Management approaches employed by teachers to deal with children's behaviour problems in nursery classes

The study was undertaken in Greece to investigate the management approaches employed by nursery teachers to deal with children's behaviour problems. I n particular, the extent, frequency of use and effectiveness of behavioural , cognitive and punitive approaches were investigated with regard to conduc t, emotional and developmental related problems. A questionnaire was develo ped and applied to a female teacher sample of 154 selected from nursery sch ools located in three distinct regions of Greece. The questionnaire was com pleted for 280 children from a total pupil sample of 3,091. The findings showed that teachers appear to mainly attend to and deal with conduct problems which cause greater disturbance in the classroom. However, emotional and developmentally related problems were also addressed reveali ng teachers' concerns about their pupils' well-being and development. Teach ers seemed to mainly use positive ways in dealing with children's behaviour problems, but they did deliver punishments as well. Finally, the study ind icated that teachers appear to be rather effect-oriented employing a variet y of techniques of different theoretical orientation which have been percei ved to be effective.