Teachers' perception of disruptive behaviour in the classrooms

Psicothema. 2016 May;28(2):174-80. doi: 10.7334/psicothema2015.215.

Abstract

Background: Disruptive behaviour is becoming more frequent in the classroom and is specifically associated with behaviours that hinder and obstruct the teaching-learning process. The main purpose of this paper was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of this question. More specifically, we sought to observe how teachers rate the measures proposed to improve teaching, to find out which forms of schooling are preferred so as to address disruption, to identify its causes and to analyse whether there are differences arising from teacher characteristics.

Method: 346 participants completed a disruptive-behaviour Likert-scale. The average age is 43.47, 82.9% female and 13.6% male.

Results: All measures are widely accepted, but there are differences in the priority given, the ideal forms of schooling is ordinary centres, although differences still exist depending on teacher characteristics; all the causes of increased problems are highly rated, with the absence of rules and limits in the family standing out.

Conclusions: Teachers are calling for improvements and institutional support. Any forethought on how to improve the quality of the education system should take into account the results of this study.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Attitude*
  • Child
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Problem Behavior*
  • School Teachers*