The Role of Classroom Management on Confidence in Teachers and Educational Stress

Discussions on the quality of education have been continuing up to the present day. Especially teachers’ educational efficacies, teacher-student relations and educational stress-which is thought to be related to them and which affects learning in negative waysattract attention. Accordingly, this study aims to analyse the correlations between teachers’ classroom management efficacies, students’ confidence in teachers and the perception of educational stress. The study group was composed of 608 secondary school students in Altındağ district of Ankara province in 2018-2019 academic year. The research data were collected through classroom management scale, confidence in teachers scale and educational stress scale. The study employs relational survey model, and it analyses the data in quantitative techniques. The results obtained indicated that human management behavioursone of the efficacies of classroom managementpredicted confidence in teachers scale and of educational stress scale significantly. In this context, it may be recommended that pre-service and inservice training be offered to develop human management behaviours emphasising mutual respect, love and tolerance in teacher-student relations.


Introduction
Educated individuals can be considered as the driving force in the development of societies. The skills that individuals gain in the process of education secure both individual and social development. It can be said that the educational efficacies of teachers will promote the effectiveness of the educational process. Students' continual interactions with teachers in their life of education also prioritises teachers' roles. Teachers' competence in their area of expertise and in pedagogy will also influence students' levels of learning. Teachers' educational approaches employed in the classroom can facilitate students' integration with school, teachers and classes.
Classroom management has been regarded as one of the most important factors influencing learning by many educators and researchers for a long time, and its correlations with several variables such as discipline, selfcontrol, responsibility and psychological well-being affecting educational outcomes have been investigated (Bean, 2007;Brophy, 1988;Fareh, 2018;Jones & Jones, 1998;Marzano, Marzano, & Pickering, 2003;Savage & Savage, 2010;Van de Grift, Van der Wal, & Torenbeek, 2011;Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1993). Teachers' understanding of students' behaviours and their considering students' thoughts important, their support, respect and affection for students will lead to mutual trust in teacher-student relations and thus will increase devotion to school. Brewster and Bowen (2004) also state that students' commitment to school will be influenced in positive ways if they are supported by their teachers. Teachers' management efficacies in the classroom can affect students' attitudes towards classes in positive ways and can cause academic and behavioural development. Students who have gained teachers' trust, who take part in learning activities and who have set up good relations with their friends can be thought to be more positive in well-being in the classroom. This situation will make inculcate students a sense of self-confidence and make them feel better. According to Cothran and Ennis (1997), teachers' reassuring behaviours affect students' behaviours as well as the classroom atmosphere (Raider-Roth, 2005) in positive ways. In support of this, Stelter (2013) points out that learning is built upon relations of mutual trust. The opposite situation can result in teachers with low efficacy in classroom management, teachers' failure to go down to the level of students and to appeal to them, teachers' failure to engage students in lessons, failure to generate fast and effective solutions to behavioural problems and thus can make students get away from school. It is probable that students who cannot become integrated with school and with teachers will have decrease in their interest in school and that their academic achievement will fall. Failure and unmet expectations can cause students to have stress. Sun, Hou and Xu (2013) also found that low academic achievement and conflicts with teachers caused increase in educational stress. From the students' point of view, analysing the relationships between teachers' classroom management skills, confidence in teachers, and educational stress can provide multiple benefits. Namely, it has been pointed out in various studies that teachers' professional development is not at the desired level. Classroom management skill is a competence that needs to be reviewed and developed frequently in a rapidly changing world. Determining teachers' classroom management competencies through the eyes of students can enable new policies and practices to be developed both in-service and pre-service training. In addition, it can be thought that students who are just at the beginning of adolescence can meet their physical, social and psychological changes in a healthy way, which will affect academic success and educational stress. Particularly human and behaviour management competencies, which are among the classroom management skills of teachers, enable students to interact positively with the students and cause them to meet the adolescence changes more effectively. It can also be predicted that the trust felt in the school environment in this process will affect the psychology of students positively and reduce the stress of education.
This study aims to analyse the correlations between teachers' efficacies in classroom management, students' confidence in teachers and their perceptions of educational stress. It may be said that teachers' classroom management efficacies will positively affect the school climate, and that students will develop their confidence in teachers. Students who are in a positive school atmosphere can be thought to struggle with educational stress better. No studies were found in the literature analysing the three variables together and investigating the correlations between them. Therefore, it can be predicted that the findings to be obtained by analysing the correlations between the variables will shed light on the practices which influence the quality of education. In this context, it seeks answers to the following questions: 1. What is student' perception about teachers' efficacies in classroom management, students' confidence in teachers and educational stress?
2. Are there any significant correlations between teachers' efficacies in classroom management, students' confidence in teachers and educational stress?
3. Do teachers' efficacies in classroom management, academic achievement and gender have a significant predictive effect on students' confidence in teachers and educational stress?

