, 2012). When SEL is directed toward such community building, “relationships, routines, and procedures are established so everyone feels cared for, respected, and valued” (Norris, 2003, p. 315).

Dialectical Constructivist Theory

As part of the conceptual context of the study, dialectical constructivist theory served as the guiding stance for the researcher. Affiliated with Vygotsky’s socio-cultural learning theory (1986), dialectical constructivism posits that one’s knowledge develops through interaction with the social environment and that language, specifically dialogue, mediates learning. In an educational setting, dialectical constructivist theory asserts new learning occurs when the learner confronts new, diverse perspectives (Moshman, 1982, p. 375). New perspectives conveyed through shared dialogue result in complex understandings. Therefore, dialectical constructivist theory privileges a social nexus that is facilitated (Vygotsky, 1986) by an instructor rather controlled by one. As Fosnot (1996) asserts, “Learners (rather than teachers) are responsible for defending, proving, justifying, and communicating their ideas to the classroom community” (p.29). Digital platforms have been shown to foster such exchanges (Wu et al., 2014). A wiki space, for example, can support dialogical constructivist learning, as the instructor creates opportunities for learners to pose questions, offer solutions, and reflect with other learners. With this in mind, the researcher employed a wiki space as the meetings site where the first-year teachers would engage in the study/support group.

Research Question

The assertions presented in the literature make a strong case for implementing a culturally responsive and sustaining SEL program to support classroom management, and the researcher was curious to learn what SEL practices the first-year teachers would identify as helpful and manageable in their specific teaching contexts. Therefore, she designed a study to help her address the following question: During a year-long, asynchronous support/study group to help first-year teachers with classroom management, what specific SEL practices would the teachers identify as effective in supporting their classroom management, and what SEL competencies would those practices help their elementary and secondary students develop?

Methods

Research Design Overview

The researcher devised a qualitative case study (Stake, 2005) to address the research question. The support/study group was the case, and the context was the year-long collaboration on a wiki space, Wikidot.com, (p. 219). Asynchronous, online collaborations on wiki spaces can serve as effective platforms for professional development, allowing participants to contribute at their own pace (Jeong & Hmelo-Silver, 2016), a particularly attractive option for first-year teachers. Using threaded conversations, participants discussed classroom management-related issues, provided emotional support to one another, reflected on the effectiveness of new practices, accessed resources through shared files, and had a safe place to reflect with other novice teachers.

Participants

All participants had graduated the year prior to the beginning of the study. Three participants identified as male and fourteen as female. Each participant identified as a person of color. Eleven teachers were working in grades 1–6, and six were working in grades 9–12. Fifteen were classroom teachers, and two were physical education teachers. All were between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five, and all had graduated from New York City public schools prior to attending college. Because the classes in their college-based program had fewer than twenty teacher candidates, they were familiar with one another. Table 1 depicts the demographic information, the general teaching assignment, and the total number of wiki space posts made by each participant over the course of the study. The researcher assigned each participant a number after they signed a consent form in order to de-identify them.

Table 1.

Participants.

Number	Race/Ethnicity	Gender	Level	Subject	# # Posts on the Wiki Space
1	African American	F	Elementary	General education	38
2	African American	F	Elementary	General education	9
3	Hispanic	F	Elementary	General education	27
4	Pakistani American	M	Secondary	Math	30
5	Hispanic	M	K-12	Physical education	15
6	Guyanese American	F	Elementary	General education	32
7	African American	F	Elementary	General education	35
8	Bengali American	F	Elementary	General education	29
9	African American	F	Secondary	ELA	18
10	Hispanic	F	Secondary	Math	21
11	Hispanic	F	Elementary	General education	25
12	Guyanese American	F	Elementary	General education	33
13	Hispanic	F	Secondary	ELA	25
14	African American	F	Elementary	General education	27
15	Bengali American	M	K-12	Physical education	19
16	African American	F	Elementary	General education	22
17	African American	F	Elementary	General education	28

Participants’ Teaching Contexts

All participants were first-year teachers in New York City public schools, and most were teaching in the same district. At the time of this study, minority enrollment was at approximately 87% in the district. 28.68% of enrolled students were categorized as English Language Learners with Spanish, Bengali, Russian, and Haitian Creole the most common languages spoken by those students. 18% of students were categorized as “Students with Interrupted/Inconsistent Formal Education.” In addition to cultural and linguistic diversity, most of the teachers were working in schools serving large percentages of students with “high needs,” meaning that over 20% of the students were classified as special education, are eligible for free lunch and/or temporary housing, and identify as Black or Hispanic (New York City Department of Education, 2016; UFT, 2016)

Participant Recruitment

All teacher candidates who had completed student teaching the prior academic year and had secured a teaching position were invited to participate in the study/support group via an email from the researcher. Participants were provided with books and articles (Online Appendix B) as compensation for their participation. One participant dropped out from the study halfway through.

