CLASSROOM BEHAVIORS WHICH FIRST AND MIDDLE-SCHOOL TEACHERS IN ST-HELENA FIND TROUBLESOME

This paper discusses the findings of an enquiry into teachers' percept ions of troublesome behaviour. A questionnaire was distributed to 54 f irst and middle school teachers on the island of St Helena, in the Sou th Atlantic. The enquiry forms one part of a broader study which is mo nitoring the effects of the introduction of broadcast television upon pre-school and school-aged children's social and academic behaviour an d leisure habits, in St Helena. A total of 50 teachers returned comple ted questionnaires, resulting in a return rate of 93%. Only 28% of tea chers considered that they were spending more time than they ought on problems of order and control Out of the total sample, 42% of teachers considered 'talking out of turn' to be the most disruptive behaviour. 'Facing away from work' was the next most disruptive behaviour (ident ified by 25% of teachers). 'Talking out of turn' and 'facing away fr o m work' were also identified as the most commonly occurring behaviours (by 43% and 16% of respondents, respectively). 'Talking out of turn' was also identified as the most disruptive and most frequently occurri ng behaviour of particularly troublesome children. The survey also exa mined the perceived frequency of occurrence of particular behaviours ' around the school', the mast commonly occurring of which was 'unruline ss whilst waiting'. The paper concludes with discussion of the hinds o f proactive and reactive responses which teachers can make to the abov e mentioned misbehaviours.