Classroom Management
Classroom management indicates teachers' roles in creating a classroom environment helping to learn effectively by establishing the discipline in the classroom and by maintaining it (Savage and Savage, 2010). Besides, the process of classroom management also includes the principles and strategies teachers use in establishing a classroom environment of good quality. According to another definition, classroom management is the system of educating which regulates the physical environment of the classroom and which affects students' behaviours so as to facilitate learning (Bean, 2007). Fareh (2018) argues that effective classroom management creates an environment appropriate for learning and thus plays an indispensable role in encouraging learning. There are studies supporting the idea that students display disruptive and maladaptive behaviours in circumstances where classroom management is weak (Little E. & Hudson, 1998;Oliver, Wehby, & Reschly, 2011). According to Walker, Ramsey and Gresham (2004), such problematic behaviours hinder the teaching process, they result in ineffective learning environments and give harm to students' ability to continue learning. They state, on the other hand, that qualified teachers are actualised when management skills and strategies are used in classrooms. It can be thought that teachers can prevent the destructive behaviours influencing the teaching-learning process in negative ways through such skills and strategies. Jones and Jones (1998) state that classroom management is discussed in the context of three approaches. The first one is the approach of counselling which is concerned with keeping students under discipline and with what students should do after their erroneous behaviour. The second is the behaviourist approach focusing on the techniques teachers use in modifying students' undesirable behaviours. The third one is the preventive approach focusing on how teachers hinder students' wrong behaviours by prioritising the process of effectiveness. On considering the those approaches as a whole, it can be said that teachers need to have adequate skills in human, course and behaviour management for effective classroom management. Brown (2001) reports that classroom management includes several variables from regulating the classroom environment to teachers' teaching approaches. Classroom management contains such elements as teachers' ability to use their voice and body language, knowing how to manage the time, comprehensive knowledge of teaching strategies, considering students' differences and respecting them, empathising with students and motivating them. Özcan and Gülözer (2017) associate teachers' classroom management efficacies with various behaviours included in human, course and behaviour management. Behaviours such as close relations with students, considering students' thoughts important, respecting and taking into account are meant with human management. Course management, however, lays emphasis on working to a plan, students' involvement and competence in using methods, techniques and materials. Behaviour management focuses on behaviours related to establishing order in the classroom, attracting students' attention and giving feedback.

