A Study of Teacher's Strategies for Handling Primary School Students' Behavioral Problems in "X" Primary School.

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ABSTRAK

Skripsi yang berjudul “A Study of Teachers’ Strategies for Handling Primary School Students’ Behavioral Problems in X Primary School in Bandung” ini menganalisis tiga hal: pertama, behavioral problems yang paling sering dilakukan oleh murid-murid kelas 4 di X Primary School; kedua, strategi yang paling sering digunakan pengajar di X Primary School untuk mengatasi behavioral problems murid-murid kelas 4; dan ketiga, respon murid-murid terhadap strategi yang digunakan pengajar. Analisis data di dalam penelitian ini ditunjang oleh beberapa teori, seperti teori dari Felder dan Brent, Yuan, Long, dan Johnson, sementara pengambilan data itu sendiri dilakukan dengan dua cara, yakni observasi kelas dan wawancara pengajar.

Hasil observasi dan wawancara kemudian memperlihatkan bahwa ada lima jenis behavioral problems yang paling sering dilakukan murid-murid kelas 4: being out of their students’ seats, cheating, inattentiveness, attention seeking, dan verbal and physical threats. Sementara itu, ada empat strategi yang digunakan pengajar untuk mengatasi behavioral problems: praise, rules, punishment, dan rewards. Respon murid-murid terhadap strategi yang digunakan pengajar itu sendiri dapat dibagi menjadi dua: baik dan kurang baik. Pembagian respon ini didasari oleh

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semakin banyak atau semakin sedikit jumlah behavioral problems yang dilakukanmurid-murid saat pengajar menerapkan strateginya. Pembagian respon ini juga pada akhirnya memperlihatkan keefektifan strategi yang digunakan pengajar.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ...i

ABSTRACT ... iii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the Study ... 1

1.2. Statement of the Problem ... 3

1.3. Purpose of the Study ... 3

1.4. Significance of the Problem ... 3

1.5. Limitation of the Study ... 4

1.6. Organization of the Study ... 4

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 2.1. Characteristics of Young Learners ... 5

2.2. Students’ Behavioral Problems ... 6

2.3. Strategies for Handling Students’ Behavioral Problems ... 8

2.3.1. Praise ... 9

2.3.2. Rules ... 10

2.3.3. Punishment ... 11

2.3.4. Rewards ... 13

2.4. Previous Study ... 14

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1. Research Design ... 17

3.2. Participants and Setting ... 18

3.3. Data Collection Techniques ... 18

3.3.1. Observation ... 18

3.3.2. Interview ... 19

3.4. Data Analysis ... 20

3.5. Validity ... 21

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1. Most Common Behavioral Problems ... 22

4.1.1. Being out of Their Students’ Seat ... 23

4.1.2. Cheating ... 25

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4.1.4. Attention Seeking ... 29

4.1.5. Verbal and Physical Threats ... 31

4.2. Teachers’ Strategies for Handling Students’ Behavioral Problems and Students’ Responses Towards Those Strategies ... 33

4.2.1. Praise ... 34

4.2.2. Rules ... 37

4.2.3. Punishment ... 40

4.2.4. Rewards ... 44

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1. Conclusion ... 49

5.2. Recommendation... 51

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 53

APPENDICES I. Teachers’ Personal Information ... 59

II. Observation Result ... 60

III. Interview with the Teachers Teacher 1 ... 61

Teacher 2 ... 63

Teacher 3 ... 67

IV. Interview That Is Used as Data in Chapter IV (English Version) Teacher 1 ... 70

Teacher 2 ... 70

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

To be a teacher may be easy; people only need to be educated and then teach

students out of mere obligation, which usually results in their ignoring the students’

understanding or never communicating with students after class. However, to be a great teacher is different. GreatSchools Staff (2016), the leading national nonprofit organization empowering parents to unlock educational opportunities for their

child, states, “Great teachers form strong relationships with their students and show

that they care about them as people. Great teachers are warm, accessible,

enthusiastic and caring” (para. 6). Therefore, a great teacher will communicate with

students, even outside the class, as it builds a strong relationship between the teacher and the students.

To be a great teacher is not as easy as we think; a teacher should know

his/her students’ characteristics, and most importantly, a teacher has to be patient.

This means that a teacher should be able to handle different kinds of students, including those who misbehave. When a student misbehaves, a good teacher should

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be able to do something to prevent or handle it right away before it becomes a habit.

Therefore, the teacher needs to know various strategies to handle students’

misbehavior.

The topic of my study is “A Study of Teachers’ Strategies for Handling

Primary School Students’ Behavioral Problems in X Primary School in Bandung.”

