Teachers’ Perceptions of Students’ Challenging Behavior and the Impact of Teacher Demographics Peter Alter, Ja’Nina Walker, Eric Landers
Education and Treatment of Children, Volume 36, Number 4, November 2013, pp. 51-69 (Article) Published by West Virginia University Press DOI: 10.1353/etc.2013.0040
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EDUCATION AND TREATMENT OF CHILDREN Vol. 36, No. 4, 2013
Teachers’ Perceptions of Students’ Challenging Behavior and the Impact of Teacher Demographics Peter Alter Saint Mary’s College of California
Ja’Nina Walker University of San Francisco
Eric Landers Georgia Southern University Abstract The purpose of this study is to update the research regarding perceptions of specific challenging behaviors that teachers find to be most prevalent and/or problematic. This study analyzes the role of teacher demographics (gender, race, grade level, and years of experience) on their perceptions of specifically defined challenging behaviors. After conducting a comprehensive review of the literature, nine categories of challenging behaviors in schools and classrooms were created. Using these definitions, this study analyzed 800 surveys of kindergarten through twelfth grade teachers in five districts of one state to measure their perceptions of these nine categories of challenging behavior. Teachers were also surveyed for demographic data to investigate response patterns for different challenging behaviors. Analyses indicated that ‘Off-task’ was the most prevalent and problematic challenging behavior and ‘Isolation/ No social interaction’ was the least prevalent and problematic challenging behavior. Statistically significant differences in ratings were noted according to gender, grade level and years teaching. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
I
Introduction
neffective classroom management and difficulties resulting from inappropriate student behavior have historically been contributing factors to other school-related issues, including reduced academic achievement (Algozzine, Wang, & Violette, 2011), school safety (Skiba & Sprague, 2008), and teacher attrition (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). In fact, managing students’ challenging behavior continues to be a struggle for many classroom teachers, resulting in loss of instructional Address correspondence concerning this article to Peter Alter, Saint Mary’s College of California; e-mail:
[email protected]
Pages 51-69
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time and increased levels of frustration (Robers, Zhang, Truman, & Snyder, 2012). In an era where data-based decision-making is fundamental to addressing school-related issues (e.g., Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports [PBIS]), it is important to understand teachers’ perceptions of students’ challenging behavior and the impact of teacher demographics on these perceptions in order to address the issue effectively. Identification of teachers’ perceptions of which challenging student behaviors are most prevalent and problematic serves multiple purposes. First, measuring baseline rates of the most prevalent challenging behaviors can lead to targeted interventions for specific challenging behaviors. Identifying the most prevalent challenging behaviors has the potential to impact pre-service and in-service teacher training and the development of effective and focused interventions to address students’ challenging behaviors (Quinn et al., 2001; SWPBIS for Beginners, 2013). Effective interventions are predicated on accurate operational definitions of the problem being addressed (Alberto & Troutman, 2012). Second, more homogenous behavioral standards and behavioral descriptions can be established for researchers and practitioners. Third, a clearer picture of the current state of classrooms as seen through the eyes of teachers can provide information to the field and debunk current perceptions often perpetuated by the media (e.g., that high magnitude incidents of aggression and disruption are the major behaviors teacher face today; Landrum, Scott, & Lingo, 2011). Research conducted in 1986 also suggested this point noting, “The great majority of disruptive behavior in primary classrooms is of a mild nature relating to poor attention, persistent infringement of class rules and procedures and inconsistent on-task behavior” (Fields, 1986, p. 56). However, the perception that schools are battlegrounds plagued with high-magnitude disruption and aggression continues. Fourth investigations into teacher perceptions may also lead to further research into the differential impact of different behaviors on the lives of teachers including job satisfaction, stress, self-efficacy, and teacher retention (Friedman, 1995; Hastings & Bham, 2003; Lamude, Scudder, & Furno-Lamude, 1992; Landers & Alter, 2008). Since previous research has collected data on prevalence rates in different ways using different behavior descriptors, a current picture of what behaviors are most prevalent is difficult to determine. In a targeted review of the literature, Harrison, Vannest, Davis, & Reynolds (2012) drew a number of conclusions. Studies evaluating large numbers of office discipline referrals (ODRs) indicated that grade level was predictive of the most prevalent challenging behaviors. In elementary school, fighting, defiance, disruption, and harassment
CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS
53
