Class DOJO and how it impacts effective Classroom Management
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Class DOJO and Effective Classroom Management
Abstract
Class Dojo is a popular and controversial application used by teachers for effective classroom management. Controversial because some people think that it is stressful for the students, and others feel that the feedback given by the application is not enough to judge whether the student’s behavior improved positively or not. However, the class management tool has positively worked for teachers who are willing to embrace the technology. The application is free and easy to use for the teachers, and it involves the parents and the students. Technology is now being embraced in the class situation, and Class Dojo is one of the technological miracles that have helped teachers manage their classes and instill positive behavior. Class Dojo uses the point system to ensure help students track their behavior and reinforce positive behavior. Class Dojo is not only good for communication. It helps the students control their behavior and track their behavior. It also instills a sense of what is right and wrong.
Keywords: Class Dojo, behavior, communication, class management
Class DOJO and Effective Classroom Management
Class DOJO is a management tool used in classrooms. It is based on a positive/negative point system that teachers can use for class management. The point system used is meant to encourage students to have positive behavior and also to moderate negative behavior. The class DOJO system was co-founded by Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don in 2011. The tool was created after research was done, and the survey results showed that many teachers reported struggling with class management. Class DOJO is meant to be all-inclusive. Teachers, parents and the students can interact freely in the classroom situation using the app. The app gained momentum due to its ability to collect behavioral data. Class Dojo can be used for diverse functions, including home-school communication, positive behavior interventions, and class management. The application is helpful in parent-teacher communication as parents can communicate with the teachers on student behavior and progress.
How class DOJO Benefits Education
In a class situation, it is the work of a teacher to manage the classroom. Teaching is all about preparing students for the future as hardworking citizens and through productivity. This is not possible as long as the teacher cannot manage the classroom and instill good behavior. This I where this application comes in. class DOJO helps the teacher manage the classroom in various ways. One, the teacher can take pictures of the students and comment about their behavior, achievement, and activities. The app also helps the teacher share information about the students’ progress and any upcoming events with the parents. The app is also helpful in that it enforces the reward system. This is whereby each student has an avatar, and the teacher uses the reward system to add or subtract points based on the student’s performance.
A reward system could be successful because it enlightens the children and awakens their self-awareness. According to a neurologist, Dr. Willis, the reaction of a student to the reward system is like that of a video game. As long as the points keep building up, the body releases dopamine which leads to feeling self-satisfaction. This helps the students stick to good behavior. The added points also increase their awareness of what is the right thing to do and what is not suitable to do. Skinner’s theory of positive reinforcement supports this theory. According to Skinner, teachers should encourage an environment where students are encouraged to develop through positive behavior. The class DOJO system supports skinners theory on positive reinforcement, where the students are encouraged to have positive behavior through the points rewarded to them.
Skinner believed in not punishing students for wrong behavior, and thus punishment should not be used as a motivator (Saeger, 2017). Skinner believed in reinforcing good behavior, and thus when it comes to the DOJO system, the focus should be on rewarding points for good behavior. The class DOJO system helps the students become responsible for their behavior. That is, if the student has lost points, they can work towards earning the points lost for bad behavior. Classroom management is a process that involves the relationship between the teachers and the students. Class DOJO helps the teacher manage the classroom and create an effective community of learners.
Materials and Methods
It is the 21st century, and therefore, the use of technology for classroom management is not foreign. The program gives feedback that helps develop caring and supportive relationships between students and teachers. According to a study done by Chiarelli et al. (2015), they used first-grade participants who attended a school district in North East Texas. The study involved 24 students, 16 boys and eight girls. Five of them were African American, 9 were Caucasian, 8 Hispanic, and two multiethnic students. Out of the 25 students, 12 were identified as having learning disabilities, ten students were identified as struggling, and sixteen were considered as having SES and received free and or reduced breakfast and lunch.
Procedure
To determine whether Class Dojo is an effective tool in reducing classroom issues and helps in management. The study was done for three months, from January to March, in a first-grade classroom. To begin the program, the teacher created a class account. It is possible to have multiple class accounts. Class Dojo automatically gives each student an avatar immediately after the class roster has been uploaded. An avatar is an icon side to represent a person in an online environment. Students can personalize the appearance of their avatar by changing the color, shape, and facial features. This was done during small group instruction. During the whole class instruction, the students used the teacher’s guidance and determined the behaviors that would be part of the classroom’s behavioral plan. The list of good behavior included being kind, talking low while working with a friend, being helpful and following directions. A list of negative behavior was also made, which included shouting, too much talking, and body parts on others.