The Researcher

The researcher had been the teachers’ student teaching seminar instructor and had taught several of the participants in methods courses, so she had pre-established relationships with the participants. The researcher identifies as a Caucasian female with over two decades of classroom teaching experience, including teaching in urban contexts.

Researcher Reflexivity

Relationships of power are embedded within any research process (Pillow, 2003, p. 182). As the participants’ former professor, the researcher held a position of authority, which influenced both who participated and how they participated in the study. Aware that her interactions and conclusions had the potential to be “universalist, ethnocentric, and adultocentric” (Matusov & Hayes, 2000, p. 216), the researcher employed a reflexive approach. Glesne (2005) asserts that if a researcher is to engage in reflexivity, they must be “as concerned with the research process as with the data” (p. 125). Using a research journal, the researcher considered her thinking, perspectives, values, position of power, and interests to frequently examine the extent to which she was advocating a particular or a limited perspective with her decisions about what questions to ask, resources to share, and data to highlight, code, and excerpt. Keeping the question, “Whose story is it – the researcher or the researched?” (Pillow, 2003, p. 176) in mind, she attempted to represent the participants’ perspectives faithfully, while acknowledging that her research question would limit her sharing the multiplicity of possible stories and perspectives to small slices of the participants’ experiences.

Procedure

Activities in this study were inspired by Butler & Schnellert’s (2012) conception of collaborative inquiry, a professional development model that employs a systematic study in which participants are encouraged to share their desires and struggles, identify goals for their practice, study and discuss resources and strategies together, and then experiment with and reflect on promising methods that will lead to improved teaching (Hopkins, 2000). Below is a chronology of major activities during the academic year.

Late June

The researcher secured IRB approval (IRB File #2016-0820) and sent an email invitation to recent graduates who had been hired as first-year teachers to participate in the study/support group. Participants signed permissions.

July

The researcher created the wiki space and administered Questionnaire One. The researcher analyzed the responses (N = 17) to identify common challenges/concerns.

September–January

Using the responses from Questionnaire One (Online Appendix A1), the researcher posted a question inviting participants to identify classroom challenges/questions/successes from their teaching. Seventeen participants communicated with one another in response to the question and related topics. The researcher analyzed the discussions and identified common themes. These findings informed her selection of the first round of resources (Online Appendix B1). Seventeen participants selected and reviewed the resources. They shared their reflections on the resources and described practices inspired by the resources.

January–March

The researcher administered and analyzed Questionnaire Two (Online Appendix A2). Using the responses from Questionnaire Two, the researcher posted a question inviting participants to identify classroom challenges/questions/successes from their teaching. Sixteen participants communicated with one another about the question and related topics. The researcher analyzed the discussions and identified common themes. These findings informed her selection of the second round of resources (Online Appendix B2). Seventeen participants selected and reviewed the resources. They shared their reflections on the resources and described practices inspired by the resources.

March–May

The researcher administered and analyzed Questionnaire Three (Online Appendix A2). Using the responses from Questionnaire Three, the researcher posted a question inviting participants to identify classroom challenges/questions/successes from their teaching. Sixteen participants described and communicated with one another in response to the question and related topics. The researcher analyzed the discussions and identified common themes. These findings informed her selection of the third round of resources (Online Appendix B3). Sixteen participants selected and reviewed the resources. They shared their reflections on new practices inspired by the resources.

June

The participants co-authored the List of Classroom Management Principles and Practices (Online Appendix C).

