Jacob Kounin: Instructional Management

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Jacob KouninInstructional Management

• By Aimee Chard and Rebecca Godbout

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Biography

• Started his career as an educational psychologist
  at Wayne State University in 1946.
• He is best known for his studies completed in the
  1970s on classroom management.
• Kounins studies took place over 5 years and he
  experimented on college, high school and
  elementary school aged students.
• Research was based on video tapes on 80
  elementary school classrooms.
• Wrote a book called Discipline and Group
  Management in Classrooms, which summarized the
  behaviours of classroom managers.

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Biography Continued

• He found that organization and planning are keys
  to good classroom management.
• Teachers need good lesson movement.

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Central Tenets of Theory

• Kounin believed in proactive behaviour on the
  part of the teacher and high levels of student
  involvement.
• The relationship between effective management and
  effective teaching is maintained through
  withitness, overlapping, momentum, smoothness and
  group focus.

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Ripple Effect

• Kounin believes that how a teacher handles one
  students misbehaviour influences the other
  students who were not misbehaving.
• DESIST When a teacher reprimands one student
  and other students stop their inappropriate
  behavior also.

http//wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Kounin,_Jacob
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Withitness

• The teacher knows what is going on in the
  classroom at all times.
• Ability the teacher has to know what the students
  are doing in the classroom at all times.

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Overlapping

• The ability to attend to multiple things at the
  same time.
• Overlapping is closely related to withitness,
  without one effectiveness would be reduced.
• When instructing one group, the teacher should be
  able to acknowledge difficulties that students
  outside the group are having in such a way that
  instruction continues.

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Momentum

• The flow of a lesson.
• Ability to have steady movement throughout a
  lesson.
• The teacher knows what is going to happen next
  but needs to be prepared for unexpected changes
  that could occur throughout the day.

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Smoothness

• Maintaining direction in the lesson and not
  losing focus or being distracted by irrelevant
  information.
• Is done by letting students know what is going to
  happen next in class and sticking to it (example
  agenda for the day is on the front board for
  students to see and is followed by the teacher).
• Transitioning from one activity to another
  without disruptions.

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Brad is a grade 5 student in your classroom who
will constantly yell out and ask you what
activity the class is going to do next while you
are teaching lessons. He cannot seem to focus on
one activity till he knows what is coming next.
Using smoothness, what could you do as a teacher
to prevent Brad from yelling out?
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Maintaining Group Focus

• Group Alerting The ability of the teacher to
  keep all students actively participating and to
  create interest in the material.
• Encouraging Accountability Communicating to
  students that their participation will be
  observed or evaluated.
• High Participation Formats Using lessons that
  will define student behavior when they are not
  directly answering a teachers question.

www.heterbembenutty.com/files/JACOB_KOUNIN_Transi
tion.doc
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Think About This

• Many of the students in Mr. Jacks class never
  finish their work and do not seem interested in
  his lessons. Which of the following aspects of
  Kounins theory should Mr. Jack work on?
• Encouraging Accountability
• Withitness
• Group Alerting
• A and C

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Application of Theory into the Classroom and
Special Eduation

• Group Alerting
• Call on students at random by asking questions
  (scan the room to be sure that students are
  paying attention).
• Move around the room and asking students to show
  you what they have done
• For students with special needs, group alerting
  can help to make the lesson more interesting to
  them. An example for a child that has trouble
  seeing, using different sounds (music) in the
  lesson can keep them more interested.

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Theory in the Classroom and Special Education

• Withitness
• -Teacher should be alert to sights and sounds in
  the classroom
• -Arrange desks so that students are within
  eyesight
• -Make sure your back is not to the back of
  students when working with an individual student
• -Acknowledge misbehaviour right away, to let the
  class know that you know

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Theory Applied to the Classroom and Special
Eduation

• Smoothness
• -Organize materials before class starts.
• -Once students are completing their work, do not
  distract them.
• -Assist with individuals when needed.
• - Students with special needs may need more help
  completing their work, so having a volunteer in
  the class run more smoothly.

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Theory Applied to the Classroom and Special
Education

• Momentum
• -Keep lesson moving at a good pace.
• -Teachers should not dwell on an already
  understood concept.
• -Have students move from one activity to another
  without being forced to wait for each other.
• -Students learn at different rates. This needs to
  be considered by teachers when planning.

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Theory Applied to Sara Porter

• Teacher should try using group alerting, which
  may help to create interest in the material for
  Sara.
• Calling on Sara when she is paying attention may
  encourage her to pay attention all of the time.
• Withitness teacher should have Sara in sight by
  placing her desk on an area that is visible from
  all areas in the classroom.

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Sara Porter Continued

• High performance formats do not seem to work for
  Sara since she gets distracted easily, so the
  teacher should not use this strategy.
• Encouraging accountability may work with Sara.
  Making sure she is reminded about what is
  expected my help her not to
• become distracted so easily.
• Teacher should ensure that lessons
• keep the interest of the students.

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What do you think?

• Which aspect of Kounins theory do you think is
  very important for a teacher to use in the
  classroom?
• For example Withitness, smoothness etc.

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References

• Jacob Kounin http//wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Kou
  nin,_Jacob
• Professors who Profess Making a Difference as
  Scholar activists by Alfie Kohn
  http//findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4009/is_20
  0304/ai_n9210167
• http//www.heferbembenutty.com/files/JACOB_KOUNIN_
  Transistion.doc
• Encyclopedia Ripple Effect http//www.nationmaste
  r.com/encyclopedia/Ripple-effect