Why do young people

misbehave in school?
102082 Pedagogy for Positive Learning
Environments 2H 2019

Maham Afridi

19656960
Introduction:

This research report examines ‘Why young people misbehave in the classroom’. Through this

report, teachers can understand the factors of adolescence misbehaviour in high school. Six

interviews were conducted to identify and evaluate the opinions of participants. The literature

review was also used to enable the linkage between the interview response and previous

research data to validate. The themes were identified through qualitative research which

includes; disengagement social factor, teacher attitude, teaching style and biological factors.

Once the themes are identified, different teaching strategies are suggested in the report to

minimise the behaviour of students and maximise student’s learning outcomes.

Literature Review:

The substantial influence of student behaviour in the class room has been a common issue for

decades and still is a valid topic these days. ‘One in twelve secondary teachers reported that

more than ten minutes of learning per hour was lost due to behaviour problems’ (Crawshaw,

2015, &, OFSTED, 2014, p. 11 &). There are numerous reasons behind why student

misbehave in class. [ CITATION Cra15 \l 3081 ].

The first reason behind student’s misbehaviour is due to less engagement and the pedagogical

strategies used in class are making students bored. Patron & Bisping (2008) states that

students mostly get bored in class where teachers plan unengaged lessons and teachers face

issues while communicating the content properly. Another factor which makes student

misbehave is the lack of social support from teacher in classroom [ CITATION Maz14 \l

3081 ], When there is lack of social support students tend to show negative emotions which

include anger, anxiety, shame and boredom. Social support refers to individual development,

in other words it means that instructor is available to guide the students directly or indirectly

related to school [ CITATION Dem18 \l 3081 ]. In another article the authors[ CITATION

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Lew05 \l 3081 ] discuss that students misbehave because they are not aware of their

responsibilities, even a well-plan lesson can fail. The Students responsibility means that

students follow class culture and norms, respect each other and take responsibility of their

own learning[ CITATION AIT17 \l 3081 ].

Furthermore, the other factor found in literature is biological Factor. Biological factor refers

to development of physical and behavioural characteristics reaching to puberty. Lin & Yi,

2015 (p. 432) states another factor which is unhealthy sleeping practices of students as they

tend to engage in antisocial behaviours in class and it causes ‘detrimental effects on brain

functions’. Through unhealthy sleeping pattern students will have challenges in their

academic performance and will cause stress. Robinson, et al (2011) in the article explains

how stress causes depression, self-harm and students think about suicidal attempts.

Lastly, Family disruptiveness and peer behaviour in the classroom is another factor which

makes young students misbehave in classroom. Family disruptiveness includes low socio-

economic status (Low SES), parents’ divorce, lack of opportunities and peer behaviour

includes students grouping, bullying, peer victimisation can directly affect student’s

experience [ CITATION Hog04 \l 3081 ]. Cefai & Cooper (2010, p. 184) states that ‘10% of

the school population, it was found that according to teachers, 9.7% of the students exhibit

social, emotional and behaviour difficulties’. Students try to misbehave in class when they

are socially disturbed because of family problems and bullying by peer.

Method:

For this report, information is gathered through a qualitative research method which involves

interviews. The interview participants were given consent before starting the interview to

maintain ethical protocol and to describe the reason behind the interview. The interview

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question had open ended questions to create in depth discussion on the theme ‘why young

people misbehave in school?’, and to create conversation between interviewee and the

researcher. The interviews were one on one sessions which had six participants. Which

involved three male and three female participants and the age bracket of interviews were 24

to 60.

1. Mikhail Baimekov is a male participant, who is 27-year-old and is currently a pre-

service teacher.

2. GO- Gorkam Oksua is a male participant, who is 26-year-old and doing is Masters

of teaching from Western Sydney University. He is currently a pre-service

teacher.

3. RA- Raja Arslan is a male participant and is a non- teaching friend.

4. DC- Denise Carrick – is a female participant and is a High school deputy and a

teacher.

5. SR- Saadia Raheel is female participant and is a high school teacher.

6. PK- Priyanka Kaur is another female participant, who is a parent of two

daughters.

The interviewer used the Interpretative phenomenological analysis approach (IPA) to gather

participants personal experience[ CITATION Smi09 \l 3081 ]. The interview was recorded

immediately after they were conducted. The similar responses were then grouped into

themes. The themes were coded by going through different literature to validate and

understand the themes. The common themes found through interviews, were biological

factors, lack of engagement between teacher and students and social factors.

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Findings

Data collection from interviews and literature review indicates that students misbehave in

classroom because of many reasons. While analysing the data it was identified that lack of

engagement in the class does make student bored and because of which, students

misbehave. SR and DC states there experience and said that ‘A lot of my friends in high

school misbehaved because there was no engagement and the lesson was teacher centred

because of which my friends would use mobile phones’ and ‘students have lack of interest’.

