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.A common issue in contemporary school settings is behavioral issues from students. Whether it
is student’s mis behaving in the class room or outside of the classroom. There is a large list of
assorted reasons as to why students act out and have behavioral issues. This can be from troubles
at home, issues with a teacher, issues with a peer or even due to the time of day. Behavioral
problems can even stem from a students’ lack of engagement and boredom in a classroom
environment. It is impossible to say specifically what causes unruly behavior in schools as each
student differs and will have their own reasons as to why they are misbehaving. This essay will
instead aim to understand the opinions of teachers, pre-service teachers, parents and peoples
from the general publics as to why they believe that students misbehave in schools. Firstly, by
using literature, the essay will show what the experts and academics believe to be causes and
how the mis behavior can be combatted. Then using research sourced from interviewees this
essay will provide the opinions and beliefs of the earlier stated groups. The essay will then show
the differences and correlation between the literature and the interview results.
There are various circumstances that one must consider when dealing with a child with
behavioral issues. These circumstances in a student’s life could be anything at all, such as the
students home life, the student’s family financial capabilities, the student’s relationships at
school whether they are good or bad, as well as considering the students culture beliefs and
engagement levels to certain subjects. Misbehavior in a classroom does not even have to be a
reoccurring theme for some students. Meaning that a student may misbehave one day but not the
next based on certain circumstances. This is made evident in the research conducted by Glass. As
a part of this research Glass (2012) observed a class that combined junior and senior students
(who had fallen behind), in this class she seen a student leave for lunch fine. However, upon
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returning to the classroom the student had been harassed by other students who were not
behaving and under these circumstances his behavior then went from behaving normally to to
behaving in a way that showed his frustration because he did not like the other students who
were harassing him. Glass (2012) refers to this as disrespect in the class room as she narrows her
study to 3 main problem as to why student’s mis behave. The first problem is disrespect referring
to students disrespecting not only each other but the teacher also. The second problem referred to
is a lack of motivation, stating that a lack of engagement is a contributing factor towards student
misbehavior. The third problem Glass refers to is entitlement, this relates to students having a
closer relationship and being on more friendly terms with their teacher, so they know that they
can get away with misbehaving and not face harsh consequences as they would with other
teachers. In another study conducted by Cothrin and Kulinna where both students and teachers
were interviewed, the teachers referred to the issues with behavior starting at home with one
teacher stating “The ones that are the worst just don't care. I think their home life, well, they're
kind of on their own, raising themselves and their parents aren't home to teach them respect”
(Cothrin & Kulinna, 2009, N.P.). However, when interviewed students made no response to this,
but instead claimed misbehavior was a cry for attention. The students in the interview also
claimed that their misbehavior stemmed from boredom, one student explains “when it is boring
we are more likely to be bad” (Cothrin & Kulinna, 2009, N.P.), so “From the students'
perspectives, the meaningfulness of the subject matter and class activities was also a key
influence on student behavior” (Cothrin & Kulinna, 2009, N.P.). In both of the studies conducted
there were two common re occurring themes mentioned. These were a lack of respect and a lack
of engagement. The lack of respect is evident in both pieces of work as the students did not show
respect in the class room to the teacher or their peers and the teachers also referred to a lack of
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respect being taught at home by the parents to be what they believed as a main cause of
behavioral issues.
Research shows that a big factor in causing stress to teachers in the industry is managing
behavioral problems and is shown to be a lead factor as to why teachers leave the education
industry (Tsouloupis et al, 2013). Furthermore, if a teacher learns to cope with and manage
behavioral issues the teacher will be able to present a more engaging and interactive lesson
(Tsouloupis et al, 2013), this begs the question what the best way is to manage behavioral issues.
According to Glock, “One of the best strategies that teachers can apply to prevent student
overlapping, and group altering” (2018, N.P.) by doing this an establishing clear and firm class
rules that the teacher sticks by and upholds (Glock, 2018) a teacher should be able to manage
classroom behavior with these boundaries set in place. Furthermore, in relation to Disrespect as a
factor to student misbehavior, if the class rules are contributed to by the students themselves then
this practice will help increase students respect for the rules that have been set (Glock, 2018).
The aim of the interview process was to find out the out the ideas and opinions of the people
being interviewed around what they believe causes student misbehavior. The interviews were
conducted in a place of the interviewees choosing for their own comfort. The interviewees were
also reminded that their identities would remain undisclosed in this essay. After ensuring that the
interviewee had read the appropriate form and given their consent for the interview, the question
was asked on what they believe is the cause of student misbehavior. There was no recording
conducted nor were there any questionnaires produced. The interview consisted only of
conversation and open-ended questions, with note taking as a reminder to what each interviewees
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views and answer were. The age of those interviewed was between 20- 60 and consisted of 2
Interviewee information.
A Male 23, University Student in Programming,
B Male 23, Non-Student Friend, Liquor store
manager.
