Classroom management is one of the main factors that give a significant impact on the teaching and learning process in the classroom. Teachers with good classroom management skills are able to deal with challenging behavior issues positively. But, teachers with poor classroom management skills will feel frustrated whenever they fail to deal with behavior problems. This situation also disrupts the teaching and learning session. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of pre-service teachers’ knowledge regarding classroom management. This research used survey research design and the questionnaire was adopted from the previous researcher. Pre-service teachers’ knowledge was measured based on their understanding regarding behavior management and the implementation of positive and negative reinforcement. The purposive sampling technique used in sample selection. To be selected in this research, respondents must be final year students who have completed the courses and teaching practicum and specialized in special education programs. A total of 100 respondents from three public universities participate in this research. Research findings showed respondents demonstrated a good understanding regarding classroom management with a high level of the mean value. This outcome revealed public university in Malaysia provides a great teacher training program, particularly in a special education program. With a good understanding of behavior management, is to be expected pre-service teachers will be able to be good teachers once they enter the real world of education soon.
Classroom management is a major contributor to effective teaching and learning process in the classroom. Poor classroom management frequently linked to misbehaviors that interfere with teaching and learning and produce tremendous stress ( Rosas & West 2009 ; Friedman, 2006). Therefore, classroom management often discussed together with behavior management including positive and negative reinforcement.
Challenging behavior is az common issue facing by special education teachers. This challenging behavior may disrupt the learning session and causes of burnout to teachers if they failed to deal with the situation (Yunus & Mohamed, 2019) . Nevertheless, teachers who are skillful with classroom management are able to handle students’ behavior issues well. Many studies showed teachers who demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of behavior management could handle this situation confidently and positively (Butler & Monda-Amaya 2016; Ahmad & Hanifah, 2015) . A review of the literature agreed on knowledge as a basic component that needs to empower to make sure teachers are competent enough dealing with challenging behavior ( Zulkifli & Mohamed, 2019; Wei & Yasin, 2017 ; Bari, Yasin & Hamzah, 2014).
Despite all the research spotlight focuses on teacher’s knowledge, perceptions, attitude and practice towards behavior management, only a few studies investigated the readiness of pre-service teachers in dealing with behavior issues of their students (Butler & Monda-Amaya 2016; Reupert & Woodcook, 2010) . Are they well prepared to deal with this situation? Studies reveal pre-service teachers have ranked behavior management as one of their concerns (Wei & Yasin, 2017; Black, Noltemeyer, Davis, & Schwartz, 2016; Peters, 2012; Rosas & West, 2009; Cakmak, 2008; Ritter & Hancock, 2007; Bromfield, 2006) .
Pre-service teacher’s emphasis concerns on their ability in dealing with behavior issues in the classroom. They feel unprepared and do not have the skills to handle the situation (Flower, McKenna, & Haring, 2017; Shook, 2012; Beran, 2005) . On the other hand, some pre-service teachers feel they have knowledge and skill in classroom management, but they lack expertise about it (Anthony & Yasin, 2019; Shook, 2012) . They cannot practice what they have been learned in the university when faced with behavior issues in the classroom.
Therefore, it is pivotal to make sure the pre-service teachers possess a good understanding of classroom management before they enter public education as a teacher. This research aims to investigate pre-service teachers’ understanding of classroom management based on the aspect of behavior management, positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement.
This research used survey research design and quantitative approach. Questionnaire for this research was adapted from research by Ahmad and Hanifah (2015) . The questionnaire has been reviewed to make it compatible to answer the research questions. Two experts in special education with Doctor of Philosophy degree and over twenty years’ experiences were appointed to examine the content validity of the instrument. Recommendations for improvement by the experts have been considered. Two special education students appointed to investigate face validity of the instrument. Based on the feedback, the clarity and understanding of items in the instrument were very good. Cronbach Alpha was ranged from 0.92 to 0.96 for all the sub-scales. The questionnaire comprises four sections, which are demography information, behavior management, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
The questionnaire was distributed to the respondent and collected back after two weeks. Feedback from the respondent was key-in in the Statistical Package for Social Science and was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistic.
A total of 100 pre-service teachers from three public universities participate in this research. The purposive sampling technique was used in sample selection. Respondent that participant in this research must be a final year’s students for a degree in education and specialized in special education. This criterion was assigned to make sure the respondent already finishes the courses and teaching practicum for their degree study. Descriptive analysis from demography information show, 39% respondent is from University A, 28% from University B and 28% from Institution of Teachers Education. Further, 22% respondent is male and 78% are female.
