The disproportionate discipline of Black male students is a pervasive problem in U.S. schools. To examine the role of stereotypes in disciplinary disproportionality, pre-service teachers were randomly assigned to read a vignette about a defiant student. Those who read a vignette about a Black student believed that the student was more likely to…

Background: Evidence indicates that being a victim of bullying or peer aggression has negative short- and long-term consequences. In this study, we investigated the mediating and moderating role of two types of attributional mechanisms (hostile and self-blaming attributions) on children's maladjustment (externalizing and internalizing problems).…

With the emergence of the Democratic South Africa, a number of disciplinary problems emerged. One of these problems is truancy of school children from schools. The South African Schools Act (1996, p. 6) provides that if a learner who is subject to "compulsory attendance" fails to attend a school, the HODS (heads of departments) may take…

Background: Recent studies have investigated the causal attributions for difficult pupil behaviour made by teachers, pupils, and parents but none have investigated the temporal stability or predictive validity of these attributions. Aims: This study examines the causal attributions made for difficult classroom behaviour by students on two…

Background: Effective classroom management is a critical teaching skill and a key concern of educators. As such it has been the focus of much research and as a result educators know a good deal about what happens in physical education class and the actions teachers take to deal with student behavior. Surprisingly, however, we do not know much at…

Grounded in attribution theory, this investigation examined explanations students provide when college teachers misbehave, and the influence of perceived teacher immediacy shaping those interpretations. Across two different samples, college students responded to questionnaires assessing perceptions of their teachers' immediacy, teacher…

Attributions made by 64 children (4 to 16 years old) and their parents for the cause of the child's behavior problem were monitored during assessment interviews. Results support previously observed differences with parents making more attributions than their children to characteristics of the child. This pattern was affected by variations of…

Pupils at an elementary school in Israel, their mothers, and their teachers were studied to determine how each group would attribute the causes of children's problem behavior. Pupils and teachers were apt to blame external factors. Parents tended to distribute responsibility for problems more evenly. (Author/PP)

This study examined whether teachers respond differently to various problem behaviors as a function of student gender. Prospective teachers (N=155) were presented with a description of a male or female student exhibiting either internalizing, externalizing, or solely academic problem behaviors. Participants indicated their likelihood of referring…