Better classroom management: managing emotions better

"Sir/Madam, you manage your classroom very well" or "you need to make more effort in terms of classroom management".

These are some of the conclusions very often put forward by educational inspectors when they come into your classroom to observe your activity. It's worth remembering that managing a classroom, which would be worth 20% of a school's success, in primary school for example if we're in Europe, means looking after around 19.3 pupils per class and 20.9 pupils in secondary school.

In Africa, a classroom in a built-up area can have around 80 pupils, if we refer to the study carried out by Philippe Renard (2003) in an article devoted to basic education in Black Africa. Whatever the number, it's imperative to manage the class, which means managing behaviors that depend on emotions. This means managing behaviors that depend on emotions. So, how can you better manage your class by taking into account students' emotions?

1- Study emotions in the classroom as soon as possible

The study of emotions is scattered throughout the school curricula of some countries, and can be tackled as part of the science curriculum. However, it's not always certain that students and teachers alike have mastered how to deal with them. As a teacher, one of the first approaches to take when you start the year could be to study or revisit the types of emotions and their management. There are six emotions:

Fear, joy, disgust, sadness, anger and surprise are considered to be the six fundamental emotions, also known as primary or Darwinian, according to the authors, as opposed to the subtle variations that establish emotions linked to complex social and relational contexts ( Claudon and Weber, 2009).

When you approach the lesson in class with your students, not only do you help them to better understand themselves, but also the actions of their classmates and of you, the teacher. This makes it easier to establish the emotional profiles of your students.

2-Learners' emotional profiles

As a teacher, you need to master your own emotional profile, and be able to recognize the different emotions, or at least the emotions present in your students. He or she is not a psychologist, but to better understand his or her students' reactions and channel them more effectively, he or she needs to master a minimum knowledge of emotions and how to manage them.

3-Activities to manage emotions in the classroom

The balance of emotions needs to be regulated. On the "Classe de demain" website, in an article entitled " 6 ideas for activities to manage emotions at school", you'll find some interesting activities that can be carried out indoors to better manage emotions.

These include the creation of an emotions diary by pupils, the wheel or range of emotions, which consists in visualizing emotions, breathing and the solutions chart, which helps to better manage emotions, painting and emotional role-playing.

4-Distribution of students according to emotions

Once the emotions most present in the classroom have been mapped out, through profiling and activities, another approach would be to divide the seats according to emotions. Students who get angry a lot shouldn't be in the same place, nor should students who quickly develop a sense of fear. However, courageous students could reassure them more. Sad pupils could be placed with those who are always in a good mood. Of course, these arrangements can be changed if the teacher realizes that they are not working.

5-Make subject choices according to the emotional forces present

Emotions are consubstantial with human life and are highly changeable. As a result, the choice of topics to be discussed in class must also take into account the emotional forces present in the classroom. Sad subjects should not be broached in a class dominated by fear or anger. Just as expressing an emotion in drawing or words can help students re-engage with learning(Réseau Canopé), so too can the choice of topics regulate emotions.

In short, good classroom management means " creating a positive link with your students ", which is implicitly the link between the emotions of the parties involved, i.e. the teacher and the students. Emotions condition behaviors that can either spoil or enhance the classroom environment.

Teaching them, identifying them, regulating them through activities and taking them into account when choosing subjects to tackle can help channel them and, in turn, improve classroom management. It must be recognized, however, that these suggestions may be difficult to apply in certain contexts with overcrowded classrooms. However, the teacher with this in mind could easily manage recurring cases that could transform the classroom climate.

Bibliography

Canopé, 2004, "Prévenir le débordement émotionnel, réguler le stress",
https://www.reseau-canope.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Projets/Cap_ecole_inclusive/Fiches/DEC_Prevenir_le_debordement_emotionnel_et_reguler_le_stress_corrFF.pdf

Claudon, Philippe and Weber, Margot, 2009, "Contribution à l'étude psychodynamique du développement de la pensée de l'enfant sans langage en interaction", https://www.cairn.info/revue-devenir-2009-1-page-61.htm

Ouest France, 2023, "Effectifs scolaires. France has the busiest classes in Europe",
https://www.ouest-france.fr/education/effectifs-scolaires-la-france-a-les-classes-les-plus-chargees-deurope-5b21a6ac-4cc1-11ee-b57e-776073219c7f

Pedersen, Élise Goulet, 2018, "10 stratégies incontournables pour une gestion de classe efficace", https://www.destinenseignante.ca/2018/10/strategies-gestion-classe-adolescents.html

Renard, Philippe, "L'enseignement de base en Afrique noire: pédagogie de grands groupes et formation des maîtres", https://oap.unige.ch/journals/ed/article/view/465