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1. Jacob Kounin is known as a classroom management theorist.

Around 1946, he began


working as an educational psychologist at at Wayne State University. Many people
believe that Kounin was highly influenced by Glasser, and it can be seen throughout
his work. He made people think about the possibility of discipline and instruction
being utilized as one. Instead of these two techniques being separate, Kounin
explained how you have to incorporate different aspects from each in order to create
an effective classroom. By utilizing skills within discipline and instruction, one
should be able to manage a classroom according to Kounin's ideas and principles.
(MW)
2. What did he believe?

Kounin believes that teachers need to be attentive to all aspects of the classroom. He believes that
effective teachers keep students attentive and actively involved. After Kounin's research, herealized how
teachers handle misbehavior is how they handle their class from the beginning of each school year. One
day while Kounin was teaching a class, he told one student to stop reading a newspaper and to pay
attention to the lecture. While Kounin only told this one student to get on task, other students who were
not on task suddenly put away what they were doing and started listening to the lecture. This effect
become known as the "Ripple Effect," which is when one student's behavior is corrected it often
influences another student's behavior nearby. Kounin wrote a book, "Discipline and Group Management
in Classrooms," to sum up his beliefs about effective and ineffective classroom managers. After research,
Kounin came to the conclusion that the key to a successful classroom is not the way a teacher handles
misbehavior when it occurs, but instead what teachers do to completely prevent classroom management
problems from ever occurring within the classroom at all. Kounin also found that good organization and
planning are also keys to effective classroom management while getting students highly involved and
also using proactive behavior. Kounin believed that teachers should have good lesson movement in order
for teachers to have an effective connection between teaching and classroom management. Kounin
described that lesson movement is achieved through the five things as follows: withitness, overlapping,
momentum, smoothness, and group focus. The term "withitness" was Kounins word to describe that
teachers always know what is going on within his/her classroom. This can be done by scanning the
classroom every now and then so students will believe you are always looking at what they are doing.
(AO)

3. Why is he important today?

One of the things that makes Kounin important today is his book, Discipline and Group
Management in Classrooms. This book was on one of the studies Kounin did on
organizational and management skills, which was done by videotaping many hours in
classrooms that did not have very many misbehaved students and then also
videotaping in classrooms that had misbehaved students. The tapes were then analyzed
to see what these teachers did differently. Shockingly, there was no such difference,
which came to the conclusion that effective classroom managers and poor classroom
managers were not different in controlling and responding to students who were
disruptive to the class. (AO)


Front Cover
(MW)


Kounin's key ideas that help make an effective classroom:

1. If a teacher can correct a misbehavior by using one student as the instigator, other students within the
classroom normally will correct their misbehavior as well! This is what Kounin meant by the "ripple effect".
2. All teachers should be aware of what is taking place within all parts of the classroom at any given time.
"Withitness" is what Kounin describes this as.
3. According to Kounin, if the teacher can create little chaos between activities, keep on task, and utilize
good time management skills they are modeling effective group management.
4. All educators should be able to maintain group alertness, as well as hold each member of the group
accountable for understanding the content of the lesson. Kounin believes that by doing this, all students
have a chance for optimal learning.
5. In order to avoid students getting bored or uninterested, the teacher should give assignments and tasks
that provide the students with a feeling of progress or accomplishment when completing the assigned
work. Kounin also stresses the importance of creating a diverse curriculum, as well as a change in
environment every now and then. (MW)
Kounin discovered the fact that if students think that the teacher is alert/aware of what is going on within
the classroom, they are not likely to misbehave. This is because the teacher has effective classroom
management skills that leaves little room for misbehavior or discipline to occur. By having a teacher-
directed curriculum where the classroom students know who is the "boss" they are less likely to try and
take over the classroom. If misbehavior occurs, it is crucial to correct the problem within a timely manner
in order for the discipline to be effective. It is always beneficial to try your best to discipline the correct
student, if you misjudge and correct the wrong student, your tactics will be less likely to work on future
problems within the classroom. Always make sure that those who truly are in the wrong are the ones who
get punished, otherwise students who did nothing wrong will begin to not enjoy being in your classroom.
(MW)

When reviewing these key ideas that Jacob Kounin created, one can clearly see that each of these
concepts are used within today's society/classrooms in order for them to be effective. (MW)



4. What are some practical ways to apply his approach in a classroom (be
specific with activities and/or links)?
Some practical ways to apply Kounin's approach in a classroom is basically to follow what Kounin stated
to be the five ways to achieve lesson movement. Overlapping can be applied within the classroom by
creating a procedure to use when two separate situations happen at nearly the same time. For instance, if
a student finishes an assignment early they can read a book, start on another assignment, make a craft,
etc. Momentum can be applied within the classroom making lessons short so students have time to work
with other students in groups, which will let students elaborate on a certain subject and gain knowledge
from other student's connections. Smoothness can be applied within the classroom by constructing
certain body language signs at the beginning of the year so students can use these signs during a lesson
to notify the teacher if they need help with a certain portion of the lesson so on and so forth. Group focus
can be applied within the classroom by always having some sort of group each day so students have time
to collaborate with one another. If students tend to go into the same groups, the teacher can write each
student's name down and put all the pieces of paper in a hat to randomly select the groups. (AO)
During group work, students can read books together so they can elaborate on their connections they
made to the story. Each student may connect in a different way than other students did, which is a great
learning experience for everyone.

Mathematics group work can be helpful because students who are struggling can receive help from those
who have a good understanding of the material being taught. (AO)

When students finish their work early, have a reading center they can go to so they can read quietly. If
this center gets too crowded the students may pick another center. For instance, there may be a writing
center where students can elaborate their feelings they are having or they can write down what they are
observing within the classroom. There are many centers teachers can create for early finishers to have
something quiet to do while other students finish their assigned work. (AO)


To keep students actively involved in the lesson, teachers can lecture for about 10-15 minutes and then
do a group activity on what they just learned. This will give students the chance to collaborate with other
students and to orally express what they just learned. Hands-on activities may have an impact on some
students which can help them remember what they learned better than just sitting and listening to a
lecture for an hour. (AO)

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