Literature Review

Student misbehaviours are often identified as negative behaviours that might disrupt

teaching and learning environment. Some examples of students misbehaviours can

be mentioned are disengagement from class activities, acting inappropriate during

class, negative attitudes toward teachers, peers and school, or disrespecting teachers

with regards to disobey school rules, rudeness and verbal aggression have been

considered as one of the most unacceptable misbehaviours (Sun & Shek, 2012).

Students misbehaviour can be explained through the understanding of antecedents

around the different types of behavioural issues. Antecedents of behavioural issues

can be classified into three main groups: the belief, deficiency and external

antecedents (Claus, Goldman & Johnson, 2019). Belief antecedents refer to students’

expectations of the lesson they receive and assumption that student input is not as

essential teacher input. Students who “devaluing of education” and found learning

materials are not relevant often involved in misbehaviours (Claus et al., 2019, p. 11).

Deficiency antecedents point to personal skill deficiency, academic skill deficiency

and health management. External antecedents are identified as instructional factors

that might affect student behaviours. These factors can be varied such as classroom

management, family impact and relationship with peers. Belief antecedents support

and explain the idea that students’ misbehaviours can be reduced by promoting

positive and supportive learning environment (McGrath &Bergen, 2014). A current

research by Lin & Yi (2014) has reported that there is a strong relationship between

unhealthy sleep patterns and adolescent problems of emotional well-being,

academic performance and defiant attitude. This relationship can help to explain
deficiency antecedents where students’ behaviour and academic performance might

be affected by unhealthy lifestyles decisions. Additionally, as explained by external

antecedents, research has shown that parental self-efficacy can play a crucial role in

encouraging children’s successful development and achievement at school (Steca,

Bassi, Caprara & Fave, 2011). These above literature helps to describe multiple

aspects and the complication of students misbehaviours; therefore, it is very difficult

to solve the issues all at the same time. However, to improve students’ performance

and decrease behavioral problems, educators should understand the origin of the

issues in order to implicate the most appropriate and insight solutions.

Interview Findings

The interview has been conducted with 6 people from various backgrounds and

experiences. The interview process was conducted following the ethics protocol as

the unit requirements. All interviewees fully understand the purpose of the

interview and the way their response will be used. All interviewees are listed below:

- Interviewee 1: Pre-service teacher - 27 years old female

- Interviewee 2: Pre-service teacher - 31 years old female

- Interviewee 3: High school teacher - 23 years old female

- Interviewee 4: Accountant - 34 years old male

- Interviewee 5: Mother of one high school student - 51 years old female

- interviewee 6: Father of three high school and one primary student - 46 years old

male

In response to the question “Why do young people misbehave in school?”, four of six

interviewees believed that family and parent play a huge role in students’ perception

and behaviors. They concluded that parenting is consistently regcognised as an

important factor directly affecting students. “If parents do care about their children’s

academic performance, help and check their homework, praise them when they

achieve great score at school. They definitely will well behave and more concentrate

on study”, the male accountant proposed. While the female high school teacher said

“I have met one student, she always come to school with incomplete homework.

And whenever I ask her in class why she did not do her work, she always answers

aggressively; then she will act inappropriate, disengage to class activities. After that, I
find out when talking to her privately that her parent was really busy at work and do

not pay any attention to her work at school”. According to four interviewees,

parental strategies can have both positive and negative impact on children.

Another main theme that all interviewees brought up during the interview is the lack

of connection to learning content and classroom environment. The two pre-service

teachers and the female high school teacher suggested that “Students do not find

learning content relevant or beneficial to their everyday life or to their future. They

will disengage and pay less attention”

On the further discussion, the mother, the father and the male accountant

submitted that “Maybe they do not like school. They do not believe that education

can help to get a better career in the future”. According to interviewees, students’

belief and perception about school play a critical role on how they behave at school

and value education. The high school teacher argued “I can see a lot of changing

attitude from students since they get to year 11 and 12. Older adolescences are

likely to take more responsibilities for their action and future”. Teachers are

normally expected more from senior students, and this can be explained as one of

the reason in students attitudes changing.

Five interviewees advocated that students misbehave at school also can be

explained as it is a way to gain teachers and peers attention. One pre-service teacher

said “Normally high achieving students will get more attention from teacher in class.

