Τhe teacher’s key role in the challenge of the effective classroom management

Classroom management includes the teacher’s actions in order to create and sustain a supportive and stimulating learning environment, through building up authentic relationships of interaction and cooperation with his/her students. The aim of this paper is to highlight the teacher’s key role in the challenge of the effective classroom management, as s/he has to cope with a highly heterogenous students’ population, his/her multifaced tasks and the dynamic changes in the educational field. The results showed that a successful classroom management is facilitated by the teacher’s professional readiness and his/her developed communication skills, who planning and organizing the educational process, according to students’ diverse educational needs and interests, providing them a high-quality educational work in a well-structured engaging and reflective learning environment and cultivating meaningful relationships of reciprocity, contributes, decisively, to their academic learning and socio-emotional development.


Introduction
Effective classroom management is considered, worldwide, as one of the most important indicators for assessing the teachers' effectiveness and should be perceived as part of school administration system, which includes participatory processes, student-centred teaching approaches, commitment to common educational goals, continuous quality evaluation of educational work, aiming at the improvement of education procedures and structures. This revised understanding of classroom management emphasizes on the creation of a learning-centred environment, redefining its structural function, as well as the processes of teaching, learning and outcomes' assessment (Rijal, 2014). At the same time, as the educational reform has placed particular emphasis on students' metacognitive skills, self-regulated learning strategies and team-collaborative learning, it has delineated a framework of higher requirements and skills for effective classroom management from teachers (Korpershoek, et al., 2016). Furthermore, given that technology and digital media overwhelm students' everyday life, they need to be used in new interactive teaching approaches, in order to renewal the educational processes, to motivate students in the construction and reflective management of the new knowledge and in an individual way of learning, by cultivating new literacies and skills that link their learning to real life (Delceva-Dizdarevik, 2014) In this context, the teacher, with his substantial presence, is the pillar of the classroom ecosystem, guiding a heterogenous students' population in a self-regulated learning, their self-evaluation and the development of social skills (Kumar, & Liu, 2019). Besides s/he motivates them to become active parts of the educational process, within a well-structured and flexible learning environment, that is permeated by freedom of expression, acceptance of diversity, individualized interest, and a sense of belonging, but also to commit themselves to compliance with the mutually agreed rules, which ensure an unhindered educational procedure (Önder, 2019).
In recent years, however, in the light of providing equal educational opportunities, classroom management is one of the greatest challenges for the teachers, as their professional skills are tested by the inclusion of students with special educational needs, in the mainstream schools and the co-education of students with different ethnic / racial / cultural identities (Flower, et al., 2017;Thangarajathi, & Joel, 2010).
The present literature study aims to deal with the ever-present issue of classroom management, attempting to highlights its challenging requires in the modern school and the teacher's key role, who as the main administrator of the highdynamic classroom environment, fosters the development of the necessary interaction with his/her students, through his/her updated teaching and pedagogical work, guiding them to reach clearly identified learning and development goals. Moreover, it analyzes how teacher's professional readiness and communication skills are the catalysts of the effective classroom management, as s/he organizes a collaborative learning environment of qualitive interactions, preventing any undesirable behavior or action, which may disrupt its orderly pace, hindering the learning and development of his/her students. Thus, the developing of flexible preventive strategies and implementing of inclusive practices aligning to the students' learning style and educational needs are presented, but also some inhibiting factors, making it clear that a successful classroom management requires, primarily, a successful communication, in order to be developed authentic relationships of reciprocity among all members of the classroom (Shakir, 2014;Emmer, & Stough, 2003). So, studying this paper, the reader will realize that the cultivation of meaningful relationships with his/her students, facilitates the teacher's effective classroom management.

Methodology
It is crucial to stress the teacher's key role in the challenge of the effective classroom management, which ensures his/her students' academic learning and socioemotional development, but also to draw attention to the significance of the teacher's professional readiness, abilities and primarily communicative skills to create a well-structured engaging and reflective learning environment with authentic relationships, which prevents disruptive behaviors, facilitating the classroom management and the well-being of all its members.
