PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ THOUGHTS AND FEARS ABOUT DISCIPLINING CHILDREN

Abstract

The purposes of this study were threefold: (1) to determine if fears and concerns about guiding children's behavior and misbehavior is a generalized feeling, or more related to specific circumstances and scenarios; (2) to determine which situations may give students the greatest and least amounts of anxiety; and (3) to explore the relationship between students’ beliefs about the causes of children's misbehavior and their anxiety about specific discipline situations. After completing a questionnaire, preservice teachers in this study rated children's challenges to their authority as the most difficult. Discipline situations involving conflicts between children (e.g., refusing to share, not joining in activities) were rated as the least difficult to handle. Most of the preservice teachers believed children misbehaved because of a lack of social skills and developmental sophistication rather than because of bad parenting, inherent personality characteristics, or too many adult restrictions. Preservice teachers rated the difficulty of the discipline issues similarly regardless of their beliefs concerning the causes of misbehavior. Implications of this study are discussed.