AR emphasis on the point that ‘teacher take class as a whole’ and teachers do not really use

class management while planning the lessons, students have no idea about their

responsibilities and expectation are in the class. As Cefai & Cooper (2010) also agrees with

the fact that traditional teacher-centred learning techniques provides

meaningless knowledge to the students.

Through these findings, it was identified that the primary theme of misbehaving in

classroom is due to disengagement. Whereas three subthemes are emerged which are

structural issues, disengagement into teacher support, teaching strategy and peer and

family behaviour. The reason behind disengagement due to structural issue is that there are

too many students in one class and it gets hard for teachers to give individual attention and

because of time limit the teacher makes sure to provide all the information in 60-minute

class. Secondly, if the teaching strategy is teacher centred then students find it hard to apply

the knowledge into practical life. Whereas one of the interview participant PK states that

the students externalise the blame on teacher and teachers externalise the blame on

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parents. Furthermore, students also misbehave to seek attention from their peers and

family[ CITATION Hog04 \l 3081 ].

Another common theme was identified by all participants which is biological factor. The

subthemes are cognitive development, unhealthy sleeping patterns and age vs maturity. SR

states that ‘students are confused as parents and teachers tell students that you are matured

and one should be responsible about decisions when they copy adults everyone start saying

one is not matured’. This type of confusion makes students frustrated and stressed and due to

the reason, students do not prefer to build relationship with teachers and they get attracted

towards violence and drugs[ CITATION Rob11 \l 3081 ]. Whereas another article findings

say that there is no such thing, students misbehave because of their sleeping habits

[ CITATION Lin15 \l 3081 ] because they cannot focus in class. Teachers prefers to punish

such students as other students get distracted in the classroom.

Teaching practices:

After identifying the response of interviews and previous research data it is proven that

students misbehave in class due to different factors. Teachers should be observant and make

sure they fulfil the student’s needs to bring better learning outcomes. As a teacher, I would

bring different pedagogical strategies in practice to bring more engagement and quality of

lesson plan. The quality teaching model framework would be used to improve school

practices and to provide high education standards [ CITATION New03 \l 3081 ].

The classroom management plan will be used to outline the learning environment and

generate classroom expectation which will encourage positive learning environment (PLE) in

the class room. Classroom management is vital as I can design it according to my student

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needs and I would know how the class will operate. Nobile, Lyons, & Arthur-Kelly (2010)

(p. 6) ‘Clear, comprehensive and well thought out classroom management plans are ley to

creating and maintaining PLE’s’. The classroom will have these three elements; respect,

responsibility and ready to learn, so that students can identify their social responsibility

towards their learning. In the classroom, the Lyford model strategy will be used as it is a

theory of human development, behaviour, psychological, sociology, teaching and learning

[ CITATION Nob10 \l 3081 ]. Through the Lyford model positive classroom climate,

culture, physical environment and instructional system will be created, so students can have

self-belonging with the teacher and classroom [ CITATION Lyo15 \l 3081 ].

Secondly, in the lesson plan I will incorporate information and communication technology

(ICT) as students get distracted with text and prefer visual learner. By using ICT slides,

videos will be shown to create deep understanding about the topic. By having the access of

slides and videos links can improve academic performance [ CITATION Tur12 \l 3081 ].

I will create teacher student relationship in class and outside the class as it promotes

academic success, it will avoid any student behaviour problem, and can develop professional

growth. As discussed in previous article by [ CITATION Maz14 \l 3081 ] students misbehave

because there is lack of social support. so, in my classroom management strategy I will

provide social support to my students by using emotional response theory, which will build

trust relationship. Once the relationship is built, and for example: if my student misbehave I

will privately ask the student to have a conversation with me. The conversation will be held

while sitting (I would not sit in front of the student but side by side and height by height) so

that student can share his concern confidently.

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Another strategy that I will use is zdifferent type of activities in the class to engage the

students. The activities will be individual and collaborative, which will include problem

based learning, project based learning, high order thinking learning and interactive learning

strategies. Through these activities students will create better understanding by using their

prior knowledge, solving real problem and identifying the complex situation which will

create explicit practice learning (Christy, 2009; & Mills & Kim, 2017). While students will

be working on the activities I will walk around the class and observe each student and

motivate the students by creating goals and providing accomplishment incentives (for

example, if you will complete 21 words you will get a candy and if you write 41 words you

will get a chocolate).

To avoid any social factors. I will also make sure to have good communication with Parents,

so that I can guide them about their child and work mutually to bring positive learning

outcomes.

Conclusion:

From what has been discussed above, it can be concluded that student misbehave because of

different factors. It is beneficial for pre-service teacher to have understanding and to have

insight about students misbehaving factors as it might help them to understand what

strategies they can develop to solve such issues. After analysing the interview responses and

journal articles, it shows that every student is different and has different needs. Students do

not misbehave immediately on a situation but it takes time to express.

References:
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