C Male 21, Pre-service Teacher
D Male 52, Parent, father of child with
behavioral problems
E Female 51. Parent, mother of child with
behavioral problems.
F Female 23, Primary School Teacher
After all the interviews were conducted, it was possible to then come up with re occurring
themes that were evident in the notes that had been written down. These themes were a lack of
respect from the youth of today, A lack of engagement and a lack of quality of teachers in the
profession. 3 if the Males interviewed A, B and C all based their answer off the way in which
they acted during high school. They all spoke very similar views, saying things like “being bored
in class was always a good reason to try and make things more fun” (B) or “having a
conversation with my mate was way more interesting than doing algebra” (A). However,
Interviewee F who is a teacher currently in the western suburbs of Sydney claimed that the
problem started at home. F stated that “if students were not taught to respect their parents how
could they respect their teachers at school or even the other students”. Both Interviewee’s D and
E parent the same child and they believed that the teachers were the cause of bad behavior
through not possessing the skills to manage this behavior and keep their child engaged. However,
E also states “I am not silly I know my sons not an angel and can be hard to deal with because he
gets bored quickly and once he is angry all morals go out the window, but he has never really
5 out of 6 of the people interviewed in some form related the students misbehavior to a lack of
engagement and boredom. This relates back to the literature with Glass (2012) claiming that one
of the three biggest causes of student misbehavior is a lack of engagement due to no motivation.
This links directly to the most common viewpoint of those interviewed, with the response that
boredom and not being engaged with the school work was a good enough reason to muck around
for the teacher. “[W]hen it is boring we are more likely to be bad” (Cothran et al, 2009, N.P.)
this is a quote from a student interviewed by Cothran et al, the quote is extremely similar to that
of participant B in the interview conducted where he said that boredom was the reason he
misbehaved at school and that’s why he believes students act up. The only school teacher
interviewed, interviewee F claimed that she believed that the problem started at home, as the
students she works with show no respect for anyone not even their own parents. She said that a
lack of engagement was also an issue however sometimes this could not be helped as students
can dis engage for several reasons. In the research conducted by Cothran et al, the teachers
interviewed also claimed that the problem started at home, that students have grown up with out
respect and this lack of respect leads to misbehavior. The literature and the interviews both said
similar things around what the causes of mis behavior were believed to be, however these views
are just a small grouping of opinions on a very broad and hard to understand topic.
How would knowing about this research effects teacher teaching practice? There are many
different ones that a teacher could take this information and incorporate it into their teaching
practice. This could be done using some of the behavioral management methods mentioned in
this essay such as, Focusing more time to on the lessons they create to bring to the classroom a
more engaging and interactive lesson (Tsouloupas, 2013). By focusing on an interactive lesson
teachers would be combatting a lack of engagement as the issue for behavioral problems, this
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could also help with respect if a student finds a teachers lesson interesting then they will show
more respect and interest to that teachers methods of teaching. Another strategy is to implement
a structured set of rules and with these rules the teacher must be consistent when it comes to
enforcing them, so that they are set in stone and become a routine for students. This will help in
understanding what is and what is not ok in the classroom. Furthermore, through the use of a
theory such as choice theory which is “grounded in the notion that individuals behave in ways to
meet basic and universal needs. Further, all human behavior is believed to be guided by internal
factors” (Graham et al, 2013, pp. 230), A teacher can mold classroom rules to assist in building
respect and a teacher student relationship. What is meant by this is that if a teacher allows the
student to have a say in what the rules they will enforce in the classroom are that student is more
likely to respect those rules and the teacher, therefore keeping the students behavior in check and
engagement levels higher also so they don’t break their own rules. This is also made evident by
Glock when stating that the input of a student into making class room rules, assists with building
In conclusion the research conducted, and the interviews conducted came to a similar point that
students mis behaved because of a lack of engagement and a lack of respect. This also meant that
in the research there were some ways to combat this misbehavior such as building respect and
creating class room rules with the input of students. Also, to create more interactive and
engaging lessons to keep students focused on their work rather then distractions. Although there
are many different causes of student misbehavior it is impossible to pin point them all as each
student differs however through the use of behavioral management plans and research this essay
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has aimed to provide a way to understand very basic and common reasons of misbehavior and
References
Cothran, D. J., Kulinna, P. H., & Garrahy, D. A. (2009). Attributions for and consequences of
student misbehavior. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 14(2), 155-167.
Glass, C. S. (2012). "What do you do with a student like that?": Defiance, disrespect and lack of
motivation in the high school classroom
Glock, S. and Kleen, H. (2018). Teachers’ responses to student misbehavior: the role of
expertise. Teaching Education, pp.1-17.
Graham, M., Sauerheber, J. and Britzman, M. (2013). Choice Theory and Family
Counseling. The Family Journal, 21(2), pp.230-234.
Tsouloupas, C., Carson, R. and MacGregor, S. (2013). The Development of High School
Teachers’ Efficacy in Handling Student Misbehavior (TEHSM). The Journal of Educational
Research, 107(3), pp.230-240.