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.

2
 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

3
 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 shouldmust
gather enough expertiseadequate proficiency in order to ‘supporthelp student behavior (from
mild to severe) throughthru the usesupport of evidence based educationalproof centered
scholastic practices’ [ CITATION Ram05 \l 18441 ].

HoweverOn the other hand, 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 causeorigin of misbehavior is
that the student is insufficient in a particular discipline; In such a situationstatus quo, they would

4
ratherrelatively behave badly and be punished than be considered inferior in the school. The
three courses also advocated the use of logical (or natural) consequences concerns as an effective
strategy to combat objectionable behavior rather than punishment and rewards. Such a strategy
requireshas need of 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
differentdiverse 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,Though, such 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 researchersMany scholars have describeddefined the concept in a rather general way.
Studies considered the students' bad behaviormisbehavior 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

5
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 ].
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.
SinceIn the meantime, this phenomenon is also problematic for teacher candidatesteachers, their
perception could also provide useful data for teacher educators. In literature, the research study
focuses on practicing teachers or practicing teachers.

HoweverOn the other hand, 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 ourthe 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 monitoringanalyzing and investigating critically teachers' perception
regarding the misbehavior of first grade studentskey stage one and two students underat A. Dh.

6
Analyze and investigate critically.Dh. Atoll school, Maldives. As such, the objectives of this
research effort werestudy are:

Main Objective

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

7
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.

While Millennials continue to populate a university'sschool’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
importantsignificant 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.

8
Although manyEven though lots of studies have been conducted on this topicarena, 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 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,for instance disciplinary violations,

misbehavior, problem behavior, misbehavior, misconduct, and disruptive behavior

Students’ Misbehavior- these are behaviors that disruptwhich interrupt learning, student
misbehaviors have consistently provenrecognized to be a detriment to class rooms
acrossclassrooms thru grade levels and contexts.

Bullying- is physical or psychological intimidation occurring repeatedlyarising over and over

again in opposition to time to creategenerate an ongoing pattern of harassment and abuse.

Classroom management- refersdenotes to actions taken to createproduce and maintainconserve

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 includeswhich consist of 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.

9
 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
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 misbehaviorsMaltreatment of students such as disruptive talkingannoying conversations,
chronic avoidance of work, clowning, interfering with evasion, antics, impaired teaching
activities, harassing , harassment of classmates, verbal insults, rudeness to teacher, defiance,of
teachers, mistrust and hostility, ranging from infrequentrare to frequent,common. from mild to
severe, is at horny issue in everyheavy, they are the order of the day. Teachers generally said that
these disruptive classroom. Teachers usually reported that these disturbing behaviors in the
classroom are intolerableunbearable and stress provoking,stressful and that they had to
spendhave spent a great deallot of time and energy to managein managing the classroom.
Obviously, student misbehaviors retard Misconduct by students is clearly detrimental to the
smoothnessregularity and effectivenesseffectiveness of teachingthe lesson, and also impede the

10
learning of the student makes it harder for students and his/her classmates. Moreover, research
findings have shown that school misbehavior to learn. In addition, the results of the study
showed that the misconduct increased not only escalated with time, but also loweredreduced
academic achievementperformance and increased delinquentcriminal behavior. To lessenmitigate
these immediate and gradualprogressive adverse effectseffects of student
misbehaviorsmisconduct, it is of primary importance to identify whatimportant to determine
exactly arehow these behaviors insideaffect the classroom.

In this literature, differentvarious terms have been used to describe misbehaviorsinappropriate

