Why do young people misbehave in school?

Introduction:

To comprehend which strategies to implement and how to implement these

strategies when students misbehave, an understanding of why young people
misbehave has to be developed. By critiquing previous educational research and
comparing this to synthesised opinions from a survey, a developed idea of why
students misbehave can grow. Thus, once the knowledge is compiled, an
informed decision of which strategies and how to use these strategies can be
used for your praxis. Therefore, this report will critique previously done
literature and compare these to opinions from an interview process to gain an
understanding of why young people misbehave in school. Thus, an implication
for praxis and personal awareness is developed from this information.

Literature Review:

Misbehaviour is any disruptive behaviour that includes bothering other

students, being disrespectful to a staff member, inappropriate physical contact,
using vulgar/obscene language, stealing, and not following directions (Crowder,
2008, p. 4). Alstot and Alstot (2015, p. 23) demonstrate that there are four main
reasons for student misbehaviour: attention inappropriate behaviour to gain
attention from a peer or adult; access to gain access to an object or activity;
escape an attempt to get out of a situation; and sensory stimulation acting
out stimulates one or more of the senses. Cothran, Kulinna and Garrahy (2009)
further instate the similar area of attention seeking but also add that boredom of
the subject, issues in home life, and simply no reasons cause misbehaviour.

Whereas, Starhan (1989) states that a student misbehaves due to the lack of
connection with someone in the school setting, particularly a teacher. With the
support and connection in the school from a teacher or administrator, a student
can learn self-control, therefore, managing their misbehaviours (Starhan, 1989).
Additionally, to all these specific areas, a lack of sleep can affect daytime
functioning, therefore leading to misbehaving. Lin and Yi (2014) illustrate that
broken or unhealthy sleep patterns lead to students beginning to misbehave and
have a lack of concentration. Thus, through the evaluation and synthesis of
previous literature, an understanding for why students misbehave is illustrated
through multiple areas. Therefore, there is not just one singular issue that arises
to cause students to misbehave but multiple issues.

Interview Method and Protocol:

An interview process was taken to gain further opinions on the reasons for why
students misbehave in school. Initially, an ethics protocol was done by providing
the interviewees with an information sheet about what the research was for. The
interviewees were then provided a consent form that was signed before the
commencement of the interview. Interviews were conducted one-on-one in a
quiet room for privacy. Answers to the question were written on a piece of
paper. No recording devices were used to collect the information. The
interviewees were all notified that their identities would not be used in the
deliberation of the report. Below is the information about the interviewees:

M1 Male: Student Studying a Bachelor of Arts (Majoring in Teaching)

Pre-Service Teacher
M2 Male: Head Teacher Administration Teacher
F1 Female: Student Studying a Masters of Nutrition Non-Teaching
Friend
F2 Female: Graduate Teacher Teacher
F3 Female: - Parent
F4 Female: Head Teacher of English Teacher
Results:

After the interview process, main themes were compiled from each of the
interviewees. Typical initial answers from the interviewees stated the question
was very broad, instead certain themes did arise. These themes were compiled
by analysing the responses from the interviewees and then four broad main
themes were made up.

Outside Influences:

The interviewees discussed that outside influences, specifically through home

life and the media, cause misbehaviour. F1 illustrated her opinion by stating that,
modern parenting these days is more relaxed and easy going than it used to be
and young people misbehave because they dont know whats right and wrong.
Likewise, M1 stated, students are brought up from the school, not from home.
F2 further elaborated, If young people dont get enough attention at home, it
leads to misbehaviour and want attention from their teacher to meet their
needs. Interestingly, F1 provided another outside influence could be that TV
and movies influence their attitudes. When further elaboration was needed F1
stated, Poor parenting that allows their kids to watch whatever they want and
replicate the show or movie. Therefore, it shows that home life and media
influence young people into misbehaving in their classrooms.

