How Should Teachers Handle Classroom Novice and Expert

It has been more than 18 months since the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools and colleges around the world to close down. Now that things are starting to go back to normal, it is important that the teachers start focusing on their classroom management approaches. 

Needless to say, there are going to be some clear differences between the classroom management approaches of novice and expert teachers. Even though good classroom management is mostly invisible, a teacher needs to employ a few subtle techniques that work behind the scenes to create a positive classroom culture and who take responsibility for providing homework assignment help service without frustration.

In this blog, we will discuss some major differences in the classroom management approaches of novice and expert teachers.

General Differences between Experts and Novices

It is important to acknowledge the fact that the theoretical roots of teacher expertise are in cognitive psychology. Over the years, a lot of researchers have studied the topic and came up with their understanding of the issue. Most studies have supported and completed each other’s findings. And according to the conclusion of these findings, an expert generally has the following attributes:

• Experts can structure information by underlying functions (called chunking)
• They can perceive meaningful patterns of a set of information
• They are able to categorise problems as per their deep structures while novices pay attention to their superficial features only
• They have advanced knowledge in the respective field of study
• Experts can efficiently retrieve suitable knowledge for the current situation
• They spend more time on understanding and analysing problems as they need less time to solve them, while novices try to solve the problem immediately
• Experts think forward towards the goal, while novices think backwards from the goal
• Experts usually have a flexible approach while approaching a problem
• Experts have a strong connection between metacognition and the self-regulation process
• They generate more complex and sophisticated versions of problem situations

These facts not only give us a clear idea about an expert, but they also define how different an expert is from a novice. Now, while teaching a class, sudden outbursts and disruptions are most likely to happen. You can imagine how an expert and a novice would handle the problem by referring to the aforementioned facts.

More Specific Differences between Novice and Experienced Teachers

In the studies that we talked about previously, researchers found that there are significant differences between novice and expert teachers in their cognition process and behaviour. However, there is a big difference in how researchers understand the term “expert” when they conduct the study on teachers.

Firstly, it is important to clarify who among the teachers are considered an expert. When it comes to describing a teacher’s expertise, researchers highlight the following factors:

• Years of experience (usually 5 to 10 years in the profession0
• Social recognition or nomination (certifications, degrees, etc.)
• Membership of a professional or social group
• Performance-based criteria

Since a number of attributions are considered while describing an expert teacher, let us address an experienced teacher as an expert teacher in this discussion.

Generally, a teacher’s duties are divided into two parts – an interactive phase (during the lesson) and a planning phase with an evaluation of the last session. In the second phase, there are some major differences between experts and novices. The differences mainly manifest in planning flexibility and, of course, in the type of planning.

The difference in planning flexibility:

• Novices are less flexible and are more likely to follow the official curricula closely without considering the special needs of the group of students
• Experts, on the other hand, have a wide range of well-established routines of situations that they can employ during the preparation phase.

The difference in the type of planning:

• Novices are more likely to plan for the short term, while expert teachers plan for the long term.
• In short term planning, novice teachers have a more detailed but less flexible lesson plan.

The difference in teachers’ knowledge: 

• Expert teachers generally have more knowledge about the learning and teaching process, learning environment, and other significant areas, which novice teachers may lack.
• Also, the experts have well-integrated and organised knowledge of the subject, students, curriculum, methods and more.

Differences in teachers’ perception of classroom events:

• The perception of experienced teachers is interpretive and analytical than their novice counterparts
• Experts can also select between the information and pick up the crucial ones

Differences in teachers’ reaction to classroom events:

• Expert teachers have more complex, connected and easily accessed schemata about classroom events, curriculum, students’ behaviour, etc.
• Experts are much more prepared to differ from the lesson plan and improvise according to the current circumstances and needs.

Differences in teachers’ recalling of classroom events:

• Experienced teachers can explain classroom events by recognising familiar patterns while novices try to notice the phenomenon
• Experts can recall the behaviour and understanding of students, while novices usually focus more on their own behaviour
• Experts have more and better recalling of classroom events after the lesson than novices

Final thoughts

It will be harsh on the novice teachers to say that they are not really good at classroom management. Everyone starts afresh someday. Even the expert teachers were novices one day. It is through years of interactions with the classroom and the experience with different students they are now able to manage classroom problems better. If things go right, a novice can also become an expert with some experience under his/her belt.

Author bio: Anne Gill is a high school teacher based in London, UK. She is also a part of the team of experts at MyAssignmenthelp.co.uk, who help to write my assignment online.

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