Confidence in Teachers
Confidence is described as reciprocation in the context of perception of physical and emotional confidence in interaction between individuals (Raider-Roth, 2005). Cunningham and Gresso (1993), on the other hand, refer to it as "the basis for school effectiveness". Bryk and Schneider (1996) state that confidence is composed of mutual respect, understanding and expectations. The studies mentioned stress that the trust relationship between teachers and students is on the basis of learning (Bryk & Schneider, 2002;Forsyth 2008;Furrer & Skinner, 2003;Mitra, 2009;Stelter, 2013). It is argued that trust relationships are the sources of motivation (Wentzel, 1991) for students in coping with the problems they encounter at school. It is also emphasised that such relations influence their psychological perceptions about themselves in positive ways. Additionally, the students who set up relations of confidence with their teachers were observed to display more positive and constructive behaviours and to suffer from stress and anxiety less (Baker, Grant, & Morlock, 2008;Lee, 2005;Stelter, 2013).
In support of this, Gregory and Ripski (2008) found that teachers who had positive relations with their students encountered less student resistance and opposition. This situation was attributed to students' confidence in their teachers. Ennis and McCauley (2002) say that in the opposite case, when there is no confidence in teacherstudent relations, students' level of involvement will be lower.
It is possible to achieve the educational objectives through confidence underlying interaction. Teachers have important roles in creating a classroom having an atmosphere of confidence. According to Hughes and Kwok (2006), confidence-based interaction in teacher-student relations is dependent on the presence of such elements as interest, respect, communication and cooperation. They will facilitate the formation of the environment of confidence. Crosnoe, Johnson and Elder (2004) claim that creating a strong tie between generations is one of the important elements increasing students' social integration. They also point out that teachers' positive interpersonal behaviours influence students' commitment to school (Hallinan, 2008) and their well-being (Van Petegem, Aelterman, Van Keer, & Rosseel, 2008). According to Ingersoll (2005), teachers' social relations with other staff in school as well as with students are an important part of teaching profession. Apart from that, some studies emphasise that relations based on confidence have also positive effects students' academic achievement (Goddard, Tschannen-Moran, & Hoy, 2001;Hamre & Pianta, 2001;Hughes & Kwok, 2006).

Educational Stress
Most researchers performed research on stress and its outcomes since stress suffered in educational environments can cause various psychological and behavioural problems. Educational stress was described to be the consequence of mental confusion arising due to academic or educational failure (Lal, 2013). Truc, Nguven, Dixon, Sun and Dunne (2015) describe educational stress as a subjective case arising as a response to the probable consequences which individuals' perceive academic performance cause and to such external sources of stress as humans (teachers, parents, etc.) and schooling system. Studies have demonstrated that students can face various situations such as taking examinations, studying hard, competing and failure to meet teachers' and parents' expectation throughout their school life which can cause stress (Mulyadi, Rahardjo, & Basuki, 2016;Dunne & Hou, 2012). Besides, Ghosh (2016) emphasises that children with high levels of stress are not supported emotionally by their parents. In a similar way, it was found that weak parent, teacher and peer relations also affected educational stress significantly (Van der Doef & Maes, 1999).
High educational stress can cause such serious psychological problems as depressed mood and bias towards suicide in students. Studies indicated that academic subjects were among the important sources of chronic stress for students all over the world (Brown, Teufel, Birch, & Kancherla, 2006;Bjorkman, 2007;Kouzma & Kennedy, 2004;Millar & Gallagher, 1996;Page, West, & Hall, 2011;Tang & Westwood, 2007). Some of the studies found that demographic variables such as gender, socio-economic status and ethnicity were correlated with students' educational stress (Bjorkman, 2007). Putwain (2007) said that educational stress was correlated with several cognitive and educational factors such as anxiety, depression, performance, self-inability and laziness. Seçer, Veyis and Gökçen (2015), on the other hand, conceptualised educational stress as despair about expectations, workload, success anxiety and pressures from study.

Method
This study analysing the correlations between teachers' classroom management skills, students' confidence in teachers and students' educational stress-was conducted in relational survey model.

Study Group
The study was carried out in 2018-2019 academic year. The study group was composed of 608 secondary school students studying in Altındağ district of Ankara province, 293 (48.2%) of whom were female and 315 (51.8%) of whom were male. While 131 of them (21.5%) were the fifth graders, 164 (27%) were the sixth graders, 188 (30.9%) were the seventh graders and 125 (20.6%) were the eighth graders. In addition, in terms of academic achievement, it was determined that 356 of the students had 85 and less points (58.6%) and 252 had 86 and more points (41.4%).