The behavior was represented using icons. The behaviors were automatically associated with sound chosen by the class. A ring was associated with good behavior, and a buzz was associated with bad behavior. Once the class DOJO is automatically programmed, it recognizes positive and negative behavior, and therefore negative behavior is met with a buzz and positive behavior a ring. The sound feedback in this study helped the students become aware of their behavior.
Analysis
Once the program was in place and rolling, the class DOJO kept track and calculated the student’s behavior daily and tallied the icons that were received. The teacher also looked at the behavior of the students daily to see if the program was helping them make any improvements. The class Dojo scores were collected, and the total of the eight weeks tallies was collected every Friday (Chiarelli et al., 2015). The tallies did not look at the individual behavior but at the behavior of the whole class.
Results
The results of the study showed that the students showed more negative behavior at the beginning of the study than at the end. The use of class dojo helped in increasing positive behavior and lowered incidents of negative behavior. The classroom teacher was consistent in observing the behavior of the students and always gave them feedback on the behavior of the whole class every month.
Discussion
There are limitations to this study as the sample used consists of a few students. The teacher involves in this classroom also has computer skills, and therefore for the class DOJO to work, the teacher has to be computer literate. The study was carried out to determine the effectiveness of class Dojo as a class management tool (Chiarelli et al., 2015). The tool, however, dies more than class management. It enhances communication and helps the students recognize their behavior. Class Dojo also worked for the teacher in this study because the teacher embraced the use of technology as a management strategy for the classroom.
Other studies have been done on the same on students in different levels, and all have had different feedback. According to a study carried out by DiGiacomo et al. (2021), the participants in the study were high school students. The students were asked about their perceptions of class Dojo and how it affected their school experience. The students had varied answers on their experience with class Dojo. Some said that it made their parents more aware of their schoolwork and more involved with their school work. In the responses to the question on how class Dojo affected their relationships with their parents, the students said that there was increased communication between them and the parents and that there were higher chances of them getting support now that the parents were actively involved. Some also reported negative feedback, such as parents constantly being on their necks on school work and any change of behavior.
The students also responded to the effect of the app on their relationships with the teachers. Most of them responded to the application giving them positive responses and better connections to the teachers. The general feeling about the app was that it created a connection between the teachers and the students and also improved communication (DiGiacomo et al., 2021). Others expressed that the app helped them bridge the communication barrier and express their private struggles with their teachers.
The principal’s feedback on class Dojo was largely positive as they thought it was an effective communication and class management tool. In the US class, Dojo is accepted because it is instrumentally effective and promotes accepted identities (Barahona Mora, 2020). The students also reported having been aware of their behavior in the classroom as they used the app. They said that the app positively impacted behavior which helped their teacher to manage the classroom. It also helped improve their grades which is also a positive change. The application, therefore, served as beneficial to the students, teachers, and the heads of the schools as it enhanced communication between them and helped improve the behavior of the students.
Conclusion
Class Dojo is an effective class management tool despite having its limitations. The critics of the application arguing that the system is not in the best interest of the students and that it increases stress in the learners. The critics also suggest that it could create pressure on students and also discourage others. There is, however, a solution to this because as long as the student is doing their best to maintain good behavior, they will get positive points then there will be no pressure. Skinner also emphasized concentrating on giving points rather than punishing the students. Therefore this app can easily work if the students are given points for good behavior, and instead of removing points, they get no points. The reward system has been found to be effective by most psychologists, and therefore it has the possibility of being effective even in the classroom situation.
There is also evidence from all the stakeholders involved in education that the application is positive and that it is useful. Parents reported being more actively involved in their children’s school life, while students reported getting more help from their parents. Teachers who used the app also reported it being easier to manage the classroom with the application. The studies also showed that the app improved the students’ behavior, thus making it easier to manage the classroom. The application was created in 2011, and it has become a viral application, with tens of thousands of parents and teachers using the application to manage their classes effectively. More research and theory is being invested in the application to make the application better and to make class management easier for the teachers.
References
Barahona Mora, A. (2020). Gamification for classroom management: An implementation using class dojo. Sustainability, 12(22), 9371.
Chiarelli, M., Szabo, S., & Williams, S. (2015). Using ClassDojo to Help with Classroom Management during Guided Reading. Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 3(2), 81-88.
DiGiacomo, D. K., Greenhalgh, S., & Barriage, S. (2021). How Students and Principals Understand ClassDojo: Emerging Insights. TechTrends, 1-13.
Saeger, A. M. (2017). Using ClassDojo to promote positive behaviors and decrease negative behaviors in the classroom.