Peers:

Peers, specifically peer pressure and bullying, became a significant theme that
was developed. F4 illustrated through her response that young people
misbehave due to their friendship group peer pressuring them into doing
something that is wrong. F1 states, young people get forced into peer pressure
situations in an attempt to try fit in or to be cool. F3 further supports this
opinion by stating, They are just trying to show off in front of peers.
Interestingly, M1 illustrates that the young person could be bullied into
situations that could lead to misbehaving traits cause they feel like they are
forced into a corner. Therefore, peers are a significant area that influences
young people in misbehaving, specifically through peer pressure and bullying.

Biological and Cognitive Issues:

Biological and cognitive issues, specifically puberty and learning difficulties,

became another common theme to emerge from the interview process. M1
claims that, sometimes kids need medical help. F1 assists this statement by
stating, They could misbehave due to genetics, such as ADHD. When asked for
further elaboration she stated, well they get distracted easily and then this leads
to misbehaviour. F2 and F4 had similar statements regarding this issue by
saying, not meeting the needs of learning difficulties leads to difficulties with
the student and becomes a distraction to others. In terms of puberty, F3 states
that, going through puberty is a difficult time and they are having trouble
regulating their emotions. F2 further supports this opinion by stating,
adolescent growth, puberty, is very hard to control their emotions at that age
and depending at that moment of time of day they could misbehave just cause
they are mad about something minor. Therefore, biological and cognitive issues
can arise that can cause young people to misbehave.

Curriculum Issues:

The final major theme that was compiled through the interview process was
issues with the curriculum. M2 states, young people misbehave due to the
teachers lack of engagement in the classroom; a teacher must be an expert and
have deep knowledge and engage in the teacher process. M1 further claims that
some students think they dont have to apply themselves to pass school and
that the content wasnt hard enough, nor challenging enough. Finally through
F4 and F3 they illustrate that young people misbehave due to boredom of the
curriculum or no interest in that particular subject. Therefore, if the teacher
and school do not create enough interest or challenges in the content, this could
lead to students misbehaving.

Comparing and Contrasting:

The information gathered from the literature and interview process developed
the understanding of why do young people misbehave in school? Similarities
were demonstrated in these two processes. However, other areas were touched
by the literature compared to the interviews and vice versa. The literature and
interviewees both stated that home life was an issue arisen that causes young
people to misbehave. Cothran et al. (2009) simply illustrate that there could be
issues at home that lead to misbehaviour in the young people. Their report
specifically pointed out that the students are raising themselves and their
mannerisms are because they raise themselves (Cothran, Kulinna & Garrahy,
2009). Likewise, in the interviews, they discussed how home life was an issue to
misbehaving. However, the interviewees broke it down into more detail. F1
stated, modern parenting these days are more relaxed and easy going than it
used to be. M1 further developed this idea by claiming that, students are
brought up from the school, not from home. The interviewees further stated
that, due to the lack of restrictions, young people could watch any media they
please which influences their behaviour. Therefore, it is noted that home life is a
significant aspect to misbehaving in the literature and interviewees. This
illustrates that young people misbehave due to a lack of restrictions, having to
raise themselves, and modern parenting.

The interviews and literature both touched on biological and cognitive issues
that cause young people to misbehave. However, these areas were different for
both the literature and interviews. Through the literature, Lin and Yi (2014)
claimed that a lack of sleep leads to a lack of concentration and evidently leads to
misbehaviour. Alstot and Alstot (2015) further establish, a biological and
cognitive area by discussing that young people misbehave to stimulate the
senses. The interviewees went through and discussed a different aspect of
biological and cognitive issues. Most of the interviewees discussed that some
students need medical help to assist in their behavioural problems. F1 stated
that the student may have ADHD problems and that their attention span leads
them to being distracted. The more biological side of the issues the interviewees
stated that puberty could be a leading cause of misbehaviour. F2 explicitly stated
that, adolescent growth, puberty, is very hard to control their emotions at that
age which could lead to students misbehaving because they are emotional.
Therefore, it can be seen that the literature and the interviewees both touch on
biological and cognitive issues that can lead to young people misbehaving, but
both provide different reasons of these.

