BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS AND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN DELTA STATE

There are individual differences among students in a specific classroom. A teacher in the classroom is therefore faced with these individual differences. Student exhibit some forms of behaviour in classroom which are said to be undesirable. Such behaviour include, throwing of papers, out of seat, fighting, inattentiveness, gum chewing, deliberate violation of regulation. The teacher’s task therefore is to ensure that such problems in the classroom are curbed. However, the most frequently occurring classroom problems are cases of stealing and cheating. The findings also revealed that the most frequently used management measure is calling the child to explain himself. Most teachers would prefer to administer punishment to erring students as a management measure according to the findings. The data showed that there is no significant difference between male and female teachers in their management techniques. In the light of the above findings, it is recommended amongst others that less emphasis should be placed on “paper qualification” by the government and other employers of labour. Teachers need to improve on their management techniques by recognition of students underlying feelings and ignoring minor misbehavior and giving attention to appropriate behaviour.