THE RELATIVE SEVERITY OF COMMON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: THE STUDENT'S PERSPECTIVE

Summary. The major aim of this study was to assess students' perceptions of the severity of various classroom management strategies frequently employed by teachers in dealing with student misbehaviours, and to gauge the specific dimensions underlying student perceptions. The sample consisted of 281 junior high school students in Israel who rated the severity of each of 24 commonly found classroom management strategies via a 5‐point Likert‐type rating scale. In addition, for comparative purposes, ratings of the management strategies were obtained for a sample of 80 junior high school teachers and their mean ratings compared with those of the student sample. A principal factor analysis of the scale ratings revealed five meaningful dimensions underlying student perceptions: (a) student referral to school or parental authority; (b) punitive teacher reaction; (c) assigning students unpleasant classroom related tasks; (d) placing constraint on students' time; and (e) assigning students unpleasant extra‐class assignments. Mean ratings of the various management strategies were relatively unaffected by the students' demographic characteristics. Similarly, the rank order of students' mean ratings was remarkably invariant across sex and social group membership. Whereas students' and teachers' mean ratings were significantly discernible for about half the items on the inventory, the two groups rank ordered the classroom management techniques quite similarly with respect to their perceived severity, implying similar classroom management strategy hierarchies for the two groups. The implications of the findings for classroom control are discussed and explicated. 1988 The British Psychological Society