Elysha Clark-Whitney and Julius A. Utama
Throughout early childhood, children develop a variety of adaptive behaviors conducive to classroom learning (Hamre & Pianta, 2001; Jordan, Kaplan, Ramineni, & Locuniak, 2009). Specifically, the ability to regulate emotions, inhibit inappropriate responses, and focus attention toward a given task (Blair & Razza, 2007; Raver, 2012), allows children to engage in classroom activities in accordance with their teachers’ expectations (Razza, Martin, & Brooks-Gunn, 2012; Williford, Maier, Downer, Pianta, & Howes, 2013). As such, researchers and policymakers have sought ways to support the development of adaptive behaviors during the preschool years as conduits for later academic success (Wanless, McClelland, Tominey, & Acock, 2011).
Research has identified, however, that disruptive behaviors common in the early years (e.g., hyperactivity, inattention, aggression) impede children’s ability to display adaptive classroom behaviors (Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000; Wakschlag et al., 2007). The negative impact of disruptive behaviors is particularly detrimental for children from ethnically diverse, low-income backgrounds, who tend to exhibit more disruptive behaviors as compared to their White peers (Bradshaw, Mitchell, O’Brennan, & Leaf, 2010; Harris & Herrington, 2006), and are in turn at greater risk for academic difficulties and school dropout (Vitaro, Brendgen, Larose, & Tremblay, 2005). Fostering adaptive behaviors in the early childhood years may therefore serve as a protective factor for the school success of children from ethnically-diverse, low-income backgrounds (Duncan et al., 2007; Galindo & Fuller, 2010; Wanless et al., 2011).
In particular, research has identified the importance of teachers’ behavior management practices (Howes et al., 2008; Degol & Bachman, 2015; Mashburn et al., 2008) – or the provision of feedback and monitoring of classroom activities (Hoy & Weinstein, 2006; Kunter, Baumert, & Koller, 2007; Yates & Yates, 1990) – in encouraging children’s development of adaptive behaviors (Raver, 2010). Specifically, teachers’ behavior management practices encourage children to be more cognizant of their own behaviors vis-à-vis classroom rules (Degol & Bachman, 2015; Rimm-Kaufman, Curby, Grimm, Nathanson, & Brock, 2009); the successful implementation of these management strategies, in turn, is associated with children’s school success (Pianta & Stuhlman, 2004; Qi & Kaiser, 2003), and especially the academic performance of ethnically diverse children (Curby, Downer, & Booren, 2014; Merritt, Wanless, Rimm- Kaufman, Cameron, & Peugh, 2012). Despite this, however, little is known regarding the behavior management practices used by teachers in ethnically diverse classrooms. This is alarming given that schools across the United States are becoming increasingly multiethnic; in 2014 alone, over 50% of students in U.S. public schools identified as non-White (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013). In order to elucidate avenues to better support this at-risk population, the present study explored the behavior management practices teachers use in response to disruptive behaviors in ethnically diverse, low-income early childhood classrooms.
Disruptive Behaviors in Early Childhood: A Developmental Perspective
Across cultural groups, young children commonly engage in a wide variety of disruptive classroom behaviors (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2000) such as defiance (i.e., actively refusing to follow a given instruction; Wakschlag et al., 2007), inattention (i.e., distractibility and difficulty attending to stimuli for long periods of time; Coolahan, Fantuzzo, Mendez, & McDermott, 2000; Racz, O’Brennan, Bradshaw, & Leaf, 2016), aggression (e.g., hitting and kicking; Wakschlag et al., 2007), hyperactivity (i.e., failing to remain still when expected to do so; Vitaro et al., 2005), and tantrums (Wakschlag et al., 2012). These disruptive behaviors tend to interfere with children’s on-task behavior and classroom learning (Blair & Razza, 2007; McClelland et al., 2007; Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2009). While normative among young children, disruptive behaviors tend to decrease over the preschool years as a function of children’s growing self-regulation skills (Bulotsky-Shearer, Fantuzzo, & McDermott, 2008; Degnan, Calkins, Keane, & Hill-Soderlund, 2008; Garon, Bryson, & Smith, 2008), which are integral to children’s ability to inhibit inappropriate behaviors (Willoughby, Kupersmidt, Voegler-Lee, & Bryant, 2011). Wide variations in disruptive behaviors, therefore, are also common between children, given individual differences in development.