Using the keywords "classroom management", "preventive strategies", "professional readiness", "communication skills" and "authentic relationships" scientific articles were chosen from Google Scholar and ResearchGate. We excluded articles that were earlier than the last decade, as the majority of our articles have a time horizon of publication from 2013 to 2022. Nevertheless, we also selected some scientific articles from previous years, because we considered them important for highlighting the main points of our research to achieve the results and reach conclusions.
The purpose of our systematic review of the relevant literature was to focus on the study of the teacher's key role in the classroom management and the preventive strategies s/he uses to achieve this challenging and multidimensional goal, based on his/her specific characteristics, abilities and skills, but also the ways s/he can cope to deal with the factors that make it difficult a successful classroom management to maximize educational outcomes for all his/her students.

The classroom
The classroom is a structured framework for learning and development, which includes the physical space with the necessary logistical equipment, but also a dynamic climate of emotional, social and environmental interactions among teacher and students, as well as their specific characteristic and beliefs about the value of learning and school (Önder, 2019;Shakir, 2014;Erden, et al., 2016;Azubuike, 2012). At the same time, is a motivative ecosystem, characterized by immediacy, publicity, complex and often unpredictable structure, but also synchronisation, as many processes are carried out simultaneously within it (Djigic, & Stojiljkovic, 2011). In order to be an open learning community, it is required a safe, supportive and engaging environment, with open channels of communication, coherent educational goals, mutual relationships and cooperative practices. The teacher, with his/her students, creates the "ethos" of the classroom and guides them, through well-planned, engaging and reflective teaching and learning procedures, to reach predetermined educational goals and achieve their self-actualization (Adeyemo, 2012).

The classroom management
The term "management" was incorporated into the field of education from industry and encompasses the concepts of programming, organizing, decision-making, coordinating, controlling, communicating and directing the acts and actions of an organization's members by its leadership, with a view to rational use of its resources and the achievement of clear and structured performance objectives (Delceva-Dizdarevik, 2014).
In particular, the concept of "classroom management" refers to the organization process by the teacher of the necessary academic tasks for effective teaching and learning within a specific context, in other words it means that the teacher, clearly, communicates to the students, within a collaborative learning environment, the academic expectations and desired behaviors (Adeyemo, 2012).
Thus, while in the past, this term has been referring exclusively to discipline practices and behavioral interventions, over the last decades, it has changed and describes, according to Evertson & Harris (1999), in a holistic way, the teacher's actions and processes, aimed at organizing a supportive physical and psychological environment, which encourages the Research, Society andDevelopment, v. 12, n. 2, e20412240054, 2023 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v12i2.40054 creation of positive climate, dynamic interactions, the sense of community and a meaningful educational procedure in the classroom, promoting students' active learning and socio-emotional development (Thangarajathi, & Joel, 2010;Erden, et al., 2016). Similarly, Evertson and Weinstein (2006) explain that classroom management aims at creating and stabilizing an organized environment conductive to students' ethical and social development and their unhindered engaging in academic learning (Korpershoek, et al., 2016;Chandra, 2015). Therefore, classroom management is a multidimensional construct that includes three sub-variables: a. the teaching management b. the human resources management and c. the behavior management (Martin, & Shoho, 2000;Martin, et al., 2006).

Preventive strategies for the effective classroom management
Successful classroom management, which maximizes the quality and the quantity of teaching time and the educational work, requires the programming, coordination, control, monitor, organization of physical space, logistics, teaching and learning activities. As Grieser (2007) points out, critical thinking, fruitful questioning and inquisitiveness are motivated within a favorable learning environment, which has a positive impact on the quality of relationships that are developed between teachers and their students (Babadjanova, 2020). Therefore, the teacher's essential presence in the classroom, getting to know his/her students, his/her personal interest and the creation of a deep relationship of mutual understanding, provides the basis on which effective classroom management is founded (Kumar, & Liu, 2019).
In this light, classroom management strategies aim to cultivate students' prosocial behavior and encourage their academic engagement and commitment, taking into account their new psychosocial reality (Niculescu, & Franţ, 2016). In primary education, these strategies focus on pedagogic methods and students' behavioral expectations, while in secondary education, on their orientation in a self-directed learning (Hans, & Hans, 2017).
