Teachers’ perception of students’

misbehavior in key stage one

and two of A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives

1
 ABSTRACT
The islands of the Maldives are predominantly costal, and our environment is one of the most
vulnerable in the world. That is why the Maldives government remains strongly committed to
advancing environmental education (EE). Whereas, this study reports that the introduction of
inquiry-based strategies at Maldives primary schools in the teaching and learning of
environmental studies (ES) and as well as the behavior of the students. It also explores what
teachers and students are doing in primary ES classrooms and whether they should do so as
recommended by the ES curriculum. Further, the results of this study showed that teachers use
different ways to motivate their students effectively, including: Questioning students to involve
them in the lesson, students’ behavior, being aggressive in the classroom, displaying interest in
lesson presentations, fostering a non-threatening atmosphere, implementing curiosity learning
activities to help them understand the lesson concepts, using a variety of activities, making
lessons meaningful, and developing caring relationships in the classroom. The findings revealed
that teachers viewed student problem behaviors as those behaviors involving rule-breaking,
violating implicit norms or expectations, being inappropriate in the settings of the classroom, and
disturbing teaching and learning, which mainly required teacher intervention.

Key words
Aggressive, Motivation to Study, Teaching Strategies, Expectations, Inquiry-Based Learning,
Primary Schools, Misbehavior. Classroom Management

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to thank Allah more than anything else for giving me the bravery,
knowledge and energy to complete this dissertation. First, it is an honor to express my sincere
gratitude and thanks to all those who have helped and encouraged me in every way to complete
this dissertation.

I am sincerely indebted and thankful to the university, teachers and students involved for their
time, willingness and support to share opinions and thoughts and encourage me to go to their
schools and classrooms. I am grateful to the Ministry of Education for allowing me to study at
one of their universities.

A very special note of thanks for all my colleagues ' support for their encouragement and advice
to finish my Master's degree.

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 Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 1....................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1.2 Background of the study............................................................................................................4
1.3 Statement of the problem...........................................................................................................5
1.4 Objectives of the study.............................................................................................................6
1.5 Research questions.....................................................................................................................7
1.6 Significance of the study............................................................................................................7
1.7 Scope of the study......................................................................................................................9
1.8 Definition of terms...................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction
This chapter describes; background study, statement of problems, research objectives and
questions, significance and limitations of this research study, as well as definitions of key terms
related to the research. The study will investigate the teachers’ perception on key stage one and
two students’ misbehavior in A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives.

1.2 Background of the study

Teachers always have faced many obstacles in the process of teaching and learning. Student
misbehavior is a problem teachers face in creating a healthier class environment. Scholars
conveyed that many teachers occupy more time by concerning the matters of order and control at
the school than is actually essential, although they are not "the main objective of" the
management of a teacher [ CITATION Fah18 \l 18441 ]. Moreover, it believed that, it is
increasingly difficult to deal with students at the school, and there is no doubt that such realities
can influence the quality and quantity of teaching and learning processes. Because, "many
teachers are theoretically blind in class management" [ CITATION Ram05 \l 18441 ], they need
to better understand the different types of schools of misbehavior within the classroom and
become familiar with effective strategies to adequately cope with such student misbehaviors.
Such requirement prepares and imposes teachers to be school psychologists who should gather
enough expertise to ‘support student behavior (from mild to severe) through the use of evidence
based educational practices’ [ CITATION Ram05 \l 18441 ].

However, when students are disappointed to receive attention and power, they primarily point to
a vindictive behavior that aims to hurt the feelings of the teacher or other students. According to
[ CITATION Fah18 \l 18441 ], the main cause of misbehavior is that the student is insufficient in
a particular discipline; In such a situation, they would rather behave badly and be punished than
be considered inferior in the school. The three courses also advocated the use of logical (natural)

4
consequences as an effective strategy to combat objectionable behavior rather than punishment
and rewards. Such a strategy requires that the student with little education, who has not done his
homework, for example, stay after school to do so. Fahri believes that students relate their
misbehavior to its consequences. The causes defined by Fahri point to a pathognomonic
perspective of student misbehavior.

However, there has been a semantic debate about the term "misbehavior", which has led to
different definitions. For example, [ CITATION Ama18 \l 18441 ] define it as "any student
behavior that interferes with the proper functioning of the lesson". Others define it as "a behavior
that manifests itself verbally or physically and openly contradicts the authority of the teacher or
the school".

In the study, which summarizes the above definitions, it considers the reprehensible behavior of
students as any form of reprehensible behavior of students that is the main cause of verbal or
physical stress for teachers in the classroom, and that contradicts the smooth flow of teaching
and learning With this operational definition, the purpose of the study is to understand teachers'
perceptions of the main causes of student misbehavior, its incidence and the strategies teachers
consider effective in dealing with any type of misbehavior. However, the influence of teacher sex
on students' perception of irregularities is of particular interest because "although the perception
of unwanted behavior by students may be influenced by student characteristics such as gender"
[ CITATION Rac12 \l 18441 ]. Studying the role of gender in teachers' perceptions of student
misbehavior can contribute significantly to the understanding of the phenomenon.

However, student misbehavior is a "controversial term", as the types of misbehavior of students

from different cultures or different levels of education may be different. Most researchers have
described the concept in a rather general way. Studies considered the students' bad behavior as
"any behavior of the student that hinders the smooth running of a lesson". [ CITATION All13 \l
18441 ] described the concept as a perception on students by teachers that departs from the ideal
state of the student. Similarly, [ CITATION Yus17 \l 18441 ] have defined student misbehavior
as a series of inappropriate student to student behaviors that inhibit learning and interpersonal
relationships.

According to [ CITATION Fay02 \l 18441 ], it is not only possible to improve student learning
through effective pedagogy in presenting content, but also to effective pedagogical management
and handling of mistakes. In this sense, student misbehavior in educational and psychological
studies has been extensively studied. The reason that has attracted the attention of researchers is
that the bad behavior of students in the classroom has a negative impact on the teaching /
learning environment. For example, disrupting the right to student learning and teaching rights,
wasting time and weakening students' motivation and energy [ CITATION Sun171 \l 18441 ]. In
this sense, improving the classroom learning environment requires that teachers effectively
manage student misbehavior. However, this can be achieved by better understanding teachers'
perceptions and the reasons for poor behaviors and practices [ CITATION Sun171 \l 18441 ].

5
While it is important to understand the perception of misbehavior by teachers in order to improve
future learning environments, studies of student misbehavior should be conducted and the
perceptions of the concept studied by the teacher in different contexts and at different levels.
Since this phenomenon is also problematic for teacher candidates, their perception could also
provide useful data for teacher educators. In literature, the study focuses on practicing teachers or
practicing teachers.

