Classroom Management and Students' Self-Esteem: Creating Positive Classrooms.

Abstract

Middle school students experience substantial changes in their emotion and cognition while they grow. They have mixed feelings, which may negatively affect their motivation, self-esteem, and academic success due to different classroom management strategies of their teachers. There is available research about motivation of middle school students and classroom management approaches of middle school teachers. However, empirical studies are lacking to provide sufficient information about the relationship between student self-esteem and classroom management in middle schools. In this study, classroom management of middle school teachers and self-esteem of middle school students were examined. A total of eight middle school teachers and 60 middle school students from an urban middle school in western United States participated in the study. Data acquired from the Classroom Management Self – Assessment (CMSA) and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI) were analyzed with independent samples t-tests. The findings of the study indicated a significant difference between teachers on CMSA and between students on CSEI. Key words: Classroom management, student self-esteem, teachers, middle school.