Strategy is defined as “the process of planning something or putting a plan into

operation in a skillful way” (Hornby, 2010, p. 1475). Behavioral is the adjective of behavior and the word behavior itself means “the way that somebody behaves,

especially towards other people” (p. 120). Meanwhile, problem is defined as “a thing that is difficult to deal with or to understand” (p. 1167). Thus, from the

definition of these three words, it can be concluded that the topic I would like to

discuss is the process that the teacher uses in handling the primary school students’

behavior that is difficult to deal with.

I chose this issue to be my research topic because I want to know how to handle students with behavioral problems in X Primary School in Bandung. From my previous teaching experience in the aforementioned school, almost all of the students in a particular class have behavioral problems and this impedes their learning process. A discussion with their previous classroom teacher also confirms my point of view about this matter. Therefore, I find it necessary to raise and analyze this issue in my research.

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1.2. Statement of the Problem

After analyzing the problems, I come up with particular questions:

1. What are the most common behavioral problems that X Primary School students often do?

2. What kinds of strategies do the teachers use to handle the students’ most common behavioral problems in X Primary School?

3. How do the students in X Primary School respond to the use of the teachers’ strategies?

1.3. Purpose of the Study

Based on the aforementioned statement of the problems, the purposes of the study are:

1. To discover the most common behavioral problems that X Primary School students often do during the class.

2. To find the suitable strategies that teachers in X Primary School use to handle the students who misbehave.

3. To know the responses of the students in X Primary School towards the teachers’ strategies to handle the students’ behavioral problems.

1.4. Significance of the Problem

This research is expected to be one of the references for teachers in primary schools whose students misbehave, especially for those teachers who are teaching for the first time will not be shocked when their students are misbehaving and there

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In addition, this study provides an insight for any students who are going to take Applied Linguistics concentration.

1.5. Limitation of the Study

This study is a small scale study as it is limited to the teachers’ strategies

for handling X Primary School students’ behavioral problems. Therefore, the result

cannot be generalized.

1.6. Organization of the Study

This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is Introduction, which consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Significance of the Problem, Limitation of the Study, and Organization of the Study. Chapter Two is Theoretical Foundation. Chapter Three is Research Methodology, which is divided into five parts: Research Design, Participants and Setting, Data Collection Techniques or Instruments, Data Analysis, and Validity. Chapter Four is Findings and Discussions, and Chapter Five is Conclusion and Recommendation. This study ends with Bibliography and Appendices.

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CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter contains conclusion and recommendation which are based on the findings and discussion of the study.

5.1. Conclusion

As has been stated in Chapter One, the purposes of this study are to discover the most common behavioral problems that X Primary School students often do during the class, to find the suitable strategies that teachers in X Primary School use to handle the students who misbehave, and to know the responses of the students in X Primary School towards the teachers’ strategies to handle the students’ behavioral problems.

Based on the results of the analysis, the most common behavioral problems that the students often did in X Primary School were walking around the class (included in being out of their students’ seat), followed by cheating during quizzes and exercises, attention seeking, going to the restroom during the lesson (included in being out of their students’ seat), drinking water in front of the class (included in

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being out of their students’ seat), playing with their own stuff (included in inattentiveness), doing verbal threats, looking outside the class during the lesson (included in inattentiveness), and doing physical threats.

The teachers in X Primary School have their own strategies for handling the students’ behavioral problems. The most common strategies that the teachers in that school used are praise, rules, punishment, and reward. Based on the results of the analysis, the most suitable strategy to handle the fourth grade students in X Primary School is reward because this strategy has decreased the number of students who misbehaved in class and has also triggered positive responses from the students. Many students became obedient after the teachers applied this strategy. As can be seen in the Appendices II, total of students who misbehaved is the fewest among the others. The second suitable strategy is punishment. Punishment is quite effective to handle the fourth grade students because it makes the students feel reluctant to misbehave again. As can be seen in the Appendices II, total of students who misbehaved is more than rewards and fewer than praise. Praise is the third suitable strategy that the teachers use to handle the students’ behavioral problems, as can be seen in the Appendices II, the students responded well towards this strategy because total of students who misbehaved decreased. This strategy made the students complain too much to the teacher. Rules is the last strategy that the teachers use to handle the fourth grade students. This strategy is not really effective, but sometimes it can prevent the students from misbehaving. As can be seen in the Appendices II, total of students who misbehaved is the highest after the first day of the observation (no strategy).

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In conclusion, choosing the suitable strategies for handling the students’ behavioral problems is very important because applying the suitable strategies can help the students reduce their misbehavior and prevent it from becoming a habit. In addition, choosing the suitable strategies can prevent the students from imitating or applying the teachers’ inappropriate strategies, such as shouting at their students or other people in the future.