However, the examining key stage one and two teachers working in the same environment would
provide different perspectives and useful data. When the same concept is used in this study, the
main concern is to examine the impact of teachers' gender on how they identify the main reasons
for the crucial misbehavior of key stage one and two students. incidence perceive the types of
misbehavior in their classes as well as strategies considered effective in dealing with student
misbehavior compared to A. Dh. Atoll school, Maldives

1.3 Definition of the problem

The Maldives education system has recently launched a reform movement in terms of the
number of years spent by students at different levels of education. There are two types of
elementary schools in the Maldives. The first one is key stage one that includes grades one and
two; students of five to seven years old attend these grades. The second type is key stage two
which consists of grades three to six wherein students of seven to eleven years old enroll.
Therefore, with respect to students’ ages, key stage one and two are characterized with higher
frequencies of misbehavior occurrence in the classes, which provided the motive for the present
study to be conducted on key stage one and two of A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives.

Despite studies conducted in different contexts on this topic, the gravity of the situation becomes
more apparent in the context of the Maldives due to lack of research on the phenomenon. As a
result, this study attempts to deepen our understanding of the problem by analyzing teachers'
perceptions of the main causes of student misbehavior. Teachers are encouraged to identify and
assess the reasons for student misbehavior in the classroom.

The study will also determine the types of different types of classroom misbehavior. In this
sense, we try to highlight the strategies that teachers consider the most effective. In the end, the
level of teacher confidence is determined. To this end, teachers are asked to demonstrate their
confidence in the rapid and effective resolution of the misbehavior of first grade students and the
two main students and to include them in the classroom.

1.4 Objectives of the study

Research on this topic in the Maldives was not enough. For this reason, this study was conducted
with the intention of monitoring teachers' perception regarding the misbehavior of first grade
students and two students under A. Dh. Analyze and investigate critically. Atoll school,
Maldives. As such, the objectives of this research effort were:

Main Objective

6
 1. To investigate the teachers’ perception on key stage one and two students’ misbehavior in
A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives.

Other Objectives

1. To investigate the impact of the teachers’ gender on the way they perceive the main
reasons behind key stage one and two students’ misbehavior in A. Dh. Atoll School,
Maldives.
2. To investigate the behaviors, teachers observe as distinct student misbehaviors within the
classroom in key stage one and two of A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives.
3. To investigate the strategies considered to be effective in dealing with key stage one and
two students’ misbehavior in A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives.

1.5 Research questions

To achieve these objectives, the following research questions are asked. It should be noted that in
the Maldivian context, education in equality is maintained and same-sex teachers attend one
class or another. Therefore, the following research questions have been developed to achieve the
main objective of this study, which is to examine the perceptions of teachers and students in a
Maldivian elementary school.

1. What extent teachers’ perception on key stage one and two students’ misbehavior in
A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives have?
2. What is the impact of the teachers’ gender on the way they perceive the main reasons
behind key stage one and two students’ misbehavior in A. Dh. Atoll School,
Maldives?
3. What behaviors do teachers observe as distinct student misbehaviors within the
classroom?
4. What are the strategies considered to be effective in dealing with key stage one and
two students’ misbehavior in A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives?

1.6 Importance of the study.

Student misbehavior is an unfortunate but inevitable part of the teacher-student dynamic. Despite
teachers' efforts to create a positive climate, classroom equity and pro-social communication,
students can participate in a variety of objectionable behaviors that interfere with classroom
learning and the environment [ CITATION Joh16 \l 18441 ]. Student misbehavior refers to
actions that interfere with their learning experiences or those of their peers or interfere with the
learning environment [ CITATION All13 \l 18441 ]. Since the early 1970s, more and more
documents have been compiled to educate students about misbehavior to understand its harmful
effects on children. The learning. In the literature on educational communication, [ CITATION
Ram05 \l 18441 ] examined teachers' responses to specific scenarios of student misbehavior, and
recent studies have quantified these behaviors using self-assessment tools.

7
While Millennials continue to populate a university's classroom, they have brought a myriad of
unprecedented technological advances, changes in expectations and social characteristics that
have changed the school classroom [ CITATION Ama18 \l 18441 ]. Therefore, it is likely that
early surveys such as [ CITATION Ram05 \l 18441 ], who had potential teachers (apprentices)
and experienced teachers, evaluated student misbehavior using given hypothetical scenarios. The
current area of primary education. Therefore, this study is important because it seeks to
inductively understand the inappropriate behavior of students in modern schools by collecting
data from the most qualified people to evaluate them, teachers.

One of the main reasons why this topic is always up-to-date is to maintain the importance given
to students, who are always at the center of education and guidance services. Another important
factor in maintaining this up-to-date theme is the fact that the student's family and education
system are constantly striving for efficiency.

In general, student misbehavior not only prevents the individual from learning to misbehave, but
also negatively affects the learning and teaching experience of other students [ CITATION
Ram05 \l 18441 ]. Although these findings highlight the behavior and influence of poor student
behaviors, the assessment of these very poor behaviors and behaviors remains problematic and
outdated. Therefore, this study is significant because it confirms the areas of misbehavior
previously studied and examines teachers' perceptions of student misbehavior at school. For that
reason, the study main objective is to investigate the teachers’ perception on key stage one and
two students’ misbehavior in A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives.

1.7 Scope of the study

Past to present studies of student misbehavior show that this problem is kept up to date. In
studies conducted in this context, teachers identified students' main problematic behaviors as
cognitive and emotional problems, shyness, and antisocial behavior (Fahri, 2018) by engaging in
dishonesty. Aggressiveness and theft[ CITATION Fah18 \l 18441 ], lack of student discipline,
conversations with other students and distraction, damage to school supplies and property,
violation of school rules, lying, rude attitude towards their teacher [ CITATION All13 \l 18441 ],
inattention and looking around the classroom. Behaviors were observed, such as not paying
attention to lessons, conversing, complaining about other students in the class, participating in
activities outside the classroom without first obtaining and defrauding the teacher's permission.
problematic behavior of students.

Although many studies have been conducted on this topic, another issue to be discussed is the
methods used by teachers to prevent their behavior. Teachers use a variety of techniques to
overcome the behavior of students perceived to be problematic in their classrooms, especially
students in key stage one and two. Some of the methods used by teachers for this purpose include
support. through more experienced training of teachers and teachers and sending the student to

8
another school staff member [ CITATION Rac12 \l 18441 ], by discussing with the student the
reasons for such behavior, and Collaborate with the student's family [ CITATION All13 \l 18441
], give instructions, use signs and body language, ignore student, make eye contact Say the
student's name, blame him, ask a question, threaten with your physical affection, make a joke
and criticize him, ask the psychological counselor in the school, take the student to another class
location that anonymously gives a general warning in class and, though rarely, refers to the
student's failure in the classroom [ CITATION Joh16 \l 18441 ]. As a result, the study scope is to
investigate the teachers’ perception on key stage one and two students’ misbehavior in A. Dh.
Atoll School, Maldives.

1.8 Definition of terms

Misbehavior- the act of misconduct: the bad behavior

Problematic behaviors of students- such as misconduct, disciplinary violations, misbehavior,

problem behavior, and disruptive behavior

Students’ Misbehavior- behaviors that disrupt learning, student misbehaviors have consistently
proven to be a detriment to class rooms across grade levels and contexts.