behavior of the students. For instance, [ CITATION All13 \l 18441 ] referredexample,
(Allakbari, Alireza and Hassan, 2013) described student misconduct toas a disciplinary
violations inoffense at school, for instance, tardinesssuch as delays, vandalism, fighting,
stealing, and drinking on campus. Whenfighting, theft, and alcohol consumption for school
reasons. Campus If there are explicit rules and regulations in schoolschools and
classroom,classrooms, their violation of these is apparently a “misbehavior or
misconductappears to be a "problem of behavior, behavior, or discipline problem”.
Nevertheless, ." However, a particular behavior is viewed asconsidered problematic mayand
does not necessarily be rule breakingviolate the rules, but is inappropriate or
disturbingdistracting in the classroom. For example, daydreaming in the classroom, failure to do
homework, speaking in the classroom setting. For instance, daydreaming in , interrupting class,
not completing homework, talking in class, lesson disruption, bullying, and rudeness to rude
behavior towards the teacher are namedreferred to as “"problem behaviors”, “behavior,"
"behavioral problems,”," or “"disruptive behaviors”. These behaviors referred to “an behavior."
An activity that causes distress for teachers, interrupts the learning process and that
leadstorments teachers is the learning process disturbs and causes teachers to make
continualincessant comments to the student”, "or “" the myriadlarge number of activities
which disruptthat disturb and impedehinder the teachinglearning-learning process”. Noting that
school misconduct . " School behavior is one of the manifests of the signs of a problematic
behavioral syndrome. The term "problem behavior syndrome, the term “problem behavior” was
used to refer" refers to all externalizingoutsourcing behaviors that violate explicit rules or
implicit norms,rules that disturb the classroom order, and irritate the process ofbehavioral
code in the classroom. the teaching and learning process in this study.

Further, studentIn addition, students' misbehavior defined, which was defined as behaviors that
disrupt learning, student misbehaviors have consistently proven-impairing behavior, has
historically been detrimental to be a detriment to class rooms acrossclassroom teaching,
regardless of grade levels and contexts [ CITATION Joh16 \l 18441 ].context (Johnson,
Christopher, Goldman and Sollitto, 2016). These behaviors maycan be perceived as unwanted
from instructors, student nagging, challenging, and excuse making undesirable by teachers, and
harassment of students, challenges, and excuses are not always perceived as disruptive
todisrupting the learning environment, which is the underlying foundationbasis for what

11
makes an actionact or interaction a misbehavior withinthat constitutes misconduct. In the
classroom. Efforts such as this study will allow researchers to uncoverdiscover a setrange of
misbehaviorsobjectionable behaviors that can help better describe the college studentstudent's
experience. To dateSo far, little is known about how the disorderly behavior of contemporary
college students misbehave because the bulk of research focusing on student misbehaviors has
students, as many studies have been conducted within on the disorderly behavior of students in
other contexts and cultures.

Researches has examined and have each concludedThe investigation showed that the students
misbehave in distinct ways, therebehaved differently. There is limitedlittle evidence to support
the notionsuggest that American college students misbehave in similar ways. Most germane to
the current investigation is thestudents behave similarly. The work of Bingham et al. (2009)
who quantified college student misbehavior based upon), which analyzes the misconduct of
students by the two categories outlined by Kearney et al. (1988) and Richmond et al. (2001):
inconsiderationdisregard, harassment. However,The work of Bingham et al.’s work was
derived Derived from the data that were collected 27 andor 14 years ago (respectively),
leaving. This leaves a considerable amountlot of time for technological development and
cultural change acrossin higher education. MoreoverIn addition, the data stemmedcomes
from the K-12 context rather than the collegeuniversity classroom, making it
difficultdifficult to generalizetranslate the findingsresults to the collegiateuniversity
environment. Recently, Liand Titsworth (2015) assessed studentstudents' misbehavior
withinin the online classroom and determinedfound that students in online classes
misbehavebehaved poorly in many distinct waysclasses. 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.

12
2.2.1 Measures to teachers’ perceptions of classroom problem behaviors

Several scales have been developed to measure teachers’ perceptionsthe perception of

problematic classroom problem behaviors. For instance, in behavior by teachers. In the
United Kingdom, for example, Wheldall and Merrett [10] used ten itemsarticles, including
eating, nonverbal food, non-verbal noise, disobedience, talking out of turnoffbeat language,
idleness/ / slowness, unpunctuality, hindering lack of punctuality, obstruction of others,
physical aggression, untidiness,dislocation and out of seat, to measure behavior failures,
behavioral problems amongin primary school students. [ CITATION Rud18 \l 18441 ]
children measure. (Rudy, 2018) also used these behaviors to measure secondary school
students’ student behavior problems, with a replacement of eating. They replaced foods with
verbal abuse because they found that teachers did not perceiveconsider eating asa meal a
behavioral problem behavior among secondary school students whereas verbal abuse was a
more relevant behavior problem. .

