Maltese teachers' perception of morally-undesirable behaviours among secondary schoolchildren

Abstract

In a previous article (Borg & Falzon1 ) the perception of Maltese primary school teachers of three morally-undesirable behaviours was investigated. That study showed that of 16 selected behaviours stealing, cruelty/bullying, and lying figured among the top five most serious. Results showed that: male primary school teachers tend to take a more serious view of these three behaviours than female teachers; the more experienced teachers took a less serious view of the behaviours; while lying was perceived to be more serious when manifested by girls, the converse was true for cruelty/bUllying; there were no pupil sex differences in the case of stealing; the three behaviours were considered to be more serious when manifested by older children (i.e. those in Year IV-VI as compared with Year I-Ill); teacher's perception was not influenced by ability stream since no differences were reported. The purpose of the present article is to consider the perceived seriousness of morally-undesirable behaviour in the secondary school context, thereby continuing where the Borg & Falzon I study had left off. It also seeks to investigate further the role of teacher, school and pupil characteristics in the perception of these behaviours.