Disruptive behaviour in the classroom: Why some children misbehave

Abstract

Disruptive behaviour in the classroom (DB) is arguably the single most important factor preventing higher levels of attainment in schools. This paper synthesises from existing research a new account of its origins. Genetic, psychological, cultural and social factors make some children predisposed to DB before they begin school. But most DB is learned in the classroom. Teachers set tasks which require pupils to draw upon their cognitive and emotional resources. Pupils do so because they understand they will receive benefits in return: they invest. Teachers assess their work and provide feedback, essential to their pupils' learning and their own teaching. Some pupils receive mostly good news, most receive a mixture, a few disappointing news. Successful pupils experience relatively straightforward school careers. Less successful pupils' careers are less predictable and characterised by a series of dissonant self-perceptions: their existential need to see themselves as competent conflicts with the discovery at school they are not. Yet they continue to attend and invest personal resources in teacher-set tasks. Chronically unsuccessful pupils exhaust their personal resources. To resolve the dissonant self-perceptions, they attempt increasingly dysfunctional strategies resulting in withdrawn, impulsive-foolish and disruptive behaviours. Ego-depleted, they show uninhibited and careless behaviours. These prevent their own learning, disrupt that of their peers and stress their teachers. To reduce DB, reduce pupil error rates, especially those of chronically failing pupils. Governments have mostly used whole-school strategies to raise attainment levels, but these were not designed to reduce DB and had limited success.