Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

Action Research

Introduction

This action research was driven by the desire of improving something in the
classroom. Needless to say, the context within which the action research
takes place is of great importance. It was carried out in Matter Admirabilis
school, 7th grade, morning shift, elementary level.

Different steps were followed in order to achieve the aim of this research.
The first stage of it consisted in identifying the problem, then a goal was set
and finally a plan of action was created. In the second stage the acting on the
plan, the observation and evaluation of outcomes and finally the reflection.

The problem identified in the classroom was misbehaviour and disruption.

During the observation period this problem was spotted. The students
couldn’t remain in silence, it was difficult for the teacher to grab their
attention and they took ages to set to work. It was a very restless and
disruptive group.

It was worth reflecting upon the reasons of their misbehaviour in order to

take action and change their attitude. Observing their behaviour, keeping
journals, sharing ideas with the other teacher and trainers and reflecting
upon the feedback of the lessons was of great help to carry out this research.

Solange Francois
 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

Research problem: “Reflecting upon misbehaviour and disruption”

Problem observed Reflection

Students complained about the new Wouldn’t it have been better to ask
seating arrangement. them before if they would like to
change it and show them the
advantages of it?

Students come from break very Is it worth asking for silence and
excited and it is difficult to start the waiting for them to start the lesson?
lesson on time. What can I do to avoid this and start
the lessons earlier?

Students get restless during speaking Why do students get restless after
activities. For example, while
introducing phrases of the week.
Students cannot remain silent for
long periods. Especially some of
them ( Lucas , Sebastian and Juan)
some minutes? Can’t it be a problem
of timing? Do I have to call their
attention all the time? Is it worth
doing it? What can I do in order to
keep them all on task?
Are those ss attention-seekers? What
can be done with them? Is it worth
calling their attention in front of the
group?

Activities take longer than expected
because some students misbehave
and are not on task.
Students disrupt when we bring
realia (clothes) . We are forced to
slow down the pace of the lesson.
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Do I spend a lot of time asking for
silence? Doesn’t it break the pace of
the lesson? Is the aim of the activity
achieved? What can I do to improve
this? Who are the ss who
misbehave? Why? Are they
attention-seekers or they don’t have
the level to participate in the
activity? How can I help them?
What can it be changed to optimize
the teaching time in these lessons?
 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption
Students shout and fight when
they’re playing a game. Lucas and
Sebastian also swore because they
said that some students were not
following the rules of the game.
There are constant disruptions while
giving instructions and too much
time is invested in organizing them.
Students misbehave and aren’t on
task while one students is at the
front.
Students get too noisy while doing
written tasks and they take longer to
complete it. Some students, specially
the weakest ones even don’t finish it.
Some students always forget to bring
the students’ book and disturb the
ones who have it.
Some students, especially Sebastian
and Lucas, get restless while one of
their mates is reading out loud. They
don’t seem to listen to each other.
Students tend to shout instead of
speaking and they all do it at the
same time. Again, they find it difficult
to listen to each other.
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Can I accept aggressive behaviour? Is
it better to talk about this with all the
group or only with the ones that
have aggressive behaviour? It is
worth talking or do I have start
acting?
Is it worth stopping the activity?
How can I face violent behaviour in
order to help them change?
What can it be done to organize the
task quickly and to use the rest of the
time to actually do the task?
What can it be done to make them
pay more attention to their mates?
What can I do to get them on task?
Why cannot they work in silence and
on their own? What can it be done
with weak ss? Is it worth allowing
more time for the activity?
What can it be done? Why don’t they
bring the book?
Why don’t they pay attention? Is it
worth stopping the activity and
calling their attention? What can it
be done to grab their attention?
What can it be done to change this
behaviour? Is it worth shouting at
them? Does it really work? What can
it be done to show them the
importance of listening to each
other?
 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

Some students throw things among Although the lesson is over, do I have
each other, especially while they are to interfere and call their attention?
putting their things away. What can it be done to make them
put their things away in order?

Setting a goal

After identifying the problem and reflecting upon our observations and
lessons the goals are set in order to design the plan of action. The main
objective would be to diminish disruptions as much as possible in order to
get full control of the group and don’t break the pace of the lessons.

Plan of action

In order to achieve the aim of diminishing disruptions and misbehaviour a

plan of action was designed. Different strategies were designed.

Strategies:

1) Changing seating arrangement: during the observation period it was

observed that the seating arrangement they had (desk rows) was not
the appropriate for them. The students at the back were left out of
control and it was difficult for the teacher to grab their attention. The
first thing than Clara and I decided to do was to change the seating
arrangement into a horseshoe one.

2) Create a code of conduct: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of

cure”. In order to prevent problem behaviour we decided to create a
code of conduct with the students. The fact that they gave their
opinion made it more powerful. Whenever there was a problem of
misbehaviour we referred to it. It was stuck on the wall, next to the
board.
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 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

3) Student of the week: this was done in order to motivate ss behave

better, participate in class and use L2. Each week the student who
followed all the rules of the code of conduct was chosen as the student
of the week.

4) Start the lesson on time, no matter whether they’re talking: after

several lessons wasting time in asking for silence we decided to start
the lesson on time even if there were some students talking.

5) Involve ss in giving instructions: sometimes some ss were asked to

come to the front and explain what they had to do. The others were
able to help him/her.

6) Give shorter instructions: this was done on order to get the ss on task
most of the time and also to reduce teacher’s talking time.

