102082 PPLE Report

Introduction

Misbehaviour or inappropriate behaviour is any type of behaviour that interferes with a

student’s own learning and or other students, and which prevents teachers’ ability to create
effective learning experience within the classroom (Beaman, Wheldall & Kemp, as cited in De
Nobile, Lyons & Arthur-Kelly, 2017). Any behaviour that is socially and contextually
unacceptable and disrespects the rights of students to learn and feel safe, including
themselves (De Nobile, Lyons & Arthur-Kelly, 2017). These can range from disengagement to
disruptive behaviours such as harassment of peers and aggression or violence in the
classrooms. Hence class room management takes up a significant amount of teachers’ time
as well as affects the learning experience of the entire class. There are multiple underlying
reasons which includes biological and cognitive developmental issues and social and
emotional difficulties (Arnett, 2014). This report will analyse different academic literatures on
the reasons for student misbehaviour and compare with the interview findings as well as
provide some implications for praxis.

Literature Review

Through a descriptive study of students’ and teachers’ attributes for student misbehaviour,
Cothran, Kullina and Garray (2009), concluded that teachers accounted this to unknown and
home factors, whereas, students accounted this for attention seeking and lack of meaningful
class content. The authors concluded that the critical difference in the perspectives of
students and teachers show that both the groups are not willing to accept the ownership of
the problem and hence cannot be effectively solved.

Crawshaw (2015) has pointed out in the background of his review regarding serious student
misbehaviours, that the tendency of increasing misbehaviour in high school settings can be
attributed to new school topics, new teachers with different expectations and new teacher-
student relationships. The author has also highlighted the fact that inclusive education that
brings students with a variety of disabilities into the classroom also creates classroom
management issues. Learners with disabilities can misbehave in class when their needs are
not met properly. Teachers attitudes and beliefs had higher levels of influence on behaviour
of students with disabilities especially with those having social, emotional and behavioural
difficulties (SEBD) (MacFarlane & Woolfson, 2013)

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A part of the review on student teacher relationships by Mcgrath and Van Bergen (2015)
highlighted the main reasons for student misbehaviours. These included student
temperament, student teacher attachment, internalising and externalising disorders,
disabilities and learning difficulties and academic abilities. For example, the students may find
the tasks too difficult, have some family issues or feel frustrated with the teacher. Drawing
out from the attachment theory, the loss of a teacher-student relationship can lead to anxiety
and anger. Several internalising disorders such as anxiety and depression as well as
externalising disorders including conduct disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity
disorders can result in misbehaviours. Students with disabilities and or learning difficulties
have low self esteem, less family connectedness and peer pressure that cause misbehaviours.
Similar to Mcgrath and Van Bergen, a recent study which analysed the occupational well being
of teachers, had highlighted the teacher- student relationship which reduces student
misbehaviour and increases teacher well being (Aldrup, Klusmann, Ludtke, Gollner &
Trautwein, 2018).

A multilevel analysis by Demanet & Van Houtte (2012) suggested that in schools where
teacher expectations were low, students received less teacher support and was associated
with higher rates of self reported school misconduct.

Interview findings

Methodology

Participants

Codes Given Gender Age Category

F1 Female 27 Teacher
F2 Female 41 University Tutor and Parent of High School
student
F3 Female 30 Doctor (a recent post graduate)
M1 Male 26 Pre service Teacher
M2 Male 34 Biotechnologist and parent of primary
school student
M3 Male 30 Hospitality Manager and parent of a
toddler

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Method:

Short interviews were conducted. The interviews adhered to the ethical protocols. All the
participants were asked to read the information sheet and sign the consent form before
commencing the interview. Interviewees were informed about the confidentiality of their
identities to protect their privacy. Informal interviews started with an open ended question
‘why do you think young people misbehave in school?’ and continued with related questions
depending on their responses. Participants were free to express their opinions and ideas and
the responses were noted down during the interview. These were later analysed to find the
common trends.

