Strategies used by homeroom teachers in Japan for communicating with students to develop a positive classroom climate

Ito, A
Ochanomizu University, Main332 Otsuka2-1-1, 1128610, Bunkyo-ku Tokyo Japan

 

Submission type

Poster only

Scheduled

Hallway, 10-07-2019, 15:30 - 17:00

Keywords

classroom climate, classroom management, teacher-students relationship, positive climate

Summary

A positive classroom climate is crucial for developing mental health and academic achievement of students. This study investigated the strategies used by teachers’ for developing a positive classroom climate. Homeroom teachers (N = 100, 59 men and 39 women, and 2 with no gender data, mean-age 33.6 years) working at 15 junior high schools in a metropolitan area responded freely to a question inquiring about their strategies for communicating with students for developing a better classroom climate. The results indicated the following strategies. (a) Teachers’ attitudes such as honesty, gentleness, brevity, and punctuality. (b) Media including oral instructions, writing on blackboards, classroom newsletters, and daily comments. (c) Tactics including expressing messages as expectations instead of commands, questioning students’ thinking, enhancing students’ self-reflection, and changing the voice from that of the teacher to a student-leader. (d) Contents such as basic learning skills and social or life skills. (e) Focus on classroom life including class goals, classroom climate, and solving classroom problems. It is concluded that Japanese teachers generally help students become good learners as individuals, and good teammates in the classroom, by using strategies for developing students’ awareness of the whole classroom, and the relationship between the classroom and the self. 

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