Data Collection

Questionnaires One, Two, and Three

Three questionnaires were administered during the study. Questionnaires included open-ended questions designed to give participants the opportunity to describe their prior knowledge of classroom management, their opinions about classroom management, specific challenges they anticipated or experienced during their teaching, practices they found useful in their classrooms, and advice they felt they could offer new teachers. The researcher reviewed the questionnaires to determine: 1. What (if any) specific practices did the participants identify from their conversations on the wiki space, the resources, or their teaching as effective? 2. What (if any) additional classroom management challenges were identified by the participants? 3. Given the responses to these questions, what additional resources might be helpful to participants?

Collaborations on a Wiki Space

Wikidot.com is a platform that hosts free wiki space sites such as the one used in this study. For this study, the wiki space served as a tool for data collection and a platform where participants could discuss their practices, challenges, successes, and reflections on the resources.

Resources

Over the course of the year, three “rounds” of resources including books, articles, websites, and podcasts were located by the researcher and offered to the participants. The resources were curated by the researcher based on the identification of classroom management challenges that emerged from the questionnaires and wiki space discussions.

List of Classroom Management Principles and Practices

As the participants worked through the collaborative inquiry process, many classroom management practices were introduced, attempted in the participants’ teaching contexts, and described on the wiki space. This work resulted in a final table of principles collaboratively co-authored by the participants with the intention of identifying the practices they found most helpful (Online Appendix C).

Data Analysis

Developing and Selecting Themes

Reviewing the data to identify emerging themes throughout the study provided the researcher with an opportunity to frequently engage with the data in a reflective and reflexive manner (Nowell et al., 2017, p. 5). At multiple points during the year, the questionnaires and wiki space comments were reviewed by the researcher, who worked inductively to locate common classroom management challenges described by the participants. This analysis revealed three thematic categories: 1. The teachers noticed that creating rules and handing out consequences when rules were broken did not result in effective classroom management. 2. The teachers struggled to foster positive relationships with students while having to “discipline” them. 3. The teachers speculated that their students who struggled with behavior management also had unmet social-emotional and/or academic needs. This analysis supported the identification of the three thematic categories (Nowell et al., 2017, p. 8) around which textual excerpts from the data expressing similar ideas were organized, therefore supporting the interpretation of the data throughout the study. This analysis also served the purpose of informing the selection of resources offered to participants.

At the end of the study, the researcher reviewed all of the data together, including the questionnaires, wiki comments, and the List of Classroom Management Principles and Practices. The original three themes were revised to account for the new data. Themes expressing a connection between culturally responsive SEL practices affiliated with the CASEL competencies and supportive of classroom management were prioritized in light of the research question. The revised thematic categories were then employed as coding labels—pithy phrases that captured the main ideas of the thematic categories (Fereday & Muir Cochrane, 2006). For example, the original theme two characterized participants’ descriptions of the challenge of developing positive relationships with their students when imposing rules and consequences. With another analysis, the researcher noticed other ideas enmeshed within the category. For example, the participants observed connections between effective classroom management and the development of positive relationships among students by the end of the study. This idea was expressed with a new coding label, “Developing positive relationships among students fosters a well-managed classroom.” The researcher continued in this manner, breaking up and generating or collapsing the original three thematic categories into coding labels. These labels were then clustered around the related CASEL competencies. For example, the participants described their methods for learning about their students’ interests and needs in the service of developing positive relationships, so textual excerpts associated with the labels “building caring relationships with and among students” and “learning about and supporting the unique (academic and social-emotional) needs and interests of students” were merged together under the category of the CASEL competency, “relationship skills.” Once the coding labels were reorganized around the CASEL competencies and thus further refined, the researcher created succinct phrases to describe the revised coding labels. Those labels with the most data excerpts affiliated with them were selected as the main themes to report in the study.

Methodological Integrity

As the researcher worked through the process of analysis, she noted how and why particular excerpts from the data were indexed. Though not employed as a data source, the researcher’s notes (research journal) produced throughout the study provided a record of why particular topics were highlighted throughout the support/study group and how they were coded and associated with a particular theme. She also kept track of data that did not fit neatly into the emerging themes as the dominant story was being shaped through the analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

A code manual (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006) was employed and analysis was completed by the researcher and an external reviewer to establish credibility (Nowell et al., 2017, p. 7). Both assigned coded data extracts to the coding labels. Through this process, the reviewers consulted with one another. This helped refine and name the themes and track their frequency. All participants were invited to review and revise the List of Classroom Management Principles and Practices at the end of the study. The researcher only occasionally posted questions on the wiki space. She did not participate in the discussions, so that the first-year teachers’ interactions would dominate the space. The lists of offered resources were emergent—in response to the issues participants raised, rather determined prior to the study in order to avoid imposing a pre-prescribed curriculum.

