Why Do Children Act Out in Classroom Settings?

 There is no easy answer when wondering why students misbehave. However, I think as teachers, part of our job is to understand deeper issues going on with our students. Knowing the cause of a behavior can help us teachers figure out how to help our students while also minimizing the unwanted behavior. It is important to note that a person's actions always have a conscious or subconscious catalyst that drives their behavior. I believe some children perform unwanted behaviors for common reasons like testing boundaries and authority, attention seeking, imitation of adult figures, or lack of consistency in discipline when performing these behaviors prior. These underlying motivators of bad behaviors are very common in younger children and are normal stages that all children go through. Knowing what is motivating the students to behave in a negative way will help lessen the behavior if a good strategy for removing it is implemented. For example, when children in my gymnastics classes act out to receive attention from me, I have learned that by acknowledging the behavior quickly and directly without giving too much time to it is best for me. When I completely ignore it, no consequence is given, so the behavior tends to continue. This is very much a case to case basis. I do not think that one strategy is best for all students, so knowing them as people is essential.

Child in distress

We will never know for sure why children are acting out. It may be a combination of things, but there is something I do to help me understand more about what my students/athletes need. When a child is misbehaving and it is consistent and I do not know why, I talk to the child first and try to get insight as to why they are acting out. Sometimes that helps me and sometimes it does not. After that, I try to counter balance whichever motivator I believe to be contributing the most to the behavior. For example, if I think a child is acting out to seek attention, I will purposefully implement time to talk to that child one on one or give the class time to tell me something about their week. If that helps lessen the unwanted behavior, then I have some reason to believe the child was seeking attention. Another important point to add is that strengthening positive behaviors is just as important as eliminating negative ones. When one is just acknowledging unwanted behaviors, the child is receiving nothing but criticism attached to attention. When one praises positive behaviors while also acknowledging negative ones, the child is getting positive as well as negative attention and will hopefully desire the positive attention and therefore choose to act positively. I believe that by learning more about our students as people and their life outside of school, we can sometimes find the driving force behind these actions. Children often have very stressful lives outside of school. Many life events can contribute to behavior problems such as parental divorce, loss of a loved one, moving towns, and much more. This is why we should always treat our students with empathy and compassion first and foremost. While organization and discipline is important, I believe that connecting with our students and having personal relationships with them is the number one way to maintain peace in the classroom and an environment filled with love and care.