7) Avoid calling their attention: by calling their attention we had to stop

the activity and the pace of the lesson is broken. We decided that it
was worth going on with the activity. If students are on task, there’s
less possibility of misbehaving. We also used eye contact in order to
stop disruptions. This didn’t alter the pace of the activity.

8) Isolate the most disruptive students: we talked to three students that

were not only disruptive but aggressive. We couldn’t turn a blind eye
to this.

9) Giving them marks: as some were impervious to what we said we

opted to give marks to written activities. Again, it was an alternative to
keep them on task and respect the time limit.

10) Give them tasks according to their level and interests: we tried to do
activities that were suitable for their age and interests. In this way we
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 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

could get all the class involved in the activities. And even weak
students could participate.

11) Games in groups: we decided to revise vocabulary and structures

through games. It was a way of engaging them in the lesson and
avoiding misbehaving. Besides by playing games in teams each ss was
responsible of the whole group. They were eager to participate since
their aim was to win the game.

12)Set rules before the game: since during games sometimes they
started arguing we decided to set clearer rules. If they were not
followed, the game would be stopped. We stressed the value of
playing instead of the final result.

13)Project work: we carried out a project work in which students had

to apply all the things we had seen. They cut different pieces of
clothing and parts of the body from magazines, create a creature
and then write a description. Then, all the posters were stuck on
one of the corridors of the school and all the students could vote
for the best one.

14)Make photocopies: as some ss always forgot the book we decided

to make photocopies for them so that they had the material to
work with.

15)Move around the classroom in order to keep them all on task:

during written activities we were both monitoring them and helping
the weak students.

Solange Francois
 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

Observing the action and reflecting upon the outcomes

1) Changing seating arrangement: although at the beginning they

complained about it, then they accepted it. It really fulfilled our
expectations. There was a great change in the classroom and it was
positive. We had more control over all the students.

2) Create a code of conduct: it didn’t work as expected. We made

reference to it when they misbehaved, but then we noticed it was
not worth doing it. We invested too much time in making them
reflect upon their behaviour and it didn’t help at all. They kept on
being misbehaving.

3) Students of the week: some students were really eager to be the

students of the week and they tried to make the effort of behaving
properly and participating in class. However, not all of them we
interested in this. One of the disadvantages of this was that after
being chosen, some students starter misbehaving again.

4) Start the lesson on time, no matter whether they’re talking: this

strategy worked since once we started the lesson little by little they
made silence and paid attention. It was not used hushing for silence
or shouting. It’s a waste of time and nothing is achieved. The best
way of controlling their behaviour was to keep them working all the
time.

5) Involve students in the giving of instructions: it worked for a while.

The problem was that some students were restricted but their
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 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

language. Therefore, we had to choose always the same students.

Besides, sometimes they didn’t understand their mates and again a
lot of time was invested in giving instructions.

6) Give shorter instructions: as the previous strategy didn’t work as

expected, we decided to give shorter instructions. It had positive
results and it reduced TTT.

7) Avoid calling their attention: it worked at times. At the beginning

we stopped the lesson all the time to call their attention. We
realized it was not useful. In a way, avoid calling their attention,
helped us not to break the pace of the lesson. However, it was very
difficult to deliver the lesson while some students were being
disruptive. Although we made use of eye contact, they kept on
misbehaving.

8) Isolate the most disruptive students: it was necessary to do it but it

didn’t have a positive result, they didn’t change their attitude at all.

9) Giving them marks: this strategy worked. Although I don’t want the
students to think all the time about marks this time it was useful. It
was the only way in which they could at least finish the assigned
task. Therefore, their behaviour improved.

10) Give them tasks according to their level and interests: we

noticed that this really worked since all the students were engaged
in the lesson.

11) Games in groups: it worked at times. During some games they

ended up fighting. Perhaps, one alternative could have been playing
non-competitive games.

Solange Francois
 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

12) Set rules before the game: I don’t think this strategy worked.
Maybe they listened to the rules but then they didn’t follow them.

13) Project work: this worked wonders! Students were very

motivated and they were on task all the time. We had to be very
strict on time limit. But as they wanted to participate in the project
they did it anyway.

14) Making photocopies: this worked since all the students could
have the material to work with.

15) Move around the classroom in order to keep them all on task:
this strategy worked but it was not the solution. Some students
kept on talking or misbehaving even if we were in front of them. It
was useful for weak students who needed our help.

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 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

Conclusion

I believe that action research is a very useful tool for teachers. It helps us
analyse and reflect upon our own teaching deeply. This is the first step of the
process, become aware of the weaknesses of our lessons. During the
internship I realized that this is extremely important in order to improve our
lessons and therefore help our students.

Regarding this case in particular I found it was very helpful to carry out the
action research. Clara and I didn’t doubt when choosing the problem. And as
we thought that all the blame cannot be put on the students, we started to
think about alternatives in order to improve their behaviour. It was not easy
at all, and very frustrating at times. We tried to do our best and sometimes
our strategies didn’t work. We had to learn that it’s only natural. On the
other hand, when things worked well it was very rewarding. I found the
feedback of our trainers very helpful and supportive. It helped us to go on
trying and improving.

On the whole, I can say that I really learned a lot by doing the action research
and I think that we could change many things in the classroom and achieve
positive results. It was a very fruitful experience.

Solange Francois

Solange Francois
 Action research: Misbehaviour and disruption

Bibliography:

 Evans, K.M, 1984, `Planning a small scale research´,Nelson. Third

edition.
 Harmer, J, 2004, “The Practice of English Language Teaching”,
Longman. Third edition.

Solange Francois