Teachers’ Perceptions on Social Skills and Problematic Behavior

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the teachers’ perceptions of social skills, problematic behavior and discipline in the school environment. It describes the teachers’ perceptions on positive and negative behavior, and management intervention strategies with the use of rewards, praise, implementation of specific techniques and sometimes punitive methods. Themost unique contribution of this study is the in-depth data that provide specific descriptions of the teachers’perceptions. Findings indicated that the teachers in this study tend to perceive themselves as strong influences in students’ behavior at school. They also perceived problematic behavior through disrespectful actions during the lesson. As for a positive discipline used school wide, teachers reported not having one, and the only way of discipline was individual inside the classroom and dependable on the situation, which sometimes was managed with punitive interventions. In addition, teachers were unfamiliar with education programs that provide training on positive interventions to change problematic behaviors. Lastly, meeting teachers’ training needs for implementation of Positive Discipline and use of positive strategies of interventions recommended.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2016.v6n2p125