Teachers’ perception of undesirable behaviour in Year 3 pupils

Abstract

The core objective of this study is to investigate primary school teachers’ perception of undesirable behaviour among Year 3 children. It will seek to determine which classroom student behaviours are perceived by educators as the most problematic and challenging. The role of pupil gender, grade level, teacher gender and length of teaching experience will be investigated. A quantitative approach will be adopted using group-administered questionnaires to 135 Year 3 teachers in state schools. A fellow colleague will be carrying a parallel study with Year 6 teachers. This will facilitate a comparison of findings arising from the two studies. The outcome indicated that, educators tend to agree as to which behaviours are considered to be the most serious in class. In addition, this research shows that teachers’ experience is one of the primary factors which influences the manner teachers perceive behaviours in typical classroom context.