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Chinese teachers' perceptions ofstudents' classroom misbehaviourMeixia Ding a , Yeping Li b , Xiaobao Li c & Gerald Kulm ba Department of Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education ,University of Nebraska‐Lincoln , Lincoln, USAb Department of Teaching, Learning, & Culture , Texas A&MUniversity , College Station, USAc Department of Elementary and Middle Grades Education ,Western Carolina University , Cullowhee, USAPublished online: 14 Apr 2008.

To cite this article: Meixia Ding , Yeping Li , Xiaobao Li & Gerald Kulm (2008) Chinese teachers'perceptions of students' classroom misbehaviour, Educational Psychology: An International Journalof Experimental Educational Psychology, 28:3, 305-324, DOI: 10.1080/01443410701537866

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Educational PsychologyVol. 28, No. 3, May 2008, 305–324

ISSN 0144-3410 print/ISSN 1469-5820 online© 2008 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/01443410701537866http://www.informaworld.com

Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ classroom misbehaviour

Meixia Dinga, Yeping Lib*, Xiaobao Lic and Gerald Kulmb

aDepartment of Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA; bDepartment of Teaching, Learning, & Culture, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA; cDepartment of Elementary and Middle Grades Education, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, USATaylor and Francis(Received 1 March 2007; final version received 25 June 2007)

CEDP_A_253647.sgm10.1080/01443410701537866Educational Psychology0144-3410 (print)/1469-5820 (online)Original Article2008Taylor & Francis0000000002008Dr. YepingLiyepingli@tamu.edu This study focuses on Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ classroom misbehaviour. Aquestionnaire was designed to assess teachers’ general concerns about classroom management,teachers’ perceptions of the most frequent and troublesome types of misbehaviour, andteachers’ perceived needs for help with improving classroom management. A total of 244responses were collected, from lower elementary to high school teachers in two provinces inmainland China. In general, the majority of Chinese teachers (65.6%) do not think thatclassroom management is a great concern. They perceive ‘daydreaming’ to be the most frequentand troublesome misbehaviour. This contrasts with many prior studies in Western settingswhere ‘talking out of turn’ has been reported as the biggest concern. In addition, Chineseteachers are eager to understand the psychological reasons behind student misbehaviour. Theyalso suggest that the Chinese system of ‘teaching for testing’ should be reformed.

Keywords: teacher perception; classroom misbehaviour; Chinese education

Introduction

Over the years, there has been continued interest among US educators (especially in mathe-matics) in understanding education practices in the Far East, including China. Recent investi-gations have revealed remarkable differences between American and Chinese teachers (e.g.,Ma, 1999) and between American and Japanese teachers (e.g., Stigler & Hiebert, 1999) interms of knowledge and teaching practices. However, classroom instruction involves morethan content presentation and classroom discourse, which have generally been the focus ofprevious investigations.

In particular, students’ problem behaviours often present a major concern to teachers attemptingto provide effective classroom instruction (e.g., Jones & Vesilind, 1995; Soodak & Podell, 1994).Indeed, improving students’ learning in classrooms requires not only effective pedagogy forcontent presentation, but also effectiveness in classroom management. Although cross-nationalstudies continue to show promise for educational research and practice (e.g., Postlethwaite, 1988;Stigler & Hiebert, 1999), it is far less clear whether teachers face similar challenges cross-nationallyin terms of classroom management.

Classroom management has been an important area in education psychology (Emmer &Stough, 2001): studies of classroom misbehaviour have a long tradition in educational psychol-ogy. Charles and Senter (2005) pointed out that students’ classroom misbehaviour has negativeoutcomes: it disrupts students’ right to learn; it disrupts teachers’ right to teach; it wastes time; itweakens students’ motivation and energy; it produces a climate of fearfulness and stress for

*Corresponding author. Email: yepingli@tamu.edu

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306 M. Ding et al.

students and teachers; and it dissolves trust and lessens cooperative relationships between teach-ers and students. Jones (2000) noted that in a typical classroom in the United States, teachers lostabout one half of their teaching time because of students’ problem behaviour. Improvingstudents’ learning in classrooms requires teachers to be effective in behaviour management. Inturn, this requires a better understanding of teachers’ reasoning about their practices. A specificfocus on Chinese teachers’ perceptions is especially interesting, as the typical class size (40–70)in China is far larger than that in Western schools (Jin & Cortazzi, 1998). Since a large class sizecan be detrimental to effective instruction (e.g., Rice, 1999), it becomes important to understandwhether Chinese teachers perceive similar or different challenges in behaviour management.

Research into teachers’ perceptions of students’ classroom misbehaviour is not a new endeav-our in educational psychology (Langfeldt, 1992). However, most existing studies were conductedin the context of Western culture. As culture plays an important role in teachers’ perceptions ofstudents’ classroom misbehaviour (e.g., Bibou-nakou, Kiosseoglou, & Stogiannidou, 2000;Langfeldt, 1992), one cannot assume that Western findings will be applicable to another culturalsetting. Thus, in this study we surveyed Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ classroommisbehaviours: their general views about classroom management, their particular concerns aboutstudents’ most frequent and troublesome misbehaviour, and their preferences for help.

Research background

Students’ classroom misbehaviour

In general, students’ classroom misbehaviour refers to any behaviour that threatens the flow ofacademic performance in a particular context (Turnuklu & Galton, 2001). Houghton, Wheldall,and Merrett (1988) investigated British teachers’ perceptions of students’ misbehaviour. Theydefined disruptive behaviour in the classroom as ‘activity which (a) annoys, upsets or distressesteachers (b) is disruptive of good order in the classroom and causes trouble and (c) leads teach-ers to comment continually’ (p. 299). In an effort to distinguish the degree of students’ behav-iour problems, Evertson, Emmer, and Worshan (2006) classified the broad concept of problembehaviour in the classroom into four categories. First, no problem: these behaviours were reallynot problems because they were of brief duration and did not interrupt learning or instruction.An example is brief inattention and a short period of daydreaming. Second, minor problem:these are behaviours that run counter to class rules or processes. However, if these behavioursdo not occur very often they do not seriously interfere with learning. Examples are calling out,eating candy, or passing notes. Third, major problem but limited in scope and effects: forinstance, a student may rarely complete a task, may fail to follow the rule for movement aroundthe classroom, or may hit another student. Fourth, an escalating or spreading problem: this iswhere a minor problem becomes commonplace, resulting in a threat to order and the learningenvironment. For example, many students may call out unrelated comments or roam around theclassroom.