Bullying- is physical or psychological intimidation occurring repeatedly over time to create an

ongoing pattern of harassment and abuse.

Classroom management- refers to actions taken to create and maintain a learning environment
conducive to successful instruction -arranging the physical environment, establishing rules and
procedures, maintaining students’ attention to lessons and engagement in activities.

Key stage one- that includes grades one and two; students of five to seven years old attend these
grades.

Key stage two- which consists of grades three to six wherein students of seven to eleven years
old enroll.

Perception- the ability to see, hear or become aware of something through the senses or the way
in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction
Many scholars’ findings over teachers’ perception of students’ misbehavior is critically
discussed and reviewed in this section. Also, this section has seen lots of research and studies
over time due to its significance on the study arena. Most of these studies were focused on

9
finding remedies on student misbehaviors which are affecting to both students and teachers’
performances.

2.2 Related Literature

2.2.1 What is Student Misbehavior?
Student misbehaviors such as disruptive talking, chronic avoidance of work, clowning,
interfering with teaching activities, harassing classmates, verbal insults, rudeness to teacher,
defiance, and hostility, ranging from infrequent to frequent, mild to severe, is at horny issue in
every day classroom. Teachers usually reported that these disturbing behaviors in the classroom
are intolerable and stress provoking, and they had to spend a great deal of time and energy to
manage the classroom. Obviously, student misbehaviors retard the smoothness and effectiveness
of teaching and also impede the learning of the student and his/her classmates. Moreover,
research findings have shown that school misbehavior not only escalated with time but also
lowered academic achievement and increased delinquent behavior. To lessen these immediate
and gradual adverse effects of student misbehaviors, it is of primary importance to identify what
exactly are these behaviors inside classroom.

In this literature, different terms have been used to describe misbehaviors of students. For
instance, [ CITATION All13 \l 18441 ] referred student misconduct to disciplinary violations in
school, for instance, tardiness, vandalism, fighting, stealing, and drinking on campus. When there
are explicit rules and regulations in school and classroom, violation of these is apparently a
“misbehavior or misconduct or discipline problem”. Nevertheless, a particular behavior is
viewed as problematic may not necessarily be rule breaking, but inappropriate or disturbing in
the classroom setting. For instance, daydreaming in class, not completing homework, talking in
class, lesson disruption, bullying, and rudeness to the teacher are named as “problem behaviors”,
“behavior problems,” or “disruptive behaviors”. These behaviors referred to “an activity that
causes distress for teachers, interrupts the learning process and that leads teachers to make
continual comments to the student”, or “the myriad activities which disrupt and impede the
teaching-learning process”. Noting that school misconduct is one of the manifests of the problem
behavior syndrome, the term “problem behavior” was used to refer to all externalizing behaviors
that violate explicit rules or implicit norms, disturb the classroom order, and irritate the process
of teaching and learning in this study.

Further, student misbehavior defined as behaviors that disrupt learning, student misbehaviors
have consistently proven to be a detriment to class rooms across grade levels and contexts
[ CITATION Joh16 \l 18441 ]. These behaviors may be perceived as unwanted from instructors,
student nagging, challenging, and excuse making are not always perceived as disruptive to the
learning environment, which is the underlying foundation for what makes an action or interaction
a misbehavior within the classroom. Efforts such as this study will allow researchers to uncover a
set of misbehaviors that can help better describe the college student experience. To date, little is

10
known about how contemporary college students misbehave because the bulk of research
focusing on student misbehaviors has been conducted within other contexts and cultures.

Researches has examined and have each concluded that students misbehave in distinct ways,
there is limited evidence to support the notion that American college students misbehave in
similar ways. Most germane to the current investigation is the work of Bingham et al. (2009)
who quantified college student misbehavior based upon the two categories outlined by Kearney
et al. (1988) and Richmond et al. (2001): inconsideration, harassment. However, Bingham et
al.’s work was derived from data that were collected 27 and 14 years ago (respectively), leaving
a considerable amount of time for technological development and cultural change across higher
education. Moreover, the data stemmed from the K-12 context rather than the college classroom,
making it difficult to generalize the findings to the collegiate environment. Recently, Liand
Titsworth (2015) assessed student misbehavior within the online classroom and determined that
students in online classes misbehave in many distinct ways. Their findings share some
similarities with the face-to-face misbehaviors revealed by others (e.g., aggressiveness; Bingham
et al., 2009), while also identifying misbehaviors unique to the online classroom. Thus, these
results further support the notion that student misbehaviors are constantly evolving and may
occur in unique ways based on context.

2.2.1 Measures to teachers’ perceptions of classroom problem behaviors

Several scales have been developed to measure teachers’ perceptions of classroom problem
behaviors. For instance, in the United Kingdom, Wheldall and Merrett [10] used ten items,
including eating, nonverbal noise, disobedience, talking out of turn, idleness/slowness,
unpunctuality, hindering others, physical aggression, untidiness, and out of seat, to measure
behavior problems among primary school students. [ CITATION Rud18 \l 18441 ] also used
these behaviors to measure secondary school students’ behavior problems, with a replacement of
eating with verbal abuse because they found that teachers did not perceive eating as a problem
behavior among secondary school students whereas verbal abuse was a more relevant behavior
problem.

According to [ CITATION Rud18 \l 18441 ], as these descriptors of students’ disruptive

behaviors were formed almost a decade ago, their validity and applicability to Chinese
classrooms nowadays may be questioned. Some student behaviors that have not be mentioned in
the previous studies, such as daydreaming, sleeping, looking out of window, playing with
personal stuff in private, bullying, disrespecting, talking back, arguing, quarrelling or fighting
with teachers, complaining, and lack of independent initiative were found by a recent study in
exploring Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ classroom misbehavior. On top of this,
uncooperativeness, emotional disturbance, over activity and withdrawal were also reported as
student classroom behavior problems by Chinese elementary school teachers. Although these
two studies were recent, both were conducted in main land China. It is thus argued that the scales

11
developed in these studies as well as the findings may be limited to describing student problem
behaviors in mainland China classroom, which is different from the pluralistic classroom in
which Confucian and Western teaching and learning approaches are used in Hong Kong
[ CITATION Rud18 \l 18441 ].

As such, direct employment of an existing scale is hardly sufficient to tap all the classroom
problem behaviors exhibited by students. It is, therefore, important to carry out a qualitative
research study to unravel relevant and upto dated descriptions of the students’ problem behaviors
in Hong Kong classroom based on the views of teachers. Apart from exploring different
categories of student problem behaviors inside classroom, it is also valuable to identify the
common ones and the disruptive ones from the teachers’ perspectives. Existing research findings
showed that, among various types of student problem behaviors, “talking out of turn,” “hindering
others,” and “idleness” were commonly reported by secondary school teachers as the most
frequent and troublesome misbehaviors in the United Kingdom and Australia. Similar to these
findings in the West, “talking out of turn” was rated by both primary and secondary school
teachers as the most frequent and troublesome misbehavior, followed by “non-attentiveness” and
“forgetfulness”—two other typical students’ disruptive behaviors in Hong Kong classroom. In
mainland China, “non-attentiveness”, “talking out of turn,” and “overactive” were reported as the
most frequent and troublesome classroom behavior problems by the elementary school teachers
in three provinces [ CITATION All13 \l 18441 ].

