Behavior of everyone is their driving force; it gives the direction through which their life must take per time. So, when a person behaves in an unexpected way, it can simply be traced to their involuntary behavior. Behavior also affects students in their academics. When a student is attentive and follows their teachers diligently, this means they have a positive behavior which will in turn lead to their brilliance and understanding of the concept being taught and this is vice versa for a lousy student who doesn’t give a dime about their education.
Mainly, children learn behavior by watching and imitating others whether within or outside of the academic setting. Unfortunately, many types of behaviors they imbibe detract them from learning. Some of the ill-behaviors by students are: talking out of turn, being out of their seat without permission, not paying attention and disrupting other students through noise-making or touching them. The first thing that is required of every good teacher is to identify the problem, map out way to challenge such behavior, develop ways to encourage students to follow a pattern of desired behavior and make use of the pattern consistently so that all the students would be carried along while delivering the lesson (ehow, 2018).
Students who behave disruptively by bullying other students, talking during lectures or by requiring the teacher to interrupt lessons to discipline them can have a negative effect on an entire classroom. Disruptive students can lower the test scores and academic achievement of an entire classroom. Teachers who have disruptive students in their classrooms may have to spend additional time on behavioral management, reducing the time they spend teaching. So negative behaviors don’t only affect the person displaying them, it also affects everyone at the environment where the behavior is showcased. There is nothing good about disruptive behavior as it leads to poor performance by students. It also frustrates the teacher as they lose temper and control over the lesson (Thompson, 2018).
Impulse control, another behavioral factor, can be one of the most significant factors in predicting academic success. Students with poor impulse control have more difficulty motivating themselves to study, do homework and listen in class. This can decrease their ability to excel academically, even when they perform well on IQ and achievement tests. Wang and Aamodt emphasize that rule-setting can play a critical role in helping children develop impulse control. Another impulse control technique deals with frustration tolerance which is when children get frustrated with a learning obstacle and lack impulse control in dealing with that frustration point. When teachers have to deal with a student that is in the midst of a frustration outburst, the rest of the class is not receiving the teacher’s attention. Helping students develop coping strategies to deal their frustrations and subsequent anger or other emotional responses is a big part of developing better impulse control in the classroom and at home. When students are made to be in charge of their impulse, they mismanage it and this in turn affects the whole class (Thompson, 2018).
Furthermore, the recent development of online coursework has wrought some unintended consequences in the classroom. Behavioral disengagement, such as ceasing to participate in an online classroom activity, can be associated with lower academic performance in both the short- and long-term. Disengaged students in online learning environments who “game the system” – or bypass online learning activities by clicking through exercises – tend to have worse academic outcomes than both engaged and off-task students. When students tend to downplay the essence of any learning session—whether virtually or conventionally’theysuffer for such action through their uninspiring academic performance (Thompson, 2018).
I will be so disconnected from reality to assume that everything that brings about ill behavior in students is merely caused by their actions and inactions. Sometimes, the situation is simply above what they can explain and such can be traceable to biological causes. Learning disorders and mental health problems, such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD; dyslexia; autism and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or ODD can dramatically affect student behavior. Students with ODD, for example, struggle to accept authority and may frequently defy teachers and parents—anybody who carries the symbol of authority. Students who need mental health interventions, occupational therapy or psychoactive drugs may behave poorly in class even when teachers have excellent classroom control. These mental health interventions can affect the affected student’s ability to learn because they are not able to actively participate in the classroom. Students with some disorders may be unable to achieve good grades in typical classrooms. Further, their disruptive classroom behaviors can also affect students that do not suffer from mental health disorders because teachers are pulled away from classroom and teaching activities (Thompson, 2018). So far, one point that I have been able to establish consistently is that when students are not well-behaved, the effect is always on the whole class and not the student in question alone. This means that relevant authorities should try their best in ensuring that students are properly behaved at all times.
There are different ways in which students respond to behavioral display. For instance, some of them respond to receiving rewards for good behavior, such as prizes, stickers on a chart or extra recess. Students learn they will get something they want if they behave in a certain way, but they don’t always learn that behaving in a certain way is its own reward. This can prevent students from consistently using the desired behavior that promotes learning (ehow, 2018).
On the other hand, some students respond to punishment. Immediately they are aware that they will face the consequences of breaking set rules, they will desist from using unacceptable behaviors. Students who are verbally corrected, given extra work, forced to miss recess or sent to the principal’s office as a means of punishment often cheat or lie to cover up their inadequacies so as to evade punishment (ehow, 2018).
In conclusion, acceptable classroom behavior should be reinforced by making consequences closer to those of real life. The fact is that the world doesn’t always reward or punish people who behave in a particular manner. All you need to do is to make them understand that there are natural rewards or consequences that come with each types of behavior (ehow, 2018).
References
ehow (2018).Behavior in the Classroom and Effects on Learning. Retrieved from https://www.education.gov.gy/web/index.php/teachers/tips-for-teaching/item/1705-behavior-in-the-classroom-and-effects-on-learning
Langley, D. J. (2009). Student challenging behaviour and its impact on classroom culture: An investigation into how challenging behaviour can affect the learning culture in New Zealand primary schools (Thesis, Master of Educational Leadership (MEdLeadership)). The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/2796
Thompson, V (2018). How Can Behavior Affect Academics in Students? Retrieved from https://classroom.synonym.com/can-behavior-affect-academics-students-9290.html