Establishing and Sustaining Positive Classroom Cultures and Flow Using Online Modules

This article provides an overview of the authors' action research/design thinking project investigating whether the completion of online modules on “classroom flow” contributed to preservice teachers’ self-efficacy in establishing positive classroom cultures and addressing students’ off-task behaviours. Preservice teachers from two post-secondary institutions participated in a survey and two focus group discussions. Participants in the second focus group completed the online modules on “classroom flow” which focused on strategies of classroom management that align with student-centred approaches to teaching and learning. Findings indicated that preservice teachers in both focus groups were adept at aligning student-centered approaches to minor off-task behaviours in the classroom, but struggled to identify student-centered approaches when off-task behaviours intensified. At this point, they were more likely to revert to teacher-centered approaches to classroom management. Interestingly, participants in the second focus group who had completed the online modules had the language to identify and differentiate categories of off-task behaviours and were able to offer a wider set of strategies to restore "flow" in the classroom than the first focus group. This suggests that pre-service teachers might benefit from having the opportunity to use these online modules to practice student-centered classroom management for increasingly challenging situations.