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ABSTRACT The present study maps the attitudes towards students ' disruptive behaviour as part of the school discipline. Research studies on the subject usually examine the attitudes of one or two groups of relevant subjects, that is, teachers, parents or students. As teachers, students and parents do share a common milieu, the relationship of their attitudes towards student misbehaviour is important in the crystallisation of such discipline. The present study is innovative in that all three groups were examined simultaneously in one school. A standardised questionnaire was designed for all three groups which identified typical disruptive behaviour by adolescent students. The study was conducted in a centre for technological education in Central Israel which caters, especially, for low-achieving students. Findings reveal large gaps among the three groups. While teachers seem to agree among themselves as to the severity of most of the disruptive behaviour problems at school, students and parents were found to disagree among themselves on the severity of most of the examined issues. Differences among the groups indicate a possible source for the emergence of student disruptive behaviour problems. Findings also suggest that there is a need for increased involvement of both parents and students in discipline-related issues in the school
The issue of school discipline has gained much theoretical and empirical attention as a main facilitator in the creation of an appropriate educational atmosphere. School discipline must be maintained in order to achieve the main school goals effectively and efficiently, namely, learning and social activity.
The complexity of discipline in school was expressed in Slee's (1997) presentation on `theorising discipline'. He accepted behaviour management skills in the classroom, but his argument was that discipline problems are far more than simply an imposition of someone else's order. Discipline has a few meanings according to Webster's Dictionary. One of the meanings that can be adopted for this paper is discipline is the frame of acceptance of, or submission to, authority and control. In conclusion, discipline is a system of sanctions that addresses the breakdown when the code of conduct is broken.
Review of the literature reveals that most of the research on discipline has focused on the attitudes of teachers or, less frequently, on the attitude of students and, even less, on...