On the other hand, “daydreaming,” “talking out of turn,” and “playing with personal stuff” were
rated as the most frequent classroom misbehaviors by a group of elementary, middle and high
school teachers in another two provinces, while “daydreaming,” “slowness” and “talking out of
turn” were the most troublesome classroom misbehaviors. Apparently, “talking out of turn” is
usually ranked as highly popular and disturbing student misbehavior across time and cultures and
in different grade levels of students. With a specific focus on studying the problem behaviors of
junior secondary students in Hong Kong classroom, this study attempted to replicate the previous
studies in examining the problem behaviors perceived by teachers as the most common and
disruptive. In addition, this study further attempted to investigate the most unacceptable problem
behaviors in the eyes of teachers and the underlying reasons behind.

2.3 Related Research

2.3.1 Student Misbehavior
Research on student misbehaviors in classroom reveal that student conduct problems in the
classroom vary according to class, lesson content, educational level, time and student
characteristics [ CITATION Gül14 \l 18441 ]. However, those problem behaviors can be
classified into two groups: school-based behavior problems and classroom behavior problems. In
the State the most common school-based problem behaviors are conduct problems, substance use
and crime [ CITATION Suh10 \l 18441 ]. Although the behavior problems may seem to be
different in both cases, research proves that there is a strong correlation between school wide and

12
classroom based behavior problems [CITATION Bib00 \l 18441 ]. It is not surprising in this
situation those individuals who engage in one form of the said behavior problems are more likely
to engage in the others which can also be explained with problem behavior theory that supports
the idea that aspects of an individual’s personality (motivation, beliefs, personal control) and
aspects of the environment (parents and friends as models) interact to produce a set of
conventional and problematic behaviors [ CITATION Gül14 \l 18441 ]. Therefore, the
identification of the structure of the most frequent misbehaviors on the basis of their correlations
with each other and with other life experiences can give us clues about certain youth problem
patterns.

Researches into this student misbehavior and its concomitant impacts on classroom management
has led to the publication of a bulk of books. Research results of [ CITATION Rac12 \l 18441 ]
indicated that the teachers attached a much more important role to parents in accounting for
student misbehavior; it was also shown that ‘talking out of turn’ was the most frequent
misbehavior type with ‘establishing clear and consistent school and classroom rules’ as the most
efficient strategy in dealing with pupil misbehavior; the teachers also underlined the role of
teacher education programs in giving orientation to the student teachers’ perspectives on student
misbehavior.

A similar study was conducted by Little (2005) on the secondary teachers’ perceptions of student
misbehavior. The researcher also investigated their preferred way of intervention. Akin to the
outcome of the studies carried out in primary schools, high school students’ major misbehavior
types were ‘talking out of turn’ and ‘hindering other children’ ‘poor attention’ and ‘off-task
behavior’. With regard to the teachers’ preference for intervention and method of assistance,
they ranked advice from other teachers, staff in service, and tip sheet as the most acceptable
forms of seeking assistance in dealing with the students’ misbehaviors. [ CITATION Gül14 \l
18441 ]investigated the influence of teachers’ experience and students’ gender on the teachers’
perceptions of the level of seriousness of the various misbehavior types occurring in the
classroom.

The results showed that both variables, experience and gender, were highly effective in orienting
the teachers’ perceptions of the students’ misbehavior. It was highlighted that versed teachers
considered those misbehavior types that were internalized as more serious than antisocial
behaviors which were deemed as serious by novice teachers; this finding resonates with
[ CITATION Gül14 \l 18441 ]contention that there are basic discrepancies in the way novice and
versed teachers perceive the same classroom events.

In the case of gender, “externalizing behaviors were seen as most serious when occurring among
girls, whereas internalizing behaviors were seen as most serious when occurring among boys”.
Rather than analyzing teachers’ views on student misbehavior, [ CITATION All13 \l 18441 ]
delved into students’ perceptions of pupil misbehavior and efficacious deterrents in dealing with
misbehavior. They administered questionnaires to 350 secondary school students (97 males and

13
253 females). The results indicated that ‘talking out of turn’ was the most frequent and
problematic misbehavior types. Among deterrents utilized by the teachers and which were
considered to be effective by the students were ‘being sent to the principal’s office’, ‘detention’,
and ‘sending an unfavorable report to the student’s home’. The study also underlined the types of
incentives regarded by the students to be effective in promoting appropriate behavior such as,
‘sending a positive letter to the student’s home’, and ‘good mark’.

These results show that both teachers and students possessed an interventionist perspective
toward pupil misbehavior since they both believed that resorting to an external factor could deter
students from misconduct. Student misbehavior in the setting of Iran, however, is a less
investigated area when compared to the bulk of research just outlined [ CITATION All13 \l
18441 ]. They focused their attention on the Iranian teachers’ use of strategies when dealing with
students’ misbehavior from their students’ vantage point. They administered the classroom
discipline strategy questionnaire to one thousand and four-hundred ninety-seven students to
discover the students’ perceptions of the issue under study.

In the [ CITATION Fah18 \l 18441 ] study, a comparison is made between public and private
schools. The results showed that, based on the students’ perspectives, teachers in public schools
availed themselves more of aggression strategies and punishment than those of private schools.
The results also indicated that, regardless of school type, the female teachers used more
punishment and aggressive strategies than their male counterparts. Overall, the teachers in this
study employed much more rewarding and recognition strategies to discipline the class than
aggressive strategies. The aforementioned studies indicate that student misbehavior is a
challenging area for teachers of varying degrees of experience to deal with, and that needs more
research to shed lights on the issue in question.

2.3.2 Teachers Perception

Arguing that much of the research on behavior problems was conducted on primary school
students, [ CITATION Ram05 \l 18441 ] examined secondary school teachers’ perceptions of
problematic behaviors also in Victoria, Australia. The data were gathered from 148 secondary
school teachers through a survey. According to the results, the most troublesome and frequent
problem behavior was talking out of turn, which was followed by hindering others, idleness,
disobedience and unnecessary noise. As discussed by the researcher, these behaviors were
similar to those reported in studies on primary school students.

Kyriacou (2010) investigated Japanese high school teachers’ views of student misbehavior.
Responses of 141 teachers revealed that the top four major factors were the same with those in
Kyriacoua and Martín (2010), which was a Spanish context, but in a different order. In the
Japanese context, parents were the second major factor while students having emotional and/or
behavioral difficulties was the first. As for the frequency of student misbehavior, the most
frequent behavior types included resting head on desk during lesson, talking out of turn, arriving
late for lesson, using a mobile phone during the lesson and interrupting other students.

