Entry
Reader's guide
Entries A-Z
Subject index
Locus of Control
How people interpret their environments and make sense of their successes and failures shapes their motivation to persist or the decision to give up. This is true for students as they work in the classroom setting and teachers as they design and implement lessons. Students make judgments about the control they have to bring about certain outcomes such as completing a task and obtaining a good grade. Similarly, teachers’ judgments of how in control students are of their behavior, actions, and outcomes also affect teachers’ motivations to persist with a given course of action or to implement a new instructional or management plan.
Teachers’ and students’ judgments of control can be described in terms of either internal or external locus of control. Locus of control is one type of attribution students and teachers make when processing and interacting with their environment. When attempting to manage a classroom of diverse learners, it is important to understand how behaviors are related to the different interpretations of control and how teachers’ own and students’ judgments of control can affect classroom motivation and behavior and how teachers can support students in making judgments to encourage more adaptive, productive classroom behaviors.
Internal and External Locus of Control
Locus of control, a concept first developed by Julian Rotter (1916–) in the 1950s, is defined as the judgments individuals make about the source of their control over the outcomes of their actions. If students feel the outcomes of their actions are a result of their choices and traits, then they have an internal locus of control. Their successes and failures at certain tasks are due to something within themselves that has created the outcome, hence the internal focus. However, if students feel the outcomes they experience are the results of other factors and not their actions, they have an external locus of control.
Consider Susan, a 10-year-old girl in an urban fifth-grade classroom. Susan is an average student in terms of ability level, yet she scores below average on classroom tests and benchmark assessments. Susan is not interested in taking her time on her work and tells her friends that all the work is too difficult and that she does not see the point in it. Ms. Parker, Susan’s teacher, deduces that Susan avoids engagement with her work because she sees her effort as useless. Susan thinks all schoolwork is too difficult for her and feels she cannot change that. Susan has an external locus of control in regard to her schoolwork.
Table 1 shows some examples of different sources students might perceive to cause certain outcomes. The internal locus of control is composed of cognitive elements and personal traits. However, the external locus of control is composed of aspects of the activity and elements that are out of the control of the individual, such as task difficulty, which is seen in Susan’s case. Also, as shown in the table, perceived control can be viewed as stable or unstable. For example, students who think they are always good at math and that their ability is what allows them to do well on the math test, consider the cause of their success to be an internal source that is stable. Understanding that there are differences in how students attribute their successes and failures is the first step to recognizing the links between behaviors. These behaviors are often the cause of class disruptions and classroom management issues.
...
- Age, Grade, and Setting
- Age and Classroom Management
- Developmentally Appropriate Practice
- Early Childhood Education and Classroom Management
- Elementary Education and Classroom Management
- Field Trips
- Field Trips, Legal Requirements for
- High School and Classroom Management
- Kindergarten and Classroom Management
- Middle School and Classroom Management
- Physical Education and Classroom Management
- Positive Youth Development and Schooling
- Recess
- Rural Schools
- Assessment
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- Assessing and Promoting Treatment Integrity
- Assessing Classroom Management
- Assessment of Students
- Assessment of Teacher–Student Relationships
- Assessment of Tests and Exams
- Behavioral Online Screenings for School Settings
- Beliefs About Discipline Inventory
- Curriculum Compacting
- Documentation and Classroom Management
- Functional Analysis
- Functional Behavioral Assessment
- High-Stakes Testing
- Intelligence
- Quantitative and Qualitative Studies
- Research-Based Strategies
- School Climate: Assessing and Improving
- Screening and Classroom Management
- Screening and Monitoring for Academic Success
- Target Behaviors
- Teaching as Researching
- Treatment Integrity
- Universal Screening
- Whole-Class Measurement of Disruptive Behavior
- Community (Classroom and Schoolwide)
- Caring Approaches
- Climate: School and Classroom
- Cooperation and Competition
- Democratic Meetings
- Democratic Practices in Classrooms and Schools
- Human Rights Education
- Inclusive Classrooms
- Japanese Model of Classroom Management
- Just Community
- Open Circle
- Quaker Education and Classroom Management
- School Climate: Assessing and Improving
- Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports
- Service Learning
- Warmth and Classroom Management
- Development (of Students, Teachers, and Classrooms)
- Beginning Teachers and Classroom Management
- Classroom Management Consultation Strategies
- Classroom Organization and Management Program
- Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning
- Consulting with Teachers
- Council for Children With Behavioral Disorders
- Dropout Prevention
- Human Rights Education
- Inservice Teacher Education
- National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
- Reflective Practice
- School Climate: Assessing and Improving
- Social and Emotional Learning
- Social Problem Solving
- Social Skills: Meanings, Supports, and Training for Developing
- Teacher Education and Classroom Management
- Teacher Knowledge, Beliefs, Attitudes
- Teacher Self-Awareness
- Teacher Self-Efficacy
- Teacher Teaming and Professional Development
- Teachers-in-Training
- Diversity: Ability, Disability, and Special Needs
- American Sign Language
- Assistive Technology
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Autism and Inclusion in Classrooms
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Behavior Disorders
- Behavior Support Plans
- Bilingualism and Students With Disabilities
- Conduct Disorder
- Council for Children With Behavioral Disorders
- Deaf Students
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)
- Disabilities and Classroom Management
- Dyslexia: Individualizing Instruction
- Gifted Students and Effective Classroom Practices
- Inclusive Classrooms
- Intellectual Disabilities (Mental Retardation)
- Language Disorders
- Learning Disabilities
- Medication for Emotional and Behavioral Problems
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Service Learning and Special Education
- Severe Disabilities and Classroom Management
- Special Education and Hispanic Students
- Special Education and Peer Support Strategies
- Spiritual Supports for Students With Disabilities
- Students With Hearing Impairments
- Teachers and Families of Children With Special Needs
- Technology for Struggling Readers
- Diversity: Culture, Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Gender
- African American Styles of Teaching and Disciplining
- American Individualisms
- Anti-Bias Education
- Asian American Students
- Asian Americans as Model Minority
- Bilingual Education
- Chinese Model of Classroom Management
- Cultural Diversity
- Culturally Different Students in Gifted Education
- Culturally Pluralistic Classrooms
- Culturally Responsive Classrooms
- Culturally Responsive Classrooms for African American Students
- English Language Learners and Classroom Behavior
- English Learners
- Gender and Classroom Management
- Haitian Students
- Home–School Connections With Latino Families
- Immigrant Children and Families
- Inequities and Class Discussions
- Japanese Model of Classroom Management
- Language Differences
- Linguistic Diversity and Classroom Management
- Muslim Students and Classroom Management
- Native American Students
- New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms
- Religious Diversity and Classroom Management
- Sexual Orientation and Classroom Management
- Social Skill Instruction for Latino Students
- Socioeconomic Status
- Special Education and Hispanic Students
- Underachievement and African American Students
- Underachievement and Culturally Different Students
- Urban Schools
- History (Leaders and Movements)
- Instruction (Curriculum and Pedagogy)
- Academic Disciplinary Practices
- Active Student Responding
- Art: Studio Approaches to Learning Environments
- Arts for Learning Environments
- Character Education
- Computer-Assisted Instruction
- Curriculum and Classroom Management
- Curriculum Compacting
- Differentiated Instruction
- Digital Technology and Classroom Management
- Fostering Classroom Engagement
- Homework
- Humor
- Instruction and Cognitive Load
- Instructional Rounds
- Interactive Teaching
- Lesson Planning and Classroom Management
- Managing Classroom Discussions
- Managing Groupwork
- Motivating Students
- Multisensory Instruction
- Promoting Purpose and Learning Environments
- Reading, Language Arts, and Classroom Management
- Social and Emotional Learning for Young Children
- Spatial Activities and Manipulatives for Early Education Classrooms
- Story Writing
- Student Interest, Stimulating and Maintaining
- Teaching Philosophies and Approaches
- Tiered Assignments
- Video-Aided Instruction
- Whole-Class Methods
- Writing and Classroom Management
- Methods for Preventing and Managing Problem Behavior
- Active Listening and I-Messages
- Application of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports to Schoolwide and Classroom Settings
- Behavioral Supports for Secondary Education Classrooms
- Check In/Check Out
- Choral Response
- Class Meetings
- Clocklight
- Cogenerative Dialogue and Urban Classrooms
- Conflict Management
- Corporal Punishment
- Desists
- Detention
- Developmental Discipline
- Differential Treatment and Reinforcement
- Discipline Codes of Conduct
- Discipline, School and Classroom
- Disruptive Behaviors, Positive Approaches to
- Engaging Students Through Opportunities to Respond