5.2. Recommendation

Based on the findings of this study, there are several recommendations that I would like to address to the teachers in X Primary School, the headmistress of X Primary School, and the future researchers who will collect data in X Primary School.

There are three recommendations for the teachers in X Primary School. First, the teachers in X Primary School might try to contact the students’ parents to discuss the students’ attitude and performance in school because this can motivate the students to do their best in learning and to misbehave less. Second, the teachers in X Primary School might try to make rules concerning the permission for the students to go to the restroom. For example, the students are given five minutes to go to the restroom after the bell rings and are not allowed to go out of the class afterwards. Last, the teachers in X Primary School might try to change the rule concerning the placement of the water bottles in front of the class. The teachers are recommended to allow the students to bring their bottles to their seats, thus preventing them from walking around in the class.

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There are also some recommendations for the headmistress in X Primary School and the future researchers who will collect data in that school. The headmistress might try to divide the fourth grade students into two classes because there are some teachers who complain that having too many students in one class makes it difficult for them to run the teaching-learning process smoothly. Meanwhile, the future researchers who will collect data in X Primary School might try to do some research on the impact of family background on the students’ learning at school due to the reason that many of the students in X Primary School come from broken home families or an orphanage.

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A STUDY OF TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES FOR

HANDLING PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’

BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS IN X PRIMARY SCHOOL

IN BANDUNG

a thesis

submitted to the English Department of the Faculty of Letters

in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the ‘Sarjana’ degree

EKA SUSANTI 1241033

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS

MARANATHA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

B A N D U N G

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I thank Jesus Christ for his guidance and for giving me strength in completing this thesis entitled “A Study of Teachers’ Strategies For Handlng Primary School Students’ Behavioral Problems in X Primary School in Bandung”, which is submitted to the English Department of the Faculty of Letters in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the ‘Sarjana’ degree. Despite some difficulties, I have been able to finish it. A lot of thanks are due to both my supervisors, Maryani and Joanna Deborah who have helped me in finishing my thesis.

I would also like to thank both of my parents, Tanto and Lu Kiau, for their support, prayers, and blessing not just when I was writing my thesis, but also during my whole study in the Faculty of Letters.

I would also like to thank all of my friends for their support and prayer. To my special friend, Andre Aditya, thanks for being great listeners for me and also to all of my friends at the English Department, Faculty of Letters, Maranatha Christian University, class of 2012, thanks for these great four years. I also thank all people who have helped me complete my thesis. I cannot mention their names one by one but thanks for all your support and prayer.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arends, R. I. (2001). Learning to teach. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Book Co. Barbetta, P. M., Norona, K. L., & Bicard, D. F. (2005). Classroom behavior

management: A dozen common mistakes and what to do instead. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 49(3), 11-19. Retrieved from

https://pll.asu.edu/p/sites/defaults/files/irm/attachments/Classroom_Mistakes _Week2.pdf

Brikci, N., & Green, J. (2002). A guide to using qualitative research methodology. Medecins Sans Frontieres Field Research. Retrieved from

http://hdl.net/10144/84230

Charles, C. (2010). Building classroom discipline. New York, NY: Pearson Education.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

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Davies, L. (n.d.). Rewards in the classroom. Kelly Bear Press. Retrieved from http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip45.html

Dreikurs, R., & Cassel, P. (1986). Disiplin tanpa hukuman. Bandung: Penerbit Remadja Karya CV Bandung.

Felder, R., & Brent, R. (2000). All in a day’s work. Chem. Engr. Education, 34(1), 66-67. Retrieved from

http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Columns/Dayswork.html

praise, ignoring, and reprimands revisited. Intervention in School and Clinic, 44(4), 196. Retrieved from http://sagepub.com/

Halliwel, S. (1992). Teaching English in the primary classroom. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. _______ . (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Harlow, GA:

Pearson Education Limited.

Hodgman, M. (2015). Student praise in the modern classroom: The use of praise notes as a productive motivational tool. Journal of Education and Training, 2(1), 41-47. Retrieved from http:///macrothink.org

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Hornby, A. S. (2010). Behavior. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th

ed., p. 120). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Interview. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th

ed., p. 788). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Motivate. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th

ed., p. 963). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Observation. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th

ed., p. 1013). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Praise. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th_{ed., p.}

1148). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Problem. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th_ed.,

p. 1167). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Punish. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th_ed.,

p. 1189). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Punishment. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th

ed., p. 1189). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Reward. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th_ed.,

p. 1268). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

__________ . (2010). Strategy. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8th_ed.,

p. 1475). Oxford: Oxford University Press.