14
In a different Asian context, Din et al. conducted two studies with different foci (2008; 2010).
The first one (Din et al., 2008) focused on Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ classroom
misbehavior. Through a questionnaire developed by the researchers, 244 responses were
collected from teachers of different subject areas. According to Chinese teachers, most frequent
misbehaviors included daydreaming, talking out of turn and playing with personal stuff while
daydreaming, slowness and talking out of turn were among the most troublesome. In a further
study (Ding et al., 2010), they examined the same teachers’ attributions and coping strategies for
student misbehavior. The Chinese teachers first attributed misbehavior to student characteristics
(e.g. being lazy) and second to bad learning habits.

Focusing on both primary and secondary schools, Gibbs and Gardiner (2008) examined teachers’
attributions for students’ misbehavior in England and the Republic of Ireland by making a cross-
phase and cross cultural comparison. Based on the responses of 119 primary school teachers and
102 secondary school teachers, both groups of teachers appeared to attribute misbehavior of
students to their own behaviors as a major factor. To some extent, child’s personality also existed
in primary school teachers’ attributions while it was a less important factor for secondary school
teachers. As for the differences across cultures, due to the student-centered philosophy in the
Irish education system, Irish teachers attributed greater importance to recognizing the salience of
students’ personality or pressures on children than their English colleagues. On the other hand,
English teachers seemed to have rated their own classroom strategies.

In a more recent study in Greece, Koutrouba (2013) examined Greek secondary school teachers’
views on and attitudes towards student misbehavior. Handing out questionnaires to a random
sample, this study collected data from 869 teachers. The results showed that similar to Chinese
teachers (Ding et al., 2010), Greek teachers mainly attributed misbehavior to students (e.g. being
lazy or idle) and argued that they were not given any specialized training on classroom
management or could establish relationships trust and respect with their students because of strict
and inflexible curricula.

2.4 Theoretical Framework

The research framework, in simple terms, is the structure or the frame that supports the research.
Lester (2005, p.458) defines the research framework as ‘the basic ideas that serves as the basis
for a phenomenon that is to be investigated.’ According to Eisenhart (1991), there are three types
of frameworks: theoretical, practical and conceptual. Theoretical frameworks are based on
formal theory, where the purpose of the research is to support, modify, or expand an already
established theory.

the study is neither based on any formal theory, nor on overarching practical experience but is
based upon the fundamental principle, ideas, and constructs of the phenomenon (the practicum)
meant to be studied. This is largely an exploratory empirical study. Therefore, an explicit

15
research framework is considered imperative as it guides the researcher to identify the important
constructs to be studied and the perspectives to be taken. Eisenhart (1991) states that identifying
an appropriate framework for the study is the second most important steps among the three
essential steps of the research process. The first step is establishing the research problem
(presented in Chapter 1), and the third conceptual step is identifying data analysis framework
which will be described later in this chapter. The following section describes the conceptual
structure of the study derived from a review of the extant literature.

Figure 3.1 is the theoretical framework that describes the important constructs and their network
of relationships, demarcated from the extant literature, upon which this study is situated.

Key Stage one and Two

Teachers Perception
Students Misbehavior

Figure 3.1 attempts to show the major constructs of the practicum that have been derived from
the literature. These constructs serve as the basis to design this study which is aimed at exploring
the current practices of practicum in teacher education in the Maldives.

16
 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction
This chapter describes the research methodology selected. Initially the chapter commence with
the explanation of the research design. The chapter further consist with population and sampling,
data collection design, data analysis design, research instrument, procedure, ethical
consideration, validity and reliability and also timeline.

3.2 Research Design

The research design for the purpose of the study is a qualitative research design. Qualitative
research focuses on asking questions that allow for open ended and detailed responses, in order
to explore or discover information. [ CITATION Uma03 \l 18441 ] noted that qualitative
research is a type of research in which the researcher studies a problem that calls for an
exploration of a phenomenon; relies on the views of participants; asks broad, general questions;
collects data consisting largely of words (or text) from participants; describes and analyzes these
words for themes; and conducts the inquiry in a subjective and reflexive manner.

These researchers collect data in the form of words and/or pictures, rather than numbers, found
in quantitative research. [ CITATION Gil10 \l 18441 ] stated that, “Pure qualitative research
relies on the collection of qualitative data (i.e., non-numerical data such as words and pictures)
and follows the other characteristics of the qualitative research paradigm shown in.

Phenomenology describes a person’s experience associated with a certain phenomenon. Johnson

and Gill discussed the purpose of phenomenology, stating that, “The purpose of
phenomenological research is to obtain a view into your research participants’ life-worlds and to
understand their personal meanings (i.e., what something means to them) constructed from their
‘lived experiences’”[ CITATION Gil10 \l 18441 ]. The research study was a qualitative study of
teachers’ perceptions related to the key stage one and two students’ misbehavior exhibited by
elementary students at school in Maldives.

The present endeavor is conducted as a descriptive study through which the researchers try to
quantitatively describe the secondary teachers’ perceptions on pupil misbehavior. In descriptive
research study “looks at individuals, groups, institutions, methods and materials in order to
describe, compare, contrast, classify, analyses and interpret the entities and the events that
constitute their various fields of inquiry” [ CITATION Gil10 \l 18441 ]. To this end, a
questionnaire was employed and administered to bring forth how male and female teachers
consider their students’ misbehavior and if they have different views on their students’
misbehavior.

17
3.2.1 Research Setting
The research setting that of the study is an elementary school located in Maldives County, which
enrolls students in grades one to five. Although this elementary school enrolls students in grades
one to five, the research study only focused on teachers of students in grades 1-5, which closely
resembles my Childhood Education certification area. There are 562 students enrolled and 46.5
full time teachers, which makes a 12:1 ratio. The majority of the student population, 71.2%, is
Caucasian. The minority populations include American Indian (12.6%), Hispanic (7.7%), Two
races (7.5%), Black (0.7%), and Asian (0.4%). There are an equal number of male and female
students enrolled. More than half of the student population receives free or reduced lunch; 52.5%
of students receive free lunch and 9.1% of students receive reduced lunch. In regard to teaching
staff, 7% are in their first or second year of teaching (“Silver Creek Elementary School,” n.d.).
For the purpose of this research study, the school will be referred to as Shamrock Elementary.

3.3 Population and Sampling

The sample of the present study included 164 secondary school teachers (males 71=43.3% and
females 93=56.7%). They were teaching different subject matters including English language,
theology, mathematics, and Persian literature. All of them were teachers of public schools in
District 3 of the city of Kermanshah, Iran. This city has three districts. Each district consists of
about sixty public male and female secondary schools. District 3 was randomly selected which
included sixty one public schools (32=female public school, 29=male public school). Using
systematic sampling and also owing to the limited number of the schools in the district it was
decided to choose every 6th of the male and every 5th of the female public schools to account for
the strata of each category in the given district; the results were 5 male and 7 female public
schools. From among 71 male participants 29 teachers (40.8%) were categorized as having
nineteen to twenty-four years of experience, 18 (25.4%) had thirteen to eighteen years of
experience, and 12 (16.9%) had one to six, and 12 (16.9%) seven to twelve years of experience
with the total mean of 2.90 (Table 1). Female participants were ninety three secondary school
teachers. The majority of them (40.9%) had thirteen to eighteen years of experience, 24.7% had
nineteen to twenty four years of experience, and 23.7% and 10.8% had seven to twelve and one
to six years of experience respectively with the total mean of 2.80 (Table 1).