However, a particular behaviour can be problematic in one setting but not in another (Leung& Ho, 2001). Across cultural contexts, teachers’ perceptions and interpretations of students’misbehaviour become especially important, in order to understand what behaviour is acceptableand what behaviour may become the focal concern of a teacher’s classroom management.

In investigations of teachers’ perceptions of classroom misbehaviour, a popular researchmethod has been the survey (see Beaman & Wheldall, 1997; Beaman, Wheldall, & Kemp, 2007).According to Berends (2006), ‘Common methods for collecting survey data include face-to-faceinterviews, telephones surveys, mail surveys, and web-based surveys’ (p. 628). Because a mailsurvey is reasonably cost-effective when a sample is large and geographically dispersed, it hasbeen the main method used in studies surveying teachers’ perceptions of students’ misbehaviours.

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Educational Psychology 307

However, this method has its disadvantages: the response rate can be potentially low, which maycause bias, and it may not provide deep understanding of participants’ responses. Thus, cognitiveinterviews (Berends, 2006) have also sometimes been used to develop high quality instrumentswhich are subsequently used in mail surveys.

The most troublesome and frequent misbehaviour

In general, studies of teachers’ perceptions have been conducted in Western countries (e.g.,Britain and Australia). Many of these studies adapted the questionnaires developed by Wheldalland his colleagues’ (e.g., Houghton et al, 1988; Wheldall & Merrett, 1988) and then comparedtheir findings with those of these pioneers. Specifically, troublesome and frequent misbehav-iours have generally been identified in terms of teachers’ perceptions. Table 1 presents asummary of relevant prior findings. For convenience, we classified one study that surveyedboth elementary and middle school teachers (Jones, Charlton, & Wilkin, 1995) into ‘primaryteachers’ perspectives’.

Primary teachers’ perspectives

Merrett and Wheldall (1984) surveyed 119 British primary teachers in 29 schools. Resultsshowed that 62% of the teacher participants felt they spent too much time on dealing withstudents’ classroom misbehaviours, among which talking out of turn, disturbing others, non-attendance, and disobedience were identified as the most problematic. Wheldall and Merrett(1988) conducted a second survey with a random sample of 198 British primary teachers (93%return rate) in 32 schools. In this study, 51% of the sample claimed that they spent too much timemaintaining classroom order. In addition, ‘talking out of turn’ was reported as the most trouble-some and most frequent (47% and 55% of participants’ choices, respectively) misbehaviour,followed by ‘hindering other children’ (25% and 21%, respectively). Based on these results, writ-ten advice was developed for elementary teachers, such as ‘tip sheets’, and was reported to bevery helpful (Little, Hudson, & Wilks, 2002).

Wheldall and Beaman (1994) carried out a survey of 161 Australian elementary teachers andfound similar views. In particular, 48% of these Australian teachers reported that they spent moretime managing classroom behaviour than they ought. Talking out of turn was identified as boththe most troublesome and the most frequent (49% and 57% of participants’ choices, respectively)misbehaviour, followed by hindering other children (14% and 18%, respectively). Obviously,these results were consistent with the prior findings in the British studies (Merrett & Wheldall,1984; Wheldall & Merrett, 1988).

Wheldall and Merrett’s (1988) questionnaire for elementary school teachers was adaptedby Jones et al. (1995) to investigate first and middle school teachers’ perceptions of classroombehaviour in St. Helena, an island in the South Atlantic. Here, only 28% of the teachers claimedto spend too much time dealing with student misbehaviour. However, talking out of turn was stillthe most troublesome and frequent misbehaviour. As pointed out by Jones et al. (1995), problem-atic behaviours are essentially social constructs and thus are culture-related. A behaviour becomesproblematic when it is troublesome to someone. As a result, certain behaviours viewed as prob-lematic in one culture could be accepted as normal in another. Jones et al. (1995) suggested thatcertain social and cultural factors such as St. Helena’s relatively isolated and homogeneous popu-lation and community values might affect teachers’ views of certain behaviours as problematicor non-problematic.

The Wheldall and Merrett (1988) questionnaire was also modified by Leung and Ho (2001)for a study of Hong Kong primary teachers. Local teachers’ suggestions were combined with

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308 M. Ding et al.

Tabl

e 1.

Pri

or s

tudi

es o

f te

ache

rs’ p

erce

ptio

ns o

f st

uden

ts’ p

robl

em b

ehav

iour

.

Stu

dyP

arti

cipa

nts

Cou

ntry

% s

pend

ing

too

muc

h ti

me

on c

lass

room

man

agem

enta

Mos

t fr

eque

nt a

nd t

roub

leso

me

mis

beha

viou

r

Pri

mar

y te

ache

rs:

Mer

rett

and

Whe

ldal

l (1

984)

119

juni

or e

lem

enta

ry

teac

hers

fro

m 2

9 sc

hool

sU

K62

%1.

Tal

king

out

of

turn

2.D

istu

rbin

g ot

hers

3.N

on-a

tten

danc

e4.

Dis

obed

ienc

eW

held

all a

nd M

erre

tt

(198

8)19

8 el

emen

tary

teac

hers

fr

om 3

2 sc

hool

sU

K51

%1.

Tak

ing

out o

f tu

rn2.

Hin

deri

ng o

ther

chi

ldre

nW

held

all a

nd B

eam

an

(199

4)16

1 pr

imar

y te

ache

rsA

ustr

alia

48%

1.T

alki

ng o

ut o

f tu

rn2.

Hin

deri

ng o

ther

chi

ldre

nJo

nes,

Cha

rlto

n, a

nd

Wil

kin

(199

5)F

irst

(n

= 2

8) a

nd m

iddl

e (n

= 2

2) s

choo

l tea

cher

sS

t Hel

ena

28%

1.T

alki

ng o

ut o

f tu

rn2.

Fac

ing

away

fro

m w

ork

3.D

istu

rbin

g ot

hers

Leu

ng a

nd H

o (2

001)

144

teac

hers

fro

m 1

0 pr

imar

y sc

hool

sC

hina

(Hon

g K

ong)

76%

or

39.3

%b

1.T

alki

ng o

ut o

f tu

rn2.

Non

-att

enti

vene

ssS

teph

enso

n, L

info

ot,

and

Mar

tin

(200

0)13

0 gr

ades

K-2

teac

hers

fr

om 2

1 pr

imar

y sc

hool

sA

ustr

alia

20.3

%1.

Dis

trac

tibi

lity

or

atte

ntio

n sp

an a

pro

blem

/doe

s no

t lis

ten

2.D

isru

pts

the

acti

viti

es o

f ot

hers

, etc

.