Misbehave, disrupting or making noise can be a way for lower ability students to
gain teachers and peers attention in class. Teenagers always want attention and act

cool”. Therefore, establishing professional and positive teacher - student relationship

is the key to reduce students misbehaviour in classroom or at school.

Synthesise Findings - Compare and Contrast

This section of the report will focus on compare and contrast how main antecedents

of students’ behavioural problems resemble and differ to the observations by the

interviewees.

The belief antecedents is one of the most important role in shaping students’

behaviours and changing their negative attitudes. According to interviewees’

observation, students’ expectation and positive perception about school is crucial to

help students value school and education. Glenda & Margaret (2009) suggested that

if students find they can apply lesson content to solve everyday lives problem,

connect it in everyday contexts, they will find education is meaningful, interesting

and relevant. They will then be more responsible for their learning experience and

also their future, hence they are more likely to behave appropriate in class.

According to deficiency antecedents, personal and academic skills are the

fundamental skills for students to be engaged in learning environment. Students

who with low ability and insufficient skill to fulfill the expected standard in academic

might find difficult to stay focus to class content and they may be alienated from

classroom activities (Sunny, 2014). If this issue persist for a long time, students will

be disengaged and find school irrelevant and discouraging. Therefore, it is important

for teachers to create a positive and supportive learning environment to enhance

students’ learning. McGrath & Bergen (2015) suggested that if teachers can create a

less threatening school environment and build a strong teacher-student relationship,

student will be more willing to participate in class activities. Nonetheless, the

research also finds students who perform poorly will have negative teacher-student

relationship, which will continue to affect their emotion, behavior and academic

performance ( McGrath & Bergen, 2015). Corresponding to the interview findings,

interviewees’ observation do find teacher-student relationship, learning

environment are important in promoting positive behaviours; however, they did not

mention when class content is too hard, students might be drift away from learning

process.

Most of interviewees’ observation contribute to students’ behavioural issue come

from external antecedents. Family and parent can have both positive and negative

impact on students performance at school. Sherman (2010) believed that “ The

family, and parenting in particular, is consistently recognized as an important

predictor of adolescent delinquency”. Both interviewees’ observation and literature

in Patrick & Gibb (2011) proposed that students tend to behave inappropriate at

school and in classroom where parent pay lack attention to them and also their

academic performance. Nevertheless, the interviewees did not provide the idea

when parent put excessive amount of expectations to perform well academically on

their children might burden them with more pressure. As stated by Patrick & Gibb

(2011), “Parents’ expressions of disappointed expectations may be especially

effective for adolescents who already understand the repercussions of their actions

for others” (p. 981). On the other hand, some adolescents may recognize it

differently because the parent is being less fair and is lecturing them, hence their

influence is affected.
Nevertheless, there are no mention by interviewees about the relationship between

students’ health, well-being and behavioural problems. Even high school teachers

and parents who interact with students daily did not fully recognize reasons behind

students’ behavioural problems. Lin and Yi (2015) provided an explanation in the

research that students who have short sleep (less than 6 hours), irregular sleep

schedule and sleep problem tend to face problem with emotional well-being,

academic performance and inappropriate attitudes. As lifestyle has been

continuously changing and has massive effects on adolescences’ lives; therefore, it is

important for parents and teachers to acknowledge this factor.

Implications for praxis

It is essential for educators and parents to understand the reasons behind students

behavioural problems in order to reduce it. However, reasons causing students

misbehaviour are vary, complex and should be understood from “an eco-systemic

perspective” where “behaviour is viewed as cycles of interaction”, behaviour of

students should be perceived “to affect and be affected by” (Jong, 2005, p. 357).

Occasionally, behavioural issues can occur when teachers do not understand or

acknowledge students’ behaviours are mirror of their cultural factor (Sunny, 2014).

Sunny, 2014 stated that it is essential for teacher to understand “students’ cultural

differences in communication, learning styles, social interaction and ways of

responding to appreciate students’ uniqueness and respond to their learning needs”

(p. 37). For example, it seems to be underestimated but teachers should attempt to

pronounce every single student’s name correctly as a way to show students that

they do have respect for their diverse personal identities and cultural traits.

Teachers should not choose negative strategies to respond to students

misbehaviours such as detention, punishment, singled out or excluded students

without putting effort to understand the causes and reasons behind students issues.

Therefore, appropriate and relevant strategies to correctly interpret the reasons of

the antecedents behind students’ behavioural issue as explained above will be more

effective.