In more detail, Evertson and Weinstein (2006) stressed that, through the performance of their multidimensional educational work, teachers pursue to fulfill two purposes: a. the creation of a positive, motivating, supportive, safe and inclusive learning environment, which fosters students to become partners and participants in a meaningful learning, through structured educational processes and well-planned teaching and learning activities, with the selection of appropriate digital resources and means and b. the challenge of their moral-emotional development and self-regulation, which minimizes the likelihood of an inappropriate behavior, contributing to their academic and social achieving (Korpershoek, et al., 2016;Chandra, 2015). In order to maximize the benefits of educational processes for his/her students, teacher should act proactively, focusing, primarily, on the ways of creation of an interactive learning environment, which promotes their self-control, selfregulation, self-evaluation, through the awareness of their co-responsibility for their learning, encouraging students' initiatives and gaining intrinsic incentives. Additionally, s/he must take into account the cultural diversity of the classroom, the principals of differentiated teaching, the necessity to update his/her knowledge and practices, as well as the dialectic relationship of the learning provided in the classroom with modern society and real life. Very important, in this direction, is the quality and quantity of the teacher's professional experiences, which s/he gets in the daily classroom practice, his/her personal beliefs and attitudes, but also, his/her ability to effectively communicate, to exchange views with his/her colleagues, as well as his/her need for lifelong training, enabling him/her to model appropriate behaviors and set reasonable expectations of what his/her students can achieve, through the specific educational process (Korpershoek, et al., 2016;Thangarajathi, & Joel, 2010).
Such educational practices, which balance teacher's control with students' cooperation, as well as teacher's demand for students' effort with his empathy and knowledge of their learning readiness, addressing the issue of classroom management as a creative challenge, are (Niculescu, & Franţ, 2016;Marzano, & Marzano, 2003): ➢ The development of a structured and predictable motivating learning environment, with stable procedures and routines, which makes the "classroom organization plan" feasible. This plan consists of the teacher's decisions about his/her students' learning, his/her cognitive adequacy, the creation and grouping of his/her educational material, the appropriate teaching time management, the use of alternative and innovative teaching strategies and the sequence's readjustment of flexible educational activities, in every stage of the teaching and assessment process, according to the students' individual learning pace, stimulating their interest and attracting their attention, as well as enhancing teacher's sense of self-efficacy and his/her students' esteem.
➢ The assignment to his/her students of active roles to carefully structured learning activities, under the discreet monitor and guidance of an enthusiastic teacher, who informs them, from the outset, of the goals and directions of his/her teaching. Determining the estimated time for each activity and task allows students to better organize their learning course and prevents negative emotions of stress, failure, frustration, while, at the same time, the operational transitions between activities ensure the coherence of educational process, preventing disturbing behaviors. In addition, the possibility of given more chances for responses, the selection of desired activities, the assessment procedures that permeate the daily teaching practice as learning opportunities, but also the expressed confidence in their abilities, the avoidance of criticism, the demonstration and rewarding of consistency, the necessary clarifications, the encouragement of self-action, the developing of instinct incentives, the teamcollaborative teaching methods, the peer learning, the teaching of metacognitive skills, the differentiation of educational activities according to the students' diverse educational needs and the equal acceptance as important of every ethnic identity, language, culture, are decisive enhancers of classroom's positive climate. ➢ The posting, from the begging of the school year, in a prominent place of the classroom, specific, positively worded, succinct rules that clearly describe observable and measurable behaviors. Of key importance is their negotiation with the students, in order to provide them a fair, but also a binding regulatory framework. The contribution and cooperation of his students is substantial for upgrading the quality characteristics of learning environment, having as starting-point their self-respect and seeking their compliance with behavior and learning performance expectations. In addition, cooperation with parents, school principal, other classroom teachers, school's coordinators and psychologists is considered necessary.
➢ The proximity, the observation of any detail or change in the classroom conditions, the vigilance, the continuous monitoring of the space, the attempt to halt the escalation of an undesired behavior, the immediate interventionwithout verbal attacks-in the inappropriate behavior, the attempt to reframe it, or the choice of other alternative strategies to improve it as well as the consistent and necessary provision of sanctions (Kumar, & Liu, 2019;Flower, et al., 2017;Adeyemo, 2012;Chandra, 2015;Babadjanova, 2020;Hans, & Hans, 2017;Cevallos, & Soto, 2020;Little, & Akin-Little, 2008).