3.4 Data Collection methods

3.4.1 Primary Data

The reasons behind using primary source of data in the research were relevance, quickness,
inexpensive, efficiency and accuracy means of assessing data. Primary data collection was
structured in several steps. First, the existing literature, experts’ opinions and authors’ experience
were reviewed to investigate the teachers’ perception on key stage one and two students’

18
misbehavior in A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives. Next, based on knowledge gained from these
sources, as primary data collection tool that was used for this study is individual interviews, 6 of
which were specifically in-person interviews. [ CITATION Gil10 \l 18441 ] define in-person
interviews: “Interviews that are done face-to-face are called in-person interviews; interviews
conducted over the telephone are called telephone interviews”. Johnson and Gill define the
interview guide approach: “In the next approach to qualitative interviewing, the interview guide
approach, the interviewer enters the interview session with a plan to explore specific topics and
to ask specific open-ended questions of the interviewee”. It is a best approach since, it was able
to have a predetermined set of interview questions beside researcher, while having the flexibility
of asking the questions in any order and the ability to change the wording. All of the
interviewees were asked the same primary interview questions (see Appendix 1). Researcher
created an informed consent form and hand delivered it to 6 of the 8 participants that had agreed
to participate in the study (see Appendix B). Once the informed consent forms were returned,
researcher scheduled individual meeting times with each participant. The interviews took place
before school or after school on March 19, March 21, March 22, March 23, March 27, and
March 28. researcher received both completed written responses back, from the retired teachers,
during the week of March 19th. Researcher began the interviews by asking each participant to
state their age and about their teaching experience.

These interviews consisted of 8 primary questions that asked teachers about their personal
experiences with school misbehavior and their management techniques. The main questions that
researcher asked participants were in regard to the forms of student misbehavior that are present
in their classroom, the strategies they use to manage the misbehavior, and the ways in which they
determine whether the behavior management strategy they’ve applied is effective in solving or
reducing the misbehavior. researcher also asked auxiliary questions, such as “How is student
misbehavior detrimental in your classroom?” “Where did you hear about the strategy that you’re
currently implementing and how did you decide that it would be a good strategy to use?” “What
are your thoughts on why students misbehave?” “What is the best advice that you’ve been given
about handling misbehavior or the most important thing that you’ve learned about handling
misbehavior from your experiences?” And researcher also had participants describe actual
experiences that they’ve had with student misbehavior and how they reacted to the situations.
Supplemental interview questions also emerged based on the responses researcher received from
participants. Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes. Johnson and Gill noted: “A
strength of interviews is that a researcher can freely probe (prompts used to obtain response
clarity or additional information”.
3.4.2. Secondary Data Collection

Secondary data were collected with the purpose of gaining an insight regarding the problem
definition, theoretical background, research design, in-depth research questions development and
measurement process of the research by using existing studies done in similar nature or similar

19
area of interest and defining the concepts of study area. It was helpful to researcher to gained
broad understanding about the study based on previous studies related to the teachers’ perception
on key stage one and two students’ misbehaviors.

Therefore, for the research purposes the secondary data were collected by using, On-line
journals, periodicals and text books, Online research papers with reference to this study area,
Paper and magazine articles and Web sites etc.

3.5 Instrument
The qualitative approach to this study allowed me to describe in depth the perceptions and
thoughts expressed by the key stage one and two students’ teachers concerning school discipline
practices. The primary data sources used were interviews and open-ended questions (See
Appendices 01). The data collected through the open-ended questions were reported in the
participants’ own words through the process of audio tape recordings and transcriptions. The
text of the interviews and questions served as the primary source for interpreting and analyzing
data. The interview is more than a session of questions asked by the interviewer that stimulate
answers from the interviewees. The role of the interviewer is vital.

The role of the interviewer is to make it possible for the person being interviewed to bring the
interviewer into his or her world. The quality of the information obtained during an interview is
largely dependent on the interviewer. How the interviewer sees his or her role and the
participant’s role and how the interviewer constructs questions and conducts the interview make
the interviewer the most crucial tool in the research process [ CITATION Kyr07 \l 18441 ].

To be trustworthy, qualitative studies must satisfy the constructs of credibility, transferability,

dependability, and confirmability. To ensure trustworthiness, all interview questions were
piloted and a panel of administrators, teachers and parents were asked to determine if questions
were appropriate. Researcher kept the names of schools, teachers, administrators, and parents
confidential and all names of persons and places throughout the study have been replaced with
pseudonyms to protect the privacy of participants and to assure their continued anonymity.

Peer debriefing was used to ensure that personal bias had been identified and eliminated from the
collected data. The peer debriefed assumed a role in challenging ideas and reflecting on the
methodology. The person who consented to be the peer debriefed is an assistant principal of a
middle school in an adjoining county who has a doctor in education degree and is familiar with
school discipline as well as data collection.

3.6 Research procedure

Researcher used a general interview guide because it allowed researcher to provide a common
set of topics from which data were collected to determine exact working or sequencing of

20
interview questions. Observations and interviews of each participant were included in the data
collection. A journal, notes, and the interviews were collected along with tapes to be transcribed.

The qualitative method of gathering rich description of school discipline practices afforded
researcher the opportunity to look at similarities and differences, as well as points of uniqueness,
as data were collected.

The data collection process started in October 2019 and finished in November 2019. At the
outset, to increase the number and chance of participation in each school, the principals of the A.
Dh. Atoll school were approached and requested to distribute the questionnaire among their
teachers. Since the teachers of each school were scheduled to attend the classes on a different
day during a week, it took almost one week for each school’s principal to distribute the
questionnaires among all the teachers.

3.7 Data Analysis methods

Data were analyzed by a procedure known as inductive analysis. Inductive analysis works well
when the purpose of the study is exploratory and descriptive [ CITATION Uma03 \l 18441 ].
All interviews were tape recorded and transcribed. Using the transcriptions, researcher began the
sub process of unitization. According to [ CITATION Kyr07 \l 18441 ]: Units are single pieces
of information that stand by themselves; that is, they are interpretable in the absence of any
additional information. A unit may be a simple sentence or an extended paragraph, but, in either
case, the test of its unitary character is that if any portion of the unit were to be removed, the
remainder would be seriously compromised or rendered uninterpretable.

After the transcriptions were unitized, the process of categorization began. Categorization is the
process of sorting units into categories with similar characteristics. Data were gathered and
analyzed through MS excel. The primary data of in-depth, open-ended interviews were
quotations. What people say, what they think, how they feel, what they have done, and what
they know, etc these are the things one can learn.

In order to present research, data presentation tools are very important part. Researcher used
tables, comparative bar charts, pie charts and summary tables as data presentation tools of the
study.

