Observations of Strategies Used by Secondary School Teachers in Physical Classrooms to Promote Positive Behaviour

Mohd Mahzan Awang, Abdul Talib Mohamed Hashim, Tan Kim Hua, Abdul Razaq Ahmad and Nordin Mamat
Additional contact information
Mohd Mahzan Awang: Faculty of Education, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia
Abdul Talib Mohamed Hashim: Faculty of Human Development, Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjung Malim 35900, Perak, Malaysia
Tan Kim Hua: Faculty of Education, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia
Abdul Razaq Ahmad: Faculty of Education, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia
Nordin Mamat: Faculty of Human Development, Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjung Malim 35900, Perak, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-24

Abstract: Difficult behaviour in pupils poses a challenge to teachers. Although teachers have been trained to implement various pedagogical strategies, teachers’ spontaneous actions in classrooms may affect pupils’ behaviour. Indeed, teachers may face difficulties in making decisions regarding pupils’ behaviour in the classroom. Therefore, we carried out 12 observations in two schools in Malaysia to analyse a pattern of teachers’ initiatives to promote positive behaviour and discourage negative behaviour in classrooms. The study was carried in two urban national secondary schools located in the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. We observed pupils’ behaviour in response to strategies used by teachers for carrying out teaching and learning in the first ten minutes of the lessons. All 12 lessons were video-recorded, then analysed by three coders by looking at the frequency of the following targeted behaviours (using a checklist): teachers’ action: encouragement, praise, and guidance; pupils’ behaviour: attentive, uninvolved, initiative, and disruptive; teachers’ response: positive and ignore. The data gathered were analysed using an event-based analysis technique. The results indicate that teachers were more likely to guide pupils in lessons. There was less encouragement and praise used in the classroom. A clear pattern from this study is that pupils were more likely to pay attention when a teacher responded to their action positively. The data also show that ignoring pupils’ negative behaviour increases such behaviour (uninvolved and disruptive). The implications of the study suggest that there should be intensive training to increase teachers’ skills in managing pupils’ behaviour in the classroom. A specific module is suggested to be designed and implemented.

Keywords: education; positive behaviour; teachers; pupils; school (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7013/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7013/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7013-:d:833918

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().