Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
John Reynolds
Committee Member
Karen Kamin
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
african american teachers, adolescent behavior, attitude change, classroom discipline, classroom management, classroom management skills, constant comparative methodology, data collection, discipline referrals, disruptive classroom behavior, eighth-grade teachers, improvement profiles, instructional time, interdisciplinary teaming, middle school best practices, staff development, student discipline, student referrals, teacher training, urban districts, seventh-grade teachers
Abstract
This applied dissertation describes a process of staff development for seventh- and eighth-grade teachers to change or improve their classroom management styles. The purpose of this applied dissertation was to decrease the number of discipline referrals and to increase the impact of quality instructional time.
The target group was comprised of 21 African American seventh- and eighth-grade classroom teachers in an urban district whose students exhibited constant disruptive classroom behavior. Through a designed staff development intervention focused on improving classroom management skills, teachers received training to gain a better understanding of the adolescent, middle school best practice behavior and classroom management systems and interdisciplinary teaming.
In the data collection phase, the researcher observed the volume and types of referrals each teacher submitted to create an improvement profile on each. Data collected were analyzed through the use of the constant comparative methodology. The analyses indicated a 25% attitude change in teachers regarding their classroom management styles to improve student discipline and to impact instruction positively.
This applied dissertation provided a process that improved classroom management skills by 25% of the seventh- and eighth-grade teachers and decreased student referrals and lost instructional time.