How to Assess & Monitor Behaviors in the Classroom

Teachers must keep a watchful eye on students to properly assess behavior.

Student behaviors range from paying close attention to the teacher and answering questions to talking out of turn or playing with cell phones. Teachers must monitor student behavior to keep their classrooms in order. A teacher must keep constant watch on her students so she has as much data as possible to determine what causes both appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and how she can use that information to create a well-behaved classroom.

Instructions

1. Set clear standards for appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Your school has a rule book that all students must follow, but you have the authority to create rules that apply specifically to classroom behavior, such as respect and tolerance. In order to determine whether behavior is appropriate, you need to be clear on how you define appropriate and inappropriate behavior. You also must inform your students of what your expectations are so they know when they are behaving in an acceptable way.

2. Watch your students. Student behavior occurs whether you observe it or not. Ideally, the only student behavior that goes on in your classroom is appropriate and positive. Realistically, however, students can engage in inappropriate behavior, much of which gets unnoticed by teachers. Make sure to always face the class and keep a close eye on students. Walk around the room when you are teaching so you can consistently monitor behavior. The more diligently you observe your students, the better you will be able to assess what type of behavior goes on in your classroom.

3. Identify antecedents. No behavior, whether it is positive or negative, exists in isolation. Often, student behaviors are a result of something else. When assessing behaviors, teachers need to identify the events that precede the behaviors to determine which antecedents cause students to act in a certain way. Knowing what actions precede student behavior can help you determine how to take the appropriate action to either increase desired behavior or decrease inappropriate behavior.

4. Administer appropriate consequences. Teachers often focus so much on decreasing negative behavior that they neglect to encourage what students are doing correctly. Once you've assessed your students' behavior, you can implement punishments to decrease undesired behavior or reinforcement to increase desirable behavior. Continue to monitor your students' responses by paying close attention to how they behave to determine what punishments or reinforcements are most effective.

References

• The University of Tennessee: Classroom and Behavior Management
• "Effective Teaching Methods: Research-Based Practice"; Gary Borich; 2007.
• "Educational Psychology"; Anita Woolfolk; 2010.