➢ The integration of ICTs, as integral tools in the educational process, which reinforce the enthusiasm, the inquisitiveness, the motivation and increase the levels of their concentration, engaging, interaction and understanding.
➢ The use of multimedia resources, which offers an enriched instruction, through its multisensory interactive presentation, enhancing learning with auditory and visual stimuli.
➢ The management, from the early stage, of the students' anger and stress, due to their stressful schedule, the deadlines for completing their assignments, or the failure to communicate with a teacher, the conflicts with their classmates or family members, so that they are guided in self-regulation and self-control. The same management is required το deal with the teachers' elevated levels of stress and anxiety, due to the increased demands of their multidimensional educational work or the problems that arise in the management of students' behavior or even, of entire classes (Kapur, 2018).
➢ The implementation in the education field of the "entrepreneurial approach", with an anthropocentric orientation, where the effectiveness of the teacher's professional skills, as well as the efficiency of the educational structures and processes, in the classroom, is evaluated reflectively, so that classroom becomes a creative and resourceful learning lab, which fosters new knowledge, skills and attitudes (Rijal, 2014).

Inhibitory factors
According to Brophy (2006), the approach of the classroom management, through the creation of a supportive and collaborative environment, with clear learning and behavior expectations rather than through the imposition of disciplines is proved more effective (Adeyemo, 2012). In this regard, Lewis et al. (2008) observed that teachers' aggression and punishment had a negative impact on students' behaviours and that the disciplinary actions were corrosive to classroom's climate. On the contrary, Tartwijk et al. (2009), studying 12 teachers in the Netherlands, reported that they were very competent in classroom management, guiding their students with clear rules that they had in common proposed, using humour and reasonable arguments to prevent unaccepted behaviours and investing in the cultivation of authentic relationships with them. In the same vein, they were giving them continuous feedback, adapting their teaching style to their students' learning background and interests, justifying the necessity of each educational activity and empowering their commitment to learning (Postholm, 2013).
These findings show that the teachers' authoritarian enforcement of rules and punishment provokes the students' resistance and negative reactions. In the contrast, the teachers, manifesting empathy and genuine interest in what concerns them, expressing their confidence and sharing with then the responsibility for their learning, highlighting their strengths, defining realistic performance expectations, rewarding them for their academic and extra-curriculum achievements, contributes to the development of endogenous incentives, which direct them to self-control and voluntary commitment to the educational achieving goals.
On the other hand, classroom management is often an area of concern for new teachers and sometimes also, for experienced teachers, as it characterized of inconsistencies, since they called upon to cope with a highly heterogeneous students' population and the constant changes of the educational reform, even, without the support needed from the school principal.
A common inhibitory factor is the manifestation of inappropriate attention seeking behaviours, related to the developmental characteristics of adolescence, the family context and the school climate. Such behaviours are the annoying talking, the distraction of attention, the hyperactivity, the disruption of the classroom lesson, the excessive delay on entering or leaving the classroom without teacher's permission, the failure to comply with classroom rules and teacher's instructions and the verbal or/and the physical violence to classmates or even the teachers (Adeyemo, 2012;Little, & Akin-Little, 2008). Other factors that trigger disruptive students' behaviours are the low levels of learning readiness, the reduced motivations to achieving specific goals, the lack of interest in the courses content, the difficulty of concentrating the attention, the absence of self-limits and the disregard of any rule, the indifference, as well as the lack of cooperation and taking responsibility from their parents (Emmer, & Stough, 2003).
Another restrictive parameter is the inclusive orientation of the general classes, which requires from teachers the knowledge of differentiated instruction strategies. Particularly, Adelman & Taylor (2002) report that today's classrooms include students with emotional and behavioral disorders, at a rate of 12%-20%, while students with special educational needs amount to 18%, when the necessary resources to address their needs are missing. Nevertheless, they note that the teachers who effectively communicate with their students and differentiate their instruction, adapting it to their individual needs and learning styles and rewarding their efforts, manages to respond satisfactorily to their classrooms management (Martin, et al., 1998). Furthermore, Rademacher, Schumaker & Deshler (1999) observed that teachers, who improved the quality and the level of difficulty of the tasks assigned to their students with mild disabilities, were able to increase their engagement and to minimize disorderly behaviours (Hans, & Hans, 2017;Marzano, & Marzano, 2003).