Findings

Encourage Student “Buy-in”

Over the course of the study, the participants demonstrated a growing awareness that student cooperation results not from fear of punishment, but from student buy-in. Student buy-in happens when students are helped to understand how following procedures fosters a positive classroom environment that everyone contributes to and benefits from. Shared responsibility for the classroom environment can result in a comfortable and productive place where students pursue their goals, have their academic and social-emotional needs met, enjoy supportive relationships, and take ownership in the classroom (Elias & Schwab, 2006, p. 327). Deliberately teaching the SEL competencies of self-awareness and social-awareness (CASEL, 2020) supports such an environment.

The Challenge of Enforcing Rules

On Questionnaires One and Two, most participants reported that they felt hesitant when confronting disruptive students, because the practice was generally ineffective. Participant 14, a fifth-grade teacher, wrote, “I think I did a good job setting up classroom rules with my class, but I am shaky about follow-through.” Participant 5, a middle school physical education teacher agreed, “I find myself making empty threats and not doing what I say I will. Students don’t trust me” (October 25). Other participants affirmed that they were also inconsistent about follow-through, because they were unable to consistently implement consequences for broken rules. Participant 9, a ninth-grade ELA teacher, wrote, “Sometimes I tend to be too lax on students because I don’t want to get them in trouble or create a scene. But this has proven to be counterproductive... students accuse me of favoritism” (October 28).

In response to this challenge, the researcher shared a variety of resources highlighting how SEL, when focused on the competencies of self and social awareness, might mitigate the participants’ reported struggles (Online Appendix B1). The resources articulated a common perspective that when teachers encourage students to observe how disruptions impact their learning and comfort (e.g., emotional safety or productivity), they can work with their students to implement procedures that minimize such disruptions. In other words, explicitly addressing the nature of classroom disruptions, the students’ roles in the disruptions, and the impact of such disruptions on the classroom environment did encourage the students to enact classroom procedures designed to foster a positive learning environment—to buy into and therefore support the procedures that make up a classroom management plan.

Practices that Support Self and Social Awareness

Practices designed to support self-awareness and social-awareness in service of a well-managed classroom were described on the wiki space. For example, participant 1, a third-grade teacher, wrote:

Establishing and explaining clear procedures was time-consuming at first, but once the students were made aware of the procedures and why they support our learning, and then with lots of reteaching, some of the pitfalls ... getting started, sharing out answers, distributing materials and asking permission to go to the bathroom became easier (March 20).

Participant 9, a ninth-grade ELA teacher, offered a high school version of this practice when describing her method of having students leave their cell phones in a basket before class. She wrote, “Because we have talked about why ignoring the phones is important for their learning, they don’t fight me on it” (March 18). In this way, she connected classroom procedures to the SEL competencies of both self and social awareness. Participant 4, a ninth-grade math teacher, elaborated on this theme when writing, “If students get why the rules exist and agree with them, I think this will help them with ‘self-management....’ But the teacher needs to help them connect those dots. Otherwise, it seems like arbitrary rules” (April 12). Participant 5, a middle school physical education teacher, commented: “As my students understand why we have rules and routines in place, they sort of observe themselves to see if they are doing what they should, and they buy in” (April 13). Though these practices required deliberate and repetitive efforts from the participants, many affirmed that proactively and explicitly highlighting and reinforcing procedures and routines in this way, with the goal of preventing disruptions while simultaneously teaching students self and social-awareness—how student actions impacted the learning environment, supported an improved environment.

Build Caring Relationships With and Among Students

Elias and Schwab (2006) assert that “developing a supportive community in the classroom helps to impart a sense of each student’s belonging, to alleviate students’ social anxieties and frustration, and to motivate students to comply with teacher requests and act pro-socially with peers” (p. 324). Over the course of the study, the participants described experiences that support this assertion. Their comments on the wiki space depicted a growing understanding of the crucial role that positive relationships play in a well-managed classroom. Most of the participants attributed these relationships to their attentiveness to the needs, interests and backgrounds of their students, and also to their encouragement of their students to be attentive to one another. In other words, the deliberate implementation of a culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy supported positive relationships in their classrooms.