Major Findings

The responses were categorised into three major themes- boredom, attention seeking and
student-teacher relationship. Five out of the six participants attributed misbehaviour to
students’ boredom. F1 stated her experience as a teacher, ‘Student misbehaviour have multi-
faceted reasons, major one to be boredom. Students easily get bored in lessons if they are
not interesting and or challenging’. Both parents (F2 and M2) said that their children
complained of getting bored if there are no interesting things in the lesson. F3 recollecting
her student experience stated, ‘I felt bored and often talked or chatted on facebook when the
lessons were dragging and theory based. But it was fun in practicals.’

Attention seeking was second most opted reason. Four out of six said students misbehaved
for getting attention. M1 responded, ‘My experience with some disadvantaged students
shows that attention seeking is one of the major reasons for misbehaviour. They do funny
and disruptive stuff to attract teacher and peer attention.’

Student-teacher relationship was the next identified cause for misbehaviour. M3 recollected
his own and classmates’ experience during study, ‘I remember well all my good classes were
the ones which I had a good relationship with the teacher. I think this was mostly the case
among us boys. We used to be disruptive in chemistry classes because we simply hated the
teacher’s attitude’. M2 said, ‘My daughter loves her class and when asked why she always say
she loved her teacher.’

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A few other reasons were also come across during the discussions. One was found interesting
that the participant exclaimed that we do not teach our children to express themselves
properly. They do not know how to express their emotions and when they do it they get
wrong. Others were that the students’ needs are not met in the classrooms, family issues and
health issues/disorders.

Discussion on literature review and interview findings

There are a few interesting themes in the responses of the interviewees, based on their life
status (being a teacher or parent or a student). The teacher and pre-service teacher shifted
the cause towards the student attributes, whereas parents and students (previous students
in this study) found reasons relating to pedagogy and teacher attitude. This aligns with the
research findings of Cothran et al., 2009. The authors concluded that if they do not own the
problem they cannot solve it.

Boredom which was main response to the research question, had been supported by various
research findings in education. Arnett (2014) had suggested that students get bored when the
work is not challenging and can result in disengagement and misbehaviour. Cothran et. al.
(2009) had also evidenced through the student perceptions about subject matter and
activities influence their behaviour in the classrooms. Even with different policies and
strategies in effect, there are always gaps and silences towards classroom management and
student control. The deficiencies in the curriculum, inappropriate pedagogy or the
marginalisation of young people can result in student misbehaviour (Maguire as cited in
Maguire, Ball & Braun, 2010). Both the parents and the past students stated the need for
interesting ways of learning in the classrooms. This has significant ties with the above said
research evidences.

Attention seeking was the next common response spread through out different participants
regardless of their status. Teachers, parents and one past student had identified attention
seeking as one cause unacceptable behaviour. The participants further expanded their
experiences such as boys would act out to seek attention from girls, to acquire admiration
from peers and so on. This was supported by the study by Cothran et al. (2009) by highlighting
that students’ behaviour in classrooms highly influenced by the perception that the attention
gained through misbehaviour in the class resulted in increased their social status among the

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peers. Arnett (2014) has recognised that adolescent behaviour is highly influenced by the
presence of peers.

Teacher- student relationship is another cause identified by half of my participants. Both the
parents and the past student acknowledged that if the students loved their teacher, they
behaved well in the classrooms. The elaboration on this response found that the
connectedness and care that they felt from the teacher was a powerful driving factor for
acceptable behaviour in those classes. This had been backed up by various studies. Crawshaw
(2015) pointed out that new student-teacher relationship in secondary schools can influence
their behaviour. MacFarlane and Woolfson (2013) had also highlighted that teacher attitudes
and beliefs affect the behaviour of students with disabilities. Loss of student- teacher
relationship can result in anger and aggression and thereby increase student misbehaviour
and reduce teacher well being and efficacy (Aldrup, Klusmann, Ludtke, Gollner & Trautwein,
2018; Mcgrath and Van Bergen, 2015).

