Indonesian Primary School Teachers’ Perceptions of Student Misbehavior

Abstract

AbstractStudies show that most problem behaviors in the classroom, such as daydreaming, talking out of turn, hindering other students and idleness, are not severe. However, the high occurrence of these behaviors may make them irritating, time-wasting, and, over time, influencing teacher confidence and stress. Managing problem behaviors may be difficult at times. All the changes due to the pandemic make this even tougher. Since 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic situation has pushed over 25 million primary school students in Indonesia into virtual learning. The present study was conducted to identify the most common and disruptive student behaviors as perceived by primary school teachers in Indonesia, both in the classroom and online learning environments. Data were collected through open-ended questions in an online survey which was distributed through various online channels. 373 primary school teachers from 22 provinces in Indonesia responded to the survey. Data were classified into categories of classroom problem behaviors developed by Sun and Shek (2012). The findings revealed that a few common and disruptive student behaviors as perceived by teachers both in the classroom and online learning environments were having disruptive conversations, non-attentiveness/idleness, and playing. Failure in submitting assignments, disobeying online classroom rules, and passive engagement in class were also reported as common problem behaviors during online learning, while bothering classmates and wandering around the classroom were reported as common disruptive behavior in classroom learning in Indonesian primary schools. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research and teacher practice in Indonesia.KeywordsPrimary schoolTeacher’s perceptionStudent misbehaviorIndonesia