The research consists of an investigation of students' behavior, attitudes, and home environment as it relates to misbehavior in school and the need for discipline. So that the study may be understood within the context of the existing work in the field, this chapter of the proposal presents a review of the research on school discipline. The review begins with a delineation of basic patterns of school misbehavior which is followed by an examination of research on factors that appear to be contributive to student misbehavior.
The third section of the review examines research on discipline interventions commonly used by schools to remediate misbehavior and discusses their level of effectiveness. Student misbehavior is not unique to specific schools; rather, there are certain identifiable patterns of misbehavior that have been categorized and recorded in the existing literature on school discipline. For example, two exploratory studies were conducted by Tobin, Sugai and Colvin (1996) that attempted to describe chronic discipline problems as recorded in referrals to the principal.Chronic student misbehavior was said to comprise two basic categories: (1) violent behaviors consisting of such disruptive activities as fighting, vandalism and harassment; and (2) nonviolent misbehaviors such as in-class disruption, skipping class, and insubordination. After reviewing the problems, Tobin et.
al (1996) concluded that examination of school disci -social behavior. In addition, students completed self-report instruments assessing their tobacco and alcohol use and intoxication, involvement with deviant peers, and depression.School discipline records, achievement scores, attendance, physical attractiveness, and athletic involvement were also obtained. Findings of the study indicated that rejected antisocial teens had adjustment difficulties, depression, and lower school achievement than other groups; also rejected antisocial youngsters were significantly more involved with deviant peers. However, no significant differences were found in problem behavior between RA or RN, and AA and AN groups.
The foregoing studies indicate that student home behavior, their degree of risk for exhibiting antisocial behavior, their academic standing in certain subject areas such as math and reading, their history of misbehavior, the amount of time spent in a nonregular classroom, their level of social skills, their behaviors in class and in the playground can all contribute to misbehavior at school. However, Johnson, Whitington and Oswald (1994) have suggested that teachers' conceptualizations of misbehavior and its causes can also play a contributory role in student misbehavior.
