Jacob Kounin

Jacob Kounin is known as a classroom management theorist. Around 1946, he began working as an educational psychologist at
Wayne State University. Many people believe that Kounin was highly influenced by Glasser, and it can be seen throughout his work.
He made people think about the possibility of discipline and instruction being utilized as one. Instead of these two techniques being
separate, Kounin explained how you have to incorporate different aspects from each in order to create an effective classroom. By
utilizing skills within discipline and instruction, one should be able to manage a classroom according to Kounin's ideas and principles.
Kounin believes that teachers need to be attentive to all aspects of the classroom. He believes that effective teachers keep students
attentive and actively involved. After Kounin's research, he realized how teachers handle misbehavior is how they handle their class
from the beginning of each school year. One day while Kounin was teaching a class, he told one student to stop reading a newspaper
and to pay attention to the lecture. While Kounin only told this one student to get on task, other students who were not on task
suddenly put away what they were doing and started listening to the lecture. This effect became known as the "Ripple Effect," which
is when one student's behavior is corrected it often influences another student's behavior nearby. Kounin wrote a book, "Discipline and
Group Management in Classrooms," to sum up his beliefs about effective and ineffective classroom managers. After research, Kounin
came to the conclusion that the key to a successful classroom is not the way a teacher handles misbehavior when it occurs, but instead
what teachers do to completely prevent classroom management problems from ever occurring within the classroom at all. Kounin also
found that good organization and planning are also keys to effective classroom management while getting students highly involved
and also using proactive behavior. Kounin believed that teachers should have good lesson movement in order for teachers to have an
effective connection between teaching and classroom management. Kounin described that lesson movement is achieved through the
five things as follows: withitness, overlapping, momentum, smoothness, and group focus. The term "withitness" was Kounins word to
describe that teachers always know what is going on within his/her classroom. This can be done by scanning the classroom every now
and then so students will believe you are always looking at what they are doing.
Some practical ways to apply Kounin's approach in a classroom is basically to follow what Kounin stated to be the five ways to
achieve lesson movement. Overlapping can be applied within the classroom by creating a procedure to use when two separate
situations happen at nearly the same time. For instance, if a student finishes an assignment early they can read a book, start on
another assignment, make a craft, etc. Momentum can be applied within the classroom making lessons short so students have time
to work with other students in groups, which will let students elaborate on a certain subject and gain knowledge from other
student's connections. Smoothness can be applied within the classroom by constructing certain body language signs at the
beginning of the year so students can use these signs during a lesson to notify the teacher if they need help with a certain portion of
the lesson so on and so forth. Group focus can be applied within the classroom by always having some sort of group each day so
students have time to collaborate with one another.

 Who is he?

Jacob Kounin is known as a classroom management theorist. Around 1946, he began working as an educational psychologist at
Wayne State University. Many people believe that Kounin was highly influenced by Glasser, and it can be seen throughout his
work. He made people think about the possibility of discipline and instruction being utilized as one. Instead of these two techniques
being separate, Kounin explained how you have to incorporate different aspects from each in order to create an effective classroom.
By utilizing skills within discipline and instruction, one should be able to manage a classroom according to Kounin's ideas and
principles. (MW)

 What did he believe?