Seco

ndar

y te

ache

rs:

Hou

ghto

n, W

held

all,

and

Mer

rett

(19

88)

251

seco

ndar

y te

ache

rsU

K55

%1.

Tak

ing

out o

f tu

rn2.

Hin

deri

ng o

ther

chi

ldre

nL

ittl

e (2

005)

148

seco

ndar

y te

ache

rsA

ustr

alia

68%

1.T

alki

ng o

ut o

f tu

rn2.

Hin

deri

ng o

ther

sH

o an

d L

eung

(20

02)

187

teac

hers

fro

m 1

4 se

cond

ary

scho

ols

Chi

na (H

ong

Kon

g)54

.3%

or

26.9

%c

1.T

alki

ng o

ut o

f tu

rn2.

Non

-att

enti

vene

ss

a Perc

enta

ge o

f te

ache

rs w

ho f

elt t

hey

spen

t too

muc

h pr

oble

m o

n de

alin

g w

ith

prob

lem

s of

ord

er a

nd c

ontr

ol.

b Whe

n te

ache

r re

port

s of

≥ 2

0% o

f ti

me

spen

t on

clas

sroo

m m

anag

emen

t wer

e vi

ewed

as

indi

cativ

e of

a s

itua

tion

giv

ing

caus

e fo

r co

ncer

n, th

en 3

9.3%

of

the

teac

hers

wer

e cl

assi

fied

as

spe

ndin

g ex

cess

ive

tim

e on

ord

er a

nd c

ontr

ol; w

hen

the

crit

erio

n w

as ≥

10%

then

the

figu

re w

as 7

6%.

c Whe

n te

ache

r re

port

s of

≥ 2

0% o

f ti

me

spen

t on

clas

sroo

m m

anag

emen

t wer

e vi

ewed

as

indi

cativ

e of

a s

itua

tion

giv

ing

caus

e fo

r co

ncer

n, th

en 2

6.9%

of

the

teac

hers

wer

e cl

assi

fied

as

spe

ndin

g ex

cess

ive

tim

e on

ord

er a

nd c

ontr

ol; w

hen

the

crit

erio

n w

as ≥

10%

then

the

figu

re w

as 5

4.3%

.

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Educational Psychology 309

Wheldall and Merrett’s categories, resulting in a more appropriate survey instrument. A conve-nience sample (n = 144) from 10 primary schools responded to this survey. Teachers estimatedthe amount of class time spent on maintaining classroom discipline. When 20% or more timespent on classroom management was taken as the cut-off point for a situation of concern, then39.3% of the teacher sample were confronted with discipline problems. If the criterion waslowered to 10% or more, then almost 76% of the sample encountered problems with order andcontrol. Similarly to prior studies (e.g., Wheldall & Merrett, 1988), the Hong Kong results indi-cated that talking out of turn was the most disruptive (42.1% of the participants’ choices) and themost frequent (53.5%) misbehaviour. However, the second most troublesome and frequentmisbehaviour was non-attentiveness (13.6% and 12.5%, respectively), rather than hindering otherchildren as in Wheldall and Merrett’s (1988) study. To explain the discrepancy, Leung and Ho(2001) pointed to a possible cultural factor. Hong Kong is influenced by Chinese culture, espe-cially the Confucian ethic, which probably resulted in a more structured classroom order in HongKong than in the UK. Therefore, hindering other children was not as severe as in the British study.Instead, students’ non-attentiveness raised teachers’ concerns.

Stephenson, Linfoot, and Martin (2000) surveyed 130 teachers of grades K–2 at 21 primaryschools in Sydney, Australia. These researchers designed a questionnaire containing 20 items.They found that ‘distractibility or attention span a problem/does not listen’ caused the highestlevel of concern. Since this instrument did not specifically list talking out of turn as one of thecategories, we do not know how teachers in this study viewed this problem. However, as statedby Stephenson et al. (2000), the distractibility scale included talking out of turn and hinderingother children as specified by Wheldall and Merrett (1988). Therefore, Stephenson et al.’s findingis consistent with those of other studies (see Beaman & Wheldall, 1997) in a general sense.Stephenson, Linfoot, and Martin (1999) also surveyed teachers’ preferences for assistance. Theirfindings indicated that the sampled teachers preferred to obtain support from other people suchas colleagues, parents, counsellors, and school executives, rather than use published materials orcomputer resources. Moreover, distractibility was identified by teachers as an area where themost support was needed.

Secondary teachers’ perspectives

Houghton et al. (1988), using an instrument based on Wheldall and Merrett’s (1988) question-naire, surveyed 251 British secondary teachers. Approximately 55% of the teachers in theirsample claimed that they spent too much time dealing with classroom management problems. Themost troublesome and most frequent behaviours were still found to be talking out of turn andhindering other children, which was similar to the situation in elementary schools.

Little (2005) partially replicated Houghton et al.’s (1988) study, using a modified questionnaireto see whether the student misbehaviours identified in Houghton et al.’s study were salient inAustralia secondary schools. Little used the first three items from Houghton et al.’s questionnairebut not the last one concerning student gender. In addition, she extended the prior study by addingquestions related to teachers’ need for help. In response, 68% of the sample reported that they spentmore time on student misbehaviour than they ought. This percentage was a little higher than theprior result (55%). Talking out of turn and hindering other children were still the most troublesomeand the most frequent problem behaviours. In addition, since the secondary students in Little’sstudy were divided into junior, middle, and upper secondary groups, the author found that the mosttroublesome behaviour varied across grade levels. For example, idleness was reported as the mosttroublesome behaviour by upper secondary teachers but not the junior and middle secondary schoolteachers. The author explained this inconsistency as the result of the increasing academic demandson students through secondary school levels, with teachers becoming more concerned with

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students’ poor attention than with disruptive behaviours. As regards teachers’ preferred methodsof help, advice from teachers, staff in-service courses, and tip sheets were ranked highest, withthe first two higher than the third one. In addition, consultation with a psychologist was given anaverage ranking of ‘acceptable’.