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

disruptive behaviorsbehavior were formed created by students almost a decadeten years ago,
(Rudy, 2018), their validity and applicability to Chinese classrooms nowadays maycan now
be questioned. Some student behaviors that have not be mentioned in the previous studies,
such as daydreamingdreaming, sleeping, looking out ofthe window, playing with personal
stuffproblems in private, bullying, disrespecting, talking back, arguing,
quarrellingdisrespect, reaction, discussion or fightingdiscussion with teachers,
complaining,complaints and lack of deficiencies Study Initiative no 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
discovery to investigate the perception of Chinese teachers regarding student misconduct in
class. In addition, Chinese elementary school teachers. reported behavioral problems in the
class of students, including lack of cooperation, emotional distress, excessive activity and
abstinence. Although these two studies were recentare new, both were conducted in main
landmainland China. ItTherefore, it is thus argued that the scales and results developed in
these studies as well as the findings may be limited to describing the problematic student
problem behaviorsbehavior in the Chinese mainland China classroomclass, which is
differentdiffers from the pluralistic classroompluralist class in which the approaches are used.
Confucian and Western teaching and learning approaches are usedTeaching and Learning
in Hong Kong [ CITATION Rud18 \l 18441 ]. (Rudy, 2018).

13
As such,The direct employmentuse of an existing scaleladder is hardly sufficienttherefore not
sufficient to tapexploit all the problematic classroom problem behaviors exhibitedpresented
by students. ItTherefore, it is, therefore, important to carry outconduct a qualitative
research study to unravelidentify relevant and upto datedcurrent descriptions of the
students’ problem behaviors student classroom behavior in Hong Kong classroom, based on
the viewsopinions of teachers. Apart from exploring differentIn addition to studying different
categories of student problem behaviors insideproblems in the classroom, it is also
valuableuseful to identify the common ones and the disruptive onesbehaviors from the
teachers’ perspectives. Existingteacher's point of view. The results of existing research
findings showedhave shown that high school teachers generally report 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
"off-the-shelf", "other disabilities" and troublesome misbehaviors"inactivity" behaviors are
among the most common and problematic behaviors at school in the United KingdomUK and
Australia. Similar to these findings. As was the case in the West, “talking out of turn” was
rated by both primary and secondary school teachers both described the "off-line
conversation" as the most frequentwidespread and troublesome misbehaviorproblematic
misconduct, followed by “non-attentiveness” and “forgetfulness”—two other typical
students’"inattention" and "lack of memory." disruptive behaviors in of other typical students.
in the classroom of Hong Kong classroom. In mainland China, “non-attentiveness”, “talking
out of turn,” and “overactive” wereprimary school teachers from three provinces reported as
the most frequent and troublesome classroom behavior problems by the elementarythat
primary school teachers infrom three provinces [ CITATION All13 \l 18441 ]. ("Allakbari,
Alireza and Hassan" reported "lack of attention", "moved" and "hyperactive" ). ,

On the other hand, “"daydreaming,” “", "talking out of turn,”excessively" and “"playing
with personal stuff” were rated as the most frequent classroom misbehaviorsbelongings"
were classified by a group of elementary, middleprimary, secondary and high school teachers
in another two other provinces, while “daydreaming,” “ as the most common behaviors. in
class: daydream, slowness” and “talking out, etc. "Out of turn”time" were the most
troublesomeproblematic behaviors in the classroom misbehaviors. Apparently, “talking out
of turn”. Clearly, "off the clock" behavior is usually rankedgenerally viewed as highlya very
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 studentsdisruptive behavior of students over time. This study focused on problematic
classroom behavior in Hong Kong classroom, this studyand attempted to replicate the
previous studies in examining the problem behaviors perceived by teachers as the most
common and disruptive.using teachers' perceptions. In addition, this study further attempted
to investigateexamine the most unacceptable problem behaviors in theproblematic behavior
of the teacher's eyes of teachers and the underlying reasons behind.

