Australian Teachers’ Views of Their Effectiveness in Behaviour Management

ONE HUNDRED AND twenty‐five Brisbane area teachers completed the Teacher Manageability Scale (TMS), a 39 item, nine factor, self‐report instrument designed to assess educators' perceptions of their personal competence in behaviour management. Results indicated that behaviours associated with Lack of Communication, Task Dependency, Cognitive Confusion and Inattention were rated as being equally as difficult to manage as Negative Aggressive behaviours. The findings of a series of multiple regression analyses suggested that personal efficacy (beliefs concerning a teacher's personal instructional effectiveness) was the only important predictor of manageability ratings. Surprisingly, independent variables such as teacher‐reported student academic level and socioeconomic status failed to be significant predictors of any of the dependent measures of manageability. In addition, Australian teachers' rated themselves as somewhat more effective than a group of 182 Ohio teachers. Implications for behaviour management practices in the schools and future research are discussed.