Ho and Leung (2002) investigated Hong Kong secondary teachers’ perspectives with theinstrument from their prior study with primary teachers (Leung & Ho, 2001). The results showedthat secondary teachers spent less time on classroom management than primary teachers. Forexample, when 20% or more time spent on classroom management was viewed as the cut-offpoint to indicate a situation of concern, then the percentage of the teachers confronted with disci-pline problems decreased from 39.3% for primary teachers to 26.9% for secondary teachers.When the criterion was lowered to 10% or more, the corresponding percentages also decreasedfrom 76% for primary teachers to 54.3% for secondary teachers. Why did secondary teachersspend less time on classroom management? ‘Are secondary teachers better equipped on manag-ing classroom discipline? Or are they hurrying for completing syllabus so that they give littleattention on it?’ (Ho & Leung, 2002, p. 230). With regard to the most troublesome and frequentmisbehaviours, the findings of this study are consistent with the prior study of primary teachers(Leung & Ho, 2001): talking out of turn (most disruptive: 29.8%; most frequent: 38.5%) and non-attentiveness (most disruptive: 19.3%; most frequent: 19%) were still the first two choices. Theseresults supported the authors’ conclusion that disruptive behaviours in secondary school might bea continuation of those found in primary school classrooms. However, the problem with non-attentiveness reached a higher level in the secondary school years, as pointed out by Beaman et al.(2007) but not the researchers themselves. This finding was similar to that of Little’s (2005)study. Either secondary students demonstrated more inattention problems, or secondary teacherscared more about this issue.

Summary of prior studies

The existing studies provide a sound basis for further investigation of students’ misbehaviour.These studies have shown that relatively mild misbehaviours, such as talking out of turn, disturb-ing others, and poor attention, are perceived as the most frequent and most troublesome behavioursin primary and secondary schools in Western countries and in countries influenced by Westernculture such as Hong Kong. Following Evertson et al.’s (2006) categorization, these behavioursare mainly minor problems. As Wheldall and Merrett (1988) stated: ‘None of the key troublesomebehaviours are serious crimes but they are time wasting, irritating, stressful and, ultimately,exhausting for teachers’ (p. 24). Among these misbehaviours, talking out of turn seems consis-tently to be the most troublesome and frequent behaviour across grade levels and across severaleducation systems (Beaman & Wheldall, 1997; Beaman et al., 2007). Based on a review of studiesin the past 20 years, Beaman et al. (2007) summarized talking out of turn to be ‘the consistent firstchoice of teachers in terms of what causes most disruption in the classroom. Irrespective ofgeographic location or level of schooling, talking out of turn is clearly the behaviour at the coreof classroom disorder’ (p. 55).

The studies listed above, however, have several limitations. For example, most examinedcertain grade levels without considering students’ developmental trajectory (Forehand & Wierson,1993), an important factor that may also closely relate to teachers’ perceptions. As a result, it isnot clear yet whether teachers’ perceptions of students’ misbehaviours may change across gradelevels within the same teacher population. Although Jones et al. (1995) surveyed both elementaryand middle school teachers, their sample size was relatively small (n = 50). Moreover, the lowreturn rate of surveys is a problem. For example, in Little’s (2005) study only 37% of the surveyswere returned. Thus, interpretation of the results obtained may be restricted.

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Educational Psychology 311

Also, previous results cannot be applied to new situations because teacher perceptions canchange over time and across cultures (Stuart, 1994). With regard to the Chinese context, the previ-ous research has been mainly conducted with participants from Hong Kong (e.g., Biggs, 1998; I.Ho, 2004; Ho & Leung, 2002; Leung & Ho, 2000) rather than from mainland China. It is possiblethat teachers in mainland China may have different perceptions from those in Hong Kong, whowork within an education system with a long colonial Western influence. It is important andnecessary to investigate teachers from mainland China in order to increase our chances of eitherfinding new categories or confirming patterns that have emerged from earlier studies (Dahlin &Watkins, 2000).

As discussed above, researchers have mainly adapted Wheldall and his colleagues’ question-naires (e.g., Houghton et al., 1988; Wheldall & Merrett, 1988) and compared their findings withthose of Wheldall et al. These studies and their fruitful findings support the feasibility of adaptingprevious survey instruments and methods. Moreover, these studies provide a foundation for ourstudy of Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ misbehaviour. We created a survey instrumentbased on the questionnaire used by Houghton et al. (1988) and Little (2005).

However, since it was designed for use with Western samples, it was not appropriate touse an existing version of this instrument with Chinese teachers because of possible culturaldifferences (van de Vijver & Poortinga, 2005). As indicated by Leung and Ho (2001), ‘Simplyimporting an existing survey instrument runs the risk of missing out on important information oflocal concern’ (p.233). To enhance validity, therefore, we conducted two studies to modify thequestionnaire before our main survey. The first was a cognitive interview (Berends, 2006) andthe second was a pilot study.

Research questions

In this study, we examined Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ misbehaviour at elementary,middle, and high school levels in two provinces in mainland China. This study is part of a largersurvey investigating Chinese teachers’ attributions for students’ misbehaviours and their preferredstrategies for dealing with these misbehaviours. This paper focuses on teachers’ concerns aboutclassroom management in general, their specific concerns about frequent and troublesomebehaviours, and their preferred choices for help. The research questions for this study were:

(1) Do Chinese teachers think they spend more time on classroom management than theyought? Are there any differences across grade levels?

(2) What are Chinese teachers’ perceptions of the most frequent and troublesome misbehav-iours? Are there any differences across grade levels?

(3) What are Chinese teachers’ perceived needs for help for improving classroom manage-ment? Are there any differences across grade levels?

Method

Participants

A total of five schools across grades 1–12 from two different provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui, werecontacted and invited to participate in this study. These two provinces differ in terms of botheconomic condition and educational quality. Generally, Jiangsu is a developed region while Anhuiis a developing area of mainland China. The schools were also selected to represent diversity interms of several factors, including school location and local social economical development. Atotal of 244 Chinese teacher responses were collected. Participating teachers vary in terms ofgender, teaching experience, teaching subject, and grade level taught. Detailed information isgiven in Table 2.

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Materials

As suggested by Leung and Ho (2001), ‘to increase the applicability of findings, it pays to explorebehavioural categories most relevant to the local setting and cultural values’ (p. 232). Therefore,to create reliable survey material, we conducted cognitive interviews with Chinese teachers toestablish a foundation for the items to be selected and developed for our questionnaire.

Cognitive interviews allow researchers to explore the reasons for why respondents answer as they do,identifying whether the specific survey items are measuring the critical constructs in the theoreticalframework, pointing out what important items may be missing, or signaling which items may bemisleading indicators for the target construct. (Berends, 2006, p. 633)

Eight teachers who varied in grade level taught, teaching subject, gender, and school locationwere interviewed by the first author over the phone. Interviews were semi-structured interviewand contained questions such as:

(1) Do you think classroom management is a problem/challenge for you? Do you think youspend more time on problems of order and control than you ought?

(2) What are those problem behaviours in your class? Tell me as many as you can think ofand describe them to me in detail.

