Greek Secondary School Pupils' Perceived Reasons for Behaving Appropriately and Perceived Teachers' Strategies to Maintain Discipline

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons for pupils behaving appropriately in class, in several subjects of the school curriculum, and perceived teachers' strategies to maintain discipline. One hundred and forty-five pupils, aged 13-15 years, responded to questionnaires about reasons for behaving appropriately and their perceptions of strategies used by their teachers to maintain discipline. The present study is an extension of Papaioannou's (1998) study. The results indicated that in all subjects of school curriculum the reasons for pupils being well-behaved are mainly self-determined. In computer science, physical education, mathematics and the Greek language, pupils adopt significantly more self-determined reasons for behaving appropriately than in foreign languages, physics and religious education. Despite the differences among teachers' specialties, in order to maintain discipline teachers usually employ strategies that emphasise intrinsic reasons for discipline. In all school subjects there is a strong correlation between reasons for pupils' good behaviour and their perceptions about strategies used by their teachers to maintain discipline.