The Challenge of Understanding why Disruptions Occur

Early on in the study, some participants described holding negative feelings toward disruptive students. Participant 13, a ninth-grade ELA teacher, wrote about a particularly disruptive student, “I felt relief, but also guilty when this one student was absent last week” (October 7). In their wiki space exchanges, participants supported one another to realize that these negative feelings were not so much about the disruptive students themselves, but their own fears of failing to manage disruptions in their classrooms. Participants underscored the importance of addressing these negative feelings before they became habituated. For example, participant 12, a third-grade teacher, offered the group a recommendation: “What if we try to [reflect] a little bit about each of our students.... Can we find one thing that we love about each one? Can we try to focus on that one thing when we feel mad and critical?” (November 7).

Discussions on this theme provoked the researcher to seek resources recommending that taking the time to consider students’ needs and connecting with students around their interests and backgrounds can help the teacher forge positive relationships with students in the service of a positive and well-managed classroom (Online Appendix B2). Informed by the resources and each other, the participants posited that disruptive students were usually acting in anti-social ways because their various needs were not being fully addressed. When the necessary supports for these students were located and provided, the participants reported that disruptions were minimized. Participant 14, a fifth-grade teacher, wrote, “Students act out for a reason. It may not make sense to others, but it makes sense to them. A teacher needs to figure out why they act out. Some need isn’t being met” (March 5). Participant 6, a fourth-grade teacher, agreed: “Differentiation is more than putting students into appropriate groups based on assessments. It is about giving every individual what they need, so they can contribute in a positive way to what happens in the classroom” (March 17).

Practices That Support Relationships Between the Teacher and Students

Experimenting with ways to build positive relationships by attending to individual student needs and supporting students’ interests and backgrounds provided the participants with examples of how such positive relationships between the teacher and student might be fostered. For example, participant 13, a ninth-grade ELA teacher, wrote:

“I have been assigning students writing assignments to help me get to know about their interests and goals for themselves. I wish I had done something like an interest survey at the beginning of the year, because reading these papers makes me see them as whole people and appreciate where they are coming from. If a student writes about liking cricket, I can reference that sport in our discussions. It helps to bring them in and helps others appreciate what is unique about them” (April 24).

Participant 4, a secondary math teacher, agreed:

My students know that I know them and what they value and what their hopes and dreams are, because I take the time to talk with them when I see them in the hallway or lunchroom or in clubs. I think this helps me keep them on-task. If we have a friendly relationship, we don’t want to disappoint each other (April 24).

Practices That Support Relationships Among Students

In addition to figuring out how to foster positive relationships with students instead of defaulting to blaming them for negative behavior and thus encouraging negative relationships, the participants also sought to develop positive relationships among students to support their classroom management. Participant 8, a fourth-grade teacher, wrote, “I have been reflecting on this issue with students at the end of each day. I ask them to describe something they did to help someone else or something that was done for them and why they appreciate it. This helps things run smoothly” (April 4). Participant 15, a physical education teacher, wrote that he applied this idea to his context by encouraging students to compliment one other when they worked together to practice a set of skills: “I have them tell their partner what they did well. I also pair them up to have them help each other practice skills. This supports another person’s development and builds positive relationships . . . they stay on task” (April 9). Participant 11, a fifth-grade teacher, responded:

I also make sure to find opportunities for students to get to know each other, not just their friends. So, I have them collaborate on assignments or take time at the beginning of class to check on with each other “How is your day going so far? How are you feeling?” It used to feel forced, but not now (April 24).

These practices can be affiliated with CASEL’s “relationship skills” competency (2020). CASEL defines this competency as “The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups.” Effective communication, developing positive relationships, demonstrating cultural competency, collaborative problem-solving, resolving conflicts constructively are among the skills that make up this competency. As Participant 11, a fifth-grade teacher, wrote, “Helping our students develop those CASEL ‘relationship skills,’ meaning using empathy, supporting others and solving problems together” can help create a calm environment (May 11).

