Student Teachers’ Reactions Responding to Students’ Disruptive Behaviors: A Case Study in High School Education in Tunisia

Abstract

This article sets to study the reactions of student teachers towards students’ disruptive behaviors in high school. A delayed video-scopic analysis has been performed using the “Disciplinary Incidents Analysis System” (Brunelle, Brunelle, Gagnon, Goyette, Martel, Marzouk, & Spallanzani, 1993). A total of 1379 reactions to disruptive behaviors have been recorded in Tunisian student teachers enrolled in the last year of their teacher education in the License-Masters-Doctorate (LMD) system. The results show a clearly low level of student teachers’ intervention since they frequently opt for ignorance of disruptive behavior. In fact, a high predominance of the reaction “ignore” (56.9%) qualifies these interventions, while interactive reactions are seldom used (17.4%). Following these results, a readjustment is probably required in both the practical and theoretical parts of teacher education of Tunisian student teachers. This may occur by making teaching disruptive behaviors’ management at school part of the curriculum.