Data Collection Tools
The research data were collected with Classroom Management Scale developed by Özcan and Gülözer (2017), Confidence in Teachers Scale adapted by Özer and Tül (2014) and Educational Stress Scale adapted by Seçer, Veyis and Gökçen (2015).
Classroom management scale contained 18 items and 3 factors (human management, course management and behaviour management). The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for the scale was .85. The validity of the factor was analysed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Following the analysis, item 1 (t-value was meaningless), item 4 (high standard error, >.99) and item 5 in the factor of human management were removed from the scale. In the process, the analysis was repeated after each item was removed. Following the analysis, the calculations were: χ2 = 35.8; df = 9 (p < .0001); χ2/df = 3.97; AGFI = .96; NFI = .95; CFI = .96; IFI = .96; RMR = .05 and RMSEA = .06 (N=608). It was found that there was perfect fit in the factor of course management.  Nunnally (1978) stated that reliability coefficient above .70 indicated adequacy. Cresswell (2005) attributed small values yielded by reliability coefficient to the small number of items in a factor. In this case, inter-item correlation average was calculated to support reliability. This value was found to be .257. If value is between .2 and .4, it is expressed as a sign of reliability.
Confidence in teachers scale contained 12 items and one factor. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for the scale was .93. The findings in relation to the validity of the scale indicated that the scale could be used in the present data set χ2 = 183.85; df = 54 (p < .0001); χ2/df = 3.40; AGFI = .93; NFI = .98; CFI = .98; IFI = .98; RMR = .07 and RMSEA = .06] (N=608). Reliability and validity analyses were repeated. Reliability coefficient was found as .90.

Procedures and Data Analysis
The schools where the scales would be administered in the process of data collection were contacted first. 650 students-who were included in the research on the basis of volunteering were given the scales and the application lasted 10 minutes. The completed scales were collected and 42 of them were excluded from analyses due to various problems (items not completed, more than one marking for an item, etc.). After that, the remaining 608 scales were put to the computer and the skewness-kurtosis values of the data set, the Q-Q graph and the extent to which the uni-directional and multi-directional normality assumptions were met were analysed.
Having skewness-kurtosis values between -2 and +2 and having the image in the form of a 45 degree ellipsis on the Q-Q graph was interpreted as meeting the normality assumption (Kalaycı, 2014, p. 8). The intervals of averages 1.00-1.80 were interpreted as "very low", 1.81-2.60 as "low", 2.61-3.40 as "medium", 3.41-4.20 as "high" and 4.21-5.00 as "very high" in this study. Also, the significant relationships between variables .00-.30 were interpreted as "low", .31-.70 as "medium" and .71-1.00 as "high" (Büyüköztürk, Çokluk, & Köklü, 2012, p. 92). Mean was used in determining the perceptions about the variables, Pearson's Moments correlation analysis was used in determining the correlations between the variables and multiple linear regression analysis was used in determining the effects in this study.