Besides, the family culture, which implies a different way of interpreting acceptable behaviours, may affect the children's behavioral and learning performance expectations and sometimes, conflicts with students of distinct cultural, racial or ethnic identity may arise. In their research, conducted in the US, Gregory et al. (2010) showed that teachers are less friendly and tend to remove, more often, the Latin and Indians backgrounds students, as well as students of color, from their classrooms. However, Gregory & Weinstein (2008) pointed out that when teachers showed attention and set academic performance expectations, for their students of color, they developed with them relationships of confidence and cooperation (Emmer, & Stough, 2003). Hence, Weinstein, Clarke & Curran (2013) emphasized the necessity for the teachers to be sufficiently aware and respectful of their students' cultural background, understanding the difficulties they face, due to the disparity between their family and school contexts and to create a welcoming classroom, in which they can develop a sense of community (Postholm, 2013).
Large classes are an additional challenge, since it has been shown that smaller classes are more well controlled and they favor the development of a high interaction, intimacy and connectivity climate, the students' individualized support and higher engagement in the educational activities, so that they tend to have higher academic performance and more proper behaviors (Rijal, 2014).
With regard to teachers, some inhibiting factors are their reduced communication skills, that make it difficult to have meaningful contact with their students, the shortage of adequate training and practice in classroom management, the ignorance of preventive approaches, the lack of professional experience of the newly appointed teachers, in order to sufficiently explain to their students their teaching goals, connecting them with real life (Flower, et al., 2017). Ignoring how they influence their students' behaviours with their own behavior in the classroom, instead of motivating them to take co-responsibility, they implement response strategies, by punishing them for their unruled behaviours, undermining the positive climate of the classroom (Postholm, 2013). Thus, as Oliver & Reschly (2010) argue, they focus on coping rather than preventing behavioral problems, overlooking to view themselves at the core of these problems, due to their failure in the classroom management, resulting in a sense of incompetence, intense stress and insecurity, low levels of job satisfaction and sometimes, symptoms of burnout (Önder, 2019;Flower, et al., 2017;Little, & Akin-Little, 2008). As characteristically showed a meta-analysis study, teachers who had, from the beginning of the school year, developed substantial relationships with their students experienced, over the course of the school year, 31% fewer behavioral problems, compared to their colleagues, who had typical relationships with their students (Marzano, & Marzano, 2003). Furthermore, Browers & Tomic (2003) observed that new teachers, considering that they do not have effective means, are reluctant to deal with an undesired behavior either because they prefer to ignore it rather than confront it or because they do not know how to react or even because they feel that it is Research, Society andDevelopment, v. 12, n. 2, e20412240054, 2023 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v12i2.40054 related to their professional inadequacy, as a result of which, it is, sometimes, consolidated as a norm, hindering the effective classroom management (Thangarajathi, & Joel, 2010).
In this light, according to Santrock (2004), the teachers should investigate the cause that triggers an inappropriate behavior and highlight the positive aspects of their students' personality, considering whether the physical and psychological climate of the classroom, along with their own behavior, promotes their self-discipline and self-esteem as well as motivates highly their engagement in educational activities. In the same direction, the teachers' acquisition of self-awareness and cognitive adequacy, the development of a strong professional identity, communication skills, emotional intelligence and support networks, the knowledge and use of modern teaching and pedagogical strategies, case studies and practices in a variety of educational contexts, drive to the gradual strengthening of their classroom management skills (Adeyemo, 2012;Emmer, & Stough, 2003).

Discussion
There is no doubt that in these days, when the quality of educational processes is reflected in the learning environment, a holistic approach to the "classroom management" is attempted, with the challenge to transform it into an authentic experiential laboratory, in which the teacher's actions are not only related to the management of its physical infrastructure, but mainly, to the management of relationships and cooperation among its members, the set of clear norms and expectations, the integration of principles and values, the sharing of control and responsibilities (Rijal, 2014).