(3) Among the problem behaviours, what are the most troublesome ones? What are the mostfrequent ones?

(4) What kinds of help do you need for improving classroom management? For example:asking expert teachers for suggestions, getting advice from books, requiring more strictschool rules, taking training courses, and so on.

Each teacher was interviewed for approximately 40 minutes. Teachers’ responses wererecorded and sorted. We listed all the troublesome or frequent misbehaviours mentioned by

Table 2. Participant information.

Item Category Number Percentage

Gender1 Male 112 45.9%Female 121 49.6%

Teaching years2 < 5 28 11.5%5–10 77 31.6%> 10 136 55.7%

Subject3 Maths and science 95 38.9%Chinese and language 126 51.6%Arts and sports 18 7.4%Others 1 0.4%

Grade level4 Elementary 1–3 69 28.3%Elementary 4–6 42 17.2%Middle school 53 21.7%High school 69 28.3%

School Jiangsu suburban 45 18.4%Jiangsu urban 57 23.4%Anhui rural 32 13.1%Anhui urban 110 45.1%

111 data points missing; 23 data points missing; 34 data points missing; 411 data points missing.

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Chinese teachers in the interviews. We supplemented these with the misbehaviours suggested byprevious studies (e.g., Houghton et al., 1988; Little, 2005; Wheldall & Merrett, 1998). We endedup with a list of 16 items for our Chinese sample to select the most frequent and troublesomebehaviours from. All these items were described using Chinese teachers’ own words and actuallyfell into four categories: inattentive, disruptive, aggressive, and homework-related misbehav-iours. Using similar procedures, we also identified a list of six items outlining teachers’ preferredsources of help. As a result, we constructed three multiple-choice questions to investigate teach-ers’ general perceptions of classroom management as a concern, teachers’ perceptions of the mostfrequent and most troublesome misbehaviours, and teachers’ perceived needs for help forimproving classroom management (see the Appendix).

It is worth mentioning that, compared with the items used in previous studies (e.g., Houghtonet al., 1988; Wheldall & Merrett, 1988), our items about misbehaviour were clearly adapted to theChinese context. For example, Houghton et al. (1988) provided examples of talking out of turnsuch as ‘calling out, making remarks, interrupting and distracting others by talking/chattering’(p. 311). In contrast, our definition of talking out of turn was narrower: we mainly meant answer-ing question without hand raising (i.e., calling out answers) or making remarks without permis-sion. Chinese classrooms emphasize order, and students are supposed to raise a hand beforespeaking. However, many Chinese teachers viewed calling out the answers as a different type ofbehaviour from chattering or joking with others: calling out the answers shows that students werefollowing teachers’ instruction while chattering is a type of off-task misbehaviour. As a result,talking out of turn in our questionnaire did not include chattering, and instead chattering waslisted as a separate item.

During the interviews, most Chinese teachers pointed out that their first concern is daydream-ing. According to their descriptions, the daydreaming student seemingly listens to teachers, butteachers with experience can tell that these students are actually off-task or inattentive from theirfaces or eyes. ‘Sitting there and never answering questions’ is a symptom that teachers identifyas being a result of daydreaming. This type of behaviour can easily be ignored because it is differ-ent from other more obvious off-task misbehaviours such as ‘Sleeping or looking out of window’or ‘Playing with personal stuff in private, or drawing unrelated pictures’. As a result, even thoughall these items have roots in inattentiveness, we separated them for a clearer and deeper under-standing. The particular definitions of talking out of turn and daydreaming used here were alsolikely to yield interesting findings because both relate to students’ behaviours in answeringquestions or not.

Finally, concerning teachers’ preferred needs, we included some new items such as reformingthe school system of ‘teaching for testing’, which is a serious problem frustrating many Chineseteachers.

After the questionnaire was created, we piloted it in order to clarify items and resolve possibleambiguities in wording. Teachers who participated in the pilot study provided us with their feed-back and suggestions. Based on their comments, we revised our questionnaire. The teachers inour pilot study did not participate in the final survey.

Procedure

For the formal survey, we contacted five teachers in each of the five different schools for thepurpose of distributing the questionnaire to their colleagues and collecting back the answer sheetsafter two weeks. Participants were promised that the survey was confidential and the informationcollected was only for research purposes. Overall, 300 copies were distributed and 244 of themwere returned (return rate of 81.3%). All these 244 answer sheets were then mailed back to theUnited States.

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Data analysis

The frequency of report of each item in the questionnaire, and each item’s percentage occurrence,were recorded. Since the data in this study were proportional data, a paired t test was used to indicatethe significance of the differences between teachers’ first and second choices. In addition, teacherperceptions were also examined across grade levels. There were four groups: elementary grades1–3 (ages 7–9), elementary grades 4–6 (ages 10–12), middle school grades 7–8 (ages 13–15), andhigh school (ages 16–18). We divided the elementary level into two groups because of the culturein elementary schools in mainland China, where elementary teachers are usually grouped intolower elementary and upper elementary (some schools may even group teachers into three levels– lower, middle, and upper, corresponding to grades 1–2, 3–4, and 5–6 respectively – but forsimplicity, we adopted the first type of separation). Students aged 10–12 (grades 4–6) are preteens,and they are in the transition period from being a child to becoming a teenager. As a result, upperelementary and lower elementary teachers face different student populations, possibly resultingin different expectations of students and different perceptions about student misbehaviour overtime.

Results

The results are reported below in terms of the research questions.

Do Chinese teachers think they spend more time on classroom management than they ought? Are there any differences across grade level?

In general, the majority of Chinese teachers (65.6%) did not think the time they spend on class-room management is unreasonable. This is the opposite of the findings of research with teachersin Western education systems, as previously mentioned in the literature review and as summa-rized in Table 1. About 34.4% of our teacher sample considered that they spent too much timedealing with classroom order or control than they ought, which is close to Jones et al.’s (1995)results from the island of St. Helena where only 28% participants claimed that their classroommanagement time exceeded reasonable range.

When we take a closer look at results across grade levels (see Table 3), we find Chinese teach-ers from elementary to middle schools (range 33%–37.5%) have similar concerns regarding thisquestion of classroom management time. In comparison, high school teachers (22%) reported theleast concern about their classroom management time.

What are Chinese teachers’ perceptions of the most frequent and troublesome misbehaviours? Are there any differences across grade level?

Although problem behaviours in the Chinese classroom do not seem as severe as those in someWestern countries, misbehaviours are still of concern to some teachers. Due to cultural differences,

Table 3. Percentages of Chinese teachers who thought their classroom management time exceeded the reasonable range, broken down by grade level.