were the most frequently identified behaviors. Middle school teachers identified defiance and disruption as most prevalent and high school teachers identified attendance issues as the most prevalent problem behaviors (Harrison et al., 2012). Harrison and colleagues (2012) also noted that anxiety, distractibility, hyperactivity, and disruption were the most frequently occurring challenging behaviors. While this study highlighted important behavioral problems, they only utilized ODRs. The exclusive use of ODRs has shortcomings in that they may only capture high magnitude behaviors or behaviors that have occurred with a cumulative frequency to warrant a referral. According to surveys of teachers’ perceptions, the picture of what behaviors are most prevalent and problematic looks different. From a historical perspective, studies have indicated that talking out of turn, not listening, and having limited concentration were the behaviors identified as most prevalent and/or problematic (Lawrence & Steed, 1986; Wheldell & Merrett, 1988). These perceptions were supported with a recent review of the literature that described ‘talking out of turn’ as the most troublesome classroom behavior (see Beaman, Wheldall, & Kemp, 2007 for a review). By examining teacher perceptions described in observable and measurable terms the field can gain a better understanding of teachers’ experiences. Previous research has demonstrated that teacher demographics may impact these perceptions. Teacher Demographics and Perceptions of Challenging Behavior Previous research in this area has examined the role of teacher demographics, student demographics, and cross-country comparisons in influencing perceptions of challenging student behaviors (Beaman et al., 2007). The role of teacher and student gender has been a widely investigated topic (Caldarella et al., 2009). Research has demonstrated that male students are perceived to engage in more challenging behaviors and these behaviors are perceived as more serious, even when both genders engage in the same behavior (Borg, 1998; Kokkinos, Panayiotou, & Davazoglou, 2004). In terms of teachers’ gender and perceptions of challenging behavior, Friedman (1995) observed that male teachers were more sensitive to student inattentiveness and female teachers struggled more with student disrespect. However, Caldarella and colleagues (2009) noted minimal differences between teacher genders. Kokkinos and colleagues (2004) examined gender and years of experience and found that years of experience had a significant interaction for behavior ratings on different categories: novice male teachers perceived internalizing behaviors as less serious than their novice female or more experienced counterparts. Pre-
ALTER, WALKER, and LANDERS
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service teachers found anti-social behavior more severe than all other groups. The divergence of the results in previous studies is indicative of the need for further research to determine if different teacher demographic variables provide greater risk or serve as a protective factor for different challenging behaviors. Current Study The purpose of the current study was to survey a large number of teachers in K-12 classrooms to determine what challenging behaviors teachers perceive as most prevalent and problematic and to evaluate the impact of four different demographic variables (gender, race, years of experience, and grade level taught) on their responses. Thus the two research questions were: 1. What challenging behaviors do teachers regard as most prevalent and/or problematic? 2. What impact do different demographic factors have on teachers’ perceptions of challenging behaviors? Method Participants and Setting This study included 800 teachers from five public school districts in one state in the Southeastern United States. The schools are situated in communities that share similar characteristics and are primarily agricultural economies. These districts constituted a convenience sample whose administrations were interested in obtaining specific behavioral data for professional development purposes. District 1 included 1,879 students and 124 teachers. Of the students in District 1, 60% were eligible for free and reduced lunch, 31% a racial minority, and 13% received special education services. District 2 included 9,196 students and 622 teachers. Of the students in District 2, 46% of the students were eligible for free and/or reduced lunch, 36% a racial minority, and 9.9% received special education services. District 3 included 1,299 students and 90 teachers with 72% students eligible for free and reduced lunch, 42% a racial minority, and 12% received special education services. District 4 included 2,676 students and 207 teachers with 77% eligible for free and reduced lunch, 55% a racial minority, and 17% received special education services. District 5 included 2,852 students and 220 teachers with 75% eligible for free and reduced lunch, 45% a racial minority, and 14% received special education services. Table 1 includes summative demographic data for the sample of respondents.
CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS
55
Table 1 Teacher Demographics n
%
Female
645
80.6
Male
126
15.8
No Answer
29
3.7
425
51.1
Gender
1
Grade Taught Elementary School Middle School
254
31.8
High School
121
15.1
Years Taught 0-5 years
95
12.0
6-10 years
158
19.9
11-15 years
165
20.8
16-20 years
149
18.8
20+ years
227
28.6
67
8.5
Racial Background African American Other
17
2.1
Caucasian
708
89.4
Analyses utilized data from teachers who indicated male or female.