Findings
This study analysed secondary school students' perceptions of teachers' classroom management skills, of their confidence in teachers and of educational stress relatively and the correlations between those variables. It also investigated the predictiveness of teachers' classroom management skills on confidence in teachers and on students' educational stress. The findings obtained through mean and Pearson's moments correlation analysis are shown in Table 1. As is clear from Table 1, teachers' competence in human management ( =3.69) and in behaviour management ( =3.41) is "high but their competence in course management ( =3.22) is "medium". Besides, students' perceptions of confidence in teachers ( =3.82) were found to be "high". In addition to that, students' perceptions of pressures from study ( =2.65), workload ( =2.95) and despair about expectations ( =3.20) were found to be "medium" and their perceptions of success anxiety ( =3.74) were found to be "high".
The correlations between teachers classroom management efficacies, confidence in teachers and educational stress were analysed by using the enter model in this study. The analyses were done at two stages. At stage one, gender and academic achievement were coded in the form of dummy variables as control variables (female: 1, male: 0; 86-100:1; 0-85:0). While classifying academic success, it was aimed to reveal the effect of students with high achievement (86-100). At stage two, human management, course management and behaviour management-the sub-factors of classroom management-were included in analyses. Durbin-Watson and VIF values were examined for the problem of multicollinearity. Having Durbin-Watson (DW) value of between 1.5 and 2.5, VIF value below 10 and CI value below 30 is regarded as the indicator that there are no multicollinearity problems (Kalaycı, 2014, p. 267-268;Çokluk, Şekercioğlu & Büyüköztürk, 2016, p. 38). In this context, the DW was found to be between 1.78 and 1.89, the VIF to be between 1.08 and 1.56 and the CI to be between 1.0 and 13.87. The values indicated that there were no multicollinearity problems. The results of multilinear regression analysis are shown in Table 2.
Teachers' classroom management efficacy along with the control variables in terms of students' confidence in teachers explained 37% of the total variance (F=73.017, p<.05). It was found that demographic variables did not have significant effects. Teachers' competence in human management (β=.259, p<.05) course management (β=.107, p<.05) and behaviour management (β=.421, p<.05) was found to be significantly correlated with confidence in teachers. Teachers' classroom management efficacy along with the control variables in terms of students' perceptions of pressures from study explained 12% of the total variance (F=16.248, p<.05).
Demographic variables on their own were found to explain 1% of the total variance (F=4.185, p<.05). Thus, it was found that teachers' human management efficacy (β=-.319, p<.05) was significantly correlated with students' perceptions of pressures from study. Teachers' classroom management efficacy along with the control variables in terms of students' perceptions of workload explained 13% of the total variance (F=19.094, p<.05). Demographic variables on their own explained 1% of the variance (F=3.611, p<.05). It was found that academic achievement (β=-.075, p<.05) and teachers' human management efficacy (β=-.323, p<.05) were significantly correlated with students' perceptions of workload. Teachers' classroom management efficacy along with the control variables in terms of students' perceptions of despair about expectations explained 7% of the total variance (F=5.094, p<.05). It was found that academic achievement was significantly correlated with teachers' human management efficacy (β=-.196, p<.05) and with students' perceptions of despair about expectations. Teachers' classroom management efficacy along with the control variables in terms of students' perceptions of success anxiety explained 7% of the total variance (F=7.865, p<.05). Demographic variables on their own explained 2% of the variance (F=5.153, p<.05). It was found that teachers' human management (β=-.098, p<.05), course management (β=.131, p<.05) and behaviour management (β=.100, p<.05) efficacies were significantly correlated with students' perceptions of success anxiety.