Whilst the literature and interviewees had some similarities, they did provide
different insights that have a minor overlap. In the literature, Starhan (1989)
claims that young people need to have a connection with a teacher or
administrator figure to learn self-control, to reduce misbehaviour. Alstot and
Alstot (2015, p. 23) also further stated that, students act out to gain access to an
object or activity and also to escape from the situation. The interviewees
instead discussed how peers play a significant part to influencing young people
in what they do. F1 states, young people get forced into peer pressure situations
in an attempt to try fit in or to be cool. M1 also elaborates on the peer aspect by
stating that young people could be bullied into situations that evidently lead to
misbehaving. Also another big area that the interviewees discussed was
curriculum issues in the school. This comes under multiple issues such as stated
by M2 as, lack of engagement in the classroom. The interviewees further state
that young people feel as though they do not have to apply themselves in school
because as M1 stated, content wasnt hard enough, nor challenging enough.
Therefore, this illustrates that the literature and interviews did provide some
difference in their opinions and findings. However, a minor theme rose from the
disconnection, stating that the teacher plays a significant part in young people by
having engaging classroom settings.
Implications for Praxis:

The importance of engagement with the curriculum, role of the teacher and
relationship with the student all demonstrated how to manage misbehaviour.
Sullivan, Johnson, Owens and Conway (2014) claim that, engagement instead of
punishment leads to better learning and behaviour. Therefore, it is important for
my teaching practice to engage the student through the content instead of
punishing their behaviour due to lack of engagement. I would do this by knowing
the students and understanding how they learn in the classroom setting. Thus,
by knowing the students I will develop pedagogies that benefit and engage all
students in the classroom. For a whole school context, the school can recognise
the students engagement of the content by rewarding them for the small
achievements of paying attention in class and a lack of misbehaviour. This will
develop high expectations of the students, but also the need of development of
teachers pedagogies to ensure that engagement is done. This could be done with
staff development days to ensure that their pedagogies will encourage learning
and less misbehaviour.

Another area that would develop my teaching practice is the understanding of

the biological and cognitive issues that could arise from young people.
Adolescents are going through a difficult time of puberty and identifying
themselves. Knowing that this is a difficult time for young people I can develop
trust with the students and create smaller goals on days they are finding
rougher than others. Sometimes students could abuse this trust by trying to do
this every class, so it may not work for all students. Therefore, trust is needed for
this process. For the whole school context, they could provide a program that
demonstrates how the student should inform the teacher that they are having a
rough day. Which could allow for lenience in the subject for that day. However,
through this program they should inform students that continuous abuse of the
program would lead to other punishments or loss of the use of this program.
Conclusion:

To conclude, understanding through the literature and interview process on

why do young people misbehave in school?, provides information that can
assist pre-service teachers and even teachers in their prevention strategies.
Understanding elements of why young people misbehave can assist teacher in
reducing this misbehaviour in their classrooms and develop positive
relationships with the students whilst also creating a positive learning
environment.

Word Count: 2189

References:

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Behavior. Journal Of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 86(2), 22-28.
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Cothran, D., Kulinna, P., & Garrahy, D. (2009). Attributions for and consequences
of student misbehavior. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 14(2),
155-167.

Crowder, G. (2008). Why Students Misbehave: An Investigation Into the Reasons

Given by Elementary School-aged Students. ProQuest.

Lin, W. & Yi, C. (2014). 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

Strahan, D. (1989). Disconnected and Disruptive Students. Middle School Journal,

21(2), 1-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00940771.1989.11495951

Sullivan, A., Johnson, B., Owens, L., & Conway, R. (2014). Punish Them or Engage
Them? Teachers Views of Unproductive Student Behaviours in the
Classroom. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(6).