An alternative framework, presented in this book, asserts that teachers need to incorporate knowledge about temperament into their strategies for classroom management. As studies have demonstrated, targeted temperament-based strategies succeed where global disciplinary practices have failed. Because students differ in their temperaments, variations in classroom behavior are to be expected.

This book presents an alternative to the “one size fits all” classroom approach. The majority of classroom management books present generic strategies as if they are applicable to all students. The underlying assertion of such books is that if teachers use such approaches, student behavior problems will seldom occur. An alternative framework, presented in this book, asserts that teachers need to incorporate knowledge about temperament into their strategies for classroom management. As studies have demonstrated, targeted temperament-based strategies succeed where global disciplinary practices have failed. Because students differ in their temperaments, variations in classroom behavior are to be expected. Child temperament is the inborn individual characteristics that affect the way children react to different situations. It is also a social processing system through which children view and interact with the world, both altering the responses of others and contributing toward their own development. Once teachers learn the major tenets of temperament, they no longer view their students as intentionally misbehaving. Instead they understand how the temperaments of their students influence their classroom behavior. Such insights release teachers from engaging in futile battles with their students. They can redirect their energies into enhancing their relationships with their students, implementing effective temperament-based strategies, and, as a result, spend more time on instructional activities.

The mission of the International Journal of Educational Reform (IJER) is to keep readers up-to-date with worldwide developments in education reform by providing scholarly information and practical analysis from recognized international authorities. As the only peer-reviewed scholarly publication that combines authors’ voices without regard for the political affiliations perspectives, or research methodologies, IJER provides readers with a balanced view of all sides of the political and educational mainstream. To this end, IJER includes, but is not limited to, inquiry based and opinion pieces on developments in such areas as policy, administration, curriculum, instruction, law, and research. IJER should thus be of interest to professional educators with decision-making roles and policymakers at all levels turn since it provides a broad-based conversation between and among policymakers, practitioners, and academicians about reform goals, objectives, and methods for success throughout the world. Readers can call on IJER to learn from an international group of reform implementers by discovering what they can do that has actually worked. IJER can also help readers to understand the pitfalls of current reforms in order to avoid making similar mistakes. Finally, it is the mission of IJER to help readers to learn about key issues in school reform from movers and shakers who help to study and shape the power base directing educational reform in the U.S. and the world.

This book furthers understanding of how child temperament is linked to educational outcomes through mediating and moderating factors. As the importance of socio-emotional development for educational outcomes is increasingly recognized, understanding the influence that children’s temperament—which includes their emotional reactivity and regulation of emotions, cognitions, and behaviors—can have on educational factors, such as school readiness and academic achievement, is crucial. First, the chapters in this book examine pathways connecting temperament with educational outcomes; for example, one study reports that toddler negative affect predicted executive functioning, which then predicted achievement at age six. The second way that chapters in this book examine links between temperament and education is by identifying factors that make associations between temperament and educational outcomes more salient; for example, findings from one study show that shyness and negative emotion were more strongly associated with lower academic achievement only when children received fewer than nine hours of sleep each night, highlighting the importance of sleep. By examining pathways through which temperament exerts effects on educational outcomes (i.e., mediators), or factors that modify associations between temperament and educational outcomes (i.e., moderators), the potential for interventions aimed at improving early educational outcomes can be fully realized. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Education and Development.

The book presents an empirical model of commonly occurring individual differences in children that is derived from a large-scale research effort assessing parental and teacher perceptions of children in middle childhood. It examines eight characteristic behavioral traits, most of which have been widely shown to be present in infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. The book demonstrates the importance of considering profiles of these relatively stable individual differences for the educational, social, and emotional life of the child. It describes characteristic behaviors of children within each profile – emphasizing the assets and liabilities of each – and how they are perceived by their parents, teachers, and peers. Chapters explore issues related to the most developmentally effective management of children exhibiting each profile type. In addition, the book addresses a critical need in child development, parenting, and teaching to understand the wide range of individual differences observed every day in school-aged children. Not only does this volume underscore that commonly occurring differences can be understood as being normal and do not suggest a pathology, it also discusses implications of the model in diagnosing pathology. The book describes what is known about the stability of temperament behaviors and profiles across the lifespan as well as the origins of these behaviors. Key topics addressed include: Nurturing development of well-adjusted children. Causes of individual differences in children’s behavior. Temperamental tendencies and profiles of children. Diagnosing psychopathology in children. This book is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in developmental, clinical child and school psychology, social work, public health, pediatrics, family studies, educational psychology and counseling, and all other interrelated disciplines.

Many teachers-in-training and their more experienced colleagues find classroom management challenging. Using what works: Elementary School Classroom Management invites elementary school to look beyond untested teacher strategies. Instead this book presents an evidence-based approach. Equipped with a greater knowledge of scientifically informed classroom management, teachers will learn how and why some things work, while others do not. The most current knowledge on classroom management is presented in this book in six comprehensive, yet, easily assessable chapters. Numerous evidence-based strategies for supporting classroom management are offered. In addition, interventions that have proven to work are described. Each chapter concludes with recommended readings, course assignments, and suggestions for in-depth discussions.