3.8 Ethical consideration

As Creswell and Clark, (2007) explains It is significant to consider confidential and ethical
issues by researcher for the research method which proposed. Hair et.al. (2007) elaborate that
the times it is needed to morally correct and need to conduct in respectful manner. Research
ethics are the set of principles of right and wrong and though they are simple equipped with
descriptively mechanisms and philosophies are referred in researches as well as promote and
enforce in the sectors which governance and management used to be under bureaucratic

21
regulation (Gallagher, 2008). Lindsay, (2000) describe that researchers conduct research with the
sample that researcher chosen must consider the ethical codes as well as standards for minimize
the errors and at the same time conducting the research. Above discussed all considerations were
followed during the research and detailed considerations are as below.

Honesty – a high level of honesty was maintained when providing report data and results.
Respect –Respondents were well respected up to the maximum level and were treated as
independent.
Informed Consent –All the respondents were well informed of the purpose of the study during
the participation time and how it will benefit to the organization and clarifications needed were
fully accommodated.
Non-discrimination – Discrimination against the race, ethnicity and age were always avoided.
Integrity – All the agreements with the respondents were acknowledged and acted upon.
Objectivity – All the aspects of the research such as data collection, analyzing and interpreting
were ensured with avoiding bias and personal agendas.
Confidentiality – The respondent’s confidentiality and the comments were maintained at the
highest level.
Relevance – The data were limited to those which were relevant to the research objectives
Carefulness – Carefulness was observed at all levels of the research study without making any
misinterpretations.

3.9 Validity and reliability

Testing validity and reliability of the questionnaire has been subjected to attrition in order to
measure it. The questionnaire will be translating to prefer local language of the teachers request
and feedback will also be obtained during a neutral time. In order to avoid errors and
misunderstandings it is expected to clarify the questions in detail. Developing and testing the
research instruments capabilities as well as conducting feasibility studies, assessing the data
analysis techniques to identify problems, protocol designing for primary data collection,
assessing the data analysis techniques to identify problems and finally developing research
questions and planning are significant as capabilities of developing and testing the research
instruments.

3.4.1 Validity Test

Validity measures the extent to which the researcher measures what he intended to measure.
There are various types of validity can be identified as, content validity, construct validity,
criterion- related validity.
Content validity measures the degree to which the definition given by the researcher for a specific
construct captures the representativeness of the domain of the construct. Construct validity refers to
the ability of a measurement tool to actually measure the psychological concept being studied. There

22
are two types of validity aspects use to measure the construct validity which known as convergent
validity and discriminant validity.

3.9.1.1 Convergent validity

Convergent validity is used to measure the degree to which the indicators developed to measure
the construct unit on the same. It is examined whether the set of indicators in a certain dimension
is highly correlated with any other indicator of any other dimension in the same construct. In
order to satisfy convergent validity, below conditions are needed to be fulfilled.

1.KMO value should be greater than 0.5 (KMO>0.5)

2.Sig value of the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity should be less than 0.05 (P<0.05)

3.9.2 Reliability Test

According to the [ CITATION Gil10 \l 18441 ], “Reliability refers to the extent to which a scale
produces consistent results if repeated measurements are made on the characteristics”. The reliability
indicates the extent to which it is without bias and hence ensures consistent measurement and
across time and across the various items. The reliability of a measure is established by testing
internal consistency and it shows how well the items measuring the concept hang together as a
set. It is used reliability coefficient known as Cronbach’s alpha which indicates how well the
items in a set are positively correlated to one another.

3.10 Timeline
The approximate time frame for the duration of the survey is outline below.

Task Jul-2019 Aug-2019 Sep-2019 Oct-2019 Nov-2019

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Weeks 04
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
Proposal
submission
Complete the
Introduction
Chapter
Complete the
Literature
Review

23
 Chapter
Complete the
Methodology
Chapter
Finalize the
data collection
instruments
Data
Collection
Data Analysis
Complete the
research
project
Submit the
draft
Dissertation
Submission

Table 1: Time Frame

Source: Author developed

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction
Researcher tries to present and analyze the data and try to investigate the teachers’ perception on
key stage one and two students’ misbehavior in A. Dh. Atoll School, Maldives from this chapter.
Simply the purpose of this chapter is to present the results of the current study in a systematic
way as it facilitates to come in to a conclusion regarding the current study.

4.2 Introduction of the Participants

The motivation for this study was based on my concerns as an administrator as to the amount of
time disruptive students take away from classroom instruction and the increasing number of
disruptive behavior problems. Indepth interviews were conducted with 63 participants: 21
administrators, 22 tenured teachers, and 20 parents.

The administrators' experiences in teaching and administration ranged from 8 to 35 years. The
compositions of the schools varied from kindergarten to grade 8, intermediate, kindergarten to
grade 5, and middle schools; however, this study focused on grades 5 through 8. For the purpose

24
of anonymity and to protect those involved, all participants and schools were given fictitious
names.

The 22 tenured teachers had a wide range of experience from 5 to 31 years. They were
cooperative and excited to share their perceptions of effective school discipline practices that
they had used to identify barriers and to give ideas for improvements to enhance current
discipline practices.

The 20 parents were cooperative and seemed pleased that they had been chosen to participate in
the interviews. Their children were in fifth through eighth grades. They were quick to elaborate
on their experiences as well as their children’s experiences regarding discipline practices.

4.3 Teachers’ Interviews

All of the teachers interviewed shared a common voice that parents must be involved in school
discipline practices for teachers and administrators to be successful when problems arise with
students. Some indicated that when students know that their parents will be contacted and
involved in the decisions made because of their misbehavior, disruptions seemed to be minimal.
The teachers indicated they would like to see more parents volunteer and be more visible at
school and indicated that they would like to see positive role models from the community, also.
Mrs. Montgomery, a teacher from Middleton Middle, stated:

4.4 Analysis of Data

The American public is well acquainted with the national need to ensure the personal safety of
students and teachers in schools. Recent tragic events have riveted attention on the

misbehavior of students in the nation’s schools. Educational literature increasingly refers to

parents' active participation in their children’s education. When parents, students, and the

community members participate in school activities, there seems to be more pride and
positive

comments concerning schools and their discipline practices.

This study established the common threads of effective school discipline practices as

perceived by administrators, tenured teachers, and parents of students in 20 schools in East

Tennessee concerning discipline practices in elementary, intermediate, and middle schools,

focusing on grades 5 through 8. Specifically, the study explored the views of administrators,

25
 tenured teachers, and parents regarding current discipline practices, the factors that play a
role in

well-organized school discipline practices, the aspects that were perceived as barriers to
effective

discipline practices, and ideas that administrators, tenured teachers, and parents contributed
that

might enhance effective discipline practices. In addition, I attempted to determine if the

views of

administrators, tenured teachers, and parents were consistent with published research on
school

discipline practices.

Major Findings of the Study

Research Question # 1: What are the views of teachers regarding current discipline practices?

