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Classroom management and teachers’ coping strategies: Inside classrooms in Australia, China and Israel

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Abstract

This paper discusses the degree to which recently reported relationships between the classroom management techniques and coping styles of Australian teachers apply in two other national settings: China and Israel. Little is known about which teacher characteristics relate to their approach to classroom management, although researchers in Australia have recently found that teachers’ coping styles appear to predict the management techniques they utilize in classrooms. In this study, 772 teachers from a range of schools in Australia, China, and Israel completed questionnaires asking how frequently they use six classroom management techniques—hinting, discussion, involvement, recognition and reward, punishment, and aggression—and how often they use a range of coping behaviours. The analysis showed that some of the Australian findings were replicated only in Israel and others only in China, revealing national variations in the links between management techniques and coping styles, which have wider implications for investigations in this area. The implications of these findings are discussed, as are their potential ramifications for future research.

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Correspondence to Shlomo Romi.

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The authors thank Professor Yaacov J. Katz of the School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, and Professor Xing Qui of the Department of Psychology, Sichuan College of Education, Sichuan Province, Chengdu, PRC, for their help in conducting this research. Special thanks to the Institute for Community Education and Research, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, for supporting this research.

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Romi, S., Lewis, R. & Roache, J. Classroom management and teachers’ coping strategies: Inside classrooms in Australia, China and Israel. Prospects 43, 215–231 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-013-9271-0

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