In particular, ethnic minority children are more likely than their White counterparts to exhibit frequent and intense disruptive behaviors (Kremer, Flower, Huang, & Vaughan, 2016). This can primarily be attributed to the destructive effect of chronic poverty, which is more common among ethnic minorities (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016), on self-regulation development (Blair, 2010). These more extreme disruptive behaviors interfere substantially with early learning, placing ethnic minority children at risk of later academic difficulty and school suspension (Qi & Kaiser, 2003; Racz et al., 2016). As such, research must identify effective ways to mitigate the disruptive behaviors of low-income, ethnic minority children.
Teachers’ Behavior Management Strategies in Early Childhood Classrooms
Teachers’ behavior management practices represent one such mechanism for reducing children’s disruptive behaviors (Snyder et al., 2011; Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Stoolmiller, 2008). As proximal influencers of children’s regulated behaviors (Degol & Bachman, 2015; Rimm Kaufman et al., 2009; Wallace, Sung, & Williams, 2014), teachers socialize children through a “hidden behavioral curriculum” (i.e., in addition to an explicit academic curriculum; Martinez-Pons, 2002, p. 130) that is especially effective when implemented through a combination of positive and proactive behavior management strategies (Sugai & Horner, 2002). When teachers use positive disciplinary practices by reprimanding children’s actions (i.e., as opposed to targeting the child as an individual; Fuhs, Farran, & Nesbitt, 2013), children are more intrinsically motivated to master the task at hand (Clunies-Ross, Little, & Kienhuis, 2008); this increased motivation, in turn, leads children to remain on-task during subsequent iterations of the classroom activity (LeFlot, van Lier, Onghena, & Colpin, 2010). Additionally, teachers’ use of positive feedback, which consists of non-critical and non-restrictive statements (e.g., “I love how everyone is using their inside voices right now”), reduces children’s disruptive behaviors toward their teachers and peers (Mashburn & Pianta, 2006; Snyder et al., 2011).
In addition to positive behavior management, teachers’ proactive management practices – consisting of the provision and repetition of clear classroom rules and instructions (Kame’enui & Darch, 1995) – are also crucial for the reduction of children’s disruptive classroom behaviors (Jack et al., 1996; Mashburn et al., 2008; Raver et al., 2008; Sugai & Horner, 2002). When teachers reiterate classroom rules and the logical progression of classroom tasks (i.e., complete task A in order to complete task B; Snyder et al., 2011; Wallace et al., 2014), in addition to explicitly stating, giving examples of, and explaining the significance of children’s classroom behaviors, children are better able to associate their own behaviors with what is expected of them (Carter & Doyle, 2005; Delpit, 2006; Manke, 1997). Similarly, when teachers explicitly replace maladaptive behaviors with adaptive ones (e.g., verbalizing “walk inside the classroom,” as opposed to “no running in the classroom”), associate the role of adaptive behaviors as it relates to what is expected of a child within a given activity setting (Kounin, 1970), and proactively teach logical (e.g., “first finish your juice, then get in line”) and social-emotional (e.g., “inside voices make me really happy”) consequences to child behavior, children are more likely to retain adaptive (Williford & Shelton, 2014) and minimize disruptive (Degol & Bachman, 2015) behaviors in the future.