Views of Teachers. Several practices that have been successful were Character Counts,

mentoring, and changing curriculum to incorporate group work. Involvement of the students in

69

successful discipline practices was a common response by most teachers. They said that all

groups affected by a policy should be involved in creating it; these groups are the students who

must conform to the policy, the school personnel who must enforce it, and, ideally, students’

parents. Additionally, the teachers seemed to want all current practices to remain in their schools

with the addition of more conflict resolution training for students and teachers. Teacher Byrne,

from Berry School, related that since her school district instituted stricter discipline policies and

an alternative school, discipline problems have been greatly reduced. She explained by noting:

New and tougher policies have lead to removal of students from the classroom, sometimes to an
alternative educational setting; this has brought an improvement in behavior problems. When
students know there is a chance for suspension, alternative school, or expulsion they think twice
before they participate in unacceptable behavior. I think the zero tolerance policy is good
because the students know the consequences before they commit the offence. Our in-school

26
suspension program includes guidance, support, planning for change, and opportunities to build
new skills. This seems to be effective in improving individual student behavior and thus
increasing school order.

Research Question # 2
What factors, as perceived by the participants, play a role in well-organized school
discipline practice?

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 Ramon, L.,  Shlomo, R.,  Xing, Q., &  Yaacov, J. (2005).
Teachers’ classroom discipline in Australia, China and  Israel . Teaching and Teacher
Education, 2(1), 729-741.

Alan, K. G., & San, B. (2009). College Teacher Misbehaviors: Direct and Indirect Effects on
Student Communication Behavior and Traditional Learning Outcomes. Western Journal
of Communication, 73(2), 204-219. doi: 10.1080/10570310902856089

Allakbari, M., Alireza, M., & Hassan, T. A. (2013, January). On the secondary school teachers’
perceptions of students’ misbehavior: The case of Iranian male and female teachers.
International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Research, 2(5), 240-249. Retrieved
November 2019, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275701566

Amanda, L. M. (2018). TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

ISSUES AND STRATEGIES. State University of New York at Fredonia , Department of
Curriculum and Instruction. Fredonia, New York: State University of New York at
Fredonia .

Bibou, n., Kiosseoglou, g., & Stogiannidou, a. (2000). Elementary teachers’ perceptions
regarding school behavior problems: implications for school psychological services.
Psychology in the Schools, 37(2), 123-135.

Fahri, S. (2018). Teachers' perceptions for problematic student behaviors: examination according
to teachers’ burnout situations. European Journal of Education Studies, 4(6), 378-396.
doi:doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1249710

Faye, N. (2002). A Qualitative Study of Effective School Discipline Practices: Perceptions of

Administrators, Tenured Teachers, and Parents in Twenty Schools. East Tennessee State
University. East Tennessee State University.

Gill, J., & Johnson, P. (2010). Research methods for managers. Sage.

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Gülay, D., & Güzide, B. (2014). A Meta-Analysis: Student Misbehaviors That Affect Classroom
Management. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 9(2), 101-116.

Johnson, Z. D., Christopher, C. J., Goldman, Z. W., & Sollitto, M. (2016). College student
misbehaviors: an exploration of instructor perceptions. USA: Routledge.
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Kyriacou, C. E., Avramidis, H. H., & Hultgren, P. S. (2007). The development of student
teachers’ views on pupil misbehaviour during an initial teacher training programme in
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Rachel, C. F., & Daniel, T. L. (2012).

StudentClassroomMisbehavior:AnExploratoryStudyBasedon Teachers’Perceptions. (M.
Joav, Ed.) The Scientific World Journal, 1-8. doi:doi:10.1100/2012/208907

Rudy, F. D. (2018, August). Implication of Student’s Misbehaviors in Class. International

Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, 2(5), 1195-1199.

Suheda, O. (2010). Teachers’ strategies to cope with student misbehavior. Procedia Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 2(1), 587-594.

Suneena, R. (2017). The Practicum in Teacher Education in the Maldives: Current Practices,
Issues and Future Directions. The Maldives National University , Faculty of Education .
Maldives: The Maldives National University .

Uma, S. (2003). Research Method for Business - A Skill-Building Approach (4th ed.). United
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 APPENDICES
Appendix 01: Interview Questions

Interview Protocol:

1. What forms of student misbehavior are present in your classroom?

2. Please describe an actual experience that you’ve had with student misbehavior and how

you reacted to the situation.

3. What strategies do you use to manage the misbehavior?

4. How do you determine whether the behavior management strategy you’ve applied is

effective in solving/reducing the misbehavior?

5. How is student misbehavior detrimental in your classroom?

6. Where did you hear about the strategy that you’re currently implementing and how did

you decide that it would be a good strategy to use?

7. What are your thoughts on the reasons that students misbehave?

8. What is the best advice that you’ve been given about handling misbehavior or the most

important thing that you’ve learned about handling misbehavior from your experiences?

29
Appendix 02: Consent Form

Informed Consent

Protocol Title: Teachers’ Perspectives of Classroom Management Issues and Strategies

Please read this informed consent form in its entirety before deciding to participate in
the research study. If you have any questions regarding the research study, please contact me
before agreeing to participate.

Purpose of the research study:

To explore teacher’s perspectives on classroom management issues and what

strategies they deem effective in reducing or eliminating misbehavior among elementary
students. I plan to use individual teacher interviews, as well as collect behavior management
archival data. I will begin the interview by asking eight interview questions. Additional interview
questions may emerge. Along with taking notes during the interview, I will record the interview
with a tape recorder. Regarding archival data, data may include any visual or physical methods
used in the classroom to decrease or eliminate misbehavior, such as behavior charts, blank
individualized behavior plan templates, depictions of chants or gestures used, etc. Any resources
with identifying student information will not be viewed nor collected.

What you will be asked to do in the study:

Participate in an open-ended interview and provide archival data being used in your
classroom, in the form of classroom management strategies/techniques.

Time Required:

The interview will run approximately 45 – 60 minutes.

Compensation:

There will be no compensation for participating in this study.

30
Confidentiality:

Your identity/identifying information will not be included in the writeup.

Pseudonyms will be used in place of your name and place of employment. Comments unrelated
to the research topic will not be included in the writeup.

Voluntary Participation:

Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. Alternatives to participation

will not be available.

Right to withdraw from the study:

You have the right to withdraw from the study at any time and for any reason,
without explanation.

Potential Benefits and Risks:

This study will shed light on the prevalence of misbehavior in elementary

classrooms. Effective behavior management strategies that elementary teachers are using to
handle/eliminate misbehavior will arise from the data and be accessible for other educators,
including myself. Teachers’ differing experiences will be explored based on their level of
teaching experience, gender, and the grade level they teach/taught. There are two untenured
teachers that will be sharing and discussing difficult experiences in the classroom. Identifying
participant information will not be included in the writeup. Information obtained during the
interview process will not be discussed with other parties. The final research paper will be
published and made public at SUNY Fredonia, which will allow you to read it, if you choose to
do so.

Whom to contact if you have questions about the study:

Researcher

I voluntarily agree to participate in this research study and have received a copy of this
information.

________________________________ ________________________

Participant’s signature Date

_______________________________ ________________________

Principal investigator’s signature Date

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