Investigating Students Misbehavior in Classroom Management in State and Private Primary Schools with a Comparative Approach

Abstract

Classes are the most important places for the educational processes because all the educational events take place in them. The expert who knows this fact begins to work on the Classroom Management concept and they are being helped to become an important lecture in the curriculums. Since the students get the most of the target behaviors in classes, making the convenient class culture is the first step of the study (Demir 2003,1). Classroom management consists of a wide range of proactive, well established, and consistent techniques and practices. For teachers to relate content effectively, classrooms must be well managed (Johnson, Rice, Edgington and et al; 2005, 29). All classrooms have to have a positive culture that reinforces certain values, such as respect and fairness, and makes students feel welcome and successful. Although creating a positive culture sounds simple, it is much more challenging than just being nice to students. Today, students bring many complicated issues to school. There are many students coming from home environments where they are not receiving adequate support to develop the social skills for interacting appropriately in school. Additionally students are exposed to an increasingly violent and unpredictable society that causes stress (Brownell, 2001, 32). The students who are coming from such environments, likely show misbehavior in their classes. According to Seidman's quotation from Charles (1999), misbehavior is defined as behavior that is considered inappropriate for setting or situation in which it occurs. Misbehavior is further classified into one of five different types: Aggression, immorality, defiance of authority, class disruptions, and behaving mischievously Some of these behaviors might occur inadvertently (coughing or sneezing, for example) while others can be intentional (talking, yawning loudly etc.) (Seidman 2005, 41). The objective of this study was to examine the differences in state primary schools and private primary schools according to determined misbehaviors. Which misbehaviors are the most encountered or which ones are the least encountered in both types of the school. Method This sectional research is done with 245 teachers working in state primary schools and private primary schools in 2006-2007 academic year. These schools take place in Kayseri It is impossible and uneconomic to reach all the teachers who form the cosmos of the study. So sampling of this study was determined with group sampling and random method was used. The questionnaire used in this study was developed by the researcher based on review survey and the expert ideas. It consists of three parts, the first part is personal information, second part is general information and the last part is built on the expressions about students' misbehaviors In the first part there are information about sex, seniority, graduation and Classroom Management course. In the second part there information about number of students, physical conditions of classes and guidance. In the last part there are 28 expressions which are used for measuring the students misbehavior. The questionnaire has been analyzed by calculating frequency, percentage and arithmetic mean by using SPSS (Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences) for Windows. To evaluate the misbehaviors; arithmetic mean was used. For the comment of this according to calculated interval coefficient for four intervals in five scale (5-1=4), (4/5=0.80) intervals were arranged. The Likert Scale in the questionnaire was numbered as follows with its limits and heaviness Choice Heaviness Limits Never 1 1.00-1.80 Few 2 1.81-2.60 Average 3 2.61-3.40 Much 4 3.41-4.20 Exact 5 4.21-5.00 Results and Discussions If we look at Table 1., we see that there is no misbehavior at exact and much level while at average level there are three at state primary schools and two at private primary schools. …