PRESCHOOL TEACHERS’ VIEWS OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

In this study, it is aimed to determine teachers„ views of classroom management in theory and practice to help the development and implementation of new strategies to improve classroom management skills and to increase the quality of preschool education. The study sample consisted of 20 preschool teachers (19 women; 1 men) who have been working in public and private kindergartens within the central district of Muş in Turkey for 1 to 17 years. According to results, participants‟ selfassessments of using reward and punishment strategies in classroom management show that Teacher Determination is the most important factor in the structuring, determination and implementation of all other strategies used in classroom management. It is recommended that new approaches be developed in classroom management based on digitalization and Education 4.0. Teachers should be trained on different management strategies such as robot teachers, gamification and inverted classes.


Introduction
In the movie Arrival, one character says to another "Language is the first weapon drawn in a conflict." This quote from a book by Dr. Louise Banks, a professor of linguistics, reveals the importance of good teachers. Not only do they know how to intervene in educational problems, but also minimize the likelihood of encountering problems and use many skills, especially language skills, properly. To achieve this, they make the right decisions and even prevent the emergence of problems by relying on foresight (Celep, 2009). Teachers are also expected to have effective classroom management skills to create a healthy classroom atmosphere (Çubukçu & Girmen, 2008). Research shows that classroom management skills play a very important role in the quality of education (Akgün, Yarar & Dinçer, 2011;Güven-Denizel & Cevher, 2005;Karademir, 2013;Terzi, 2002). Teachers who cannot make effective decisions and implement them have difficulty promoting desired behavior and knowledge in their students (Çubukçu & Girmen, 2008).
Today"s education system becomes more and more learner-centered and the understanding of preventive and positive classroom management becomes increasingly important. Such a classroom environment focuses on pro-active behavior, cooperation, individual responsibility, self-confidence and leadership. Teachers who internalize this approach become more accessible and friendlier to their students and work hard to guide them (Terzi, 2002). Therefore, for a successful classroom management, teachers should use their management and communication skills effectively by taking into account social, psychological and educational factors and establish good relationships with all stakeholders both in and outside the classroom setting (Hu, Fan, Wu, LoCasale-Crouch, Yang & Zhang, 2017). The first thing that teachers need to achieve is to develop classroom management skills.
Class management can be defined differently for each level of education. Preschool classroom management refers to the establishment of a loving and orderly environment with arrangements that involve change and flexibility. Meaningful learning and socialization, and participation in classroom activities are significant parameters of preschool classroom management. Preschool classroom management is a set of applications and behaviors that utilize games designed for students as primary education tools and provide a training program that allows for the multidimensional development of students (Uyanık-Balat, 2010). In order to create such an educational environment, class experiences should be orchestrated, in-class rules should be set and maintained together with students, resource-rich settings where meaningful learning is carried out should be designed and necessary management processes should be implemented. These environments provide students with the opportunity to develop selforganizing skills, improve their learning and make their lives enjoyable. Classes with effective classroom management are those where students can develop positive social skills, behave independently, eliminate inappropriate behavior, create a strong network and keep their motivation high (Akgün et al., 2011;Lippard, La Paro, Rouse & Crosby, 2018).
According to research on effective classroom management, well-organized and planned training environments promote self-regulation at an early age, reduce undesirable behaviors, increase interest in learning, encourage students to be more productive and affect students" school achievement positively. Students feel free and valuable enough to take risks in such environments that facilitate learning at the highest level (Güven-Denizel & Cevher, 2005;Lippard et al., 2018;Trawick-Smith, Swaminathan & Liu, 2016).
Today, classroom management focuses more on learning-related expectations than behavior and discipline. It addresses management models that enrich learning environments to promote active learning and individual participation, not only in the expectation of obeying the rules but also collaborating with learners to achieve success (Hamre, Pianta, Burchinal, Field, LoCasaleCrouch, Downer & Scott-Little, 2012). It is a thing of the past when discipline was confused with class management and teachers dominating the class were on the lookout to catch students' mistakes to punish them (Blazar & Kraft, 2017). The models adopted in classrooms take into account learners" personal and psychological needs, integrate positive teacher-learner relationships with supportive environmental conditions, implement methods that make learning easier, create a rich learning environment with safe and flexible processes and regard learners as social beings who can guide themselves, and think and feel and solve problems. In other words, classroom management models rapidly move from traditional models to preventive, developmental and holistic ones (Akgün et al., 2011;Başar, 2009;Gehlbach, Brinkworth & Harris, 2012).
Preschool classroom management is an area where teachers should constantly improve their skills. The fact that students receive education in such an important period of time and The number of studies on class management skills implemented by preschool educators in Turkey is very limited. It is, therefore, important to determine teachers" views of classroom management in theory and practice to help the development and implementation of new strategies to improve classroom management skills and to increase the quality of preschool education.
In this context, the main question of this study is "How do preschool teachers" classroom management processes take shape?" The sub-questions of the study are as follows:  What are teachers" views of how preschool classroom management should be?
 What is the contribution of education faculty courses to teachers" classroom management strategies?
 What problems do teachers face when using reward and punishment strategies in classroom management?
 What strategies do teachers use when encountering desired or undesired behavior in class environment?  What are teachers" self-assessment of using reward and punishment strategies in classroom management?
 What methods do teachers use in classroom management?

