and negative when an approach is not working. The teacher may raise his or her voice or increase adverse consequences in an effort to make the approach work. This type of interaction may impair the teacher-student relationship. Instead of allowing this to happen, it is often better to simply try a new approach. Inconsistency in expectations and consequences is an additional mistake that can lead to dysfunction in the classroom. Teachers must be consistent in their expectations and consequences to help ensure that students understand that rules will be enforced. To avoid this, teachers should communicate expectations to students clearly and be sufficiently committed to the classroom management procedures to enforce them consistently. "Ignoring and approving" is an effective classroom management strategy. This involves ignoring students when they behave undesirably and approving their behavior when it is desirable. When students are praised for their good behavior but ignored for their bad behavior, this may increase the frequency of good behavior and decrease bad behavior. Student behavior may be maintained by attention; if students have a history of getting attention after misbehavior, they may continue this behavior as long as it continues to get attention. If student misbehavior is ignored, but good behavior results in attention, students may instead behave appropriately to acquire attention. There are however also studies showing that ignoring problematic student behavior, such as bullying other students, can be perceived as tacit approval by the perpetrators and might exacerbate their behavior. See also Behavior management Behavioral engineering Child development Delaney card Educational psychology References https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/cte492/Modules/M6/Top10-Tips-ClassroomDispline_Mgmt.pdf External links Contemporary Educational Psychology/Chapter 7: Classroom Management and the Learning Environment New York Times profile of Delaney Cards and their creator School and classroom behaviour