Effective classroom management and organisation is vital in implementing plans for learning. By this, we mean the way in which the classroom and class is structured in order to facilitate teaching and learning. For such teaching and learning to succeed, classroom organisation and management strategies must relate to values, aims, requirements and curriculum plans as a whole and also to practical circumstances. If an appropriate coherence can be achieved, then the teacher and the children should benefit from having a common framework within which to work. The strength of such a framework will derive from its internal consistency (the mutual reinforcement of its elements), and its legitimacy (the negotiated agreement between the teacher and the children). This is strongly connected to the issue of developing good classroom relationships.
These activities allow detailed analysis of some of these ideas in the context of your school and classroom. Some are taken from ‘Reflective Teaching’, Chapter 10. Others introduce new ideas that focus on classroom organisation and management.
Organising the classroom environment
Having a clearly organised and managed classroom should be taken to imply rigidity, for if the rules and routines of the classroom are clear and agreed, good organisation can increase freedom for the teacher to teach and the learner to learn. In particular, it should give the teacher more time to diagnose children's learning difficulties; to design appropriate learning objectives; and to teach rather than having to spend time on `housekeeping' aspects of routine classroom life.
The Reflective Activities in this section focus on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of classroom organisation – making an examination of the classroom environment, including the production of a classroom plan; planning the resources to support specific learning activities; evaluating procedures for routine activities of the school day with a view to maximising time for teaching and learning; recording the time available for curriculum activity; monitoring an individual child to estimate active learning time; and evaluating the stimulus and variety of learning objectives, tasks and activities.
Managing the children and adults
In this section the Reflective Activities relate to teacher/pupil and other professional relationships. They provide an analysis of the involvement of pupils in whole class parts of lessons; a means of deciding upon the most appropriate type and size of grouping for the activities planned; a consideration of grouping strategies from the perspective of the pupils; a means of preparing for having parents or support staff working in the classroom; and ways of organising initial thoughts on developing information sharing systems for support staff and parents.
Notes for further reading
Diagrams and Figures
Reflective activites
10. Organisation 