Research Design
This qualitative study was based on a phenomenological research design, which aims to gain insight through direct interviews into how people make sense of and transform their experiences (Patton, 2014, p. 104). This study addressed teachers views of ideal preschool classroom management, their classroom management methods, benefit of education faculty courses, problems of reward and punishment strategies in class management, methods and strategies that they use to solve problems and their self-assessment of this process. This study was, therefore, based on a phenomenological design in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers.

Participants
Study sample was recruited using convenience sampling. In this type of sampling, the researcher takes into account the purpose of the research and uses his/her own judgment to decide who are to be included in the sample (Balcı, 2016, p. 104). The study sample consisted of 20 preschool teachers (19 women; 1 men) who have been working in public and private kindergartens within the central district of Muş in Turkey for 1 to 17 years.

Data Collection and Analysis
Data were collected using a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. Experts (two preschool education expert conducting qualitative research, and a class education expert) were consulted for the validity and reliability of the form, which was then finalized based on their feedback. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis.
The raw data were transferred to a computer without any intervention. They were then coded and organized into themes and findings were defined and interpreted. Participants were assigned codes for confidentiality. Firstly, participants were sorted out in a numerical way and then they were named by this numerical sorting via code names. After all data encodings, a fourth expert reviewed the codes and themes. Final arrangements were made in a way that a consensus was reached.

Findings
The findings are presented separately for each sub-problem.

Findings For The First Sub-Problem
Participants" views of preschool classroom management are presented under this heading.

Findings for the Second Sub-Problem
Participants" views of education faculty courses" contributions to their classroom management strategies are presented below.

Findings for the Third Sub-Problem
Participants" views of problems that they face when they use reward and punishment strategies in classroom management are presented below.

Findings for the Fourth Sub-Problem
This section addresses findings regarding strategies that participants use when they encounter desired or undesired behaviors in class environment.

Findings for the Fifth Sub-Problem
This section addresses participants" self-assessment of using reward and punishment strategies in classroom management.

Findings for the Sixth Sub-Problem
This section addresses the findings regarding the methods and techniques that participants use in classroom management.

