Theory of Instructional

Management by Jacob
Kounin

Presented by:
Aderlin Chung Kim Yuk,
Beatrice Barnabas &
Bernadette Mening Jau

PISMP BI 1 Jan 2012

Brief
description
of Jacob
Kounin

Conclusion

Practicality
of the theory

Theory of
Instruction
al
Manageme
nt by Jacob
Kounin

Key concepts

Advantages
and
disadvantag
es

Jacob Kounins Biography

known as classroom management theorist.
According to Kounin's ideas and principles, one should
be able to manage a classroom by utilizing skills within
discipline and instruction as one.

Overview of
Instructional
Management
Philosophy

Kounins model believes that teachers affect

learners behaviours positively and negatively.
Maintain
instructional
momentum

Minimize
behaviour
problems
Keep students
focus on
learning task
Conducive
environment for
learning and
behaviour

Teacher-centered
and
prevention-based

Clear transitions
between activities

Key Concepts

Teacher
Behaviours

satiation
withitness desists
ripple effect overlapping

Movement
Management

jerkiness
stimulus bound
fragmentation
dangles

Group focus

group alerting
accountability

truncation
flip-flop
thrust
slowdowns
overdwelling

Teacher Behaviours

Withitness
Desists
Ripple effect
Overlapping
Satiation
Momentum

1. Withitness

Definition:
A word to describe that teacher always knows what is
going on within his/her classroom.
Example: aware of events, activities and students behaviour.

can tell whether behaviours contribute to/take away from

learning situations

Can handle
more than
one situation
at a time

prevent
minor
disruptions
from
becoming
major.

know who
the
instigator
is in a
problem

Characteristi
cs of
withit
teachers
Dont
make
timing
errors

React
appropriatel
y
dont
make
target
errors.

Strategies to Ensure
Effectiveness of

withitness
scanning the class frequently

establishing eye contact with individual

pupils

having eyes at the back of your head.

Practical Application of
Withitness in ESL
classroom

During discussion:
- listens to students answer
- watches for signs of comprehension
/confusion
- formulates the next question
- scan class for possible misbehaviours.

During instruction:
- has all needed materials
- Is well prepared

Practical Application of
Withitness in ESL
classroom

While helping students with

problem:
-Handle disruptions
- Monitor the rest of the class
-Acknowledge other requests for
assistance
-Keep track of time

2. Desists

Definitions:
attempts to stop a misbehaviour.

Strategies to Ensure
Effectiveness of

Desists
Ensure desists are spoken clearly

Desists are understood

Use clarity instead of firmness and

roughness

Advantages and
Drawbacks of
Desists
Advantages

Drawbacks

Have the potential of

ripple effect.
Stop the
misbehaviour
immediately.

Resulted in less-relaxed
students.
Reduced feelings of
teacher helpfulness and
likeability.
Likely to misbehave for the
next session due to being
unaware of the
consequences.
(Kounin, 1970)

Practical Applications
of Desists in ESL
classroom

A student who uses other languages during an

English lesson, is heard by the teacher. The
teacher reprimands and warns the students to
stop using other languages besides English.
Example desists: Gordon, Im going to send you
out of this class if you continue
using Mandarin.

3. Ripple effect

Discipline directed to one student

affects the behaviour of others.

Strategy of the use of Ripple

Effect in the classroom by
Jacob
Kounin
Kounin told a student to stop reading 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.

Practical Applications of
Ripple Effect in ESL
Classroom

The teacher reprimanded and

warned the student who use
Mandarin during an English
lesson. The other students who
are not using English will also
get the impact from that
particular student and start to
use English.

4. Overlapping

Definitions:
handling two or more activities or groups at one time, and
avoiding fixating on one event at the expense of all other
classroom activities (Reid, 2009).

Ability to attend to two issues at the same time (Pryde,

2010).

= multitasking
Kounin found that teachers who can overlap are able to
demonstrates withitness better.

Practical Application of
Overlapping in ESL
Classroom

if a teacher is conducting small group assignments, and a

pair is off task, a teacher may address them from a
distance while still conducting the activity. (The Kounin
Model, 2008).

5. Satiation

Occurs when a teacher teaches the same

lesson for so long that the students grow tired
of the topic.
Too much
input

Number of
mistakes
increases

Activity is not
an intellectual
challenge

Teacher and
students do the
same thing over and
over

Quality of work
decreases

Carry out
activity that
has a special
intellectual
challenge

read the
class to
check for
signs of
satiation

Make
positive
statement
about the
activity
Show
enthusias
m for the
topic

Enrichment
activities

Ask HOT
questions

Strategie
s to stop
satiation

Change
teaching
techniques /
activities

Practical Applications
in ESL Classroom

When teaching language skills, 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 learning environment every now
and then.

6. Momentum

keeping the lesson moving briskly, requiring

the teacher to plan effectively to avoid slow
downs.
By minimizing delays and interruptions, students will
not lose interest and misbehave.
Kounin believes that teachers should not lecture for a
long period of time to allow students to gain
knowledge trough classroom activities and
maximizing their allotted time.

1.

Example of how to
Maintain Instructional
Momentum

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.

2.

Keep a folder to fill-in activities if a

lesson takes less time than
planned. Be sure to include
activities of various lengths and for
a variety of ability levels.

Movement
Management

Pacing and the ebb and flow of instruction are

important in the presentation of a lesson and the
maintenance of appropriate student behaviour in
the classroom.

Jerkines
s

Thrust

Stimulu
s Bound

Movement
Management

Fragmentatio
n

FlipFlop

Overlappin
g

Dangle
Truncation

Jerkiness

Refers to the lack of lesson smoothness

and momentum.
For example, a teacher switch from one topic
to another topic without sufficiently notifying
the students.

