Effective Strategies in Dealing with Learners’ Disruptive Behaviors

In a normal daily teaching-learning scenario, schoolchildren manifest varied forms of behaviors. Some behaviors are facilitative in achieving the learning goals, while disruptive behaviors are inevitable. Thus, this study looked into the disruptive behaviors manifested by intermediate pupils or those belonging to the Key Stage 2 learners in the classroom, the classroom management strategies employed by teachers to reduce disruptive behavior, the level of effectiveness of the classroom management strategies, and the issues of teachers in dealing with the learners’ disruptive behaviors. This descriptive survey research collected data through a questionnaire from the teacher-respondents and treated the generated data using the quantitative approach. It was found that the topmost disruptive behaviors manifested by the Key Stage 2 learners in the classroom were the creation of unproductive noise, lack of active listening, bullying of their classmates, interrupting lessons, lack of focus, and roaming around. Meanwhile, classroom management strategies commonly employed by the teachers were immediately calling the learners' attention, setting the classroom norms, assigning them as duty bearers, employing inverted persuasion, using peer support, integrating technology in lessons, and involving parents or guardians. All these strategies were found effective by the teachers. Despite the strategies employed by the teachers to manage the learners’ disruptive behaviors, they were still confronted with issues such as the limited time of parents to cooperate in addressing the learners’ misbehavior, the uncomfortable impact of the misconduct on the majority of learners, limited support on activities towards behavior modification, and teachers found the process of mitigating disruptive behaviors as physically and emotionally draining on their part. These findings propelled the researcher to propose a set of positive reinforcement activities to manage learners’ behavior.