What can teachers do against unwanted behaviours?

Undesirable behaviours that students may exhibit in the classroom environment can negatively affect both the learning process and the classroom order. For this reason, the frequently encountered undesirable behaviours of students and what teachers can do against these behaviours have gained importance.

What Are Undesirable Behaviours?

According to a study, the most common undesirable behaviours of students in the classroom environment are not being able to concentrate with 78 percent, not being able to sit in one place for a long time with 77.6 percent and missing their homework with 73.8 percent. Some common types of undesirable behaviour are as follows:

Lack of attention and lack of focus: Most students have short attention spans or have difficulty focusing during lessons. This can negatively affect the learning process. Examples of such behaviours include being interested in other things during class (e.g. using mobile phones, drawing), not listening to what the teacher or classmates are saying.

Not following the classroom rules: Some examples of this type of behaviour are: Being late for class, disrespecting the teacher or classmates, talking or changing seats without permission...

Excessive mobility: Staying still for long periods of time can be challenging for children, especially in younger age groups. This can manifest itself in mobility or a desire to change places during lessons. For example, not being able to sit still, being constantly on the move, moving around during lessons when they should be sitting...

Social problems: Teasing or physical violence against friends, incompatible behaviour in group work are examples of these problems.

Failure to fulfil duties and responsibilities: Missing or not completing homework, not bringing course materials or being unprepared...

Disrupting the flow of the lesson: Talking or making noise all the time, distracting the class with inappropriate jokes...

Passive behaviour: Not participating in the lesson, not answering the questions asked, staying away from friends or the teacher and being alone...

Not using technology appropriately: Using phones, tablets or computers in class without permission, using digital materials for non-educational purposes...

What are the Ways of Dealing with Undesirable Behaviours?

So, what should teachers do to prevent or reduce these unwanted behaviours that they frequently encounter in the classroom?

Monitoring and motivating students: During the lesson, the teacher should observe the whole class with his/her eyes and stand where he/she can see all the students.

In order to motivate students, they should be given the opportunity to be active, teacher-centred teaching methods should be abandoned, and as many students as possible should be given the right to speak.

Understanding students' interests and increasing interest in the lesson: The teacher should try to discover the interest levels of his/her students with good observation, and in case of loss of interest and signs of boredom, he/she should try to regain their interest by using ways such as discussing a current issue, using logic and intelligence games, allowing them to do free activities for a few minutes.

Determining the classroom rules: The teacher should make explanations about the behaviours he/she expects from his/her students in the first lesson, set rules and be convincing about why these rules are necessary.

Diversifying the teaching method: Using the same methods all the time can be boring. Changing equipment, using group work or educational games can increase students' attention.

In the teaching process, the following steps should be applied by the teacher.

• Understanding the problem: The first thing to do is to understand the problem. Understanding the behaviour is also necessary for predicting the undesirable behaviours that may occur in the future.
• Ignoring the behaviour: If the behaviour is immediate and does not show continuity, it can be ignored. However, the teacher should avoid reinforcing the behaviour that he/she ignores. This is because a student who behaves in an undesirable behaviour may think that ignoring this behaviour is an acceptable behaviour and repeat the same behaviour. This method should be used carefully.
• Warning: Students can be made to feel that their behaviour is unacceptable through various warnings. The teacher can warn by using body language, touching, asking questions directly or indirectly, giving the right to speak.
• Making changes in the lesson: If the teacher constantly uses the same methods in the classroom, the lesson becomes boring and the students become distracted. Undesirable behaviours that may arise can be eliminated by making changes in the way the lesson is taught, teaching methods, tools and materials.
• Giving responsibility: It is natural for students who think that they have nothing to do or whose work is not interesting to them to tend towards undesirable behaviours. In this case, giving him/her a job that will keep him/her busy or changing his/her job to another job that will be more interesting to him/her is a useful method to prevent unwanted behaviours. Such as being the class president, bringing and taking tools, checking homework.
• Talking to the student: If there is no change in the behaviour of the student despite all the warnings, it is useful to talk about the problem. When an undesirable behaviour is observed, the reasons and consequences of the behaviour can be discussed with the student in or out of the classroom.
• Cooperation between school, family and counsellor: Some behavioural problems may be too big for the teacher to deal with. In such cases, it is the best behavioural model for the teacher to ask for help from the school administration, counselling service and the child's family and to cooperate with them. Regular communication and coordination support the positive development of the student's behaviour.

In conclusion, teachers‘ conscious and strategic approaches to unwanted behaviours not only maintain classroom order but also support students’ social, emotional and academic development. Therefore, behaviour management should be seen as one of the cornerstones of education and should be continuously developed both at individual and institutional level.

Bibliography

Arslan, E. (2019). ‘Behaviour Management Strategies Used by Teachers in Classroom Management.’ Journal of Educational Sciences, 10(2), 123-138.

Aydın, A. (2016). Classroom Management. Ankara: Pegem Academy Publishing.

Başar, H. (2009). Classroom Management. Ankara: Anı Publishing.

Çalık, T. & Sezgin, F. (2013). Education Management: Theory, Research and Practice. Ankara: Pegem Yay.

Çetin, Ş. (2010). ‘Investigation of Primary School Teachers' Classroom Management Strategies.’ Journal of National Education, 187, 102-116.

Ministry of National Education (MoNE) (2017). ‘Classroom Behaviour Management Guide.’