Honors Program Theses

Award/Availability

Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

Brian Townsend

Keywords

Classroom management--Iowa--Cedar Falls;

Abstract

The primary goal of this research is to observe frequently-used classroom management techniques in the Cedar Falls Community School District. The observed techniques and the philosophies behind them will then be compared to the methods and philosophies of educational researchers and theorists. Classroom management is an area that is often underrepresented in the plethora of courses required of college undergraduates, as can be observed at the University of Northern Iowa. Of the 120 total credit hours required of an undergraduate student for graduation, exactly three are devoted to classroom management. Furthermore, those three credit hours, or one class, may not be taken until one’s Level III Field Experience, which typically occurs the semester prior to student teaching. Thus with so little exposure to the field, most beginning teachers would be required to either explore this area of education on their own, or rely primarily on instinct. The information gained from this survey should indicate the ideologies held by current teachers, as well as how their ideologies were established. This thesis will also briefly touch on the surveyed teachers’ thoughts on and use of specific kinds of classroom management and disciplinary techniques in their own classroom. For example, the use of rewards as a form of motivation is a heavily debated issue amongst educational theorists, and thus one would believe that it would garner mixed opinions from classroom teachers as well. Many of these specific examples of management and discipline have no clear-cut evidence as to their overall effectiveness, and their usage is dependent on each individual teacher’s perceived value of such techniques.

Year of Submission

2016

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Date Original

5-2016

Object Description

1 PDF file (1 volume (unpaged))

Language

EN

File Format

application/pdf

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