Wheldall and Merrett 1988 26

Wheldall and Merrett (1988) were concerned that teachers “frequently cite classroom behaviour problems as one of their major difficulties” (p. 13). Further there has been “little research concerned to identify the behaviours which classroom teachers find most troublesome” (p. 13). Wheldall and Merrett referred to the work of Wickman (1928) and Ziv (1970), and discussed the 1983 work of Whitmore and Bax who studied the behaviour of children aged 5 years on entering primary school claiming, “6% of these students had ‘disturbed behaviour’ (and) by the time the children were ten the figure was 9%” (p. 13). Wheldall and Merrett contended that the Whitmore and Bax study indicated that it was not necessarily the same group of children who had problems throughout those years. The behaviour of some students had been resolved and other students were presenting with problems.

Other studies cited by Wheldall and Merrett indicated that primary age children who exhibited behaviour difficulties ranged from 6% -25% of that population.

The variation “probably reflects differences in the ages of the children, differences in the geographical location … and varying techniques for identifying children with problems. [However], only about 5% of the sample were identified by both parent and teacher as having behaviour problems” (Wheldall & Merrett, 1988).

This section of the thesis was designed to detail the work of Wheldall and Merrett (1988) as a comparison point to earlier perceptions of difficult behaviour identified by Wickman (1928). However a number of later researchers including Bibou-Nakou Kiosseoglou and Stogiannidou (2000) and Efrati-virtzer and Margalit (2009) tried to identify the nature of the difficult behaviour as previous research in this area was lacking. Bibou-Nakou Kiosseoglou and Stogiannidou (2000) followed the work of Wheldall and Merrett (1988) and examined a range of behaviours and their causes as attributed by teachers. Efrati-virtzer and Margalit (2009) discussed behaviours of students with behavioural difficulties which were of the magnitude of those identified in references to Baltara..

Wheldall and Merrett (1988) defined the concepts behind behaviour identification as having:

• identified the incidence of children with behaviour problems – this led to focusing on the children rather than the behaviour,

• not defined or described the difficult behaviour – not all teachers find similar behaviours difficult, or

Wheldall and Merrett (1988) undertook their own study to determine the most frequent and most troublesome behaviours. They surveyed 198 randomly selected teachers from 32 infant and junior schools (students aged 5 -11 years) in the UK to determine the most troublesome behaviours for teachers and the behaviours of the most troublesome students. Their results have been tabulated in

Table 2-2 below.

Table 2-2 Wheldall and Merrett’s Categories of Behaviours

Category of Behaviour Examples of Category

A Eating Chewing gum, paper or equipment, eating sweets in class

B Making unnecessary noise (non verbal)

Banging objects /doors, scraping chairs, moving clumsily

C Disobedience Refusing/failing to carryout instructions or to keep class or school rules

D Talking out of turn Calling out, making remarks, interrupting and distracting others by talking/chattering

E Idleness/ slowness Slow to begin or finish work, small amount of work completed

F Unpunctuality Late to school/lessons, late in from playtime/lunch break

G Hindering other children Distracting others from their work, interfering with their equipment of materials

H Physical Aggression Poking, pushing, striking others, throwing things

I Untidiness In appearance, in written work, in classroom, in desks

J Out of seat Getting out of seat without permission, wandering around.

Wheldall and Merrett attempted to move from generalised most troublesome behaviour to specific behaviours of the most troublesome students for the individual teacher. These represent more accurately the behaviours that are difficult for teachers to manage rather than those that are mainly nuisance value. Graph 2-3 below illustrates the difference between most troublesome behaviours

Wheldall & Merrett - Most Troublesome Behaviours

Eating Unpunctuality

Untidiness

Making unnecessary noise (non verbal) Out of seat Idleness/ slowness Physical Aggression Disobedience Hindering other children

Talking out of turn

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Percentage

Most Troublesome Child

Most Troublesome Behaviour %

Graph 2-3 Wheldall and Merrett’s Most Troublesome Behaviours and Most Troublesome Children

There is a considerable difference between Wheldall and Merrett’s “most troublesome behaviour” and the behaviours of the “most troublesome child”. Behaviours, which could be characterised as annoying to the teacher such as talking, making noises, untidiness and unpunctuality, rated much higher than did the behaviour of the actual troublesome students. Talking out of turn was troublesome behaviour to almost 50% of teachers but in considering a specific student it was only mentioned in 30% of cases.

The behaviours of specific troublesome children tended to be overt behaviours such as physical aggression, disobedience and hindering other children. The specific children’s behaviour was rated higher in these areas than the generalised

list of troublesome behaviours. Basically teachers tend to list things that annoy them as troublesome, but when thinking of specific students these behaviours do not often recorded them.

In Graph 2-4 the Wheldall and Merrett troublesome behaviours have been aligned with the categories used by Wickman. Troublesome behaviours were used rather than the behaviours of troublesome students, as Wickman’s was a generic list from teachers, but not necessarily with specific students in mind.

Wheldall & Merrett in Wickman's Categories

Authority

School Regulations Other Children

Work Requirements

Classroom Rules Morality and Integrity

Personality Traits

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0

Behaviour Cat

egories

Percentage

W & M Most troublesome behaviours Wickman's Behaviours

Graph 2-4 Wheldall and Merrett’s Behaviours in Wickman’s Categories

The areas of commonality of the two sets of data are school focused behaviours – classroom rules; work requirements; other children; school regulations and authority. Classroom rules which are mainly about orderliness and other children (difficulties with and or hindering), safety and the learning environment were the main concerns in the latter of the two studies. The above comparisons are with

teachers from mainstream schools and do not appear to be framed on more severe behaviours causing students to become alienated within and without the school.