Teachers’ perceptions of undesirable behaviours amongst Year 6 pupils

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how serious teachers perceive undesirable behaviours in Year 6 students in state schools to be. A sample of 150 Year 6 teachers from various colleges in Malta participated in the study. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The role of pupil gender, teacher gender and length of teaching experience was investigated. Moreover, grade level differences were also investigated by comparing the present data with similar data collected from Year 3 classes. Results demonstrated that the behaviour ‘bullies others’ is perceived as being the most serious undesirable behaviour in Year 6 pupils of both genders. Furthermore, the most significant factor which influences the way teachers perceive undesirable behaviours is ‘pupils’ gender’ and ‘length of teaching experience’. In addition the impact of ‘teachers’ gender’ and ‘grade level’ on the teachers’ perceptions of pupils’ undesirable behaviours did not reach statistical significance.