Which Classroom Behaviours do Primary School Teachers say they find most Troublesome?

A questionnaire enquiring into classroom behaviour problems was distributed to a 25% random sample of all infant, junior and junior infant schools in a West Midlands LEA. Replies were received from all 32 schools, resulting in a very high return of 93%. Of the 198 teachers who responded 51% believed that they were spending more time than they ought on problems of order and control. On average 4.3 children per class were identified as troublesome, of whom 3 were boys. Boys were identified as the most troublesome and as the next most troublesome child in the class by three quarters of the teachers. Asked to identify the most troublesome classroom behaviours 47% selected ‘talking out of turn’ followed by ‘hindering other children’ (25%). Very similar findings were obtained for the most frequent troublesome behaviour and for the most troublesome behaviours of the particularly troublesome individual children.