Behaviour problems have always existed in schools to varying degrees. Before we can discuss challenging behaviour problems in children, we need to understand what behaviour is classified as. Behaviour is described as ‘Everything that we can do and say that someone else can see’ (Mukherji, 2001). Behaviour therefore covers a wide range of things many of which are positive; some negative from physical activity, talking, using body language, reading, writing, playing, sharing, communicating, fighting, quarrelling, eating and sleeping (Mukherji, 2001).
Mukherji has tried to define challenging behaviour but has discovered, it is impossible to define challenging behaviour clearly because it is difficult to decontextualize the subjective experiences …show more content…
Rogers (2004) stated that where a child has inappropriate and dysfunctional patterns of behaviour, teachers work with the child to directly teach new, appropriate self-coping behaviours that will strengthen poor behaviour. Wadsworth (1978) reinforced that “Children can only learn through direct instruction. The teacher must teach the child”. Montessori also stated that, “If we wish to obtain obedience for a small child, we must teach him how to coordinate the natural evolution of his voluntary movements so that he can carry them out in harmonious fashion” (Montessori, 1991).
It could be argued that many of the problems of control that arise in the classroom are consequences of the way in which teachers react towards the children concerned. Wragg (1993) indicates that, “The majority of classroom problems are relatively simple ‘Stop talking phrases are wearing for the teacher and can interfere with learning.’ What may be a problem to one teacher may be a minor irritation to another teacher or simply a child’s personality trait. It is important to acknowledge possible reasons behind children’s behaviour before putting strategies in place to alter …show more content…
In particular these children may experience having a reduced self-esteem and have low expectations for themselves. Docking (2002) supports this idea by explaining that children gain high self-esteem when they have successfully met a challenge. This can cause children to have unrealistic expectations and the pressures of living up to a high expectation. Children can be regarded as disruptive when they do not match up to school standards and expectations. Varma (1993) suggests that ‘disruptions occur when a child does not observe the rules that were in force at any given moment.’ This is supported by Clarke and Murray (1995) who explored the reasons to why some children displayed challenging behaviour. They found a strong link between pupil’s behaviour and teacher expectations. In schools where teachers established high expectations from pupils and praised high standard of behaviour there were less disruptions. Also teachers who gave children work where it matched the child’s capability when differentiating tasks this minimised challenging and disruptive behaviour which could have risen from finding a task too challenging leading them to become frustrated
Mukherji has tried to define challenging behaviour but has discovered, it is impossible to define challenging behaviour clearly because it is difficult to decontextualize the subjective experiences …show more content…
Rogers (2004) stated that where a child has inappropriate and dysfunctional patterns of behaviour, teachers work with the child to directly teach new, appropriate self-coping behaviours that will strengthen poor behaviour. Wadsworth (1978) reinforced that “Children can only learn through direct instruction. The teacher must teach the child”. Montessori also stated that, “If we wish to obtain obedience for a small child, we must teach him how to coordinate the natural evolution of his voluntary movements so that he can carry them out in harmonious fashion” (Montessori, 1991).
It could be argued that many of the problems of control that arise in the classroom are consequences of the way in which teachers react towards the children concerned. Wragg (1993) indicates that, “The majority of classroom problems are relatively simple ‘Stop talking phrases are wearing for the teacher and can interfere with learning.’ What may be a problem to one teacher may be a minor irritation to another teacher or simply a child’s personality trait. It is important to acknowledge possible reasons behind children’s behaviour before putting strategies in place to alter …show more content…
In particular these children may experience having a reduced self-esteem and have low expectations for themselves. Docking (2002) supports this idea by explaining that children gain high self-esteem when they have successfully met a challenge. This can cause children to have unrealistic expectations and the pressures of living up to a high expectation. Children can be regarded as disruptive when they do not match up to school standards and expectations. Varma (1993) suggests that ‘disruptions occur when a child does not observe the rules that were in force at any given moment.’ This is supported by Clarke and Murray (1995) who explored the reasons to why some children displayed challenging behaviour. They found a strong link between pupil’s behaviour and teacher expectations. In schools where teachers established high expectations from pupils and praised high standard of behaviour there were less disruptions. Also teachers who gave children work where it matched the child’s capability when differentiating tasks this minimised challenging and disruptive behaviour which could have risen from finding a task too challenging leading them to become frustrated