Jacob S. Kounin

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Jacob S. Kounin

• Classroom Management Techniques

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Who is Kounin?

• Kounin is a classroom behaviourist theorist
• Best known for his two studies done in 1970
• He wrote the book, "Discipline and Group
  Management in Classrooms"
• Kounin worked to combine both discipline and
  learning in the classroom
• Kounin believed that organization and planning
  are key to engaging students
• This relationship is characterized by proactive
  teacher behaviour along with student involvement
  in learning

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Rationale

• Focuses on preventative discipline using
  techniques and strategies to prevent
  misbehaviours from occurring.

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Case Study

• Give suggestions of what proactive discipline is
• Examples of proactive discipline (what does it
  look like in the classroom?)

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Achieving Classroom Management Through
Preventative Discipline

• Key Ideas
• Ripple Effect
• Withitness
• Overlapping
• Movement Management
• Smoothness
• Momentum
• Group Focus and Accountability

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Strategy 1 Ripple Effect

• By correcting the misbehaviour of one student it
  can positively influence the behaviour of another

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Strategy 2 Withitness

• Awareness of what is going on in all parts of the
  classroom
• Teachers have eyes on the back of their heads!
• Classroom layout benefits the teachers ability to
  see all students at all times

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Strategy 3 Overlapping

• When teachers can effectively tend to two or more
  events simultaneously
• Students are more likely to stay on task if they
  know that the teacher is aware of what they are
  doing (body language)

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Strategy 4 Movement Management

• Smoothness
• Smooth transitions between activities
• Momentum
• Appropriate pace and progression through a lesson
• Group Focus and Accountability
• Keep the whole class involved and interested

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When Managing the Classroom, Try to AVOID

• Dangling
• Teacher leaves a topic and introduces new,
  unrelated material
• Flip-flop
• like dangling, except that the teacher inserts
  left-over materials from a previous lesson

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Avoid

• Thrust
• teacher forgets to give clear instructions at
  the appropriate time of a lesson.
• Teacher must then re-explain the instructions to
  each student on an individual level
• Stimulus-bound
• Teacher is distracted by an outside stimulus and
  draws the classs attention to it

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Classroom Applications

• Be aware of what is happening around the
  classroom.
• Intervene before misbehaviours escalate.
• Use routines, explanations and smooth transitions
  to gain the attention of the students.
• Keep all students involved through constant
  supervision and accountability.
• Reduce off task behaviour and boredom by creating
  challenges, extending tasks, providing progress
  and adding variety.
• Be able to attend to more than one event at the
  same time.
• Note Classroom management is most effective
  when these applications are applied at the
  beginning of the school year.

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References

• Kounin 1970
• http//www.educ.uvic.ca/epls/faculty/rowles/kounin
  1.htm
• Jacob Kounin
• http//scied.gsu.edu/Hassard/mos/10.2.html
• Kounin, Jacob from WikEd
• http//wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Kounin,_Jacob
• Learning Environment Article from The Premiere
  Website for Health and Physical
• Education http//www.pecentral.org/climate/april99
  article.html
• Maine Education Association
• http//www.maine.nea.org/index.htm
• The Kounin Model from Approaches to Discipline
• http//www.solwebs.net/sgfl/teaching/discplan/koun
  1.htm
• West Dunbartonshire Council