ABSTRACT
It is suggested that student misbehaviour is any action that a teacher perceives as disruptive to classroom order and which competes with or threatens the academic proceedings at a particular moment (Bellon, Bellon, and Blank, 1992). Excessive and unnecessary talking and clowning and out-of-seat behaviour are most common in classroom settings (Cangelosi, 1993), although misbehaviour can range from mild verbal misbehaviour to physically aggressive acts such as fighting. In addition, it has been noted that teachers are having to respond more frequently to students’ use of narcotics, alcohol and weapons (Bellon et al., 1992). However, severely disruptive incidents related to such latter factors are usually located in corridors, lunch areas and outside school buildings and not in classrooms, and, fortunately, are the rarer types of behaviour in most schools (Doyle, 1986).