Descriptive analyses of data revealed that special education pre-service teachers’ have a very good knowledge of general behavior management with overall mean value 4.78. According to
As shown in
Respondent demonstrated a good knowledge of positive reinforcement items (M = 4.83, SD = 0.42). Most of them respond, “strongly agree” and “agree” to every item in this section. Only a small number of them respond, “undecided” and “disagree”. Item level analysis showed, 1% of respondents respond “disagree” and 5% respondent respond “undecided” to the item “I know strategies to shape positive behavior in the classroom”. Further, 2% of respondents respond “undecided” to the items positive reinforcement can escalate targeted behavior and social reinforcement can be fostering positive behavior. 1% respondent respond “undecided” to the following items, the definition of positive reinforcement, positive reinforcement can reduce negative behavior, motivation is a form of reward and reward can foster positive behavior. This finding is similar with previous research by Flower, McKenna and Haring (2017) . The researcher reported most of pre-service teachers implementing behavior-specific feedback and praise to increase appropriate behavior (
Respondent demonstrated a good knowledge of negative reinforcement items (M = 4.72, SD = 0.68). More than 90% of respondents respond, “strongly agree” and “agree” to every item in this section. This finding indicates respondent are aware of the goal and practice of implementing negative reinforcement techniques in the classroom. Only a small number of them respond “strongly disagree”, “disagree” and “undecided”. Previous research reported the majority of pre-service teachers are very good in incorporated concepts about behavior reduction in the classroom (Flower, McKenna, & Haring (2017) (
To examine the differences of pre-service teachers’ knowledge by universities, a one-way between groups of analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. The ANOVA assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance were not violated, and the F test was not significant, F (2, 97) = 2.62, p = 0.51. This showed, learning syllabus in Malaysian cover all the essential elements about classroom management, which are behavior management, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement (
| Scale | Mean | Standard Deviation |
|---|---|---|
| Behavior Management | 4.78 | 0.45 |
| Positive Reinforcement | 4.83 | 0.42 |
| Negative Reinforcement | 4.72 | 0.68 |
| Overall | 4.78 | 0.52 |
| Items | Responses | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly disagree | Disagree | Undecide | Agree | Strongly agree | |
| Recognize the differences between positive and negative behaviors | - | - | 2 (2%) | 19 (19%) | 79 (79%) |
| Recognize the importance of behavior management to student with disability | - | - | 1 (1%) | 25 (25%) | 74 (74%) |
| Recognize the types of negative behaviors | - | - | 4 (4%) | 18 (18%) | 78 (78%) |
| Recognize the types of positive behaviors | - | - | 3 (3%) | 19 (19%) | 78 (78%) |
| Recognize the emotion management | - | - | - | 22 (22%) | 78 (78%) |
| Recognize the objectives of behavior management | - | - | 2 (2%) | 18 (18%) | 80 (80%) |
| Recognize the importance of behavior management to learning process | - | - | 1 (1%) | 11 (11%) | 88 (88%) |
| Recognize the approaches to support self-esteem | - | - | - | 24 (24%) | 76 (76%) |
| Recognize the behavior management is a component in the national curriculum | - | - | 1 (1%) | 18 (18%) | 81 (81%) |
| Items | Responses | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly disagree | Disagree | Undecide | Agree | Strongly agree | |
| Definition of positive reinforcement | - | - | 1 (1%) | 21 (21%) | 78 (78%) |
| Strategies to shaping positive behavior | - | 1 (1%) | 5 (5%) | 19 (19%) | 75 (75%) |
| Positive reinforcement can escalate targeted behavior | - | - | 2 (2%) | 11 (11%) | 87 (87%) |
| Positive reinforcement can reduce negative behavior | - | - | 1 (%) | 12 (12%) | 87 (87%) |
| Social reinforcement fostering positive behavior | - | - | 2 (2%) | 11 (11%) | 87 (87%) |
| Motivation is form of reward | - | - | 1 (1%) | 9 (9%) | 90 (90%) |
| Reward fostering positive behavior | - | - | 1 (1%) | 14 (14%) | 85 (85%) |
| Variety form of economic token | - | - | - | 10 (10%) | 90 (90%) |
| Items | Responses | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly disagree | Disagree | Undecide | Agree | Strongly agree | |
| Implementing time out procedures | - | 1 (1%) | 1 (1%) | 15 (15%) | 83 (83%) |
| Punishment can reduce negative behavior | - | 3 (3%) | 4 (4%) | 15 (15%) | 78 7(8%) |
| Strategies to reduce negative behavior | 1 (1%) | 1 (1%) | 4 (4%) | 14 (4%) | 80 (80%) |
| Negative reinforcement fostering positive behavior | 1 (1%) | 4 (4%) | 4 (4%) | 9 (9%) | 82 (82%) |
| Universities | Sum of Squares | df | Mean Squares | F | p |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Between groups | 8.41 | 2 | 2.80 2.84 | 2.62 | 0.51 |
| Within groups | 76.55 | 97 | |||
| Total | 84.97 | 99 |
This research investigated the understanding of special education pre-service teachers regarding classroom management from aspects of behavior management, positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcements. The findings showed pre-service teachers from three public universities in Malaysia demonstrated a good understanding on classroom management with a high level of the mean value for all the sub-scales. It can be concluded that a public university in Malaysia provides adequate input regarding classroom management in the special education trainee program. However, further studies of pre-service teachers’ knowledge and practice in the classroom are needed. Because an effective teacher is able to make a connection between theoretical and practical in the classroom.
This research was supported by the grant from the Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia code GG-2019-059 and PP-FPEND-2019.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Zulkifli, A. S., Sulaiman, N. F., & Mohamed, S. (2019). Pre-Service Teachers Knowledge of Classroom Management. Creative Education, 10, 2548-2554. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2019.1012182