14
2.3 Related Research
2.3.1 Student Misbehavior
Research onStudies of student misbehaviors in classroom reveal that student conduct
problemsmisconduct in the classroom show that behavior problems in the classroom vary
according toby class, lessonclassroom content, educational level, time and student
characteristics [ CITATION Gül14 \l 18441 ].(Gülay and Güzide, 2014). However, those
problem behaviors these behavior problems can be classifieddivided into two groups: behavior
problems at school-based and behavior problems andin the classroom behavior problems. In
the State state, behavior problems, drug use and crime are the most common problems in
school-based problem behaviors are conduct problems, substance use and crime [ CITATION
Suh10 \l 18441 ]. (Suheda, 2010). Although the behaviorbehavioral problems may seemappear
to be different in both cases, research provesshows that there is a strong correlation
between school wideproblems and classroom based behavior problems [CITATION Bib00 \l
18441 ]. It is not surprisingin the classroom (Bibou, Kiosseoglou and Stogiannidou, 2000). Not
surprisingly, in this situation those individuals, people who engage inface one form of the
saidaforementioned forms of behavior problems are more likely to engage in the come into
contact with others, which can also be explained withby a theory of problem behavior theory
that supportsreinforces the ideanotion that aspects of an individual’s personality (motivation,
beliefs, personalPersonal control) and aspects of the environment (parents and friends as
role models) interact to producecreate a set of conventionalclassic and problematic behaviors
[ CITATION Gül14 \l 18441 ].(Gülay and Güzide, 2014). Therefore, the identification
ofidentifying the structure of the most frequent misbehaviors on the basis ofcommon behaviors
based on their correlations with each other and with other life experiences can give
usprovide clues about certainsome types of youth problem patterns. problems.

Researches into Research on this studentstudent's misbehavior and its concomitant

impactsassociated impact on classroom management has led to the publication of a bulklarge
number of books. ResearchThe research results of [ CITATION Rac12 \l 18441 ] indicated that
the (Rachel and Daniel, 2012) show that teachers attached aattach much more important role to
parents in accountingimportance to parental responsibility for student misbehavior; it
wasmisconduct. It has also been shown that ‘talking outthe "nature of turn’ wasmisconduct" is
the most frequent misbehaviorcommon type of misconduct, with ‘establishing the clear and
consistent school and classroom rules’ as class rules being the most efficienteffective strategy
in dealing with pupil misbehavior; the teachers to combat misconduct. student behavior;
Teachers also underlinedemphasized the role of teacher education programs in giving
orientation to the student teachers’guiding learners' perspectives on student misbehavior. bad
actions.

A similar study was conducted by Little (2005) conducted a similar study on the secondary
teachers’ perceptions of student misbehavior. The researcher also investigated their examined
the preferred waymeans of intervention. AkinSimilar to the outcomeresults of the studies

15
carried out in primary schools, high school students’ major misbehavior typesstudies, the main
causes of student misconduct were ‘"not talking out of turn’" and ‘hindering"disturbing other
children’ ‘children," "poor attention’ and ‘off-task behavior’. With regard to the
teachers’attention" and "unexpected behavior." In terms of teachers' preference for intervention
and methodtype of assistancesupport, they rankedclassified the advice fromof other teachers,
staff in service, personnel and tipthe inquiry sheet as one of the most acceptable forms of
seeking assistance in dealing with the students’ misbehaviors. [ CITATION Gül14 \l 18441 ]
investigated the influence of teachers’ways to seek help. to deal with the reprehensible behavior
of students. (Gülay and Güzide, 2014) have examined the impact of teaching experience and
students’ gender on the teachers’ perceptionstheir perception of the levelseverity of seriousness
of the various misbehavior types occurring of objectionable behaviors in the classroom.

The results showed that both variables, experience and gender, were highlyvery effective in
orienting the teachers’influencing teachers' perceptions of the students’ misbehaviorstudent
misconduct. It was highlightednoted that versedexperienced teachers considered those
misbehaviorbelieve that types that wereof internalized as misconduct are more serious than
antisocialsocial behaviors, which were deemed asinexperienced teachers consider serious by
novice teachers; this finding resonates with [ CITATION Gül14 \l 18441 ]contention. (Gülay and
Güzide, 2014) find that there are basic discrepanciesfundamental differences in the way
noviceaspiring and versedexperienced teachers perceive the same events in the 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 "girls
'outsourcing behavior was considered the most severe, while boys' internalization behavior was
the most severe." Instead of analyzing teachers 'point of view about student misconduct
(Allakbari, Alireza and Hassan, 2013), they analyzed students' perceptions about misconduct and
effective deterrents in dealing with misbehavior. for students. face it They
administereddistributed questionnaires to 350 secondary school students (97 malesboys and
253 femalesgirls). The results indicatedshowed that ‘"talking out of turn’offline" was the most
frequentcommon and problematic misbehavior types. Among deterrents utilized type of
misconduct. Deterrence measures used by the teachers and which were considered to be
effective by the students were ‘being sentinclude "sending them to the principal’s office’,
‘detention’,headmaster's office", "stopping" and ‘"sending an unfavorable report to the
student’s home’.student's home". The study also underlinedhighlighted the types of incentives
regarded by thethat students consider to be effective in promoting appropriate behavior, such
as, ‘ "sending a positive letter to the student’s home’,student's house" and ‘"good mark’.
grades".