Effective classroom management is driven by teachers' self-awareness and socio-emotional maturity, making them able to create a supporting environment of quality learning and development (Djiigic & Stojijkovic, 2011). This self-awareness enables them to be conscious present and be interested in their students' educational needs, emotions, concerns and interests, moving themselves from "you" to "we", providing them positive reinforces, focusing on what needs to be done, being fully aware of what is happening in the classroom and acting proactively for the benefit of the entire class (Postholm, 2013). Therefore, it is unambiguous that there is no a single strategy for all problems solving, but approaches, which utilize a variety of strategies and that only the teachers' cognitive equipment is not sufficient to guarantee their students' academic achieving, without developed communication capabilities and effective classroom management skills. The teachers' enthusiasm and motivation are reflected in the classroom's climate, the outcomes of the educational process and its self-evaluation, with the aim of optimizing it. As the teachers' self-awareness is enhanced, through gaining professional experience in the classroom practice, they set more realistic academic and behavioral expectations and get more effective classroom management strategies, aligning educational goals with their students' diverse educational needs and interests (Martin & Shoho, 2000).
Moreover, in recent decades, significant social changes have been observed, which are related to the role of A.I. and technology in people's daily lives. The most important of them concern communication, diffusion and management information's and in the ability to assimilate and utilize the produced new knowledge. We have to underline that the role of Digital Technologies in education domain as well as in all the aspects of everyday life, are very productive and successful, facilitate and improve the assessment, the intervention, decision making, the educational procedures and all the scientific and productive procedures via Mobiles (Stathopoulou, et al., , 2019(Stathopoulou, et al., , 2020Vlachou et al., 2017;Papoutsi et al., 2018;Karabatzaki et al., 2018), various ICTs applications Papanastasiou, et al., 2018Papanastasiou, et al., , 2020Alexopoulou, et al., 2019;Kontostavlou, E., et al., 2019;Charami et al., 2014;Bakola et al., 2019;Kontostavlou et al., 2019;Alexopoulou et al., 2019), via AI Robotics & STEM Vrettaros, et al., 2009;Anagnostopoulou, et al., 2020;Lytra, et al., 2021;Pappas et al., 2016;Mitsea et al., 2020;Chaidi et al., 2021), and games Kokkalia, et al., 2017;. The New Technologies (NT) and more specifically Digital Technologies provide the tools for access, the analysis and transfer of information and for its management and utilization new knowledge. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), unprecedented technological capabilities of man, have a catalytic effect, create the new social reality and shape the Information Society Drigas, & Koukiannakis, 2004Drigas, A., & Kontopoulou, M., 2016;Theodorou, & Drigas, 2017;Drigas, & Kostas, 2014;Bakola, et al., 2019Bakola, et al., , 2022Drigas, & Politi-Georgousi, 2019;Karyotaki, et al., 2022). Moreover, games and gamification techniques and practices within general and special education improves the educational procedures and environment, making them more friendly and enjoyable , 2015α Papanastasiou et al., 2017Kokkalia et al., , 2017Doulou et al., 2022;.

Conclusions
To sum up, the cornerstone of effective classroom management is the quality of teacher-student relationships. The creation and sustainability of a dialectic learning environment, which takes into account the teachers' different mindset and the classroom's emotional load, allows genuine communication links to be developed and promotes the mental well-being and welfare of all its members, facilitating its successful management. In this direction, a fundamental goal of classroom management, which should be in line with the objectives of the Curriculum, is students' self-management, through teachers' support, guidance, encouragement and the development of a dynamic learning environment of quality interactions, projecting patterns of proper behaviours and cooperation and utilizing proactive practices to minimize any classroom problem. Thus, teachers building up modernized educational strategies, which balance students' control with their cooperation, demonstrating empathy, having developed communication skills and programming any aspect of their educational work, based on their students' learning readiness, they are able to cultivate, in their classroom, a strong momentum of high academic achieving and proper behaviors, in order to mold the citizens of the future, with critical thinking, responsibility, social sensitivity and active participation in the community life.
Future researches will examine modern educational techniques and methods, but also pioneering teaching styles that can be used by teachers in the classroom, based on emerging technologies as well as new pedagogical approaches and learning theories that may contribute to the creation of such a learning environment, which focuses on experiential learning and touches on the students' experiences and interests, facilitating effective classroom management and maximizing the educational outcomes, to deliver to students up to date competences and technologies, which reflect the globalized community and job market.