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- Dysregulation = disruption
Dysregulation = disruption
Use this self-regulation method to hone your classroom management skills
Read time: 3 minutes and 23 seconds
Do you struggle with disruption in the classroom? If so, you’re far from alone. In 2022, 56% of public school educators reported increased incidents of classroom disruptions from student misconduct and 48% said they struggled with classroom rowdiness.
But don’t worry — there are things you can do to improve classroom management so you have the ability to teach effectively.
One essential key to effective classroom management is clear and consistent communication — the kind that’s based on mutual respect and goes both ways between teachers and students.
So how do you get there? Educators can design an effective learning environment by stepping a bit outside of the planned lessons now and then…
Orchestrating regulation starts at the root of behavior challenges
Think about your most chaotic day of teaching. How many students were disrupting class? How many engaged in willful refusal or other oppositional behaviors?
Is it possible these students had unmet needs they were trying to communicate?
What if the student that:
Was speaking out of turn
Couldn’t seem to stay in their seat
Refused to do classwork
Wasn’t being defiant for defiance’s sake — but instead, was missing work material, had an unclear understanding of instructions, needed a sharpened pencil, or really just needed a break? (Classroom work can be overstimulating and exhausting… we all have our days)
Truth is… a lot of times, students simply don’t know how to express their needs. Whether they’re shy, nervous, or don’t have the communication skills necessary to navigate the classroom, it’s up to you to provide the guidance needed to skillfully navigate your classroom.
Clear and consistent communication where you, as the educator, help students understand the causes and effects of their own behaviors can calm classroom chaos and better equip you to provide emotional and academic support.
But what takes precedence — setting and enforcing classroom expectations or teaching content?
Teaching can feel impossible in a state of dysregulation
The fact of the matter is you can’t even get to teaching the content if your students aren’t properly regulated.
The good news?
Guiding students through self-reflection can help calm your classroom and get you delivering instruction in no time.
Ready to jump in? Let’s start with the basics.
When working with younger students, educators use the ABCs of behavior:
Antecedent (what was happening before)
Behavior (what actually happened)
Consequence (the result or aftermath)
By the time students get to middle and high school, the focus often shifts from the A and B components to the consequence.
Go back to basics and help your students understand the cause and effect of their behavior by helping them analyze their own actions.
For example, a student isn’t going to throw an object at another student for no reason.
You can bring that student back to baseline through reflection by asking them to consider what was happening just before the behavior occurred. Simple and straightforward questions like “What happened?” or “Why did you do that?” are effective for this.
From there, focus on understanding and validating student experiences while also promoting positive replacement behaviors. This is where natural consequences tend to come in and growth begins.
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