Trident International University
James Newton
EDD 633
Policy Brief
Dr. Anna Lint
May 13, 2019
Title
Students’ Behaviors and Attitudes
SLP1: Executive Summary
There have been increasing numbers of reported cases in which students have behaved aggressively towards their colleagues, and the data concerning unruly student behaviors has also been on the rise (Coll et al., 2018). The unruly student behavior has to be fixed because it is among the biggest factors that contribute to school drop outs and poor performance. Students have been reporting to the administration that they have been bullied by their colleagues, dispossessed of their properties, beaten or abused. Although these behaviors can be linked to anomalous adolescent conduct, there are also a number of possibilities that can induce aggressive behaviors in K-12 students. They include: negative attitude towards education, drug abuse, bad influence from adults, poor parental upbringing, or negative early life experiences (Dariotis et al., 2016). Therefore, it is necessary to introduce programs and lessons that can solve the issue of student misconduct and negative attitude towards education so as to improve the quality of education in K-12 schools.
In order to solve the issue of unruly student behavior and negative attitude towards education, guidance and counseling programs will be introduced in schools. Guidance and counseling will be necessary for all students, but those who exhibit unruly behaviors will undergo more counseling sessions that the rest of the students. The program is aimed at reducing stress, depression, and anxiety, which are the biggest contributing factors to student unruly and antisocial behaviors (Coll et al., 2018). Other mental health programs such as yoga will be introduced in order to improve the mental and emotional health of the students, which will boost their motivation so that they will like school and appreciate education. A research and an experimental program will have to be done in a few classes to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs before their full implementation. Main stakeholders in the education sector will also be consulted so as to incorporate their views.
SLP 2: Context of Scope of Problem
Students’ unruly behaviors are some of the leading causes of poor academic performance and high dropout rates in the United States and other developed countries. As such, concerns have been raised by policymakers and researchers on the need to reduce students’ deviant behaviors in school (Kremer et al. 2016). Students exhibit deviant behaviors in two major ways: externalization and externalization of unruly behaviors. Externalizing behaviors are characterized by defiance to school rules, disruptiveness, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviors. In some cases, externalizing behaviors may take the form of the student being overactive (Kremer et al. 2016). On the other hand, internalizing behaviors include withdrawal, dysphoria, as well as anxiety. A significant number of students who exhibit high levels of deviant behaviors suffer from deficient levels of capabilities in reading, mathematics, and written language (Kremer et al. 2016). Deviant behaviors are caused by many factors, which encourage the student to engage in universally unacceptable activities. For instance parents may lack the necessary parental skills that are required to instill discipline on their children. When some parents are faced extremely assertive and goal-oriented child, those who lack firmness and sufficient level of discipline strategies may oscillate between yielding to a child’s unreasonable demands and demanding compliance.
Peers and community members play a major role in encouraging students’ deviant behaviors. For instance, students who associate with large networks of antisocial friends, neighbors and acquaintances are most likely to develop deviant behaviors over time. Approximately half of the American teenage population do not have enough productive activities to participate in after school. As a consequence, they run the risk of falling prey to gang groups, drugs, violence, sex, and other activities that have the potential to limit their intellectual and professional development during adulthood (Pauwels & Svensson, 2015). These problems are further compounded by the paucity in policies that encourage students to engage in productive activities after schooling hours. Examples of these activities may include participation in church, community services, and minimized interactions with their deviant peers and friends. Although students’ antisocial behaviors are commonly manifested in school in terms of low performance, bullying, and open defiance to instructions, determinants of these behaviors in schooling environments have attracted less research attention (Pauwels & Svensson, 2015). However, some of the most widely mentioned causes of deviant behavior in learning environments are related to setting events, which are sequence of events that may take place within the same setting and closely precede the deviant behavior. These tendencies include noisemaking in class, and school ground events.
Deviant behaviors in school have far-reaching consequences that go beyond low academic achievements in school to include depression, anxiety, and bullying. Lack of sufficient policies to address student delinquency can increase cases of bullying in school (Shetgiri, 2013). Bullying includes direct and indirect forms of aggression. Physical and verbal aggressions are direct forms of bullying, which are comprised of open expression of authority and dominance over the victim. Physical aggression may take the form of infliction of physical harm on the victims, such as hitting, pushing, chocking, and dispossessing victims of their property (Shetgiri, 2013). On the other hand, verbal bullying may include verbal harassment and intimidation in terms of name calling, sending threat messages, and hurling insults to the victims. When these deviant behaviors are not addressed, students’ level of depression may increase, thereby resulting in high rates of school dropouts and low academic performance. The No Child Left Behind policy was passed and implemented with the purpose of promoting access to educational cross different student groups, ranging from high- to low-income learners. However, deviant behaviors are some of the factors that deter the full realization of the benefits of these policies since student deviant behaviors increase dropout rates. In light of the above, American schools should develop policies, procedures and guidelines that are effective in reducing unruly behavior of students.
References
Coll, K., Niles, S. G., Coll, K. F., Ruch, C. P., & Stewart, R. A. (2018). Education deans: challenges and stress. Journal of Organizational and Educational Leadership, 4(1), 2-16.
Dariotis, J. K., Cluxton-Keller, F., Mirabal-Beltran, R., Gould, L. F., Greenberg, M. T., & Mendelson, T. (2016). “The program affects me’cause it gives away stress”: urban students’ qualitative perspectives on stress and a school-based mindful yoga Intervention. Explore, 12(6), 443-450.
Kremer, K. P., Flower, A., Huang, J., & Vaughn, M. G. (2016). Behavior problems and
children's academic achievement: A test of growth-curve models with gender and racial
differences. Children and youth services review, 67, 95-104.
Pauwels, L. J., & Svensson, R. (2015). Schools and child antisocial behavior: in search for
mediator effects of school-level disadvantage. SAGE Open, 5(2), 2158244015592936.
Shetgiri, R. (2013). Bullying and victimization among children. Advances in pediatrics, 60(1),
33.
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