Standard 4 - Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments.
Why do Students Misbehave in the Classroom?
Students misbehave in the classroom for various reasons, often leaving the teacher and other students frustrated and distracted from focusing on learning. Through researching and reading, I have found a strong connection between student’s misbehaviour and unconscious goals. Unconscious goals are quite interesting as the student is not aware that their behaviour is caused by specific needs not being met, leaving them to continuously misbehave in the classroom to fulfil these unmet needs (Churchill, et.al, 2011). This leads to me to believe children misbehave in the classroom due to unconscious goals arising by influences from cognition and social interactions.
Unconscious goals arise from students not achieving a sense of belonging or significance (Churchill, et.al., 2011) developing from family and social life. For example, a student misbehaving by ignoring the teachers’ instruction, causing the teacher to yell at the student. Through the student’s family life, they have learnt to ignore yelling, therefore they continue to ignore and do what they please in the classroom (Mackay, 2006). This is where the teacher needs to implement behaviour management strategies to gain the student’s attention and reduce the misbehaviour. The ties in with social background causing misbehaviour in the classroom, as the student may be coming from a difficult home where the student may be acting as a career, have no support with their education and their physiological and safety and security needs are not met, following Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Konza, Grainger & Bradshaw, 2001, Lester, 2013).
There are various unconscious goals that students’ experience resulting in misbehaviour within the classroom. Unconscious goals are hard to detect by the person themselves as they are masked by other beliefs on why they are misbehaving (Churchill, et.al., 2011). For example, a student may feel they only belong with they are being noticed or things are done for them, not realising that their unconscious goal is attention, leaving the teacher to feel frustrated and irritated (Churchill, et.al., 2011). Attention reinforces our sense of self and makes us feel like we belong. If the student’s need of belonging is not met through positive behaviour, they will seek this need through misbehaviour (Mackay, 2006). Other unconscious goals are power, revenge, inadequacy, excitement, peer acceptance and superiority (Churchill, 2011). These goals may be influenced by the student’s social life by their family and/or friends, leaving them to misbehave to fulfil their unconscious goals.
In addition to unconscious goals, students may feel bored in the classroom. When students are bored, they tend to misbehave in the classroom by chatting or distracting friends/peers, fiddling with objects and not participating or completing set tasks by the teacher (Eren & Coskun, 2016). Boredom effects students’ academic capabilities as their motivation is low, affecting their overall well-being as they are not fulfilling their academic needs (Sulea, et.al, 2015). Thus, it is important that the teacher delivers engaging lessons to cater for all students learning needs to reduce boredom and enhance academic successes.
Teachers need to identify and understand that their reaction to student behaviour may be reinforcing them to continue to misbehave through their unconscious goals (Churchill, 2011). As teachers have a duty to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for all students (AISTL, 2011), it is important to understand why children misbehave and enforce affective management strategies to disempower misbehaviour in the classroom. I believe unconscious goals have provided me with an insight into a student’s reasoning behind misbehaviour, leaving me to investigate this reasoning of misbehaviour in my future teaching to provide a positive and safe classroom environment, along with creating lessons of engagement and quality content to reduce boredom.
References
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2011). Australian
Professional Standards for Teachers (Publication No. P1-28). Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/national-policy-framework/australian-professional-standards- for-teachers.pdf?sfvrsn=5800f33c_64
Churchill, R., Ferguson, P., Godinho, S., Johnson, N. F., Keddie, A., Letts, W.,
Mackay, J., McGill, M., Moss, M., Nagel, M. C., Nicholson, P., & Vick, M. (2011). Teaching: Making a Difference (1st ed). Milton, Queensland: Australia.
Eren, A., & Coskun, H. (2016). Students’ level of boredom, boredom coping
strategies, epistemic curiosity, and graded performance. The Journal of Educational Research, 109(6), 574-588. doi: 10.1080/00220671.2014.999364
Konza, D., Grainger, J., & Bradshaw, K. (2001). Classroom Management: A Survival Guide (1st ed). Cengage Learning Australia: Victoria, Australia.
Lester, D. (2013). Measuring Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical Health, 113(1), 15-17. doi: 10.2466/02.02.PRO.113x16z1
Mackay, J. (2006). Coat of Many Pockets: Managing Classroom Interactions. ACER Press.
Sulea, C., Beek, I. V., Sarbescu, P., Virga, D., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2015).