Explicitly Teach Self-management

The Collaborative of Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (2020) defines self-management as “The abilities to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations” (CASEL, 2020). Skills related to this area of competence include managing ones’ emotions, identifying and using stress management strategies, and exhibiting self-discipline and self-motivation.” Elias & Schwab (2006) recommend that teachers provide instruction in self-management by explicitly connecting this topic to various classroom management situations through practice and reinforcement with reminders, feedback, and cuing (p. 322). This perspective contradicts the view that teachers have the sole responsibility for maintaining a well-managed classroom, a view held by many participants at the beginning of the study. Participant 7, a fifth-grade teacher, expressed this idea on Questionnaire One: “I think a teacher has to have a dominant personality and take control of the class, so that they follow rules. I worry that I don’t have the right personality for that.”

The Challenge of Fostering Self-Management

Over the course of the study, many participants expressed the understanding that a well-managed classroom would not manifest just because a teacher willed it into existence. Students would have to be taught how to manage themselves, a particularly challenging endeavor. In fact, even toward the end of the study, though the participants expressed an understanding that self-management was the goal, one had to be patient and consistent in order to make progress in this area. Participant 12, a third-grade teacher, wrote, “A focus on social-emotional learning takes the focus off me controlling the class and puts it on students learning how to manage themselves” (March 29), to which Participant 8, a fourth-grade teacher, responded, “Yeah, but we know we have to teach them how to do that. A lot of my students can’t manage themselves.”

The participants’ comments relating to their desires to direct social-emotional learning toward student self-management, as opposed to relying on the teacher to control them, encouraged the participant-researcher to locate and share resources associated with the topic of student self-management (Online Appendix B3). After reviewing some of the resources, Participant 9, a ninth-grade ELA teacher, asserted, “Self-management is really the goal here. If we focus on teaching students how to manage their emotions, set goals for themselves, manage stress, and communicate in positive ways, we teach that every individual is responsible for the classroom environment” (April 15).

Practices to Develop Self-management

Though the goal of self-management proved challenging, the participants shared examples of some practices to foster self-management. For example, participant 14 wrote,

When a person can consider the needs of another person, that ties into behavior. When behavior problems crop up in my classroom, I sometimes stop what we’re doing and ask the students to take a moment and reflect: How could my actions be perceived by others? How could my actions hurt others? Interfere with the progress of others? I used to do a lot more of that, but I need to do less now (April 18).

Several of the elementary teachers found the use of a “mood meter” (Nathanson et al., 2016) helpful when teaching self-management. They collaborated to experiment with and reflect on the practice of encouraging their students to learn about and identify their moods and then discuss and practice prosocial versus anti-social behaviors when students experienced strong emotions such as anger. Participant 16, a first-grade teacher, wrote:

During morning meeting, we talk about a mood like “angry.” How might somebody act when angry? They might shout or stomp their feet, etc. and then we will practice alternative ways of dealing with that emotion, such as taking deep breaths, counting to ten, or even standing up to stretch. When I can, I find books that demonstrate these ideas. The time I invest in this is paying off. We name disruptive behavior, connect it to a mood on the meter, and then remind students that there are positive ways to deal with it (March 6th).

Teachers working with secondary students responded that the mood meter would not likely work in their classrooms, but using language such as “check yourself” or “check in,” accomplished similar self-monitoring and regulation. For example, one sixth grade teacher described how she had made similar progress helping her students during “pack up” time:

At the beginning of the year when I wrote about this issue, I would get so frustrated with them for taking up to 15 minutes to pack their bags! I was thinking about how some of you wrote about explicitly discussing the issue with the students. I had discussions with them. I reminded them to look around, “check yourself.” If everybody is packed up and sitting down, why are you taking so long? Are you worried? Are you lost in your head? Are you upset? Now, when I see students off task, I ask them to “check yourself.” This is more effective than just yelling, “hurry up!” (April 17th).

Participant 10, a secondary math teacher, responded:

I am working with my students to stop, name the disruptive behavior, which is often micro-aggression or harassment, and to discuss how it affects the class. I find they are cutting back on them. My next goal will be to discuss with them how their anxiety or being tired or feeling angry pushes them to be disruptive (April 19th).