1
The participants of this study were limited to classroom teachers only. Grade levels were divided into five categories: preschool, elementary, middle, high school, and teachers from multiple settings. The sample was also divided by gender. The survey used the six categories of race as determined by federal guidelines. For the purposes of data analysis, teachers were grouped into one of six groups by years of teaching: less than 1 year, 1-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 years, 16-20 years, and 20+ years. Materials Challenging behavior categories were created by reviewing eight journals (Behavioral Disorders, Education and Treatment of Children, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of Behavior Education, Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, Psychology in the Schools, and School Psychology Review) that
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focus on behavior issues in schools over the past twenty years. These journals were selected based on impact factor, distribution, and affiliation with organizations like the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders. Every issue from each of the eight journals was reviewed and only articles detailing original, empirical studies (i.e., single-case methodology, experimental and quasi-experimental designs) focusing on challenging behavior were selected. This resulted in examining a total of 335 articles. All challenging behaviors addressed in the reviewed empirical articles were listed and categories were created to capture the wide range of challenging behaviors presented. To insure inter-coder agreement a second reviewer examined 20% of the same journal issues; inter-coder agreement was 98%. After the behavior categories were established, the definitions were sent to three experts in the field of emotional and behavioral disorders. Using their feedback the definitions and examples of the behaviors were further refined. These definitions were also presented to teachers of children with behavioral disorders at multiple national conferences including the Teacher Educators for Children with Behavioral Disorders (TECBD) conference and the Association for Positive Behavior Support (APBS) conference for feedback and refinement. Because TECBD tends to have a less formal, more intimate opportunity to present, teacher opinions were solicited during the presentation and discussion from attendees was encouraged; for the APBS conference a request was made that attendees meet with the presenter (the first author) after the presentation to provide feedback. Nine final categories of challenging behaviors were defined and examples were provided in the survey (see Appendix). Survey data were collected in each school district using an online format (Survey Monkey, 2010). The following procedure was used to disseminate the survey: the survey was sent to the Director of Special Education in each county with a request to disseminate the survey to all teachers, in both general and special education, via email, and then a reminder email was then sent one week after initial dissemination. No incentives were provided. Teachers were asked to identify 1) how prevalent each behavior was and 2) how problematic each behavior was using a 4-point Likert scale. The response options for Prevalence were: Never, Seldom, Somewhat, Always. The response options for Problematic were: Not at all, Minimally, Somewhat, Most. Analysis of the reliability of the challenging behavior survey for this sample indicated a Cronbach’s Alpha of .92 for the 18 items [Nine challenging behaviors x Ratings of Prevalence x Ratings of how problematic the behavior is = 18]. Surveys were disseminated electronically to 1,263 teachers. Surveys were returned by 833 teachers resulting in a return rate of 66.0%. Additionally, teach-
CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS
57
ers were asked four demographic questions including: (1) gender, (2) race, (3) grade level taught, and (4) years of experience. Analytic Plan Given the unequal distribution of responses in particular cells, certain cases were dropped while other variables were condensed. Due to the small response rate for some grade levels taught (i.e., 24 preschools, 3 alternative schools) in comparison to other grade levels (i.e., 424 elementary, 253 middle school, 120 high school) preschools and alternative school responses were removed from the sample in addition to 6 missing cases, resulting in a final sample size of N=800. Years of experience was condensed into five categories (0-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 years, 16-20 years and 20+ years). Race was condensed into three categories race (Caucasian, African American, Other). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with LSD post-hoc test were run to examine the relationship between student challenging behavior and grade level taught, years of experience, and racial background of the teacher. Independent sample t-tests were run to examine the relationship between student challenging behavior and teacher gender. Results The present study set out to 1) investigate teachers’ perceptions of categories of challenging student behaviors with regard to how problematic and prevalent the different behaviors were and 2) discover whether perceptions differed according to grade level taught, gender, race, or years of teaching experience. The ordinal data listed the following behaviors as most to least problematic: (1) Off-task (2) Verbal Disruption (3) Verbal Aggression (4) Noncompliance (5) Out of Seat (6) Physical Aggression (7) Physical Disruption (8) Self-stimulatory (9) Isolation/ No social interaction. The data listed the following behaviors as most to least prevalent: (1) Off-task (2) Verbal Disruption (3) Verbal Aggression (4) Noncompliance (5) Out of Seat (6) Physical Disruption (7) Physical Aggression (8) Self-stimulatory (9) Isolation/ No social interaction. Student Challenging Behavior and Grade Level Taught ANOVA with LSD post-hoc test were conducted to examine differences in teacher-reported student challenging behavior and the grade level taught by teachers (i.e., elementary, middle, and high school). Results indicated significant differences on 14 of the 18 outcome variables. Results showed that teachers of elementary school children reported physical aggression as significantly more problematic, F(2, 793) = 9.24, p < .001, and prevalent F (2, 794) = 16.43, p < .001,
2.48
Non-Compliance-Problematic
0.81 0.89
a
1.65 1.93 1.99 a
Isolation-Prevalence
Self Stimulating-Problematic
Self Stimulating-Prevalence
a
a
a
2.01 a
1.91
1.69
1.61
2.18
b
2.13 b
2.43
2.46
2.96 a b
2.76
2.06
b
2.01 b
2.81
2.70
ab
1.75 b
1.88 b
2.47
2.55
0.84
0.75
0.65
0.66
0.88
0.87
0.87
0.90
0.86
0.81
0.82
0.85
0.85
0.80
0.68
0.88
0.73
0.84
SD
Middle School M
b
b
b
1.62 b
1.66
1.57
1.55
2.00 b
2.09 b
2.21
2.29
2.80 b
2.65
1.82
c
1.91 b
2.52
2.61
b
1.62 b
1.78 b
2.33
2.50
0.64
0.70
0.56
0.67
0.66
0.89
0.75
0.84
0.81
0.77
0.75
0.85
0.78
0.78
0.58
0.87
0.61
0.73
SD
High School M
