Challenging Behaviours in Middle Grade Students: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This study intended to explore the challenging behaviours of students at the middle stage of schooling. The methodology adopted was exploratory. Five schools in five educational blocks of five districts from each of the five regions of the country were selected through the multistage stratified random sampling technique. A self-designed, standardised, bilingual, 90-item, three-point rating behavioural checklist was used. Altogether, 1728 students of 540 academic classes were observed by the pre-oriented teachers using participatory and uncontrolled method of observation. The findings revealed that 64 students were exhibiting challenging behaviours of different nature and severity. The most common was lying or twisting the truth to benefit oneself, followed by screaming, pushing others, escaping from assigned responsibilities, etc. Destructive, self-stimulatory and behaviours injurious to others were found more common among students with hearing and visual disabilities while distracting and withdrawal behaviours were more prominent in students with low vision, having a history of mental illness and learning disabilities. Teachers were found to be ignorant of these challenging behaviours, causing continuous disturbances in the classrooms. It was recommended to design an effective classroom-based positive behavioural teacher mediated intervention programmes for reducing the challenging behaviour and assisting students in learning and overall development.