Causes Of Student Misbehavior And Strategies For Teachers To Cope With It

The Relationship Between Education and Student Behavior

Discuss about the Literature Review for Political and Economic Development.

Educating someone is the process of imparting knowledge to persons for their mental, physical, social, emotional, spiritual, political, and economic development. According to (Korpershoe, Harms, Boer, Kuijk, & Doolaard, 2014), Education is that important aspect of life which makes human beings functional member of the place where they live. The way the students behave in their personal life depends highly on the quality of education they have received. Educational institutes and the teachers play the most critical role in the development of the behavior of students. (Kulinna, 2008) mentioned classroom environment as one of the most complex environment where student learns through the discussion, talks, and other daily activities which take place among the students and teachers in the classroom. 

With the passage of time, the misbehavior of the students has become most prevailing issue affecting the environment of schools and society (Brhane, 2016). Misbehavior of the students such as disobedience, aggression, using abusive language, and ignorance to the guidelines and others issues have been reported as highly challenging situation for the teachers as they find difficult to fulfil their goals, due to student’s misbehavior (Jinot Belle, 2017).

A study performed by (Mavropoulou & Padeliadu, 2002) analysed the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of control and their causal attributions for behavior problems by taking 5305 elementary teachers as the sample size. The study showed that teachers consider family and student related factors, are the major cause for the misbehavior and disobedience shown by the students towards teachers. Whereas, they disagreed with the school and organic factor being a cause for the misconduct of students. In addition to these factors, factors such as high number of students in the class, increased amount of school home-work,  strict guidelines in the classroom, and attitude of teachers’ towards the students have also been found as the contributing factor for behavioral problems.

According to (Yuan & Che, 2012), students’ misconduct is the most unavoidable thing for the teachers in the class as it takes most of the time of the teacher to deal with it. The researcher has mentioned three main reasons for the misbehavior of the students in the students, the teacher and the society.  From all these three aspects- attention seeking, learning difficulties, mentioning the mistakes of students all the time instead of appreciating, low self-esteem of students, punishments given by the teachers, less motivation, low income of the parents, and single parent are the major causes behind the misconduct of the students. Some of the researcher have mentioned the family status as a cause of misbehavior of students. For instance-In order to show the relationship between social status and misbehavior of children, (Yuan & Che, 2012) with a sample size of 1,265 children of entry level to 16 years  showed that most of the students who have behavioral problem usually belong to the family with low income background, from a  comparatively low social class, and also belong to the single parent as well.

Causes of Student Misbehavior in Classroom

While taking 500 teachers as a sample size, (Ghazi, Shahzada, Tariq, & Khan, 2013) found the causes behind the misbehavior of student as secondary level. The study exhibited inconsistent parenting, over protective parenting, poverty, poor quality teaching, teachers’ negative attitude towards students, inconsistency with the syllabus and teacher, lack of motivation, poor condition of class rooms, and lack of alternatives. The misbehavior of students is not limited to the verbal communication and disallowance of educators’ guidelines, but physical harm has also become a part of it.

(Kaya, Bilgin, & Singer, 2012) measured the misconduct and their aggressive behavior in the classroom towards teachers, by interviewing a sample size of 30 teachers teaching 9^th and 10^th grade. The obtained findings revealed that boys use abusive and foul language with teachers and other students. The causes behind this behavior have been noticed such as negative environment at home, disputes at family, broken or divorced family environment, unfriendly parents, authoritative and dishonest teachers, less interaction between teachers and students, pressure of studies, and injustice in society. Also, it has been found that no freedom of choosing a subject of their own choice makes student aggressive.

(Bru, 2006a) examined the factors associated with disruptive behavior in the classroom, with a sample of 3834 students of grade 6 and 9 in Norwegian school. In this study it has been shown that perceived cerebral competence, perceived low importance given to the schoolwork, and the perception that breaking norm behavior increases their peer status are the major cause behind the misconduct and opposite behavior of the students shown towards their teacher. The obtained results from the study also suggested that teachers shall focus and working on reducing the student’s perception on making a strong social status through breaking rather than making them task oriented.

Another study conducted by (Sun, 2014),  on a sample of 12 teachers and 18 students of 7-9 grade for examining the differences and similarities in the given causal explanations for Classroom misbehavior of students showed multiple findings.  The results obtained in this study showed that the responses received from students and teachers has no major difference. Fun and pleasure seeking and attention seeking have been found the major leading reasons behind the misbehavior of the students in the class from perspective of students and teachers both. In addition to these factors students mentioned more factors such as boring lessons, unattractive learning content, and boring teaching methods. Along with this the teachers mentioned values and behavior of the parents and low social-economic status as another factors which lead students to misbehave in the class. Along with these results, the researcher also mentioned that implementing youth development programs for students, avoiding personal

Teachers’ Perceptions of Control and Causal Attributions for Behavior Problems

biases which provoke a student for misbehavior, and making the students in intervened in individual interesting projects, encouraging the students and showing positive behavior towards them can be helpful strategies for reducing disruptive behavior of students.

In order to deal with such disruptive behavior of the students in class teachers make multiple strategies for students which can mitigate the issues of misbehavior in the student. For instance- the study conducted by (Özben, 2010),  studied the misbehavior of student and strategies taken by the teachers to cope with them. The researcher took a sample population of 869 teachers: 518 female and 351 male participants. The results revealed that the strategies such as verbal warning, warning thorough eye contact, questioning, changing activity if student feel bored, keeping a positive attitude,  interacting with students, and contacting to the parents, counsellor, and parents frequently.

(Brhane, 2016) pointed the poor interaction between teachers and student as the major cause behind the misconduct of the child in the classroom. Also, the interaction, between student and teacher is the most influencing element in their learning process. The way a student behaves directly reflects the learning received by him in the classroom and the type of management of the classroom.  Therefore, teachers should adopt strategy of frequent and clear interaction with student and shall focus on resolving the problem of the students.

In the study, “Teacher’s attribution and Strategies on Student’s misbehavior”, conducted by (Kulinna, 2008), on 199 physical education teachers, it has been reflected that the major reason behind the misconduct of the student is focus of teacher more on the curriculum and syllabus completion and ignorance to the behavior of students. Further the researcher has shown that reducing complains, ignoring the behavior, contacting the parents frequently results into improved behavior of students, Further, strategies such as giving bonus points for positive behavior, rewarding student for efforts, having a direct and soft communication with student, assigned a mentor for work, and asking students to help each other are the major strategies for reducing the disruptive behavior of students.

The objectives of this research study are to find out the causes behind the misbehavior of the student along with finding the strategies implemented by teachers to mitigate the issues of students’ misconduct in the classroom.

To meet the objective of the study survey has been chosen as the most optimal data collection method.

Interview protocol: To collect the information for fulfilling the aim and objective students of middle level school, based in Australia has been chosen. Before sharing the survey questionnaire with students, the purpose of the research and all other protocols were explained to school authority. The survey questionnaire was thematic and was shared using Survey Monkey online survey website. The research questions formed are shown in the given table.

Research Questions	Conceptual Ideas and themes constructed from the literature
What are the possible causes behind the misbehaviour of the students in the classroom?	Though these questions have already been discussed in the literature extensively (Ghazi et al., 2013; Kaya et al., 2012; Steffgen, 2007). However, there is a lack of literature for the same in Australia and also the reasons of misbehaving may be different at middle school level of Australia. Therefore, this question has its own relevance.
Is family socio level a cause behind their misbehaviour? If yes, How and Which factors are highly responsible for it?	(Fergusson & Lynskey, 1996) has discussed family socio issues as the factors which highly influencing students’ behaviour in the classroom. Issue in family. Single parenting, and income issues are shown highly associated to the aggressive and disobedience behaviour of children (Kaya et al., 2012).
How does teacher’s negative or positive behaviour affect the behaviour of students? Give some instances.	(Bru, 2006b; Mavropoulou & Padeliadu, 2002; Sava, 2002) have pointed out teachers’ behaviour to be highly influencing element for the misbehaviour of students towards teacher and other students in the classroom.
What are the steps taken by school authority to reduce the disruptive behaviour of students?	(Omote, Thinguri, & Moenga, 2015) focused the management responsibility and strategies towards the indiscipline of the students.
What are the strategies taken by teachers to mitigate the issues related to misbehaviour of the students in the classroom?	Classroom management done by the teachers plays the most significant role in improving the behaviour of students in classroom (Özben, 2010).
Are the adopted strategies by teachers affective for improvement in students?	This question is specifically focused on deriving the insights related to the effectiveness of the strategies implemented by teachers in classroom. Based on the findings revealed it will be examined that what should be the next needed steps.

Factors Associated with Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom

A research design is detailed structure of connecting the data collection procedures to other methods and processes in order to establish the objective of the research (Poonam 2012). In other terms, it directs the researcher in decision making by “establishing the overview of what is to be observed, how to observe, where to observe, why to observe, how to gather observations, how to analyze and generalize the results”.

In order to meet the objective of the study Survey method has been chosen. Survey methods helps in bringing the insights by questioning the participants of the study and then describing the responses received in a clear way. Here, Survey method has been chosen the most suitable data collected method as it will help to examine the perception and attitude of students for understanding the effect of teacher’s strategy on their behavior.

There are three research methods exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research methods to out of which exploratory research method has been chosen to understand how teacher’s strategy effect the misbehavior of the students in middle level schools of Australia.

For any research, the data is collection is done in either any of the two research ways or in both ways- quantitative and qualitative research methods. In this research study, the researcher projected towards a qualitative research method as per the objective of the study. According  to (Creswell, 2014), the qualitative research deals with thoughts, perception and behavior of the people towards a particular issue. Here, to understand the perception of students towards effect of teachers’ strategies on their behavior qualitative research method is the most optimal as this will dig the thoughts of students in a clear way. The students will be able to share their perception more clearly as the survey questionnaire contains open-ended semi structured questions.

Qualitative or quantitative both type of data has two ways for data collection mentioned either from a primary source or secondary. A primary research is done for the problem present currently, to infer the  findings; and secondary research is the existing source of information which is done by some other organization or person for their use at some point of time in the past (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). Here, primary type of research has been conducted. Also, the secondary sources such as journals and reports have been taken as the support of findings of this study.

To collect the data a prior permission was taken from school authority and 10 students were chosen randomly from schools. The students were already informed about the research study and were asked to fill the questionnaire.

Strategies for Teachers to Cope with Student Misbehavior

Questionnaire is considered as a structured tool developed for  collection of raw data in the form of questions based on the objective (Kolb, 2008). The questionnaire for this specific research was containing open-ended semi-structured questions. The questionnaire contained only 10 questions developed with a varying question types, to allow participants to explore and critically reflect on their own concerns; revealing insights from their own experience, inherent beliefs and expand on these reasons in order for the researcher to gain deeper understanding of these targeted concerns. The questionnaire was administered to the students using Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey online survey method has been chosen as highly suitable for this research as this is cheap, deliver right information shared by the participants, and saves time of participants and researchers both.

The researcher put the clear vision of the research study in front of school authority, and then asked for the permission to conduct the surveys with the and students. All the information and data shared by the respondents was kept secure and safe and it was not used for any other purpose instead of the research.  

References:

Brhane, S. (2016). Students’ and Teachers’ Views of Students’ Misbehaviors in Bulbula Secondary and Preparatory School, Addis Ababa.  Department of Educational Planning and Management . Retrieved from https://etd.aau.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/12432/1/Shumet Brhane.pdf

Bru, E. (2006a). Factors associated with disruptive behaviour in the classroom. Norway: University of Stavanger. Retrieved from https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/185262/Disruptive_behaviour_classroom.pdf?sequence=1

Bru, E. (2006b). Factors associated with disruptive behaviour in the classroom. Retrieved from https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/185262/Disruptive_behaviour_classroom.pdf?sequence=1

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches – John W. Creswell – Google Books (4th ed., pp. 20–47). Sage Publication. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?id=PViMtOnJ1LcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=research+design+definition&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivgvTtt_DQAhVKvY8KHQbPDfgQ6AEIKjAB#v=onepage&q=research design definition&f=false

Fergusson, D. M., & Lynskey, M. T. (1996). Adolescent Resiliency to Family Adversity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37(3), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1996.tb01405.x

Ghazi, S. R., Shahzada, G., Tariq, M., & Khan, A. Q. (2013). Types and Causes of Students’ Disruptive Behavior in Classroom at Secondary Level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. American Journal of Educational Research, 1(9), 350–354.

Jinot Belle, L. (2017). Factors that influence student behaviour in secondary schools. European Journal of Educational and Development Psychology, 5(27), 27–36. Retrieved from https://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Factors-That-Influence-Student-Behaviour-in-Secondary-Schools.pdf

Kaya, F., Bilgin, H., & Singer, M. I. (2012). Contributing Factors to Aggressive Behaviors in High School Students in Turkey. The Journal of School Nursing, 28(1), 56–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059840511418669

Kolb, B. (2008). Marketing Resear ch. SAGE Publications. Retrieved from https://healholistic.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/marketing-research.pdf

Korpershoe, H., Harms, T., Boer, H. de, Kuijk, M. van, & Doolaard, S. (2014). Effective classroom management strategies and classroom management programs for educational practice. University of Groningen. Retrieved from https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/15665813/PDF_GION_rapport_Effective_Classroom_Management.pdf

Kulinna, P. H. (2008). Teachers’ Attributions and Strategies for Student Misbehavior. The Journal of Classroom Interaction. Journal of Classroom Interaction. https://doi.org/10.2307/23869790

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Omote, M. J., Thinguri, R. W., & Moenga, M. E. (2015). A Critical Analysis of Acts of Student Indiscipline and Management Strategies Employed by School Authorities in Public High Schools in Kenya. International Journal of Education and Research, 3(12), 1–10. Retrieved from https://www.ijern.com/journal/2015/December-2015/01.pdf

Özben, Ù. (2010). Teachersâ€^TM strategies to cope with student misbehavior. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2, 587–594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.068

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Sava, F. A. (2002). Causes and effects of teacher conflict-inducing attitudes towards pupils: a path analysis model. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 1007–1021. Retrieved from https://www-psychology.concordia.ca/fac/kline/sem/qicss/sava.pdf

Steffgen, G. (2007). Teachers as victims of school violence – the influence of strain and school culture. International Journal on Violence and Schools, 81–93. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5e8c/fc66ddd841571ec52faa86ffc12ff8316cb3.pdf

Sun, R. C. F. (2014). Teachers’ and Students’ Causal Explanations for Classroom Misbehavior: Similarities and Differences. International Journal of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, 8(2), 410–415. Retrieved from https://waset.org/publications/9997384/teachers-and-students-causal-explanations-for-classroom-misbehavior-similarities-and-differences

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