If teachers believe students misbehave and disengage in class activities due to lack of

personal and academic skills (deficiency antecedents), they may spend more time
with these students to explain to them the basic knowledge and concept before

moving to the more advanced concept. By allowing students freely to ask question

when they do not understand, explaining learning content to them again and again

when they misunderstand or make mistakes would help students to build trust

towards teachers, this will reduce the chance of students drifting away from class

content and misbehave.

Teachers should create and maintain an inclusive and supportive learning

environment. Jong (2005) expressed “ Student behaviour is inextricably linked to the

quality of the learning experience: Teachers make a difference. Effective pedagogy is

crucial to increase student engagement (p. 358). Teachers should respect students’

thoughts and ideas, when students find their perspectives are being valued, they are

more likely to participate in class activities. When teachers act as guidance and

leader with expert, trust that students are rational to behave appropriate, “a

democratic, empowering and positive” classroom environment is into place and

appropriate behaviour can be enhanced (Jong, 2005, p. 361). Belief antecedents

provoke that if students have positive belief about school and their own abilities to

perform well, they will be more likely to act appropriate in class. When they have

positive perception in achieving great performance and better future of which will

consequently encourage positive behaviours.

As mentioned above, irregular sleep pattern is considered as one of a significant

factor on students’ behaviours. Teachers should educate students about how

negative effect of irregular sleep could affect their behavior, well-being and also
academic performance. Teacher should promote the important of well-being to

students.

Furthermore, when the cause of students’ behavioural problems is from external

factor such as family and parent. Teachers can ask students privately about their

lives outside school, whether they have any family issue or abuse, how they feel

about learning, whether they feel comfortable in classroom so teachers and school

can intervene when necessary. Communication is the key here, teachers and

students should build positive relationship where students can trust their teachers

enough to share and collaborate to solve the issue.

Conclusion

The information and knowledge gained from the interview and literature are

tremendously valuable in understanding the cause of students’ misbehaviours. As a

pre-service teacher, I believe it is essential for us to perceive the cause of students’

problems before recommend any solution. Acknowledging the antecedents and

reason behind students’ problems allows teachers to implement and develop more

effective and diverse strategies to problems.

References

Sun, R. C., & Shek, D. T. (2012). Student classroom misbehavior: an exploratory study

based on teachers' perceptions. The Scientific World Journal, 2012, 8 pages.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/208907

Lin, W. H., & Yi, C. C. (2015). Unhealthy Sleep Practices, Conduct Problems, and

Daytime Functioning During Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(2),

431-446. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0169-9

Patrick, R. B., & Gibbs, J. C. (2012). Inductive Discipline, Parental Expression of

Disappointed Expectations, and Moral Identity in Adolescence. Journal of Youth and

Adolescence, 41(8), 9973-983. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9514-9

Sherman, M. G. (2012). It’s a Two-Way Street: The Bidirectional Relationship

Between Parenting and Delinquency. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(2), 121-

145. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9656-4

McGrath, K. F., & Bergen, P. V. (2015). Who, when, why and to what end? Students

at risk of negative student–teacher relationships and their outcomes. Educational

Research Review, 14, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.12.001

Jong, D. T. (2005). A Framework of Principles and Best Practice for Managing Student
Behaviour in the Australian Education Context. School Psychology International,

26(3), 353-370. https://doi-org.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/10.1177/0143034305055979

Sunny, A. (2014). Shaping behaviors: Effective behavior management strategies of

teachers in middle schools with diverse student populations in Nagaland (ProQuest

Dissertation and Theses). Creighton University. Retrieved from https://search-

proquest-com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/1691345992?pq-origsite=primo

Claus, C. J., Goldman, Z. W., & Johnson, Z. D. (2019). Why Do Students Misbehave?

An Initial Examination of Antecedents to Student Misbehavior. Communication

Quarterly, 67(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2018.1483958

Steca, P., Bassi, M., Caprara, G. V., & Fave. (2011). Parents' Self-efficacy Beliefs and

Their Children's Psychosocial Adaptation During Adolescence. Journal of Youth and

Adolescence, 40(3), 320-331. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-010-9514-9

Glenda, A., Margaret, W. (2009). Effective pedagogy in mathematics. International

Academy of Education - International Bureau of Education. Retrieved from

https://vuws.westernsydney.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-4145930-dt-content-rid-

29549715_1/courses/102087_2019_2h/2009Effective%20pedagogy%20in

%20mathematics.pdf