Punish Them or Engage Them? Teachers’ Views of Unproductive Student Behaviours in the Classroom

This paper reports on a study that investigated the extent to which student behaviour is a concern for school teachers. A questionnaire was used to investigate teachers’ views about student behaviour in their classes. The results suggest that low-level disruptive and disengaged student behaviours occur frequently and teachers find them difficult to manage. Aggressive and anti-social behaviours occur infrequently. Teachers employ strategies to manage unproductive behaviours that locate the problem with the student. This paper argues that teachers could benefit from understanding how the classroom ecology influences engagement and therefore student behaviour, rather than focusing on ‘fixing’ unproductive behaviour.