Discussion and Conclusion
This study evaluated preschool teachers" classroom management processes conditions and developing different methods (Akgün et al., 2011). The result of this study is, therefore, consistent with the literature and also a reflection of the recent development in education referred to as "Education 4.0." In the era of digitalization, people should be educated in a multifaceted way, and emphasis should be placed on democratic values. Participants stated that education faculty courses made positive contributions to the way in which they put reward and punishment strategies into practice. They, however, pointed out that education faculty courses have shortcomings in terms of special education applications and that some theoretical aspects do not translate into practical applications. Research shows that the courses offered in preschool education curricula are insufficient and that the number of hours of applied courses is particularly limited in education faculties (Aydın, 2010;Şahin, Kartal & İmamoğlu, 2013;Şıvgın, 2005). The result of this study is, therefore, consistent with the literature and believed to be mainly due to the excess of theoretical courses offered by education faculties. With recent changes in the undergraduate teacher education curriculum, the number of hours of applied courses has been further reduced, which we think will have even more negative consequences in the future. There are, however, some studies suggesting that preschool teachers" classroom management skills do not depend on whether they receive education on classroom management (Çelik-Akkaya, 2006;Durğun, 2010;Yaşar-Ekici, Günhan & Anılan, 2017;Llewellyn, Boon, & Lewthwaite, 2018), with which the results of this study contradict. Participants stated that the problems that they encounter when they use reward and punishment strategies in classroom management are as follows: Every student wants to be rewarded, those who are not rewarded are jealous and too many rewards result in the wearing off of novelty. Participants are also of the opinion that when they inflict punishment, students become more ill-tempered and display more negative behavior and that therefore punishment does not work. According to Kohn (2006, p. 4), reward is effective in reinforcing short-term and temporary behavior. Research also suggests that punishment is a short-term reinforcer that fails to improve students" strength needed in life and that it hurts social and emotional self-sufficiency (Bilmes, 2004, p. 20;Kohn, 2006, p. 29). The result of this study is consistent with the literature and believed to be associated with the developmental characteristics of students. Students" social, emotional and social sufficiency, and cognitive and language development are positively correlated with the quality of preschool education (Trawick-Smith et al., 2016;Zembat, Koçyiğit, Akşin-Yavuz & Tunçeli, 2018;Kozikoğlu, 2018 Gehlbach et al., 2012;Karademir, 2013). These play an important role in preschool teachers" preferences for classroom management approach.
Participants" responses to the fourth sub-problem show that they reinforce desired behaviors and use Ignoring, Verbal Warning, Depriving, Thinking Corner and Having a Break strategy when they encounter undesired behaviors. This result indicates that participants focus on adapting students to social life. Research suggests that students who receive early childhood education successfully adapt to future educational life and make significant progress in terms of cognitive, affective, linguistic and psychomotor skills (Hamre et al., 2012;Lippard et al., 2018;Trawick-Smith et al., 2016). Teachers, who are responsible for the application of early childhood education, play a key role in making sure that students go through this critical period successfully. All responsibilities that are fulfilled and not fulfilled are also closely related to the quality of education and training services (Akgün et al., 2011;Karademir, 2013).
Participants" self-assessments of using reward and punishment strategies in classroom management show that Teacher Determination is the most important factor in the structuring, determination and implementation of all other strategies used in classroom management. On the other hand, most participants are of the opinion that these strategies are either insufficient or partially sufficient, which is due to the lack of punishment, getting used to reward or punishment, backfiring or lack of opportunity. This result suggests that reward and punishment kill intrinsic motivation and cause people to treat ends as means. As for reward and punishment, teachers" in-class determination is closely associated with the whole classroom atmosphere.
Based on the relationship between educators" behaviors and students" educational outcomes in the classroom, the preventive classroom management model suggests that students can learn positive behaviors (Güven-Denizel & Cevher, 2005;Sadık, 2008;Egeberg, McConney & Price, 2016). At this point, it can be stated that teachers" attitudes and determination are of paramount significance. What is more, teachers' use of rewards and punishments as a classroom management strategy causes students to become alienated from the tasks they undertake and force them to participate in activities, resulting in them getting used to rewards and punishments and showing negative reactions such as unwillingness. An excessive use of rewards and punishments may result in a lack of interest and motivation to activities (Bolat, 2016).
Participants" responses to the sixth sub-problem show that they mostly use modern and student centered methods in classroom management. The method they use the most is "Showing and Getting It Done." Research suggest that teachers mostly use traditional disciplinary methods and classroom management strategies (Öztürk & Gangal, 2016 address the concepts of reward and consistency. From these results, it can be stated that the concept of "teacher" is important in classroom management in both cases. Preschool education enables students to step into a new life and helps them develop values and belief systems that will shape their future educational life (Akgün et al., 2011). Most factors affecting the quality of preschool education are associated with the quality of teachers. For example, they evaluate classroom conditions for both themselves and students and reduce the risk of problems in practice (Başar, 2009). Teachers" classroom management skills shape all classroom activities and have an effect on students.

Recommendations
The following are recommendations based on the results:  From participants" views of how preschool classroom management should be, it is recommended that new approaches be developed in classroom management based on digitalization and Education 4.0. Teachers should be trained on different management strategies such as robot teachers, gamification and inverted classes.
 Based on participants" responses to the second sub-problem, it is recommended that a new applied curriculum be designed which addresses the needs of preschool teachers and that classroom management courses be taught by experts in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education (MNE). Theses investigating this subject can be used. The MNE and education faculties should focus on both theoretical and practical aspects of courses, especially the course of special education.
 In light of participants" views of problems that they face when they use reward and punishment strategies in classroom management, it is recommended that preschool teachers prefer classroom management models that adopt a more democratic approach and support intrinsic motivation rather than reward and punishment strategies. They should also take into account students' personalities and benefit from guidance and psychological counseling studies carried out in the field of character education.
 Based on participants" views of strategies that they use when they encounter desired or undesired behaviors, it is recommended that teachers make use of different disciplines and focus on case and drama studies in classroom management to help preschool students to adapt to social life at an early age. Participants" responses to the fifth and sixth sub-problems indicate that teachers" personality, determination and consistency are critical in classroom management.
Therefore, the concept of "character" should be emphasized in the selection of teachers.
Prospective education faculty students should take a "character test." Different assessment  Some studies suggest that preschool teachers" classroom management skills do not depend on whether they receive education on classroom management and that teachers mostly use traditional disciplinary methods and classroom management strategies. However, the results of this study are contrary to those results. It is, therefore, recommended that future studies use qualitative or mixed designs and investigate the subject matter with different teacher groups and grade levels.

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 This research is limited to the central districts of the city of Muş. In order to eliminate this limitation, it is recommended that future qualitative studies include teachers from different cities.