Conception of disruptive behaviour at special education teachers

Nina Pavlin (2017) Conception of disruptive behaviour at special education teachers. MSc thesis.

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Abstract

According to various authors coping with disruptive behavior represents common problems for parents and educators. Disruptive behavior occurs especially if we ignore or overlook pupil's wishes, needs, interests and abilities. In theoretical basis of this master thesis we have defined the notion of disruptive behavior, together with its characteristics and factors that influence on it. With regard to various authors we have examined occurence of disruptive behavior in individual groups of special needs together with their characteristics. We have as well presented the ways of detection and evaluation of disruptive behavior, preventive action for its prevention and possible ways of responding to it. We have described how teachers and parents cope with disruptive behavior and pointed out the importance of cooperation between teachers, schools and parents in addressing the distracting behavior. We have defined the importance of personal concepts in the educational process. In the empirical part of this master thesis we have carried out a study in which we have included a sample of 98 special education teachers from all over Slovenia. With this study we wanted to get an insight into the distinction how special education teachers define disruptive behavior in relation to their working experiences and the type of educational program in which they are employed. The data are the result of the questionnaire poll which included evaluational scales. In the study we have found that special education teachers define disruptive behavior differently, according to their their working experiences and the type of educational program in which they are employed, and that they also differently differentiate between disruptive behavior and emotional behavior disorders. There are also differences in their addressing and responding to the occurence of disruptive behavior. Special education teachers at the start of career receive approximately the same amount of support and assistance from the management, coleagues and external experts. At the start of career they were feeling less qualified in dealing with disruptive behavior as they feel now. In observing the prevalence of the presence of disruptive behavior special education teachers in a group of children with mental disorders, physically challenged children and children with speech and language disorders may differ according to the type of program in which they are currently working. Working experiences of special education teachers do not influence on their observing of the presence of disruptive behavior in individual groups of special needs. With the review of several studies we have come to conclusion that the prevalence of occurrence of disruptive behavior is quite high, especially in children of marginalised groups (which also include children with special needs). Because our concepts affect our actions we wanted to get an insight into the differences how Slovenian special education teachers define disruptive behavior, since this aspect until now has not yet been the subject of research. We wanted to emphasize the importance of the ways how our concepts influence our thinking, planning and responding; in our case especially in cases of coping with the occurrence of disruptive behavior.

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