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Pupil misbehaviour in secondary school physical education lessons

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posted on 2019-09-02, 11:10 authored by Charlotte E. Hardy
The area of study grew out of the author's experiences during her practical in Warwickshire and Coventry schools, and from her concerns as a pre-service teacher about class control, pupils' responses to her reprimands and the pupils' subsequent behaviour. The purpose of the study was to investigate the nature and extent of pupil misbehaviour incidents in secondary school mixed-sex physical education lessons, and the responses of experienced male and female physical education teachers to those incidents. Ten schools were randomly selected from forty-five co-educational secondary schools within a twenty-five mile radius of an East Midlands University. Coders, working in pairs and trained in the data-collecting procedures, observed 119 mixed-sex physical education lessons in fourteen activities, and they recorded 593 pupil misbehaviour incidents. The number of intact classes observed. in each school ranged from ten to fourteen with the length of the lesson ranging from twenty-five to seventy minutes and the class size ranging from sixteen to thirty-one pupils. The number of teachers involved in each school varied from two to four and, of the observed lessons, sixty-two were taught by male teachers and fifty-seven by female teachers. The majority of pupil misbehaviour incidents occurred during teachers' instructions and generally involved one pupil or a group of pupils, although a ripple effect was sometime evident. Although they usually involved one pupil or a group of pupils, a greater number of pupils were affected by the incidents. The incidents were mainly teacher-owned and the teachers usually dealt with them in fifteen seconds or less. There was no significant difference in the frequency of pupil misbehaviour incidents between morning and afternoon classes but males committed significantly more misbehaviour incidents. The teachers' responses were mainly verbal with the vast majority being made in public and in a controlled and fun manner. The teachers' focus was on the pupils' behaviour, and, in taking a final action against misbehaving pupils, teachers tended to allow them to remain in the class. Male teachers had more disruption between pupils but less attentional incidents than female teachers, and in their responses to pupil misbehaviour incidents they were less verbal, more private and more controlled and firm.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Publisher

Loughborough University

Rights holder

© Charlotte E. Hardy

Publication date

1995

Notes

A Master's Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy of Loughborough University.

Language

  • en

Supervisor(s)

R.D. Thorpe

Qualification name

  • MPhil

Qualification level

  • Masters

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