Discussion

The findings indicate that the support/study group afforded the participants the opportunity to engage in meaningful professional development that helped them identify some effective practices that linked a culturally responsive version of SEL with classroom management. The participants’ comments on the wiki space over the course of the project and List of Classroom Management Principles and Practices evidence the participants’ understandings that SEL supports a well-managed, productive learning community where students learn to communicate effectively, empathize with others, make good decisions, solve problems, set goals, and manage negative emotions (Norris, 2003, p. 316). Crucially, these practices highlight self and social-awareness, relationship building, and self-management over the enforcement of rules. They enact the notion that “how a teacher achieves order is as important as whether a teacher achieves order” (Evertson & Weinstein, 2006, p. 4).

Reflection is a key aspect of SEL, and it is revealing that in addition to making connections between SEL and classroom management for their students, the List of Classroom Management Principles and Practices includes recommendations that teachers strive to develop their own social-emotional skills by reflecting on their classroom management practices. This idea is exemplified in the recommendation, “Reflection will help you see when you are unfairly blaming students for misbehaving” (List of Classroom Management Principles and Practices). Enacting practices that are culturally responsive and sustaining seemed to support not only the students, but the participants’ social-emotional development, particularly in relation to developing their capacities for empathy and perspective-taking.

This support/study group served to mitigate the isolation experienced by some new teachers (Hellsten et al., 2009) by providing participants with membership in a community of practice where they shared ideas and methods, receiving feedback from others as they navigated the uncertain spaces between “what a theory suggests” and “what the classroom reality demands” (Adams, 2016, p. 24). Such practices as translating one strategy, such as using a “mood meter,” into one more appropriate for older students, such as the cue to “check yourself” or translating a physical education practice into one appropriate for an ELA classroom underscore the importance of providing teachers with the opportunity to learn from others working in different grade levels or subjects. These examples suggest that classroom management does not result only from the acquisition of a set of teacher behaviors, but also of more complex understandings that can be developed within a community of learners.

This study also highlights the benefit of extending relationships between teacher educators and alumni. Similar professional development collaborations that are confined to one school building might be inhibiting for non-tenured, novice teachers. Additionally, although some participants did not post as frequently as others, the participation was fulsome enough to indicate that the participants found the group supportive and accessible. As one participant wrote on the wiki space, “This is a safe place for me to vent and ask questions” (Participant 7, fifth-grade teacher, March 2). It is likely that collaborating with other teachers with whom they shared some background afforded the participants an opportunity to build solidarity through peer mentoring and collaboration (Van Horn, 2006) as well as a support system.

Limitations

One obvious limitation of this study is that it involved only one case—seventeen participants who had previously worked together. The prior relationships of these participants could be regarded as a limitation contributing to confirmation bias for the researcher and participants. Similar studies involving a larger population, participants without prior relationships, and even longitudinal studies are needed to add new dimensions to similar professional collaborations. Also, the participants were a self-selected group, and it is possible that those who participated were inclined to be collaborative, reflective, and invested in the topic. No comparison was made between those alumni who participated and those who did not, so teacher educators and school administrators might consider how to support those novice teachers who do not seek out such professional development opportunities. What if professional development such as this were required for novice teachers? Would it be more effective if it were mandated? Another limitation of this study is that other relevant perspectives deserve consideration in terms of their affiliation with a culturally responsive and sustaining SEL curriculum with classroom management. For example, the role of relational and restorative justice practices in supporting classroom management are worth exploring. Also, one might consider how findings from the field of affective neuroscience might be directed toward helping learners develop SEL competencies in support of a positive learning environment.

Implications for Research and Practice

This study afforded a teacher educator the opportunity to maintain a connection with her former students and to offer them support in their first year of teaching. Given the current teacher shortages and greater accountability regarding the effectiveness of their graduates (Hughes & Mouw, 2017), it could be helpful for teacher preparation programs to devise similar initiatives to support their alumni. This study also describes why it is crucial for teacher educators to include the topic of SEL into teacher preparation coursework to support pre-service teachers’ understandings and skills related to classroom management. Finally, this study highlights the need for in-service teachers to develop SEL competencies as well so that they can approach their students with compassion and empathy. Therefore, teacher educators might consider how can provide SEL opportunities for their teacher candidates.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material - From College to Classroom: Using Virtual Collaborative Inquiry to Support First-Year Teachers With Classroom Management

Supplementary Material for From College to Classroom: Using Virtual Collaborative Inquiry to Support First-Year Teachers With Classroom Management by Trace Lahey in Journal of Education

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Trace Lahey

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

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