Improving Classroom Management Issues by Asking Questions: Part 2

“Remember the Time You Owned That Activity? How Can We Work Toward That?”

This question is an extension of Bandura’s (1997) first source of self-knowledge—mastery experiences. Mastery experiences are the genuine successes (sometimes referred to as “milestone moments”) or perceived successes that can cause a student to say, “I’ve been successful before and I can be successful again” (Bucura, 2019). Mastery experiences lead to self-efficacy when students meet short-term goals and reflect on their growth and success.

Asking, “Remember the time you owned that activity? How can we work toward that?” has several practical benefits. First, by asking this, you show goodwill to your student by remembering not only their negative past experiences but also their positive past experiences. Second, it requires students to reflect on their own actions, which is a very desirable habit, but it also reminds them that they are capable of being successful by bringing their own “milestone moments” back to their working memory. Third, in my experience, a positive experience or some sort of praise, especially early in a class period, will help some students avoid undesirable behavior for the rest of their time with you that day. In short, students can tell when you or any other teacher is giving a direction from a place of kindness or just for the sake of being harsh. Fourth, the recall of a positive experience with the immediate charge of working toward that experience makes for an ideal mood to set some small and achievable goals, which follows the generally good practice when working with children, “Turn the abstract into a concrete step.” Put another way, “behave yourself” or “do this activity properly” are abstract concepts, especially to a child. Alternatively, generating the goals together of “raise my hand before I talk” or “put my toes at the edge of the carpet for a circle” are concrete steps. Setting goals after reminding students of their past successes can have the pleasant side effect of setting up accountability for that particular student if you were to write down those goals for next time on a progress chart.

Separately, I have found some success with certain students by employing the word “own.” Children own very little in their lives. Even children who have many possessions at home are keenly aware that those possessions can be taken away at anytime, because they really belong to their parents or caregivers. However, children can “own” songs, handclapping games, dances, chants, and the like. Thinking in this way, for both student and teacher, can be an important paradigm shift that helps to better address and prevent classroom management issues.

“Who Would Be a Good Partner for You? How Can You Make Progress Together?”

This question is an extension of Bandura’s (1997) second source of self-knowledge—vicarious experiences. Vicarious experiences are the experiences and feelings students gain by comparing themselves with other students and sometimes a teacher, essentially they are the effects of peer modeling from the point of view of the person seeking a comparison. For vicarious experiences to be helpful, it is important that the “model” is compatible with the student seeking out a comparison (the “comparer”). If the comparer can think, “If that person can do it, I can do it,” then they have selected a compatible model, but if the comparer can think, “Of course that person can do it, they are so much better than me,” then they have selected an incompatible model. If the comparer tends to compare themselves with the teachers, it is wise for the teacher to exhibit a “coping model” (Bucura, 2019) in which the teacher models an appropriate amount of vulnerability, accepts errors as part of the learning process, and employs a “growth mind-set” (for excellent reading on “growth mind-set,” see Davis, 2017; Dweck, 2000). In working to create positive vicarious experiences, it is helpful for students, particularly the “comparer,” to set their own progress goals.

Asking, “Who would be a good partner for you? How can you make progress together?” has several practical benefits. First, it employs the help of a peer model, which is well documented in diverse facets of the literature but sometimes overlooked from a classroom management perspective (experienced teachers of all disciplines know that students will learn from their peers often quicker than they will learn from their teachers). However, a particularly helpful part of this question is putting the choice to the “comparer” to pick the peer with whom to work, which, more often than not, sets up a model that is compatible. In keeping with the theme of turning abstract concepts into concrete steps, there is no more concrete step than following a classmate in close proximity. Second, asking “How can you make progress together” eliminates the idea that “comparer” is subservient to the model, which can be just another layer of authority that a student must work through. As with master experiences, when students are tasked with setting their own goals, they are more likely to set reasonable objectives, hold each other accountable, and promote each other’s self-efficacy.

“Do You Remember When You Could Not Do This First Part? Look How Far You Have Come.”

This question is an extension of Bandura’s (1997) third source of self-knowledge—verbal persuasion. Verbal persuasion is the act of speaking to a person with the intention of changing their behavior. In a general music context, this happens on a microlevel from a teacher’s words to a student but also at a macrolevel in the form of mass media or pop culture’s views on music making. Central to successful verbal persuasion is the act of sincerely praising effort and incremental growth. Bucura (2019) made an excellent point that as music teachers, sometimes we have a tendency to praise what could be considered fixed characteristics with comments like, “You’re so talented” or “You have a great voice,” which is unhelpful in developing a growth mind-set.

Asking, “Do you remember when you could not do this first part? Look how far you have come” has practical effects similar to the first question in this column. First, it establishes the goodwill that you are paying attention to the student and their progress on tasks with which they once struggled. Second, it makes the student recognize past successes that were a direct result of their efforts, thus making the case that effort can lead to success in current or future activities. Third, it reinforces mastery experiences on a small scale.

“What Are Your Feelings Telling You?”

This question is an extension of Bandura’s (1997) fourth source of self-knowledge—emotional and psychological states. In this context, emotional and psychological states are how the activities make students feel about themselves, their abilities, their inevitable comparisons among classmates, and even their motivation to succeed. General music teachers are perhaps in a unique position to be aware of students’ emotional and psychological states, because they are often one of the few teachers to see most or all students in a school year after year.

Asking, “What are your feelings telling you?” is usually most effective after a brief discussion about or prompting that, “There are at least two ways of knowing, your heart and your head, and they don’t always tell you the same things,” a sentiment I stated in the first column on this topic. Asking this question has several practical effects. First, particularly if asked before an anticipated difficulty, such as before a student’s turn in a new activity, it can be helpful in preventing an issue by gathering any information the student is willing to share and letting the student know that the teacher has their attention on that student. Second, because of the distinction that the heart and the head do not always relay the same information, students in my experience feel free to share their feelings because they know those feelings are “allowed” not to be rational or reasonable. Such information on students’ feelings can be invaluable to a decision about classroom management, such as an initial unease with a partner or activity. Third, in a similar way, anthropomorphizing the word, “feelings” by using the phrase, “what are your feelings telling you?” gives students a little distance between themselves and feelings they might be hesitant to share at first. It is a subtle reinforcement that feelings and intuition are helpful to addressing or preventing certain behaviors, but not always rational.

Concluding Thoughts

Asking questions is an effective classroom management technique. Once a student is asked a question, they are automatically cognitively engaged in the task at hand, which is sometimes an improvement on their prior state of mind. Asking questions also has the added advantage of helping to build larger constructs over time. In Part 1 of this topic, I provided two questions with their connections to metacognition and self-esteem. In this particular column, I provided four more questions with their connections to self-efficacy. I encourage any teacher who is interested in getting the most out of their time in the classroom to seek further questions that serve double purposes of practical classroom management and contributions to larger constructs. Depending on our teaching situations, much of our time can be devoted to management issues, but doing so through asking questions is a perfect way not only to be successful in such tasks but also to elevate classroom management to a form of teaching and shaping minds, not merely enforcing rules.