Improving the perfect teaching environment in the classroom through
overcoming the students’ disruptive behavior in the classroom
Tashi Phuntsho
Economics student teacher
Post Graduate Diploma in Education, 2010
Abstract
Understanding disruptive classroom behavior will directly interfere with the ability of
teaching or the ability of other students to benefit from the lesson taught. Disruptive student
behavior is harmful to the academic reason to both teacher and the student, because it interfere
with the learning process, slows down the ability of the teacher to teach effectively. This paper
examined the issue of student’s disturbances in teaching and learning environment in the
classroom. The research was carried out at Darla Middle Secondary School, under Chukha
Dzongkhag with class IX section ‘A’ students. This class had 32 students at the age range from
16-21 years of which 11 were females. The research was conducted in July 16th, 2010 and
completed in August 31st, 2010. Since this research aimed to improve in the termination I have
apply action research using Kemmis & Mc Taggart’s (1998) starting with reconnaissance and
developing action research questions.
Introduction
Disruptive behavior is usually found, when a student is uncooperative and prevents
themselves and other student in class from learning. A disruptive student would manage to grab a
teacher’s attention and prevent the teacher from giving the other children attention. Disturbances
for instance, holding side conversations in class and propping feet up on the backs of chairs
during lectures change the learning environment, making it difficult for teacher to teach and
students to learn. For students to learn effectively there needs to be consistency and order in the
classroom. Often new teachers like us do not know of ways on how to handle the ongoing
disruptive students, and this makes our job much harder to do. A teacher cannot begin to teach
without an acceptable level of classroom discipline.
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For new teachers like us confronting a disruptive student in the class will be an
uncomfortable experience and classroom management is the troublesome of teaching. To teach
effectively, there need to be consistency and order in the classroom.
Reconnaissance
Maxwell (2003) developed three components of reconnaissance viz: situational analysis,
competent and literature review. He considered these three components as requisite in action
research development. Including those components would ease the action researcher in the
process with ultimate aspiration of improvement in the field.
Situational Analysis:
Country- Mountainous Bhutan is situated on the southeast slope of the Himalayas, bordered on
the north and east by Tibet and on the south and west and east by India. It has total area of
47,000 sq km and Population of 691,141 people.
School- Darla is one of the gewog in Chukha Dzongkhag. It is located to the southwestern part of
Bhutan. Darla has another name like Tala. People nowadays refer this place name as Tala. Darla
is a Middle Secondary School under the Ministry of Education (MoE). At present school offers
classes ranging from Pre-primary School to Class X.
Competence.
During my Post Graduate Training in Samtse College of Education, I had gained in -depth
knowledge of action research. I had studied the Research Module as a separate Module. I am
extremely familiar with all ingredients of research. Even thought I am experiencing and
conducting such kind of research for the first time, but nevertheless I am confident to achieve
professional and standard level of research besides considering all the research’s code of conduct
and ethical issues.
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Literature Review
My literature review is divided into three sections i.e. ‘what is disruptive behavior?’ ‘What are
the causes and effects of classroom disruptive behavior?’ and ‘how can teacher be responsible
for this kind of classroom disruption by the student?’
What is disruptive behaviour?
Disruption is a school-generated problem (McGuiness and Craggs 1986).
Frozen perceptions of students according to past behaviour (Molnar and Lindquist 1989)
Cooper (1996) defined disruptive behaviour as a child who deliberately makes a fuss in class and
prevents learning and behaviour that distracts a teacher and other pupils from learning.
According to Galloway, Ball, Blomfield and Seyd (1982), disruptive behaviour is defined as a
‘wide range of behaviour of any behaviour which appears problematic, inappropriate and
disturbing to teachers’
What are the causes and effects of classroom disruptive behaviour?
According to Pack report (1977) classroom disruption are cause by the flowering;

Early maturation

Teacher shortage

Raising the school leaving age

High staff turnover

Dislike of secondary provision

Teachers who cannot cope
According to Ogilvy (1994) cause of classroom disruption are due to
1. Child
2. Home/Community
3. School
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According to Garner and Hill (1995), effects of classroom disruptive behaviour are;
 Prevents children’s participation in educational activities
 Isolates them from their peers
 Affects other pupils
 Reduces opportunities for involvement in ordinary community activities
 Excessive demands upon teachers, staff and resources
 Places the child or others in physical danger
 Makes future placement difficult
Reybekill (1998) asserted that pupils blamed individual teachers and their teaching styles.
Teachers blamed pupils and their upbringing and their families and peers. Ogilvy suggests that
we need to take into account many factors and the way they interact.
According to Barkley (1988) the disruptive student behaviour is due to key brain circuits
that do not develop.
Whalen and Henker (1991) individual interpret their medication as a reflection of a
continuous need for chemical assistance in order to sustain personal competence and control.
Negative effect on developing a sense of self converse argument – the drug provides a window
of opportunity.
Problem is that other ‘good’ students perceive the treatment of ‘bad’ students as unfair, in
that the ‘bad’ students seem to be getting rewarded for little effort. Conflict of needs of the
individual versus the need to be fair to all (Daniels et al 1999)
How can teacher be responsible for this kind of classroom disruption by the student?’
Teacher must respond to the child at the level the child displays. Provide structures, level of
control, accept emotional behaviour, encouragement to move on. (Bennathan 1997)
Daniels et al (1999) – Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties in Mainstream Schools.
Good practice
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1. Good teaching – Matching teaching to learning style, having high expectations,
motivating students, offering support sensitively.
2. An appropriate curriculum that the students can access.
3. An effective behaviour policy: policies were written, known, and an emphasis on living
the policies.
4. Staff who are able to learn by their actions. Staff discussed concerns. Share ideas.
Reflect on what went wrong. Learn from previous situations. Develop effective
practices.
5. Key staff that understand the nature of emotional and behavioral difficulties.
Redl and Wattenberg (cited in Charles, 1996) suggested that teachers employ a procedure of
"diagnostic thinking" when faced with incidents of student misbehavior. These procedures
include forming a first hunch, gathering facts, exploring hidden factors, taking action, and
remaining flexible.
Conducting a self-evaluation of teaching style and instructional practices, it may provide some
insight into whether the behavior is related to the disability or is classroom based. You may find
a classroom ecological inventory (Fuchs, Fernstrom, Scott, Fuchs, & Vandermeer, 1994)
The classroom ecological inventory could help you assess salient features of the learning
environment of your school or classroom. In such analysis, you can gather specific information
about the student, the behavior, and the environmental conditions and settings associated with
the behavior (Evans, Evans, & Gable, 1989).
The assessments can help you identify variables and events that are consistently present in those
situations (Dunlap et al., 1993; Foster-Johnson & Dunlap, 1993).
Frith & Armstrong (1986) Teachers have found many advantages in using self-monitoring
procedures: These procedures improve target behavior, stress the student's role in behavior
change, allow generalization to non-school environments, free teachers for other tasks, and teach
students responsibility and self-determination
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Action Research Question
How can I eliminate disruptive behavior by the student in the classroom?
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