Why Do Students Misbehave In The Classroom?

Maggie believes that her main problem in the classroom is an issue of poor behavior on behalf of her students. She spends the majority of her time in the classroom rebuking the actions of different students who are not focused, noting that “the students seem[ed] to be even less cooperative when [she] most needed them to stay on task.” (p. 17) Her students are frequently milling about the room, and are seldom focused on the tasks she assigns to them. As a result of this, she fears taking them beyond the school grounds on a nature walk, as she is afraid of taking unruly students beyond the classroom based in an experience from her time spent substitute teaching. Maggie does not understand why her students misbehave in her class but are diligent …show more content…
Over the course of the school day highlighted in this particular piece, Maggie makes a number of empty threats to her students, including working during recess and taking away free time. Additionally, she blatantly scolds her students when they do not abide by the classroom rules, as demonstrated when Emanual forgets his book and she quips to him “What good will it do you in your cubby? What have you been doing all this time? Emanual, you know that one of our class rules is ‘Be prepared,’ but you’re not, are you?” (p. 18) Maggie is excellent at attempting to use punishment as a repercussion for poor behavior in her classroom. However, by not accompanying those empty threats and verbal scolding with reinforcement for good behavior, instead constantly giving attention to the actions in her classroom she sees as detrimental to the broader dynamic, she perpetuates the air of chaos in her third grade class. Thus, Maggie’s real problem stems from an inability to fully implement the more effective pieces of behaviorism in the classroom, and instead only enforcing the aspects of punishment that are …show more content…
First, despite the unruliness that is so prominent, it is important for her to focus on the students who are behaving themselves and focusing on the assigned tasks throughout the day. In theory, giving more attention to these students who are working on their assignments without disruption will encourage other students who may be acting out to follow suit. Additionally, it might be valuable to Maggie to actually explain to her students why they are working on certain assignments. Her interactions with the students who are frustrated by working on the same pages and assignments as the day before may not understand why they are required to repeat those assignments. At the same time, Maggie may need to reevaluate her assignments to avoid that kind of repetition, as the poor student behavior may simply stem from boredom and a lack of intellectual