Stimulus Bound

When a teacher has the students engaged in a

lesson and something else attracts the
teachers attention, that teacher is stimulus
bound.

For example, while teaching, the

teacher noticed that someone outside
the classroom is called by the
headmaster and they talked. The
teacher distracted from the lesson in
the class and making the students to
realize that the teacher is being
distracted. So students started to move
from their seats to see what is going on
outside.

Overdwelling

The teacher dwells on an issue and

engages in a stream of talk that clearly lasts
longer than the time needed for students'
understanding.
For example, a teacher is correcting Brians
behaviour for throwing paper towards his
friends during his lesson. The teacher then
goes on to correcting other students behavior.

Overlapping

What teachers do when they have two matters

to deal with at the same time.
Similar with the idea of multitasking.

Dangles

A dangle occurs when a teacher starts an

activity and then leaves it "hanging in
midair" by beginning another activity.
The teacher might resume the original activity.

Truncation

The teacher engages in a dangle, yet fails to

resume the original, dropped activity.
Might be described as a longer-lasting dangle.

Dangles

Truncations

The students had just

completed reading a story
in their reading circle. As
the teacher got up and
walked toward the board,
she said something like,
"Let's look at these
arithmetic problems on the
board.

The students were taking

turns reading their answers
to the arithmetic problems.
As Mary was getting up, the
teacher looked around the
room and asked, Now, let's
see.
Suzanne isn't here. Does
anyone know why Suzanne
is absent today?"

Flip-Flops

The teacher is engaged in one activity and

then returns to a previous activity that
the students thought they had finished.


A teacher says, "All
right, let's
everybody put away
your spelling papers
and take your
mathematics book"

The students put

their spelling papers
in their desk and,
after most of the
students have
gotten out their
mathematics' book,
the teacher asks,
"Let's see the hands
of the ones who got
all their spelling
words right"

Fragmentation

The teacher engages in a type of slowdown;

that is, the teacher breaks down an activity
into subparts that could be taught as a single
unit.

For example, the teacher tells each

member of group to do something
individually that could be performed
by the group as a whole. In this
instance, students have to wait for
their turn and, while waiting, might
begin to talk and engage in other
misbehaviours.

Thrust

A thrust consists of a teacher's sudden

"bursting in" on students' activities with
an order, statement, or question without
looking for or being sensitive to the group's
readiness to receive the message.

Group Focus

Group alerting
Group accountability

Group focus

Definition:
The teacher who uses appropriate
instructional strategies and activities can
keep the students focused on the lesson
and can minimize behaviour problems.
(Kounin, 1970)

Group alerting

According to Kounin, this refers to

the degree which a teacher
attempts to involve all learners in
a learning tasks and maintain their
attention.

Group accountability

Teachers hold the students

accountable and responsible of
their task performances.

Group focus

Group
alerting

Group
accountabilit
y

positive

negative

teacher creates
suspense to
the whole class.

students focus
their attention
to one student
instead of a
group

Strategy for group

alerting

1. Positive:
Teacher will keep the students in suspense
regarding who will be called next by not
calling on names when asking a question.
Designing a file card with students name
written on it. Shuffle the card frequently.
Pull the card from the stack to decide
which student will answer the question.

Strategy for group

alerting
2.

Negative:
Teacher puts the names before a
question.
For example: Linda, what is a noun?

Strategy for group

accountability
Teacher uses record-keeping devices
such as checklists and task cards to
know what the students are doing.

Advantages and
Disadvantages
of Kounins
Instructional Management

Helping teachers create withitness

image in the classroom.

Teacher detects inappropriate

behaviours early and accurately.
(Kounin, 1970)

Advantage
s

Teacher attempts to involve all

learners in learning tasks
Helps teachers handle discipline
problems in the classroom.
Teacher maintains students
attention

Disadvantages

Students do
not
necessarily
take
personal
responsibility
for their
behaviours.

Students do not learn

a lesson from the use
of DESIST because the
desists are used to
stop behaviours
immediately rather
than to teach a more
appropriate way to
behave

Resulted in lessrelaxed students and

reduced feelings of
teacher helpfulness
and likability.
(Kounin, 1970)

Students in
middle and
secondary
school
might not
be affected
by Kounins
ripple
effect, but
students in
elementary
school
does.

This model
does not
address the
issue of
teaching
learners to
discipline
themselves.

this effective
instructional
management keep
students focused on
learning.

this theory does not

affect the
smoothness of the
lesson

This
theory is
appeal to
be used
because

it challenges teachers
to develop specific
instructional skills to
prevent misbehaviour

this model
contributes to
improve and
minimize
students
misbehaviour.

Conclusion

This is a very useful and effective

instructional management in keeping students
to focus on learning and minimize behavioural
problems.(If teachers are able to demonstrate
appropriate teaching behaviours, maintain
appropriate instructional momentum, work
toward group focus and plan a learning
environment that is conducive to learning.)

References

Approaches to Classroom Mangement. (2010). Retrieved January 21, 2014,

from
http://www.sagepub.com/mooreteachingk8/study/chapter/extensions/7455
4_03ee1.doc
Kounin, J. S. (1970). Discipline and group management in classrooms. New
York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Lee, M. M., & Bucher, K. T. (2010). Classroom Management : Models,
Applications, and cases (2nd ed.). London, UK: Pearson PLC.
Reid, K. (2009). Kounin Model of Classroom Management Lesson
Movement. Retrieved January 21, 2014, from
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Classroom-Management-1135452.html
Pryde, C. (2010). Classroom Theorist Presentation: Jacob Kounin.