16
These results show that both teachers and students possessedhad an interventionist
perspective toward pupil misbehavior since they view of student misconduct, as both
believedwere convinced that resorting tousing an external factor could deterdiscourage
students from doing wrong. The Iranian environment is a less studied area than most of the
studies just described (Allakbari, Alireza and Hassan, 2013). They focused on using strategies of
Iranian teachers regarding the misconduct of 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’ vantagethe point.
of view of their students. They administered managed the Discipline Strategy questionnaire in
the classroom discipline strategy questionnaire to one thousand and four-hundred ninety-seven
students to discover the students’ perceptions of the issuefor 1,497 students to see how they
perceived the topic under study.

In the [ CITATION Fah18 \l 18441 ] The study, a comparison is made between (Fahri, 2018)
compares public and private schools. The results showed that, based on the students’
perspectives, public school teachers in public schools availed themselves, according to the
students, benefited more offrom aggression strategies and punishment strategies than those
ofat private schools. The results also indicatedshowed that, regardless of school type, the
female teachers used more punishment and aggressive punishments and strategies than their
male counterparts. Overall, theIn general, teachers in this study employed much used more
rewarding and recognitionrewarding strategies to discipline the class than aggressive
strategies. The aforementionedabove studies indicateshow that student
misbehaviormisconduct is a challengingdifficult area for more or less experienced teachers of
varying degrees of experience to deal with, and that needs more research is needed to shed
lightssome light on the issue in questionsubject.

2.3.2 Teachers Perception of the teacher

ArguingRecognizing that much of the behavioral problem research on behavior problems was
conducted ondone with primary school students, [ CITATION Ram05 \l 18441 ] examined
secondary school teachers’ perceptions of problematicchildren (Ramon, Shlomo, Xing, and
Yaacov, 2005), they also looked at the perception of problem behaviors also among university
teachers in Victoria, in Australia. TheA survey collected data were gathered from 148
secondary school teachers through a survey. According to the. The results, indicated that the
most troublesomeproblematic and frequent problemcommon behavior was talking out of turn,
which wasproblematic, followed by hindering othersdisability, idleness, disobedience, and
unnecessary noise. As discussed by the researcherinvestigator, these behaviors were similar
to those reported in studies on primary school students. studies.

Kyriacou (2010) investigatedexamined the opinion of Japanese high school teachers’ views
ofteachers on student misbehavior. Responses ofmisconduct. The responses from 141 teachers

17
revealedshowed that the top four majormain factors were the same withidentical to those inof
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 havingwith
emotional and/ / or behavioral difficulties wasproblems were the first. As forIn terms of the
frequencyincidence of improper student misbehaviorbehavior, the most frequent behavior types
included resting headcommon behaviors were sitting on the desk during lessonclass, talking out
of turnalternately, arriving late for lessonclass, using a mobilecell phone during the
lessonclass, and interrupting other students.

In a differentanother Asian context, Din et al. He has conducted two studies with different
focihouses (2008;, 2010). The first one (Din et al., 2008) focused on Chinese teachers’
perceptionsteachers' perception of students’ classroom misbehavior. Through amisconduct by
classroom teachers. A questionnaire developed by the researchers, collected 244 responses
were collected from teachers of different subject areas.in various disciplines. According to
Chinese teachers, the most frequent misbehaviors included common behaviors were
daydreaming, talking out of turn and playing with personal stuffitems, while daydreaming,
slowness, and talking out of turnalternate speech were among the most
troublesomeproblematic. In a furtheranother study (Ding et al., 2010), they examined the same
teachers’ attributionstasks and coping strategies of the same teachers for student misbehavior.
Themisconduct. Chinese teachers first attributed misbehavior the bad behavior first to
studentthe characteristics (e.g. being lazyof the students (eg laziness) and secondthen to
badpoor learning habits.

