Identifying the Causes of Classroom Misbehavior

How to Meet the Four Needs K-12 Students Exhibit when Behaving Badly

Apr 18, 2009

By identifying and responding to the root causes of misbehavior, K-12 teachers can meet the needs of the most difficult students while maintaining effective instruction.

When chronic behavior problems occur, teachers must look beyond the individual circumstances of each infraction and find the root cause of the behavior. By proactively meeting the needs of misbehaving children, teachers can diffuse poor behavior and create a more positive classroom environment. Educational psychologist, Guy R. LeFrancois (1997) draws on the theories of Adler (2009) and Dreikurs (1982) to explain that misbehaving children seek to fulfill one of the following needs.

Attention-Getting Behaviors

A common cause of misbehavior is the need for attention. Some children will do whatever it takes to get more attention, even when the attention comes in the form of scolding, nagging, or punishment. Attention-seeking behaviors include being silly, disrupting lessons, talking out of turn, or asking for special favors.

The most appropriate response to attention-seeking behavior is to provide special attention only when the student is behaving properly. Teachers should avoid becoming irritated when the child misbehaves for attention. Instead, misbehavior should be ignored unless dangerous, and appropriate behavior should be reinforced repeatedly until it becomes the preferred method of gaining attention.

Power Struggles

Some children are argumentative and stubborn, fighting with the teacher about rules or assignments, or defiantly disobeying directions. This type of misbehavior is often symptomatic of a power struggle through which the child is actively trying to engage the teacher in a fight for domination. Though it is easy to be drawn in to a power struggle with a student, the more a teacher fights against the student’s behavior, the more he or she is rewarding it.

An appropriate response to power-seeking behavior is to acknowledge the need with the student, perhaps even complimenting his natural leadership, and to give the child power whenever it is appropriate, making him leader of a group or giving her a visible and important responsibility. By working with power-seeking students, rather than against them, teachers can make allies out of dominating students.

Revenge-Seeking Behavior

Students seek revenge when they are frustrated in their desire for attention or power. Revenge-seeking students are angry and rebellious, and their motive is to hurt the teacher, parents, or other students. Teachers who show that they have been hurt by the actions of a revenge-seeking student unintentionally reinforce the behavior.

Rebellious students expect an angry or hurt response to their behavior, but teachers who can acknowledge the anger the child feels, apologize if the child is appropriately angry over a specific incident, or otherwise respond in unexpected ways may surprise the rebellious student and reduce the likelihood of the misbehavior escalating into a more serious situation.

Avoiding Inadequacy

Children will also misbehave when they would rather appear “bad” than appear inadequate in some way. For example, if a class assignment is too difficult, the child may choose to intentionally misbehave and be sent from the room to avoid having to participate and look inferior. Sometimes, too, it is a matter of perfectionism, where the child will misbehave if they know they will not be the best at a task.

Responses to feelings of inferiority in children are best handled within the context of a classroom climate where effort and incremental growth is valued as much or more than the final product. Helping children to become metacognitively aware of their learning through discussion about how they are progressing puts the child in charge of his growth.

By remembering the basic behaviorist principles of reinforcement, consciously reinforcing desired behaviors, and appropriately restructuring activities to meet one or more of the four needs described above, teachers can eliminate the need for misbehavior, while meeting the social and emotional needs of students.

Adler, A. Understanding Human Nature: The Psychology of Personality. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009.

Dreikurs, R. and others. Maintaining Sanity in the Classroom: Classroom Management Techniques. New York: Harper and Row, 1982.

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