Problem No problem Missing data

Elementary 1–3 37.5 58.3 4.2Elementary 4–6 33.3 60.0 6.7Middle school 37.5 55.4 7.1High school 22.2 72.2 5.6

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student misbehaviours and the corresponding teacher perceptions might be different. What typesof student misbehaviours are most frequent and troublesome, in the eyes of Chinese teachers?Table 4 lists the six most frequent or troublesome problem behaviours identified by the Chineseteachers in this sample.

Chinese teachers perceived students’ daydreaming (daydreaming, being inattentive, sittingthere and never answering questions) as both the most frequent (43.6%) and the most troublesome(22.1%) misbehaviour. The next most frequent misbehaviour is talking out of turn (18.4%), whilethe next troublesome misbehaviour is slowness (the student does not take the initiative indepen-dently, and is slow to begin or finish work; 14.3%). Daydreaming is significantly more frequentthan talking out of turn (t = 5.755, df = 243, p < .0001), and significantly more troublesome thanslowness (t = 13.161, df = 243, p < .0001).

As mentioned above, our definition of talking out of turn did not include chattering or jokingwith others, although Wheldall and Merrett (1988) combined these into a single item. Even whenwe combined these two items (talking out of turn and chattering) for analysis in our study, we stillfound that daydreaming is teachers’ first concern. Therefore, our finding differs from the findingsof many previous studies in Western settings that have reported talking out of turn as the biggestconcern (e.g., Houghton et al., 1988; Infantino & Little, 2005; Wheldall & Merrett, 1988).

Table 5 lists the first four most frequent or troublesome behaviours reported by teachers atdifferent grade levels. Teachers from the elementary to the high school level agreed that the item‘Daydreaming, inattentive, sitting there and never answering questions’ is both the most trouble-some and the most frequent misbehaviour. Even when we combined talking out of turn and chat-tering into one single item, like that used in other studies (e.g., Wheldall & Merrett, 1988),daydreaming remained the biggest concern for Chinese teachers across grade levels.

Talking out of turn was considered the second most frequent and second most troublesomemisbehaviour by lower elementary teachers, and the second most frequent but not necessarilysecond most troublesome behaviour by upper elementary and middle school teachers. For exam-ple, teachers in upper elementary grades perceived student complaints about homework to be thesecond most troublesome, while middle school teachers viewed talking out of turn to pose thesame amount of trouble as playing with personal stuff and slowness. Notably, talking out of turndid not seem to matter to high school teachers at all. Instead students’ daydreaming, chatting orjoking, sleeping or looking out of window, and playing with personal stuff are all more trouble-some than talking out of turn, according to high school teachers. It seems that levels of talkingout of turn decrease as grade levels increase.

In summary, daydreaming is the common phenomenon primarily frustrating Chinese teachersat all grade levels. Talking out of turn is Chinese teachers’ second concern which, however,becomes less and less troublesome at higher grade levels, while other types of misbehaviour suchas chattering or looking out of the window become more disruptive at higher grade levels.

Table 4. Percentage of Chinese teachers reporting the most frequent and most troublesome misbehaviours.

Most frequent Most troublesome

Daydreaming 46.3 Daydreaming 22.1Talking out of turn 18.4 Slowness 14.3Playing with personal stuff 9.8 Talking out of turn 11.5Chatting or joking 7.0 Complaining homework 7.8Sleeping or looking out of the window 4.9 Chatting or joking 7.0Reading unrelated books 2.9 Playing with personal stuff 7.0

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What are Chinese teachers’ perceived needs for help in improving classroom management? Are there any differences across grade levels?

Almost all teachers claimed to need certain kinds of help to improve their classroom management;only seven teachers (2.9%) stated that they do not need any help, because very few problems occurin their classes. Teachers’ first perceived need for help is for help with understanding the psycho-logical reasons behind students’ misbehaviour. They also suggested that the school system (oreducational system) needs reformation in certain areas, for example in reducing the pressure onteachers to ‘teach for testing’ (see Table 6). The need to understand psychological reasons is signif-icantly greater than the need to reform the ‘teaching for testing’ system (t = 2.396, df = 243, p = .017)

There are some consistencies and some variations across grade levels, as summarized inTable 7. In particular, all teachers agreed that they first need to understand the psychologicalreasons underlying students’ misbehaviour. Lower elementary teachers (30.6%) and high schoolteachers (31.9%) in particular called strongly for this type of help. Both groups of elementaryteachers viewed the reformation of ‘teaching for testing’ as the second most needed assistance,while the middle school and high school teachers perceived either professional consultation orpractical strategies as the second most needed assistance.

Discussion

Is Chinese students’ behaviour in the classroom good enough or a serious concern?

Most of the Chinese teachers in this study did not think they spend too much time dealing withproblems of classroom order or control. Only 34.4% of the teachers did have this concern – a

Table 5. Percentages of Chinese teachers reporting the most frequent (Freq) and troublesome (Trb) misbehaviours, broken down by grade level.

Elementary 1–3 Elementary 4–6 Middle school High school

Misbehaviour Freq Trb Freq Trb Freq Trb Freq Trb

Daydreaming 58 30 37 20 45 25 42 15Talking out of turn 22 15 30 13 15 12 12Chatting or joking 8 17 15Making nonverbal noises 6Sleeping or looking out of the window 9 13Playing with personal stuff 10 15 13 10Not respecting teacher 12Complaining about homework 9 7 18Slowness 5 15 12

Table 6. Chinese teachers’ first choices for help.

Source of help %

Knowledge of psychological reasons 29.9Reformation of ‘teaching for testing’ 19.3Suggestions from expert teachers 16.8Practical strategies 16.4Professional consultation 12.7No need for help 2.9

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number far smaller than that documented in some Western settings, where about 55–65% ofparticipants reported this problem (e.g., Houghton et al., 1988; Little, 2005; Wheldall & Merrett,1988). Considering that the average Chinese class size in this study is much larger than Westernclasses (see Figure 1), this result seems even more at odds with the other studies.Figure 1. Percentages of different Chinese class sizes sampled in this study (note: data are missing in 10% of cases).Nevertheless, this result is explicable because our sample is from mainland China where theConfucian heritage has a powerful influence on social order. Students are socialized in ways thatmake them amenable to working together in large classes (Biggs, 1998), and students’ behaviourin general seems good enough, as reported by our Chinese teacher sample. In addition, our findingthat high school teachers spend less time on classroom management is consistent with Ho andLeung’s (2002) Hong Kong study and Little’s (2005) Australian study (also cited by Beamanet al., 2007). The question still remains: is this phenomenon due to high school teachers rushing

Table 7. Percentages of Chinese teachers reporting needs for help, broken down by grade level.

