Be the Leader of Your Class: Applying Leadership Behaviors to Manage Student Conduct and Performance

University faculty, especially those who are just beginning their careers, are confronted with many professional challenges. The criteria required for promotion, including scholarly activities, service initiatives, and teaching various courses, leave many faculty with little time to develop teaching effectiveness. Classroom management is a critical concern in academia. Unfortunately, most university faculty have not had any formal training on classroom management. Consequently, many are left on their own to figure out how to competently teach and manage their students’ behavior and performance1. Often, faculty resort to trial and error experimentation, with some imitating the techniques used by experienced colleagues or former instructors. Fortunately, successful classroom management skills can be learned and developed. The author’s experience as a teacher and industrial supervisory-leadership trainer helped him to recognize that many leadership challenges are similar to those encountered by teachers. As a result, the author began experimenting with a leadership approach for classroom management that applies leadership behaviors to manage student conduct and performance. In the paper, the author will compare behaviors used in leadership with the management of student classroom conduct and performance. The paper will identify the benefits derived from the leadership approach to classroom management. The author will describe the leadership behaviors used in his course to manage student conduct and performance. Also, the paper will provide ideas for engineering and technology faculty on how they can integrate the leadership approach with their courses. Introduction Throughout the author’s academic career, teaching effectiveness has always been an ongoing concern. Consequently, he has experimented with different teaching techniques and approaches. For over twenty years, the author has taught courses that incorporate various aspects of leadership and provided industrial training on leadership. Overtime, he recognized similarities between behaviors teachers used in classroom management and leadership behaviors used in industry. Specifically, he discovered that many of the challenges associated with managing student behavior and performance were similar to those encountered by industrial leaders in the management of employee behavior and performance. As a result, the author began applying specific behaviors of leadership while teaching his courses. P ge 24223.2 There are many behaviors that characterize a successful leader. However, most successful leaders have certain behavioral characteristics in common2. At the same time, when comparing the behaviors of effective leadership with the various aspects of classroom management, similarities appear. Define Classroom Management Classroom management is a very complex issue. As a result, there are many ways of describing the various aspects associated with classroom teaching. For example, descriptions of classroom management include the following: • “Classroom management, as applied to teaching, involves everything that a teacher must do to carry out his/her teaching objectives. It includes preparation of plans and materials, structuring the activities into time blocks, direct teaching of skills and subject matter, ...”3. • “Classroom managementconsistently establish and management student expectations and behaviors. Examples: communicate expectations, positive learning environment, motivate learners, integrate teams into small and large classes, provide feedback...”4. Since most descriptions of classroom management involve student conduct and performance, this paper will focus on managing student classroom conduct and performance. Compare Behaviors Used in Leadership with the Management of Student Classroom Conduct and Performance Leadership refers to the ability to influence the behavior of others to accomplish certain goals5. Leadership is a term that is often associated with supervisory-management positions held in industry or business. However, leadership can apply to any position where a person is responsible for influencing the behavior and performance of others to achieve certain goals. When looking at what teachers do, teachers influence the behavior and performance of their students to accomplish certain learning goals6. For effective classroom management, teachers need to rethink their traditional roles and how they perform those roles7. Leaders influence the behavior and performance of their employees. Likewise, teachers influence the behavior and performance of their students. Effective teachers demonstrate effective leadership behaviors. Therefore leadership behaviors can be applied to teaching. A classroom management approach used by the author integrates leadership behaviors into managing student conduct and performance. Evaluating Leadership Models for Classroom Management When considering the application of a leadership model for classroom management, the author’s evaluation focused primarily on three widely recognized and researched leadership models: the Situational Leadership Model, the Leadership Grid and the Ohio State Model2. P ge 24223.3 Situational Leadership Model: this leadership model, developed and researched by Paul Hersey, is based on the theory that effective leaders are those who are able to match their leadership style to the job situation. Situational Leadership Theory emphasizes the need for leadership style flexibility. Leadership Grid: the Leadership or Managerial Grid, developed and researched by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton, identifies two important dimensions of leadership: concern for people and concern for production. Concern for people refers to the degree of concern a leader has for his/her employees. Concern for production refers to the degree of concern a leader has for achieving (production) goals. Ohio State Model: this model, developed and researched by Edwin Fleishman, identifies two dimensions of leadership, Consideration and Structure. Eight leadership behaviors have been identified for improving Consideration and Structure. For a more complete description of the Ohio State Model, refer to the subsequent section in the paper. The application of the Leadership Approach to classroom management required the author to evaluate the three leadership models to determine which one was the most applicable to classroom management. For this evaluation, the author considered several criteria. Table 1 shows the results of the author’s evaluation of the three leadership models to determine which model was the most compatible for classroom management. Table 1: Evaluating leadership models for classroom management Rating Scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neither Agree/Disagree, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree Evaluation Criteria Situational Model Leadership Grid Ohio State Model Model understandability 5 4 5 Ease of application to the classroom 4 3 5 Compatibility to classroom concerns 4 2 5 Comprehensiveness of the model 3 2 5 Total evaluation points 16 11 20 Based on the author’s evaluation of the three leadership models, he determined that the Ohio State Model was the most compatible for classroom management. Refer to Table 5 which lists the benefits of the Leadership Approach. The Ohio State Model The author’s approach to classroom management focuses on the eight leadership behaviors for improving the two dimensions of leadership, Consideration and Structure2. Improving Consideration and Structure can help leaders to effectively manage the P ge 24223.4 conduct and performance of their employees. Table 2 lists the eight leadership behaviors for managing employee conduct and performance. Table 2: Leadership Behaviors for Managing Employee Conduct and Performance Consideration Structure 1. Recognize Employee 1. Communicate Leader’s Expectations Accomplishments 2. Provide Employees with 2. Provides Frequent Feedback to Opportunities for Success Employees 3. Take Personal Interest in Each 3. Deal with Employee Performance Employee Problems Immediately 4. Establish a Climate of Open 4. Coach Employees for Peak Communication with Employees Performance Consideration a. As applied to leadership, the Ohio State model describes Consideration as the dimension that reflects a leader’s interpersonal relationship with subordinates. Consideration is characterized by mutual trust, respect for his/her employees, and consideration of their feelings. b. As applied to teaching, the author describes Consideration as the dimension that reflects a teacher’s interpersonal relationship with students. Consideration in teaching can be characterized by mutual trust, respect for students and consideration of their feelings. Structure a. As applied to leadership, the Ohio State model describes Structure as the dimension that reflects the extent to which a leader defines and directs his/her role and the roles of subordinates towards goal attainment. Structure is characterized by actively directing employee activities through planning, setting goals, communicating information, scheduling and evaluating performance. b. As applied to teaching, the author describes Structure as the dimension that reflects the degree to which a teacher is likely to define and direct his/her role and the roles of students towards goal attainment. Structure can be characterized by the extent a teacher actively directs student activities through planning, setting goals, communicating information, scheduling and evaluating performance. P ge 24223.5 Managing Consideration Table 3 summarizes the dimension of Consideration as it relates to leadership behaviors and the management of student conduct and performance. Table 3: Comparing (Consideration) Leadership Behaviors to Managing Student Conduct & Performance Leadership Behaviors Managing Student Conduct & Performance 1. Recognize Employee 1. Recognize Student Accomplishments Accomplishments 2. Provide Employees with 2. Provide