Praxis Implications

From the literature review and the interview findings had given me a better understanding
on the misbehaviour of young people and I feel more equipped with strategies for class room
management. Another major re-enforcement was the fact that misbehaviour occurs due to a
reason. Hence, it is about finding out the underlying reasons and then working on it. As
Cothran et al. (2015) had pointed out if we do not own the problem, then we cannot solve it.
Therefore, I must break my prejudicated views and reflect on my teaching practice. Only
continuous self-reviewing and self-reflecting on the pedagogy is the key to a successful
classroom management.

Since student-teacher relationship is the key mediating factor to improve student behaviour,
I would ensure that I have build strong and healthy relationship with my students. Being
knowledgeable about the research evidence and real-life people interaction it is now my
ethical responsibility and professional commitment to enhance this relationship and improve
my students social and emotional development.

Another factor would be to engaging them in the lessons so that they do not get bored with
the contents. Chemistry and biology being my key learning areas, I know that there are
theories that are based on abstract concepts, which are dry and students can give up on the
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subjects. Now that I am aware of the consequences that can have on class room management,
I will incorporate more interesting things within the lessons. This is achievable only through
understanding the students interests. Including games in the lesson would be a great way to
start as I did with my lesson plans in Chemistry and may be incorporate assessment tasks
around a game. Either ways, I do not want my students to hate me for my boring lessons and
poor engagement. I hope to continuously learn more ways to make my lessons more lively.

Attention seeking, I feel, can be dealt by letting the students know that I have got best
interests for them and I can help them anything within the school and can be open to
problems outside the school. This is again more about relationships and connectivity.

Conclusion

The literature review and the interview findings I am aware that students behave in a
particular way because of many underlying and important reasons. It is not always the
students’ attributes, but the teachers have a strong hold as well. We need to accept the
ownership of the problem, rather than blaming others. You may be wrong, but you can always
be better and work from there. Hence, being a knowledgeable pre service teacher, I need to
shift the focus to me and correct myself in the pedagogical content knowledge. However, I
may be in a situation where I can have no idea of the reasons for a misbehaviour. But now I
know how to handle it, even though I may not be able to solve it immediately.

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References

Aldrup, K., Klusmann, U., Lüdtke, O., Göllner, R., & Trautwein, U. (2018). Student misbehavior
and teacher well-being: Testing the mediating role of the teacher-student relationship.
Learning And Instruction, 58, 126-136. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.05.006
Arnett, J. (2014). Adolescence and emerging adulthood (5th ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson
Education Limited.
Cothran, D., Kulinna, P., & Garrahy, D. (2009). Attributions for and consequences of student
misbehavior. Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy, 14(2), 155-167. doi:
10.1080/17408980701712148
Crawshaw, M. (2015). Secondary school teachers’ perceptions of student misbehaviour: A
review of international research, 1983 to 2013. Australian Journal Of Education, 59(3),
293-311. doi: 10.1177/0004944115607539
Demanet, J., & Van Houtte, M. (2012). Teachers' attitudes and students' opposition. School
misconduct as a reaction to teachers' diminished effort and affect. Teaching And
Teacher Education, 28(6), 860-869. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.03.008
De Nobile, J., Lyons, G., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2017). Positive learning environments: Creating
and maintaining productive classrooms (1st ed.). South Melbourne, Victoria Australia:
Cengage Learning Australia.

MacFarlane, K., & Woolfson, L. M. (2013). Teacher attitudes and behavior toward the
inclusion of children with social, emotional and behavioral difficulties in mainstream
schools: An application of the theory of planned behavior. Teaching and teacher
education, 29, 46-52.
Maguire, M., Ball, S., & Braun, A. (2010). Behaviour, classroom management and student
ÔcontrolÕ: enacting policy in the English secondary school. International Studies in
Sociology of Education, 20(2), 153 - 170.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2010.503066
McGrath, K., & Van Bergen, P. (2015). Who, when, why and to what end? Students at risk of
negative student–teacher relationships and their outcomes. Educational Research
Review, 14, 1-17. doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2014.12.001

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