STUDENTS’ DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR IN CLASS: A CONCERN FOR ALL TEACHERS

Contributed by Rowena Carreon -Teacher II P. Roman National High School, Pilar

May be you have come across these lines from an anonymous writer, “If you don’t like the world as it is, change your attitude.” Truly, behavior and attitude count a lot in any situation.

In the classroom scenario, disruptive behavior and attitude have been sources of concern for almost all teachers for several years. Indeed, the single most common request for assistance from teachers is related to behavior and classroom management.

According to several educational researches, classrooms with frequent disruptive behaviors have less academic engaged time, and the students in disruptive classrooms tend to have lower grades and do poorer on tests. Furthermore, attempts to control disruptive behaviors cost considerable teacher time at the expense of academic instruction.

Classroom management has been defined broadly as any action a teacher takes to create an environment that supports and facilitates both academic and social-emotional learning (Evertson & Weinstein, 2006).

Instructional procedures could also be considered classroom management by this definition; however, effective instruction alone is insufficient for establishing universal classroom management.

Procedures that structure the classroom environment, encourage appropriate behavior, and reduce the occurrence of inappropriate behavior are necessary for strong classroom. Instructional procedures, although equally important to the classroom environment, can be considered a separate set of procedures.

In studies of classroom management, typical behaviors that are targeted for intervention are disruptive, aggressive behaviors. Examples of these types of behaviors include non compliance, verbal disruption, teasing others, being out of one’s seat, taking others property, damaging property, or attacking others; these are typically measured with observations or teacher reports.

Reductions in these types of individual student behaviors also reduce the overall classroom level of aggression. Identifying changes in student behavior is important for determining the effects of classroom management procedures.

Effective classroom management focuses on preventive rather than reactive procedures and establishes a positive classroom environment in which the teacher focuses on students who behave appropriately. Rules and routines are powerful preventive components to classroom organization and management plans because they establish the behavioral context of the classroom by specifying what is expected, what will be reinforced, and what will be retaught if inappropriate behavior occurs. This prevents problem behavior by giving students specific, appropriate behaviors to engage in. Monitoring student behavior allows the teacher to acknowledge students who are engaging in appropriate behavior and prevent misbehavior from escalating.

Teachers’ classroom management practices have a significant, positive effect on teachers who use effective classroom management they also can expect to experience improvements in student behavior and improvements that establish the context for effective instructional practices to occur.

Reference: The Campbell Collaboration | www.campbellcollaboration.org