Emily Hodge 17479921

Pedagogy for Positive Learning Environments

Assignment 1: Why do young people misbehave at school?
Emily Hodge
17479921

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Emily Hodge 17479921

Introduction: Literature Synthesis

Why students misbehave in the classroom has been a topic of significant research all over the world.
Misbehaviour can include talking out of turn, bullying towards peers, disobedience, lack of engagement and
general disruptive attitudes (Koutrouba, 2013). Attitudes, values, beliefs and ideals differ between countries
as do the perceptions for why students misbehave. A study conducted in Greece concluded that, as per
teacher’s opinion, student’s misbehaviour can be attributed mainly to the negative influence of media and a
lack of strong family values or ideals. They also attribute misbehaviour to the indifference of parents, family
issues, and parents-teacher communications. The participants in this study were shown to attribute most bad
behaviour to parent or family faults and were shown to disagree when asked if bad behaviour could possibly
be attributed to teacher or school faults (Koutrouba, 2013).

Crawshaw (2015) states that the transition from primary school to high school may be responsible for some
of the perceived misbehaviour in classrooms. He writes that students experience many changes during this
transition, such as new school topics, different teachers for each topic and long period days, which may
contribute to misbehaviour. In addition, high schools tend to be larger and more ‘impersonal’ and largely
revolve around the teacher opposed to the student. In comparison, in a study conducted in Chinese schools,
it was recorded that teachers strongly attributed student misbehaviour to student related factors. Teachers
concluded that the main reasons for misbehaviour were student laziness, lack of effort, bad learning habits
and not being interested in learning. Teachers also stated that parents and grandparents ‘spoiling their
children’ was a significant reason to student’s misbehaviour (Ding, Li, Li & Kulm, 2010).

Student misbehaviour is a widely studied topic and opinions on this topic are shown to greatly differ
depending on the country the study is conducted in. Parents, teachers, and students will all display differing
opinions as to why young people misbehave in school. These include social, educational, and cognitive
reasons for misbehaviour. In this research task, we explore these reasons from multiple perspectives and
compare opinions on the topic question to discover what the participants view as the main reasons for
student misbehaviour.

Interview Process:
At the beginning of the research process, participants were selected from the following groups; Teachers (1),
Pre-service Teachers (1), Parents (2) and Peers (2). Out of the 6 participants in this study 2 were male and 4
were female. Participants were chosen for their diversity and experiences regarding high school students and
misbehaviour.

Each participant was interviewed over an approximate 15-20-minute period. Before the interview began,
each participant was given a consent form which they were required to read, agree to and sign. No
participant was under the age of 18 in this research task and no interview was recorded during this process.
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Once each participant understood the requirements of the interview they were asked the general question;
‘Why do young people misbehave in school?’. Each interview unfolded differently depending on the
participant’s responses. The participants were also asked prompting questions such as; ‘How do you believe
peers, teachers and parents shape or influence misbehaviour in school’. Each participant’s response was
noted by hand on a piece of paper and the participants were asked to read over the notes before the interview
concluded to ensure their opinions and views were noted accurately.

Synthesis of main interview findings:

Participant A (Pre-service), observed that students misbehave primarily due to student lack of motivation.
Possible reasons for student misbehaviour may be peer pressure, poor social skills, un-motivated to learn
and potentially acting out to cover insecurities such as learning disabilities or physical barriers to learning.
This participant stated that peers that are poor influences can play a large role in effecting other students.
Participant D (Teacher), discussed that misbehaviour stems from students being bored in class and can arise
by the content being too complex or too simple. It was also found that students misbehave as a method of
attention seeking.

Peer participants (B and E) shared similar views and equated bad behaviour in school to negative influences
in terms of peers and lack of motivation. Misbehaviour was attributed to being uninterested in the work,
being underestimated by the teacher, pressure to succeed and peers who were disengaged. They stated that
by falling to a ‘bad crowd’ they obtained a bad reputation with the teacher. Some of the reasons include;
attention seeking, boredom, lack of self-esteem, motivation or understanding, lack of engagement, pushing
the boundaries and differing expectations between home and school environments. Teachers can greatly
influence bad behaviour by not being engaging or making content interesting, forming preconceived
opinions of students or being too strict.

Parent participants showed a slightly different reasoning for student misbehaviour and attributed it to a
fundamental lack of respect for authority brought about by ‘bad parenting’ or parents not being present to
instil necessary values and ideals into their children. Teachers can sometimes cause bad behaviour by being
ill-tempered and letting emotions rule their teaching. With similar views, participant C and F stated that
misbehaviour stems primarily from the student seeking attention and shared the following quote from an
unknown author; ‘More often than not, the child starving for love will ask for it in the most unloving way’.
Misbehaviour can come from being ignored by parents, teachers or peers and students acting out to receive
the attention they are denied.

Overall, the participants’ opinions of why students misbehave in schools can be attributed to the follwing
surrounding social, education and cognitive factors; ‘Student lack of motivation, attention seeking and
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unwillingness to learn’, ‘Unsupportive home environments and parents not doing enough for their child’ and
‘Teacher/school faults i.e. being unengaging, disciplinarian and un-motivational’. Participants A, B, D and E
all attributed some aspect of student misbehaviour to students’ disengagement and mentioned reasons for
this such as not understanding content, being bored with simple content and attention seeking from peers.
Participants C and F also strongly attributed student misbehaviour to ‘bad parenting’ and parents either not
paying attention to or supporting their children or not instilling respectful values in their children.

