Investigating Thai English Teachers’ Classroom Management Strategies in a Secondary School Context

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate classroom management strategies employed by Thai English teachers, to compare classroom management strategies employed by experienced and novice teachers, and to explore how those teachers come to the decision of executing their classroom management strategies. Accordingly, an explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design was applied. 73 Thai English teachers from government high schools were surveyed; followed by individual semi-structured interviews of 4 experienced and 4 novice teachers. It was found that the teachers reported using rewards strategy most frequently (e.g., oral praise), followed closely by preventative strategies (e.g., set class rules). Also, the findings showed that there was no significant difference in using classroom management strategies between experienced and novice teachers. Meanwhile, thematic analysis revealed the different beliefs among experienced and novice Thai English teachers towards teaching experience and discovered that those teachers’ decision to employ classroom management strategies was influenced by students’ behaviors, teacher’s attitudes, and teaching environment. The recommendations for teaching and teacher education were suggested.

Keywords: classroom management, Thai English teacher, teaching experience, teacher decision making, secondary education

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-6-08

Publication date: February 29^th 2020