Engagement, boredom, and burnout among students: Basic need satisfaction matters more than personality traits. Learning and Individual Differences, 42, 132-138. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2015.08.018
Students misbehave in the classroom for various reasons, often leaving the teacher and other students frustrated and distracted from focusing on learning. Through researching and reading, I have found a strong connection between student’s misbehaviour and unconscious goals. Unconscious goals are quite interesting as the student is not aware that their behaviour is caused by specific needs not being met, leaving them to continuously misbehave in the classroom to fulfil these unmet needs (Churchill, et.al, 2011). This leads to me to believe children misbehave in the classroom due to unconscious goals arising by influences from cognition and social interactions.
Unconscious goals arise from students not achieving a sense of belonging or significance (Churchill, et.al., 2011) developing from family and social life. For example, a student misbehaving by ignoring the teachers’ instruction, causing the teacher to yell at the student. Through the student’s family life, they have learnt to ignore yelling, therefore they continue to ignore and do what they please in the classroom (Mackay, 2006). This is where the teacher needs to implement behaviour management strategies to gain the student’s attention and reduce the misbehaviour. The ties in with social background causing misbehaviour in the classroom, as the student may be coming from a difficult home where the student may be acting as a career, have no support with their education and their physiological and safety and security needs are not met, following Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Konza, Grainger & Bradshaw, 2001, Lester, 2013).
There are various unconscious goals that students’ experience resulting in misbehaviour within the classroom. Unconscious goals are hard to detect by the person themselves as they are masked by other beliefs on why they are misbehaving (Churchill, et.al., 2011). For example, a student may feel they only belong with they are being noticed or things are done for them, not realising that their unconscious goal is attention, leaving the teacher to feel frustrated and irritated (Churchill, et.al., 2011). Attention reinforces our sense of self and makes us feel like we belong. If the student’s need of belonging is not met through positive behaviour, they will seek this need through misbehaviour (Mackay, 2006). Other unconscious goals are power, revenge, inadequacy, excitement, peer acceptance and superiority (Churchill, 2011). These goals may be influenced by the student’s social life by their family and/or friends, leaving them to misbehave to fulfil their unconscious goals.
In addition to unconscious goals, students may feel bored in the classroom. When students are bored, they tend to misbehave in the classroom by chatting or distracting friends/peers, fiddling with objects and not participating or completing set tasks by the teacher (Eren & Coskun, 2016). Boredom effects students’ academic capabilities as their motivation is low, affecting their overall well-being as they are not fulfilling their academic needs (Sulea, et.al, 2015). Thus, it is important that the teacher delivers engaging lessons to cater for all students learning needs to reduce boredom and enhance academic successes.
Teachers need to identify and understand that their reaction to student behaviour may be reinforcing them to continue to misbehave through their unconscious goals (Churchill, 2011). As teachers have a duty to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for all students (AISTL, 2011), it is important to understand why children misbehave and enforce affective management strategies to disempower misbehaviour in the classroom. I believe unconscious goals have provided me with an insight into a student’s reasoning behind misbehaviour, leaving me to investigate this reasoning of misbehaviour in my future teaching to provide a positive and safe classroom environment, along with creating lessons of engagement and quality content to reduce boredom.
References
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2011). Australian
Professional Standards for Teachers (Publication No. P1-28). Retrieved from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/national-policy-framework/australian-professional-standards- for-teachers.pdf?sfvrsn=5800f33c_64
Churchill, R., Ferguson, P., Godinho, S., Johnson, N. F., Keddie, A., Letts, W.,
Mackay, J., McGill, M., Moss, M., Nagel, M. C., Nicholson, P., & Vick, M. (2011). Teaching: Making a Difference (1st ed). Milton, Queensland: Australia.
Eren, A., & Coskun, H. (2016). Students’ level of boredom, boredom coping
strategies, epistemic curiosity, and graded performance. The Journal of Educational Research, 109(6), 574-588. doi: 10.1080/00220671.2014.999364
Konza, D., Grainger, J., & Bradshaw, K. (2001). Classroom Management: A Survival Guide (1st ed). Cengage Learning Australia: Victoria, Australia.
Lester, D. (2013). Measuring Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Psychological Reports: Mental & Physical Health, 113(1), 15-17. doi: 10.2466/02.02.PRO.113x16z1
Mackay, J. (2006). Coat of Many Pockets: Managing Classroom Interactions. ACER Press.
Sulea, C., Beek, I. V., Sarbescu, P., Virga, D., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2015).
Engagement, boredom, and burnout among students: Basic need satisfaction matters more than personality traits. Learning and Individual Differences, 42, 132-138. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2015.08.018