Literature comparison to findings:

While all participants held slightly differing opinions regarding the reasons for student misbehaviour, the
teacher (D) and pre-service teacher (A) responses insinuate that student misbehaviour to be due to factors
such as a lack of motivation, being unable to concentrate, boredom, being unable to cope with the content
and unwillingness to learn and other ‘student centred faults’. In past studies, student lack of motivation has
been a key problem within a classroom for teachers. Teachers in these studies comment that they find it
difficult to motivate their students and keep them engaged with the content (Dan, 1991). For peers, reasons
for misbehaviour revolve around teachers being unengaging and un-motivational as well as negative peer
influence and pressure from parents. Both ‘peer’ participants shared similar views in that they believe
teachers can be the reason behind student disengagement and attributed misbehaviour to peers and an
unsupportive home environment.

The parent opinions did not greatly relate. The first parent’s participant (C) stated that in their opinion,
children misbehave in school because of insufficient parenting or a lack of a supportive home environment.
The second parent participant (F) stated they believed children misbehave in school due to attention seeking.
This partially correlates in that reasons for attention seeking may be due to lack of attention from parents at
home. If a student feels neglected or ignored at home this may become evident in their behaviour at school.
In a study conducted in Spain, similar views were found in which Kyriacou and Martin (2010) found that a
major contributing factor to misbehaviour was parents not teaching their children core values, according to a
survey of secondary school teachers.

Answers showed no significant similarities between female and male responses, however younger
participants (A and B) tended to attribute a portion of misbehaviour to peers and negative peer influences
while older participants attributed misbehaviour to teacher, student or parent’s faults. Several participants
stated that they had difficult home environments growing up which may have influenced their answers (C
and F). The responses from this task also show that many participants agree that misbehaviour can be
attributed to student faults such as motivation.

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These findings show that young people have been seen to misbehave for a large variety of reasons. The
views on why young people misbehave are also shaped largely by their own experiences as an adolescent
and with high school. The major themes presented for why young people misbehave revolve around students
being un-motivated, unwilling to learn or distracted by peers, teachers being ‘boring’ or un-motivational,
disciplinarian or too strict and parents being unsupportive and not instilling core values into their children.

Implications for praxis:

The reasons for student misbehaviour are important as they influence the way we teach and act in our
classrooms. A large issue for student misbehaviour is the belief that the teacher is acting unfairly or being
too strict. Similarly, the result of this research task show that student misbehaviour can also be promoted if a
teacher does not implement discipline or respond to misbehaviour adequately.

Discipline, or lack of, has been shown to greatly affect student behaviour in the past. Students who view
teachers as fair and have strong positive relationships have been shown to misbehave less, opposed to
schools who enforce strict zero tolerance policies. Students are more likely to exhibit misbehaviour when
teachers do not have a strong relationship with students and are harsh in terms of punishment. This strict
framework has been shown to increase the rate and level of misbehaviour in schools (Way, 2011). This is
important for teaching practice as teachers must ensure all behavioural issues are being addressed while
building positive relationships with students. As a ‘whole school’ approach this can be seen in the
implementation of Positive Behaviour and Learning initiatives. These programs allow schools to strongly
focus on developing good behaviour and encourages teacher support in individual classroom and throughout
the whole school (Lyons, Ford & Slee, 2014). However, this approach is primarily successful f implemented
by the entire school, not simply one teacher.

Another important factor that teachers need to be conscious of in the class room in the students’ home
environment. Teachers must consider how a students’ home life if affecting their work or behaviour before
making opinions regarding that student and teachers should offer support for students in need. Studies in
Canadian high schools show that students which are exposed to unsupportive school environments develop
low self-esteem which in turn increases the risk of misbehaviour (DeWit, Offord, Sanford, Rye, Shain, &
Wright, 2000). These issues were also raised in this research task and participant’s opinions confirmed that
unsupportive home environments as well as peer influence, greatly impact student misbehaviour. Teachers
may need to take the time to talk to students regarding their misbehaviour to discover if a difficult home life
does play a role in their actions. Teachers also need to be aware of inabilities to complete tasks at home due
to extenuating circumstances and the teacher may need to provide some time in class.

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To combat most common problem, student lack of interest and engagement, providing students with
practical tasks and hands-on experience has been shown to greatly improve engagement with the lesson.
This strategy can ensure students participate in the lesson and has been shown by student opinion to be a
preferred method of learning (Taneja, 2014).

Being consciously aware of the reasons behind student misbehaviour in the classroom is pivotal for teachers
to build trusting relationships with students and encourages students to discuss their problems. The results of
these research tasks allow teachers to broaden their understanding of why a student may be misbehaving and
allows them to make an informed judgment on how to respond to the students needs.

References:
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

Dan, L. (1991). Improving student motivation. Electronic Learning, 11(3), 14

DeWit, D.J., Offord, D.R., Sanford, M., Rye, B.J., Shain, M., & Wright, R. (2000). The effect of school
culture on adolescent behavioural problems: self-esteem, attachment to learning, and peer approval
of deviance as mediating mechanisms. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 16(1), 15 – 38

Ding, M., Li, Y., Li, X., Kulm, G. (2010). Chinese teachers’ attributions and coping strategies for student
classroom misbehaviour. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 30(3), 321 – 337

Koutrouba, K. (2013). Student misbehaviour in secondary education: Greek teachers views and attitudes.
Educational Review, 65(1), 1 – 19

Kyriacou, C., Martin, J.L.O. (2010). Beginning secondary school teachers perceptions of pupil misbehaviour
in Spain. Teacher Development, 14(4), 415 – 426

Lyons, G., Ford, M., & Slee, J. (2014). Classroom management: Creating positive learning environments

(4th ed., p.218). South Melbourne, Australia: Cengage

Taneja, A. (2014). Enhancing student engagement: a group case study approach. Journal of Information
Systems Education, 25(3), 181 – 187

Way, S.M. (2011). School discipline and disruptive classroom behaviour: the moderating effects of student
perceptions. The Sociological Quarterly, 52, 346 – 375