Teachers’ Perceptions of Pupils’ Behaviour Problems at a Comprehensive School

Abstract

This study sought to explore teachers’ perceptions of pupils’ behaviour problems at a single comprehensive school. Sixty‐four teachers at the school rated a list of 23 behaviour problems in terms of their seriousness. The findings indicated that the teachers’ perceptions were dominated by disruptive behaviours, although ‘under‐achieving’ by pupils was a major cause of concern. A principal components analysis identified three major factors: problems describing aggressive and antagonistic personality traits, problems relating to difficulties in application to school work, and problems relating to difficulties with authority. A particularly interesting finding was that teachers who had previously taught in a grammar school tended to rate the behaviour problems as more serious than colleagues who had previously taught in a secondary modern school. As well as contributing to the understanding of how teachers perceive the notion of behaviour problems, these findings also have implications for staff development at the school.