Classroom Management

Managing a classroom can be challenging. The good news? We know there are strategies that work. By applying neuroscience to classroom practice, you’ll add a range of invaluable practices and other resources to your teaching toolkit. You’ll discover how to improve your classroom culture and relationships with positive classroom behaviour and environment management strategies that work best for your situation. With our flexible, self-paced design, you can tailor your learning journey to fit your unique schedule and needs. This micro-credential also provides a supportive space to explore evidence-based classroom management, where you can participate in online forums, connect with other educators across Australia, and leave ready to lead classrooms with high learning expectations.

Our Classroom Management course is aligned to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the highly accomplished level, with a focus on evidence-based strategies tailored for today's dynamic classrooms. You will investigate strategies for creating safe, consistent and predictable learning environments that enable habit formation, build trust, foster a sense of community, and support more engaged and productive learning. You’ll also:

• explore ways to anticipate and reduce disruptive behaviours, identifying the causes and ensuring calm, proportionate responses
• critically reflect on and record the impact of different strategies on your practice
• examine and refine your approach using Action Research
• connect with an active online community for discussion and reflection
• engage with, share and contribute to a repository of teaching resources related to classroom management
• work toward a potential credit pathway for post-graduate study at the University of Adelaide.

The micro-credentials are designed for education professionals: school teachers (early years, primary and secondary), school leaders, other education professionals within the school setting, and pre-service teachers.

This micro-credential aims to enhance the overall quality and impact of your instruction. By bolstering your capacity to create quality learning environments, you are likely to increase your focused time for teaching and learning, foster mutual respect in your classrooms, and improve student engagement. The strategies in this course will support you to establish positive relationships with your students, create opportunities for them to learn, grow and thrive, and collectively enjoy a greater sense of wellbeing. You will feel prepared and assured to support learning with access to a well-structured repository of resources and a framework for creating quality learning environments. Completing this micro-credential can also count towards the annual 20-hour requirement for maintaining your teaching certificate.

A well-managed, emotionally and physically safe learning environment helps students feel secure, understood, and supported when facing learning challenges. Students who experience positive connections with their teachers are more likely to have a positive attitude toward learning, feel a part of their school community, and have higher school attendance. In this supportive environment, they can build confidence, develop a sense of agency and belonging, and engage more deeply in their learning.

While Australian schools often have comprehensive behaviour plans in place, their true success depends on consistent and effective implementation by teachers and school leaders. This means educators must be equipped with practical tools and skills to engage with students, understand their behaviour, and respond appropriately—precisely what this micro-credential supports. School leaders can use the micro-credential to support implementation of a whole-school approach to classroom management by encouraging their teachers to undertake the micro-credential together. The readings, tasks and strategies can form the basis for ongoing critical conversations of professional learning teams to share practice. 

In 2022, the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review suggested that short courses could help teachers to upskill, particularly in areas where they feel underprepared, such as managing classrooms, using explicit teaching strategies, and teaching phonics. In response, the Australian Government has selected the University of Adelaide to develop evidence-based micro-credentials so that teachers in all stages of their careers can upskill in these areas of need with minimum disruption to their work capacity.