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Redl And Wattenberg's Theory Of Classroom Management

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Classroom management is the process by which teachers and schools create and maintain appropriate behavior of students in classroom settings. When classroom-management strategies are executed effectively, teachers minimize the behaviors that impede learning for both individual students and groups of students, while maximizing the behaviors that facilitate or enhance learning. Classroom management is really hard and there are many theorists that talk about it and each is different from the other where each theorist has his/her own ideas and thoughts. Some of them are mentioned below. In Redl and Wattenberg's theories, they encompass group dynamics, self-control, the pleasure-pain principle, and understanding reality. Their central focus is that people behave differently …show more content…

These conditions lead to several roles in the classroom that can cause trouble like leaders, clowns, fall guys, and instigators. Redl and Wattenberg's contributions helped teachers work more effectively with students by pointing out humans behave differently in groups than individually. They also provided the first well-organized, systematic approach to improving behavior in the classroom. Redl and Wattenberg (1959) suggested that educators support students' self-control from the position that individuals can be responsible for controlling their own conduct. Much misbehavior results from a temporary lapse of an individual's control system, rather than from a desire to be disagreeable. To mold students' behavior, teachers can use the pleasure-pain principle, in which they deliberately provide experiences to produce a range of pleasant to unpleasant feelings. Redl and Wattenberg emphasize, however, that the pleasure-- pain principle does not mean that a teacher, in the heat of anger, should lash out at a student. Likewise, pain or punishment should not take the form of revenge (Redl & Wattenberg, 1959). Another theory is B.F. Skinner (1904-1990), where

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