- Extinction
- Good Behavior Game
- Help-Seeking Methods
- Learning Contracts
- Lessons and Lesson Planning
- Limits and Limit Setting
- Methods for Managing Behavior: Types and Uses
- Methods, Ineffective
- Monitoring
- Negative Reinforcement
- Office Referrals
- Peer Mediation
- Planned Ignoring
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
- Praise and Encouragement
- Preventing Antisocial Behavior at the Point of School Entry
- Preventing Behavior Problems
- Proactive Classroom Management
- Proximity: Meaning and Uses
- Punishment
- Reframing
- Reinforcement
- Reminders
- Reprimands
- Rewards and Punishments
- Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports
- Self-Regulation and Sensory-Affective Co-Regulation
- Self-Regulation to Solve Problems
- Suspension and Expulsion
- Teachers’ Language to Motivate Effort
- Time-Out
- Token Economies
- Organization of Learning Groups, Teaching Teams, and Administrators
- Organization of Time, Space, and Materials
- Beginning the School Year
- Classroom Organization and Management Program
- Materials in Early Childhood Classrooms
- Organization of Classrooms: Space
- Organization of Classrooms: Time
- Reminders
- Routines
- Schedules and Scheduling for Secondary Schools
- Space: Elementary and Secondary Classrooms
- Spaces for Young Children
- Transitions, Managing
- Policy and Procedures (In-Class, In-School, State, and Federal Government)
- Bullying and the Law
- Educational Reform and Teacher Effectiveness
- Emergency Procedures and Students With Disabilities
- Field Trips, Legal Requirements for
- Government Policy and Classroom Management
- Guns: History, Policy, Consequences
- Individualized Education Programs
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
- Law and Classroom Management
- No Child Left Behind Act
- Policy, Teachers, and Young Children
- Restraint and Seclusion Policy
- Rules and Expectations
- Safety, Policies for Ensuring
- School Discipline
- School Restructuring
- Schoolwide Discipline Policies
- Special Education Laws
- Problem Behaviors
- Relationships
- Attachment to Teachers
- Authority and Classrooms
- Authority, Children’s Concepts of
- Climate, School and Classroom
- Co-Teaching for Inclusive Classrooms
- Cogenerative Dialogue and Urban Classrooms
- Collaborative Approach to Classroom Management
- Community Approaches to Classroom Management
- Democratic Practices in Classrooms and Schools
- Ethics, Power, and Classroom Management
- Exemplary Teachers
- Expectations: Teachers’ Expectations of Students
- Home–School Connections
- Open Circle
- Peers and Peer Relations
- Physical Contact and Classroom Management
- Power and Classroom Management
- Sharing Authority
- Styles of Teaching
- Teacher–Parent Partnerships
- Teacher–Student Relationships
- Teacher–Student Relationships and Behaviorally At-Risk Students
- Trust, Building
- Warm Demanders
- Warmth and Classroom Management
- Welcoming Greetings at the Beginning of the School Year
- Systems (Interpersonal and Behavioral)
- Theories, Approaches, and Theoretical Constructs
- Approaches to Classroom Management: Types
- Attachment Theory
- Attribution Theory
- Behavioral Approaches, Foundations of
- Classroom Management and Maslow’s Humanist Psychology
- Community Approaches to Classroom Management
- Conditions for Learning
- Constructivist Approaches
- Creativity and Classroom Management
- Definitions of Classroom Management
- Democratic Practices in Classrooms and Schools
- Developmental Approaches
- Developmentally Appropriate Practice
- Differential Treatment and Reinforcement
- Dynamic and Relational Systems Theory
- Ecological Approaches
- Emotion Regulation
- Evidence-Based Classroom Management
- Executive Function and Behavior Problems
- Feminist Perspectives on Classroom Management
- Identity
- Institutional Racism
- Interpersonal Attribution Theory and Classroom Management
- Learning Styles
- Locus of Control
- Milieu Management for Children With Emotional and Behavioral Special Needs
- Mindfulness Practices for Teachers
- Mindfulness-Based Approaches to Classroom Management
- Montessori and Classroom Management
- Moral Development Theories
- Motivation, Intrinsic and Extrinsic
- Negative Reinforcement
- Play, Learning, and Classroom Management
- Points of Entry and Classroom Supports
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
- Progressive Education
- Prosocial Behavior
- Punishment
- Quaker Education and Classroom Management
- Reinforcement
- Relationship-Based Approaches to Classroom Management
- Resilience
- Respect
- Responsive Classroom Approach
- School Psychologists
- School-Based Occupational Therapy
- Self-Determination Theory
- Self-Management
- Self-Regulated Learning
- Sensory Integration
- Social and Emotional Learning
- Sociocultural Theories and Classroom Management
- Target Behaviors
- Zone of Proximal Development
- Loading...
Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL
-
Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life -
Read modern, diverse business cases
-
Explore hundreds of books and reference titles
Read next
More like this
Sage Recommends
We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.
Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches