Pedagogy for Positive Learning Environments: Assessment 1

Introduction

The following research focuses around the concepts behind student misbehaviour and reasons
such behaviours exist in the classroom space. This research will explore a variety of literature
to acquire background knowledge surrounding this topic, while also discussing interview
processes that were completed to gather data regarding this topic. The literature explored will
be synthesised with interview data as comparisons between these two research methods will
allow for accuracy in this research paper. This writing will then reflect on the research
undertaken in reference to personal praxis.

Review of literature

It is important as educators to identify the different behaviours that occur in class, before being
able to address and understand why these behaviours are present. Research shows what
behaviours teachers are thought to find more prevalent or problematic. While there the data
shows that the hierarchy of these behaviours fluctuated based on teacher demographic (gender,
age, experience and grade they teach), the research was able to uncover the main types of
misbehaviour seen in class. The forms of misbehaviour that exist in the class space include
being off-task, verbal disruption, verbal aggression, noncompliance, being out of seat, physical
aggression, physical disruption, self-stimulatory and isolation (Alter, Walker & Lander, 2013).
While these forms of misbehaviour have been identified, teachers must consider why they are
present and ways in which they can manage these behaviours.

There are a variety of factors that cause student misbehaviour whether these factors exist
internally or externally. Internal referring to school and external relating to factors outside of
the school environment. Research completed by Cothran, Kulinna and Garrahy (2015) uncover
opinions of student misbehaviour from both teachers and students. The results show three main
reasons; home life, need of attention and boredom. Boredom here can be seen as the internal
reason behind misbehaviour, as boredom may stem from a disinterest of subject area or learning
content. When expanding on the external factors, teachers are seen to assume poor parenting
and home life is the result of student misbehaviour. Further attributions to homelife impacting
student behaviour may be linked to poor sleeping practices. Unhealthy sleep practices may
result in defiant attitudes including skipping class, fighting and substance abuse (Lin & Yi,
2014, p. 437). Links between unhealthy sleeping patterns and student misbehaviour act as a

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subcategory for home life’s impact on misbehaviour. The seeking of attention is thought to be
caused by the desire to become favourable to other peers, while also seeking the attention of
teachers (Cothran et al., 2015). While taking on a psychoeducational approach to studying
misbehaviour, theories including goal theory and choice theory provide a clear insight to the
reason behind problem behaviours. Goal theory focuses on a student’s desired outcome and the
ways in which a student achieves this. These goals usually address personal needs, social
acceptance and self-determination (Nobile, Lyons & Arthur-Kelly, 2017). While student
misbehaviour may stem from a lack of attention, concepts surrounding goal theory indicate that
students behave in such a manner to achieve a level of social acceptance, as increased
popularity thought to be a key element of social status (Cothran et al., 2015). Choice theory is
the notion that an individual’s behaviour attempts to satisfy the present and future needs. These
needs include survival, belonging, power, freedom and fun (Nobile et al., 2017). When
reflecting on choice theory, it is important to understand that students misbehave to counteract
their boredom. As students misbehave due to boredom or boring classes (Cothran et al., 2017),
this may be due to students being deprived of their basic need for fun. There are many factors
that result in student misbehaviour.

Teachers must also consider the role they play in influencing student misbehaviour. Gibbs and
Gardiner (2008) examines teacher’s attributions to student behaviour, considering both
educational culture and curriculum pressure set by educators. The demographic focuses on
teachers in England and Ireland in both primary and secondary education. There are four main
factors towards student misbehaviour; Teacher’s rewards and punishment, adult behaviours,
curriculum demands and child’s personality (p. 70). While there was a noticeable variant
between English and Irish teacher’s attributions of student misbehaviour, both parties came to
similar agreement that child personality was a main factor of student misbehaviour in primary
education. Secondary education teachers in England found that adult behaviours were a main
cause of student misbehaviour whereas Irish teachers found that curriculum pressure had a
greater impact on student behaviour. Despite these varying results between different
demographics, this reading concluded that most teachers were able to recognise that their
behaviour had a significant influence on student misbehaviour. As educators, it is imperative
to realise the various reasons why these problem behaviours exist in order to create strategies
to address such behaviours.

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Interview process

The interviews were conducted in a professional manner, as interviewees were required to read
and sign a consent form prior to participating in the interviews. The study used an unstructured
interview process to gather data, as discussion was developed through the opening question “in
your opinion, why do young people misbehave in school?” Interviewees are de-identified in
this research in order to ensure privacy is maintained. Interviewees are separate categories;
teachers, parents, pre-service teachers and non-teaching associates. Below is a table to indicate
the age, gender and category of each participant.

Interviewee Age Gender Category

1. Female Teacher
2. 23 Male Non-teaching associate
3. 22 Female Pre-service teacher
4. 22 Male Pre-service teacher
5. 39 Female Parent
6. 22 Female Non-teaching associate

Upon gathering information from the following participants, there were four major themes that
are present during the interview process; teacher’s attitude, attention seeking, learning content,
and homelife.

Teacher’s attitude

A teacher’s attitude may have a strong impact a student’s behaviour. Interviewee 2 support this
idea. “Teachers could play a huge role in the behavioural issues in class. They may be complete
push-overs and lack assertiveness or authority. Students may even resonate with certain
teachers more, causing them to respect those certain teachers over others.” Interviewee 2 relates
authority to effective behavioural management, as well as student’s value judgements of
teachers. Interviewee 5 presents ideas of how a teacher’s attitude and motivation may influence
student behaviour. “Teachers may lack interest in student welfare. Students may detect this
attitude and take this as an opportunity to act up in class. If the teacher has no passion for their
job, teachers will only do the bare minimum.” Interviewee 1 suggests ways teachers can reduce
their impact on student behaviour. “I think it is important to always treat everyday like a new

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day. If you come in to class expecting that a student is going to misbehave in class, this form
of labelling may cause students to misbehave.”

Homelife

Participants in this research did not go into great detail of how homelife impacts misbehave.
However, there were points made by interviewees that were worthy of discussion. Interviewee
5 stresses the importance of healthy habits that student’s may not practice at home. “If a child
doesn’t have enough brekky, they might not be able to pay attention in class. Even being sleep
deprived can attribute towards being inattentive in class.” Interviewee 2 discusses issues
surrounding parental factors behind misbehaviour. “There might not be enough discipline
happening at home, students may walk into a class and either not realise what they are doing
is wrong, or they might think that they can get away with misbehaving. It all goes back to the
parent’s disciplinary measures.”

Attention seeking

Attention seeking may be present as student’s may desire attention and approval from their
peers. Interviewee 4 states “students may try to achieve recognition from their peers and
behaving in a certain way may be their way of trying to achieve this.” Ideas based around
student’s need for attention seems circulates around peer pressure. Interviewee 2 mentions that
“peer pressure causes students to grasp on the fact that behaving in a particular way may lead
to the approval of peers.” Further investigating peer pressure, interviewee 6 expresses ideas
surrounding this concept. “I think students may want to act cool in front of their friends. They
might act or do something so out of line that in the hopes that their peers notice them.” Student’s
need for attention overall stems from the desire of increased social status.

Learning content

The content in class may impact on a student’s behaviour. Interviewee 6 reiterates this
statement. “Sometimes the work can be too easy or too hard and if it is, students may be inclined
to go off-task. If the work is too easy, then students may complete the work quickly and be left
with nothing to do. If the work is too hard, students may not be inclined to complete the work
either because they are too embarrassed to ask for help in front of their peers.” Interviewee 3
echoes these ideas as she believes if content is “too difficult,” students may be inclined to go
off-task. She also states that the level of misbehaviour may differentiate depending on certain

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classes. “If a student enjoys a certain subject more than other, they may be inclined to focus in
one class and misbehave in the other.”

Discussion

When comparing the literature to interview data, certain literature is seen to complement
interview findings. While interviewees 1,2 and 5 discuss the teacher’s attribution towards
student misbehaviour, these ideas compliment the findings in Gibbs and Gardiner’s (2008)
research. “While all teachers who participated in this this study appeared to recognise that their
own behaviour was a major influence on a child’s behaviour” (p. 74), there can be seen a
correlation between this literature and the data founded during interviews. When comparing
behavioural issues surrounding homelife, parental problems raised by interviewee 2 are
reflective of the research acquired by Cothran et al. (2015). While research states that teachers
assume that the lack of discipline by parents is the result of student misbehaviour, such values
were also present in the interview processes. Further expanding on homelife factors, unhealthy
sleep practices can result in defiant behaviour (Lin and Yi, 2014). As mentioned by interviewee
5, sleep deprived students may become inattentive in class.

While understanding that attention seeking behaviours are caused by peer pressure and social
status, goal theory and choice theory justify why such behaviours exist. A student may
misbehave to gain social status, pursuing the desires of social recognition, a main attribution
towards goal theories (Nobile et al., 2017). Interviewee 3 discusses the thought processes and
student goal setting. “Student’s may have one clear goal in mind and may behave in any manner
to achieve this goal. They do not consider the negatives of their behaviour, they always try to
rationalise their actions.” This idea heavily relates to the concepts surrounding goal theory.
While the learning content impacts the behaviour of a student, concepts surrounding choice
theory may indicate why learning content results in student misbehaviour. As interviewee 3
states that students may misbehave due to their disinterest in the content, this creates a sense
of boredom in class. When reflecting on choice theory, the disinterest surrounding certain
learning content may cause a student to misbehave as they are simply meeting their basic needs
of fun, as students need to “play laugh, relax and be entertained” (p. 225). This research creates
clear connections between the literature and interview results while exploring the reasons
behind student misbehaviour. Unfortunately, the literature explored misses the opportunity to
research connections between student misbehaviour and learning content, despite being a
heavily discussed topic during the interview process.

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Implications for praxis

As a pre-service teacher, I hope to use these studies surrounding student misbehaviour as an

effective tool of knowledge. This knowledge that I have acquired will allow me to understand
and identify the reasons behind student misbehaviour and strategies to address these
problematic behaviours. There are a variety of internal and external factors towards student
misbehaviour that I have learnt through this research. Internal referring to school related issues
and external referring to factors outside of school. This research has also allowed me to become
aware of the factors teachers play in student misbehaviour. I hope that in my future practises I
will consider my own behaviours and attitudes as a way to reduce my contribution towards
student misbehaviour. While I have explored a variety of theories and concepts surrounding
student behaviour in this research, I have no intention of confining myself to these ideas only.
There is much more to explore in the studies of student misbehaviour and I feel that I have only
scratched the surface of this research topic. There is much more for me to learn and I hope that
I learn more about student behaviour in during my professional practice and in future studies.

Conclusion

As educators it is imperative to understand the student behaviours that exist both inside and
outside the classroom. While there are a variety of different factors that may lead to student
misbehaviour, teachers must be ready to handle and implement strategies to address these
behaviours. The most important factor towards being able to handle problem behaviours is for
teachers to be aware of why they are present in class.

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 References

Alter, P., Walker, J., & Landers, E. (2013). Teachers' Perceptions of Students' Challenging
Behavior and the Impact of Teacher Demographics. Education & Treatment of
Children, 36(4), 51-69.

Cothran, D., Kulinna, P., & Garrahy, D. (2009). Attributions for and consequences of student
misbehavior. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 14(2), 155-167.

De Nobile, J., Lyons, G., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2017). Positive Learning Environments:
Creating and Maintaining Productive Classrooms (pp. 213-254). South Melbourne,
Australia: Cengage Learning.

Gibbs, S., & Gardiner, M. (2008). The structure of primary and secondary teachers’ attributions
for pupils’ misbehaviour: A preliminary cross‐phase and cross‐cultural
investigation. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 8(2), 68-77.

Lin, W., & Yi, C. (2015). Unhealthy Sleep Practices, Conduct Problems, and Daytime
Functioning During Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(2), 431-446.

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