Why Do Students Disrupt Classroom Instruction: Summary Statement

For many years teachers and researchers have been studying the complex problem of understanding student misbehavior in school. There is an increasing body of evidence (*Solomon & Solomon, 2008) that suggests a student’s disruptive behavior is related to three key classroom variables or conditions:

1. The negative thoughts and feelings that dwell within the student. (e.g. I’m having a miserable day, and I’m going to make certain that everyone else in class has a miserable day as well; I may be stupid, but I know how to can get everyone’s attention, etc.)
2. The anti-social skills the student has mastered (i.e. teasing, name calling, hitting, bullying, etc.).
3. The degree to which the student perceives the classroom as a community of learners (e.g. To what extent does the child feel included, respected, and appreciated by the student and adult members of the classroom community?).
In future posts we will share specific teacher interventions to address these three variables associated with student disruptive behavior in the classroom. You can find those posts at this url: http://richarddsolomonsblog.blogspot.com/
* Solomon, R. & Solomon, C. (2008). Increasing Student Responsibility and Self-Discipline Within Learning Communities: Participant's Guide. Tucson, AZ: Fourth R Consulting.