Need for help Elementary 1–3 Elementary 4–6 Middle school High school

Knowledge of psychological reasons 30.6 22.2 21.4 31.9Reformation of ‘teaching for testing’ 25 20 14.3 15.3Suggestions from expert teachers 19.4 17.8 17.9 12.5Practical strategies or advice 13.9 15.6 16.1 19.4Professional consultation section 5.3 11.1 19.6 11.1No need for help 0 6.7 3.6 2.8

Figure 1. Percentages of different Chinese class sizes sampled in this study (note: data are missing in 10%of cases).

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to complete the syllabus such that that they do not pay attention to classroom discipline (Ho &Leung, 2002)?

If we look closely at the misbehaviour that Chinese teachers claimed to be the most frequentand troublesome, we find another dramatic contradiction to Western studies. Our questionnaireitems were somewhat different from those used in Western studies (e.g., Wheldall & Merrett,1988), so it is necessary to interpret our results with caution – but even though we combined theresults of talking out of turn, chattering, and joking with others in this study in order to make acomparison with talking out of turn in Western studies, our results still indicate that the mostserious problem for Chinese teachers is not talking out of turn, but instead is students’ daydream-ing. The results suggest that some students across all grade levels appear to listen to teacherswhile they are actually off-task. These students just sit in classrooms without answering teachers’questions or being mentally engaged with teachers’ instruction. This phenomenon is widespreadfrom elementary to high school levels.

This type of misbehaviour, not disruptive but inattentive in nature, is extremely frustrating toChinese teachers. This result suggests that Chinese teachers expect students’ active participationand mental engagement in classroom learning. Moreover, it also supports the general perceptionthat Chinese students, especially at the upper grade levels, do not ask or answer questionsactively, because they are shy and afraid of ‘losing face’ (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996), which in turnpossibly leads to daydreaming due to a general lack of communication. Further, it might reflectproblems caused by large class size, as one teacher may not be able to intervene with studentswith behaviour problems while teaching a class of 70 students.

Our finding that daydreaming is the most frequent, troublesome, pervasive, and persistentmisbehaviour in Chinese classrooms should draw attention from researchers and educators.Students with attention problems are more likely to be overlooked by teachers, resulting in theirmuch lower achievement than disruptive students, as demonstrated by Finn and Pannozzo’s(1995) study. How to deal with students with attention problems, and how to engage them in reallearning activities, are major challenges to Chinese teachers. Why are these students off-task? Aretheir low levels of attention caused by low motivation, low interest, or an unattended need for help(Chiu, 2004; Webb, 1989; Webb, Farivar, & Mastergeorge, 2002)? Does traditional Chineseclassroom instruction need to be reformed, perhaps by using peer resources in order to deal withlarge class sizes, teacher-centred instruction issues, and student inattention? These questions callfor further exploration.

Talking out of turn does not frustrate Chinese teachers as much as daydreaming" Teach-ers from upper the elementary years upwards pay less and less attention to talking out ofturn. One possible interpretation is that Chinese students seldom call out answers due toshyness or fear of losing face (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996) and that this increases as students’grade level increases. Another interpretation is that teachers care more about mental engage-ment when grade level increases, as previously mentioned. During our interview, onemiddle school teacher said that because many students are usually silent or daydreaming,he would not criticize these students when they occasionally call out the answers, eventhough he knew talking out of turn was not respectful to the teacher and other students. Infact, he would even praise their calling out sometimes, in order to encourage their mentalengagement.

As grade level increases, misbehaviours change dramatically. Decreasing talking out of turn,increasing chattering and looking out of the window, together with pervasive daydreaming,reflect a much more serious problem of inattention, especially when one considers that teachersin high school spend less time on classroom discipline. In summary, our finding is that the mosttroublesome behaviour in the Chinese classroom – daydreaming – can actually present a moreserious problem than talking out of turn in certain respects.

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Chinese teachers’ preferred areas for help: psychological reasons or psychologists?

Our finding that teachers’ first preference for help is for help with understanding the psycholog-ical reasons behind students’ misbehaviours also differs from previous research. As reported byLittle (2005), Little et al. (2002), and Stephenson et al. (1999), Australian teachers preferredadvice from teachers, written advice (tip sheets), or support from other people such as counsellorsor school executives. One interpretation is that Chinese teachers lack but are greatly interested inthis type of psychological knowledge. Another interpretation is that Chinese teachers intend todevelop their knowledge in ways that allow them to know how and why students behave in aparticular manner.

This finding indicates a promising way in which to solve Chinese classroom misbehaviours.When teachers really want to understand the thinking of students with behaviour problems, itshould be possible for teachers to employ effective strategies to cope with these behaviours. Asa result, more efforts are needed to research the psychological reasons underlying students’daydreaming.

Chinese schools could consider establishing or developing a school psychologist service. Thisis a useful resource for solving classroom problems, suggested or preferred by teachers in someWestern studies (e.g., Gavrilidou, de Mesquita, & Mason, 1994; Little, 2005; Stephenson et al.,1999). Although with the exception of middle school teachers our Chinese sample did not showmuch interest in professional consultation, school psychologists could be a useful resource to helpChinese teachers understand the psychological reasons behind behaviours and thus could contrib-ute to Chinese classroom management. One possible reason why the Chinese teachers did notindicate a preference for professional consultation might be their unfamiliarity with this type ofservice. Indeed, very few Chinese schools have ever had school psychologists or consultants.Another possible reason may relate to Confucian traditions: shyness and being afraid of losingface may be obstacles to seeking help from school psychologists, for both Chinese teachers andstudents. However, we believe that this type of psychological consultation, when it graduallybecomes popular in Chinese schools and more familiar to Chinese teachers, will help teachers toimprove their classroom management and deal with students’ misbehaviours.

Cultural influences or educational policy pressures?

The difference between Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ most frequent and trouble-some misbehaviour (daydreaming, being inattentive, sitting there and never answering questions)and that of Western teachers (talking out of turn) suggests cultural influence. The Chinese cultureis dominated by a Confucian heritage that aims to establish a moral basis to a stable social order.According to Confucianism, teaching young children to love their parents and brothers and to berespectful to their superiors lays the correct mental and moral foundation for growing up to begood citizens (Lin, 1938). Chinese students have grown up with a collectivist attitude. As a result,asking low quality or even stupid questions not only wastes others’ time but also adds the risk oflosing face (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996). In addition, ‘shyness’, which has been traditionally valuedand encouraged in Chinese children (Ho, 1986; Yang, 1986), has been found to be positivelyassociated with self-reported depression and negatively associated with teacher-rated schoolcompetence in China today (Chen, Cen, Li, & He, 2005). Thus, these two elements of theConfucian heritage – being afraid of losing face and ‘shyness-sensitive’ – might contribute toChinese students’ daydreaming, especially the middle and lower level students. Students who areconfused but dare not ask questions tend to lose attention, resulting in their being off-task (Webb,1989) and possibly losing their interest in learning.