Discussion, Results and Recommendations
This study aimed to analyse the correlations between teachers' classroom management skills, confidence in teachers and students' perceptions of educational stress on the basis of views stated by 608 secondary school students. Previous studies indicated that teachers with developed classroom skills affected students' behaviours in positive ways (Emmer & Emertson, 2013;Fareh, 2018;Raider-Roth, 2005;Walker, Ramsey, & Gresham, 2004). It was also found by studies that students' confidence in teachers improved teacher-student relations. It was also found that trust-based relations increased students' academic outcomes (Mitchell, Forsyth, & Robinson, 2008), well-being and academic optimism (Murray & Zvoch, 2011) while decreasing alienation to school and educational stress (Stelter, 2013).
It was found in this study that teachers' human management skills were very developed. No studies were found in the literature supportive of this finding. However, it can be said that devotion to teaching profession in Turkey causes teacher-student relation to be like family relations. Akman and Özdemir (2019) point out that teachers feel the sense of commitment most to their students. The finding can be said to overlap with teachers' human management skills at least indirectly. Another finding was that confidence in teachers was high. The finding is supported by various studies (Akman, Abaslı, & Polat, 2018;Özer & Tül, 2014;Özer, Dönmez, & Atik, 2016). UNESCO Global Monitoring Report (2017) also emphasised that confidence in teachers is an approach prevalent in societies. Accordingly, students-the members of society-can be expected to have similar thoughts in terms of socialisation. Besides, students mostly stated that they felt success anxiety. The findings obtained in Kaya and Sezgin (2017) are also similar. Universities are valued very much in Turkey in students' getting a job. It can be predicted that this situation causes anxiety since students' proficiency is considered to be the reflections of their academic achievement especially in university entrance examinations. Similarly, it can be thought that secondary school students may be anxious during the transition to high school.
This study found that gender was a significant predictor of success anxiety. Thus, it was found that female students had higher success anxiety than male students. This was a finding supported by the one obtained in Acun Kapıkıran (2008). The reason for it can be the demand for encouragement, appreciation and approval and especially female students' thoughts to prove themselves through education and to attain success in this way. Their failure to achieve success can cause their school life to end and can reduce the probability to have a voice first in their family and then in the society family due to the patriarchal structure in Turkish society. Those factors can be thought to increase girls' success anxiety. Academically, it was observed that the students who were above 85 points had a significantly higher success anxiety. The situation might have stemmed from belief that appreciation and approval which are the results of achievement may be lost. Another finding was that students with scores below 85 had higher perceptions of workload and despair about expectations. It was found in relevant literature that students who were academically unsuccessful developed negative attitudes towards school (Parmaksızoğlu Cebenoyan, 2008). The situation can cause students to become alienated from school and to find causes for their failure. These reasons include reduced free time and fatigue due to the excessive course load. Thus, failure of time constraints in a vicious circle form and failure to meet the expectations of students as a result of academic failure may lead to despair.
The findings demonstrated that there were significant correlations between classroom management skills, confidence and educational stress. It is known that teachers' competence in classroom management improves teacher-student relations (Kayıkçı, 2009;Sun, 2015). In a similar way, confidence in teachers is remarkable as an element reducing students' stress (Lee, 2005;Sotardi, 2018). The findings obtained in the study demonstrated that classroom management was an important element influential in students' perceptions of confidence and stress. Especially the significant correlations between human management and students' perceptions of confidence, despair about expectations, workload and pressures for studying were prominent. Accordingly, the thing measured in human management was that each student was an individual, that their feelings and thoughts were taken into consideration, were supported and that students were the entities deserving respect. In other words, students consider behaviours which touch their internal world and their entity and which value them important rather than the materials used in classes, the way they are made to sit in the classroom or presentation techniques used in classes. Several studies point to the importance of close and careful relations students develop with their teachers (Capern & Hammond, 2014;Kaniuka & Vickers, 2010). In brief, feelings are emphasised. Findings that processing and the information and mental processes are influenced by feelings are remarkable in studies (Owens, Stevenson, Hadwin, & Norgate, 2012;Viljaranta, Aunola, Mullola, Virkkala, Hirvonen, Pakarinen, & Nurmi, 2015). Besides, Zagonc (1980) also states that feelings are a system which are more prominent than cognitive processes and which regulate emotions. In addition to that, factors such as failure, examination pressures and extreme workload were also found to affect students' psychological health in negative ways (Li & Zhang, 2008). Lin and Chen (1995) point to the fact that high academic pressures increase bias towards violence and that they cause students to experience various developmental problems. It can be thought that the problems students can encounter can be overcome with the guidance of teachers having high efficacy of classroom management. Additionally, it was observed in the light of current and previous research findings that teachers who could understand students' feelings through efficient interaction and who could develop practices accordingly could create more positive learning environments (Romero, 2015). This can be regarded as a reflection of effective classroom management skills. I addition to that, Thompson (2016) claims that sense of confidence increases students' academic and behavioural achievement. In this context, the interpretation that confidence-dominated relations between teachers and students will reduce students' stress can be made. It is evident that the key to an intimate atmosphere in which students can share their feelings with their teachers is in relations which are built upon trust. It can be predicted in this context that teachers who make students feel that they are valuable can influence students' psychology and can reduce their anxiety.
In conclusion, teachers' classroom management efficacies were found to have significant effects on confidence in teachers and on students' stress. Especially the fact that human management efficacies predicted all variables significantly pointed to the importance basing teachers' relations with students on affection, respect and tolerance. Accordingly, it may be recommended to the future studies that (i) the study be repeated with larger samples, (ii) studies be conducted in qualitative or mixed methods; and in terms of application it can be recommended that (i) pedagogical efficacy be prioritised in teacher training process, (ii) social activities to promote teacher-student relations be increased, (iii) pre-service and in-service training to increase the behavior management skills of teachers and prospective teachers.