Kounin believes that teachers need to be attentive to all aspects of the classroom. He believes that effective teachers keep
students attentive and actively involved. After Kounin's research, he realized how teachers handle misbehavior is how they
handle their class from the beginning of each school year. One day while Kounin was teaching a class, he told one student to
stop reading a newspaper and to pay attention to the lecture. While Kounin only told this one student to get on task, other students
who were not on task suddenly put away what they were doing and started listening to the lecture. This effect became known as the
"Ripple Effect," which is when one student's behavior is corrected it often influences another student's behavior nearby.
Kounin wrote a book, "Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms," to sum up his beliefs about effective and ineffective
classroom managers. After research, Kounin came to the conclusion that the key to a successful classroom is not the way a
teacher handles misbehavior when it occurs, but instead what teachers do to completely prevent classroom management
problems from ever occurring within the classroom at all. Kounin also found that good organization and planning are also keys to
effective classroom management while getting students highly involved and also using proactive behavior. Kounin believed that
teachers should have good lesson movement in order for teachers to have an effective connection between teaching and classroom
management. Kounin described that lesson movement is achieved through the five things as follows: withitness, overlapping,
momentum, smoothness, and group focus. The term "withitness" was Kounins word to describe that teachers always know
what is going on within his/her classroom. This can be done by scanning the classroom every now and then so students will
believe you are always looking at what they are doing. (AO)
  Why is he important today?

One of the things that makes Kounin important today is his book, Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms. This book was
on one of the studies Kounin did on organizational and management skills, which was done by videotaping many hours in classrooms
that did not have very many misbehaved students and then also videotaping in classrooms that had misbehaved students. The tapes
were then analyzed to see what these teachers did differently. Shockingly, there was no such difference, which came to the conclusion
that effective classroom managers and poor classroom managers were not different in controlling and responding to students who were
disruptive to the class.

Kounin's key ideas that help make an effective classroom:

1. If a teacher can correct a misbehavior by using one student as the instigator, other students within the
classroom normally will correct their misbehavior as well! This is what Kounin meant by the "ripple effect".
2. All teachers should be aware of what is taking place within all parts of the classroom at any given time.
"Withitness" is what Kounin describes this as.
3. According to Kounin, if the teacher can create little chaos between activities, keep on task, and utilize good time
management skills they are modeling effective group management.
4. All educators should be able to maintain group alertness, as well as hold each member of the group accountable
for understanding the content of the lesson. Kounin believes that by doing this, all students have a chance for
optimal learning.
5. In order to avoid students getting bored or uninterested, the teacher should give assignments and tasks that
provide the students with a feeling of progress or accomplishment when completing the assigned work. Kounin
also stresses the importance of creating a diverse curriculum, as well as a change in environment every now and
then. (MW)

Kounin discovered the fact that if students think that the teacher is alert/aware of what is going on within the
classroom, they are not likely to misbehave. This is because the teacher has effective classroom management
skills that leaves little room for misbehavior or discipline to occur. By having a teacher-directed curriculum
where the classroom students know who is the "boss" they are less likely to try and take over the classroom. If
misbehavior occurs, it is crucial to correct the problem within a timely manner in order for the discipline to be
effective. It is always beneficial to try your best to discipline the correct student, if you misjudge and correct the
wrong student, your tactics will be less likely to work on future problems within the classroom. Always make
sure that those who truly are in the wrong are the ones who get punished, otherwise students who did nothing
wrong will begin to not enjoy being in your classroom. (MW)

When reviewing these key ideas that Jacob Kounin created, one can clearly see that each of these concepts are used
within today's society/classrooms in order for them to be effective. (MW)

4. What are some practical ways to apply his approach in a classroom (be specific with activities and/or links)?
Some practical ways to apply Kounin's approach in a classroom is basically to follow what Kounin stated to be the five
ways to achieve lesson movement. Overlapping can be applied within the classroom by creating a procedure to use when
two separate situations happen at nearly the same time. For instance, if a student finishes an assignment early they can
read a book, start on another assignment, make a craft, etc. Momentum can be applied within the classroom making
lessons short so students have time to work with other students in groups, which will let students elaborate on a certain
subject and gain knowledge from other student's connections. Smoothness can be applied within the classroom by
constructing certain body language signs at the beginning of the year so students can use these signs during a lesson to
notify the teacher if they need help with a certain portion of the lesson so on and so forth. Group focus can be applied
within the classroom by always having some sort of group each day so students have time to collaborate with one
another. If students tend to go into the same groups, the teacher can write each student's name down and put all the
pieces of paper in a hat to randomly select the groups.