Cultural differences are certainly not the only reason behind the differences between theresults of this study and those of previous studies. Most participants in our study also pointed out

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another important reason: ‘teaching for testing’, a phenomenon caused by the reality of thecurrent Chinese educational system. Because of the great pressure from high-stakes testing, mostteachers have no time to foster students’ overall development, resulting in students’ low attention,low motivation, and low interest, especially among a large portion of low and middle levelstudents. Interestingly, although the pressure is actually higher in high school than in elementaryschool, high school teachers do not show a stronger desire to reduce this pressure than elementaryteachers do. One possible interpretation is that middle and high school teachers may becomeaccustomed to this type of pressure. The social requirement to teach for students’ entrance into atop university has been largely endorsed in middle and high schools. As a result, teachers maythink it is necessary for high school students to study under great pressure in order to obtain highresults. In contrast, elementary teachers might pay more attention to children’s overall develop-ment (Su Zhi Jiao Yu) rather than focus only on the academic goals. As a result, elementary teach-ers may be more sensitive to the pressure to ‘teach for testing’, which strongly interferes withelementary students’ overall development.

‘Cultural activities are highly stable over time, and they are not easily changed’ (Stigler &Hiebert, 1999, p. 97). Both educational policy and cultural influence should be considered whenaddressing Chinese students’ classroom daydreaming. Specifically, it is necessary for educationpolicy makers to recognize students’ classroom misbehaviours, such as daydreaming, and makeefforts to improve classroom instruction efficiency.

Conclusions, limitations, and future directions

In this study, we surveyed Chinese teachers’ perceptions of students’ classroom misbehaviours.We found that Chinese students’ most frequent and most troublesome behaviour is daydreaming,rather than talking out of turn (whether including chattering or not) as identified by most of theWestern studies (although only a few of these have actually been cited). Chinese teachersexpressed interest in understanding the psychological reasons behind students’ misbehaviour.They also pointed out that the Chinese educational system of ‘teaching for testing’ was an impor-tant factor causing students’ attentional problems. We suggest that Chinese educational policymakers need to be highly aware of these issues in order to address them accordingly.

Like many other studies, this study is limited in that only Chinese teachers’ perceptions ofclassroom problem behaviours were investigated. Students might have different perspectives(Infantino & Little, 2005; Nabuzoka, 2003; Raviv, Raviv, & Reisel, 1990; Xin, Zhou, Bray, &Kehle, 2003). Parents might also have different perceptions (Firmin, Proemmel, & Chi-en, 2005;Grietens et al., 2004). As a result, future research is needed to investigate students’ and parents’perceptions, in order to reach a comprehensive understanding of the issues related to students’misbehaviour.

Another limitation of this study is that we only used survey methodology. Since teachers’perceptions of students’ misbehaviour are influenced by social factors, different teachers couldview the same behaviour as problematic to different extents, resulting in different outcomesbetween survey and observation (Weisz, Chaiyasit, Weiss, Eastman, & Jackson, 1995). There-fore, direct observation or other sources of information would be important in further investiga-tions of student misbehaviour.

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Educational Psychology 323

Appendix. Questionnaire for survey

General information about yourself. Please check your answer with √√√√ in ���� [xcirc ], or fill in theblank ( ).

Note:If you teach several classes equally often, choose one and complete the survey in termsof this class as a whole.

I. In general terms, do you think that you spend more time on problems of order andcontrol than you ought? (Please check your answer)

Yes � No �

II. The following is a list of students’ possible behaviours. Based on your class as a whole,select your answer and place the corresponding item number into the blank. Alsodescribe briefly their frequencies or the degree of seriousness.

(A). Most frequent misbehaviour:Most_______ frequency:______________________________________________

______________________________________________Next_______ frequency:______________________________________________

______________________________________________

(B). Most troublesome misbehaviour:Most_______ degree:________________________________________________

________________________________________________Next_______ degree:________________________________________________

________________________________________________

1. Daydreaming, inattentive, sitting there and never answering questions2. Talking out of turn, answering question without raising hand3. Getting out of seat without permission, to borrow materials or go to restroom4. Eating or drinking5. Chatting, or joking with others6. Making non-verbal noise and disruption deliberately, such as banging doors/objects,

scraping chairs7. Sleeping or looking out of window8. Playing with personal stuff in private, or drawing unrelated pictures9. Reading unrelated books or doing other homework10. Late to school/class, late in from playtime or lunch break11. Bullying, pushing, or fighting with other students12. Disrespecting teacher, talking back or arguing with the teacher

Gender Male � [xcirc ] Female � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Years of teaching < 5 years � [xcirc ] [xcirc ] 5–10 years � [xcirc ] [xcirc ] >10 years � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Main subjects of teaching Maths or science � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Arts or sports � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Language � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Others � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Grade level Elementary 1–3 � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Middle school � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Elementary 4–6 � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

High school � [xcirc ] [xcirc ]

Size of one main class Boys ( ) [xcirc ] [xcirc ] Girls ( )

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13. Quarrelling or fighting with the teacher14. Complaining about or unhappy with assignment, not completing homework15. Not coming to class without excuse or with fake excuse16. Doesn’t take independent initiative, slow to begin or finish work

If you think there is any other most frequent or troublesome problem behaviour not listed above,please write them here:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

III. Which of the following do you think most helpful to improve your classroom manage-ment? Please select your answers (no more than three) and write down their corre-sponding item numbers in an order starting from the most helpful one.

Most helpful: ( ), ( ), ( )

1. I do not need any specific help with classroom management, because very few misbehav-iours occur in my class

2. I would like to understand the psychological reasons behind students’ misbehaviour3. Set up professional psychology consultation section in the school, and provide assistance

for teachers and students4. Some practical (non-theoretical) strategies or advice on handling classroom misbehav-

iour5. Observe experienced teachers’ classes, and listen to their suggestions6. School system (or educational system) needs to be reformed, such as not placing pressure

on teachers that leads them to ‘teach for testing’

If you think there is any other helpful assistance that is not listed above, please write it downhere:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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