Teacher classroom behaviour management preparation in undergraduate primary education in Australia: a web-based investigation

Classroom behaviour management is an essential skill required by all teacher graduates to facilitate instruction in curriculum content. This article describes the classroom behaviour management (CBM) content on offer in Australian undergraduate primary education programs. To date, no nationwide studies exist that report the CBM instruction on offer in pre-service teacher education programs. Thirty-five primary teacher preparation programs were reviewed. Thirty programs (85.7%) contained mandatory course-work in CBM, 108 units contained relevant content, 33 of those were stand-alone CBM units (30.6%). More units were found with CBM content embedded within methods or inclusion units than stand-alone CBM units. The mean hours of CBM instruction per mandatory stand-alone unit was 31.46 hours, 25.5 for stand-alone electives, and 2.3 hours within embedded units. The content of CBM units is reported as well as the research interests of the unit convenors and instructors. Implications of the major findings are discussed.