FocusingGibbs and Gardiner (2008) focused on both primary and secondary schools, Gibbs
and Gardiner (2008) examined teachers’ attributions for students’ misbehavior the attribution of
teacher misconduct directed by students in England and the Republic of Ireland by making a
cross-through phase and cross cultural comparison. Based on-to-intercultural comparisons.
According to the responses of 119 primary school teachers and 102 secondary school
teachers, both groups of teachers appearedseemed to attribute misbehavior of students student
misconduct to their own behaviorsbehavior as a majoran important factor. To some extent,
child’sthe child's personality was also existed in the field of primary school teachers’
attributionsteachers, while it was a less important factor for secondary school teachers. As for
the this factor was less important. With regard to intercultural differences across cultures, due to
the student-centered philosophy , Irish teachers in the Irish education system, Irish teachers
attributed greater attach more importance to recognizing the saliencerecognition of
students’the character's exceptional personality or pressuresthe pressure he exerts on children
than theirhis English colleaguescounterparts. On the other hand, English teachers seemed to
have ratedevaluated their own classroomteaching strategies.

In a more recent study in Greece, Koutrouba (2013) examined the views and attitudes of
Greek secondary school teachers’ views on and attitudes towards student misbehavior. Handing
outteachers about the reprehensible behavior of students. This study distributed questionnaires

18
to a random sample, this study and collected data from 869 teachers. The results showed
that similar to, like the Chinese teachers (Ding et al., 2010), the Greek teachers mainly
attributed misbehaviorthe bad behavior to the students (e.g. beingfor example, lazy or
idleinactive) and arguedaffirmed that they weredid not given any specializedbenefit from the
learning. No special training on classroomin class management or could establish. Building
relationships of trust and has allowed them to show respect withfor their students because of
strictthrough rigorous and inflexible curriculaprograms.

2.4 Theoretical Frameworkframework

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

theThe study is neithernot based on any formal theory, nor on overarching or general practical
experience, but is based uponon the fundamental principlebasic principles, ideas, and
constructsconstructions of the phenomenon (the practicum) meantstage) to be studiedstudy.
This is largely an empirical exploratory empirical study. Therefore, an explicit research
framework is considered imperativeessential, as it guideshelps the researcher to identify the
important constructsconcepts to be studiedconsider and the perspectives to be takentake.
Eisenhart (1991) statesindicates that identifyingthe identification of an appropriate
framework for the study is the second most important steps amongstep in the three essential
stepsmain stages of the research process. The first step is establishingto identify the research
problem (presented in Chapter 1), and the third conceptual step is identifying to identify the
data analysis framework which will be described later in this chapter. The following section
describes the conceptual structure of the study derived, resulting from a review of the
extantexisting literature.

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

19
 Key Stage one and Two
Teachers Perception
Students Misbehavior

Key Stage one and Two

Teachers Perception
Students Misbehavior

Figure 3.1 attempts1: Theoretical Framework

Source: Developed by Author (2019)

Figure 1 tries to show the major constructsmain concepts of the practicum that have
beenmisbehavior derived from the literature review. These constructsconstructions serve as
the basis tofor the design of this study which, whose objective is aimed at exploring theto
examine current practices of practicum in teacher education in the formation of teachers’
perceptions in Maldives.

20
 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.

21
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.

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

22
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’ 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

23
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 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

24
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 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

25
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 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

26
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 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)

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

3.9.2 Reliability Test

27
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
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

28
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 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

29
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,

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

30
 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

31
commit the offence. Our in-school 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?

REFERENCES
 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.

32
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.
doi:10.1080/03634523.2016.1202995

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 England and Norway. Journal of Education for Teaching, 33, 293-307.

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
States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. .

Yusuf, O. (2017). Student Misbehavior in the EFL Classroom: Perceptions of Pre- and In-
Service Teachers. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(29), 115-123.

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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?

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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.

35
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

36