Purpose of Classroom Rules

Establishing class rules can be a simple, but important process. Having class rules is important for a variety of reasons; but, two significant reasons include: (1) rules are necessary to ensure the orderly operation of the class, and (2) students who learn to follow the rules in class will know how to follow the rules in general
society.

Nature of Classroom Rules

Classroom rules commonly fall into three general categories. These categories include:

• respect for others (e.g., Say kind things to others),
• respect for the property of others (e.g., Ask before using someone else’s materials), and
• requirements for orderly completion of classroom tasks (e.g., Raise your hand before going to the bathroom.).

It is recommended that the class rules be reasonable and socially valid. The rules should be reasonable in that most people could logically be expected to follow them. The rules should be socially valid in that following the rules outside of class will often have beneficial results, just as  following the rules in class produces
beneficial results. For example, rules pertaining to courtesy toward others will usually bring positive results inside of class as well as outside of class.

It is recommended that the teacher generate five to seven basic rules that he or she wants to generally govern the conduct of the class. What the specific rules are will be influenced by the preferences of the teacher, the age and characteristics of the students, and the nature of the academic material in the class. What the specific rules are is not as important as the fact that there should be rules, and that the rules should be displayed in a conspicuous place where they can always be viewed by the students.

Student Investment in Classroom Rules

It is desirable for the students to internalize the rules and to be as heavily invested as possible in following the rules.  In order to accomplish this, it is recommended that a rule setting procedure involving all of the students be implemented on the first day of class.  The teacher will have already determined what he or she wants the rules to be; however, they will not yet be posted for the students to see.  Instead, the teacher conducts a group discussion with the class in which he or she enlists their cooperation in the development of class rules.

With each rule in mind, the teacher poses a hypothetical situation in which violation of that rule would have an undesirable effect on the students. The teacher then asks the students to suggest a rule that would apply in such a situation. Through the discussion, the teacher guides the students to develop the rule that he or she
originally had in mind; yet, student involvement in the process influences them to view the rules as “our” rules rather than as “the teacher’s” rules. This procedure should be continued until all of the rules the teacher wants for the class have been generated.  The teacher then ensures that all students understand the rules, and asks if they will all agree to follow them. The next day, the teacher will have the class rules written on a poster board. It is recommended that the title for the list be something comparable to “Our Class Rules”.

Several features of this rule generation process encourage student investment in following the rules. First, students were involved the process of rule generation.  Secondly, when the teacher asked, the students agreed that they understood the rules, thus eliminating ignorance of the rules as an excuse. Thirdly, when the teacher
asked how many students agreed to follow the rules, all of the students indicated agreement, thus invalidating potential student excuses that these are “just the teacher’s rules, not ours.” Some teachers have asked students to sign their name to the rules as indicators of their commitment to follow them. It is recommended that the teacher review the rules as often as necessary until s/he is certain that the students are continually aware of them.

An interesting feature of this procedure is that, when the teacher and students are first generating the rules, the students tend to visualize themselves as the victims of rule violations. Thus, they might tend to suggest rules and consequences for rule violations that are unduly harsh. The teacher should temper such student tendencies to be harsh. It is ironic that sometimes a student is the violator of a rule which he had a part in creating when he visualized himself as the victim. Nevertheless, if this rule setting procedure is implemented, none of the typical student excuses for rule violation are valid.