Behavior Management in Ethnically Diverse Classrooms
Studies involving best practices in behavior management, however, have largely been conducted with European American children (Gay, 2006). In particular, researchers have highlighted the culture-bound nature of behavior management practices and expectations for regulated behavior (Dearing, 2004; van Tartwijk & Hammerness, 2011), thereby complicating theories involving best practices of behavior management. Research consistently demonstrates that teachers vary in the ways they employ behavior management practices depending on their own culture’s controlling beliefs, emphasis on emotions and reflective processes (Ballenger, 1999; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, & Curran, 2004), and child-centered orientations (e.g., autonomy support; Koh & Shin, 2014; van Tartwijk & Hammerness, 2011). European American children, for example, are more accustomed to undertaking the role of the active participant in class discussions (Gay, 2006), whereas Latino children may be less likely to ask questions as a result of their own cultural socialization practices (Scarcella, 1990). African American children, on the other hand, are more likely to call out during classroom group interactions as a function of the call-and-response styles most commonly found in the home (Weinstein et al., 2004). As such, there is reason to suspect that children from ethnically diverse backgrounds may be exposed to management practices that differ between the home and school (Caughy & Owen, 2015; Li-Grining, 2012).
Furthermore, recent research on culturally responsive classroom management suggests that the ways in which teachers’ management practices are implemented (as opposed to the management practices themselves) are particularly predictive of children’s behavioral outcomes (Weinstein et al., 2004). In other words, it is the way in which behavior management practices are implemented (i.e., management modifiers; e.g., tone) that distinguishes culture-specific behavior management practices from one another (Wubbels, 2011). Yet, little is known regarding how teachers’ use of management modifiers differs in ethnically diverse classrooms.
Current Study
Few studies to date have explored if and how teachers navigate between recommended practices involving ethnic majority children and culture-specific methods of behavior management (Villegas & Lucas, 2002), and how these management strategies differ across child age and types of disruptive behavior. This is problematic given the increasing number of ethnically diverse classrooms in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013), and findings that children from low-income ethnic minority backgrounds are at greater risk of behavioral problems (Eisenberg et al., 2001; Howse, Lange, Farran, & Boyles, 2003; Razza, Martins, & Brooks-Gunn, 2010) and subsequent difficulties in school (Zimmerman, 1998). Thus, exploring teachers’ responses to disruptive behaviors represents a first step in identifying ways to support the school success of this at-risk population. As such, the present study poses the following research questions: (1) What are the disruptive behaviors most often exhibited by children in low-income, ethnically diverse early childhood classrooms? (2) What are the behavior management practices most often implemented by teachers in low-income, ethnically diverse early-childhood classrooms? (3) How do teachers’ behavior management practices differ depending on type of disruptive behavior? (4) How do teachers’ behavior management practices vary by child age?
Method
Setting and Participants
Participants included teachers and children in two early childhood classrooms situated in low-income Spanish-speaking communities in New York City. Both classrooms were ethnically diverse (i.e., at least 85% of children were non-White).
Preschool classroom. The preschool observation was conducted in a Head Start classroom consisting of 16 three-year-old children, a lead teacher and an assistant teacher. The lead teacher was a female of African-American descent with over 20 years of teaching experience, whereas the assistant teacher was a Latina woman with four years of teaching experience.
Kindergarten classroom. The kindergarten observation was conducted in a public kindergarten classroom consisting of 24 five-year-old children and one female lead teacher. The kindergarten teacher was of African-American descent with seven years’ teaching experience.
Procedure
Sixteen field notes were collected over six months during weekly three-hour classroom volunteering periods. Observed activities in the preschool classroom consisted of drop-off, morning meeting, center time/free play, outdoor play, nap time, and meal time. On the other hand, observed activities in the kindergarten classroom consisted of drop-off, morning meeting, journal writing activities, library time, science time, and meal-time. To minimize participant reactivity, field notes were written immediately after classroom observations, taking particular note of the behavior management interactions that occurred throughout the observational period.
Researcher Stance
Both authors were participant observers and assisted in classroom activities in accordance with teachers’ needs (e.g., book reading, supervising outdoor play). In addition, both authors completed primary and secondary education outside the United States, and were raised in cultures distinct from the children and teachers observed.
Coding and Analysis
Field notes were coded using classical content analysis (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2008). Observations were first chunked by interaction; each chunk was then assigned one or more codes for child disruptive behavior and teacher behavior management (see Appendix). Codes were developed both inductively and deductively. The authors initially coded 50% of the data to obtain a reliability estimate (κ = .71); the remaining field notes were coded independently and verified together. To answer the first two research questions, frequencies of each code were calculated to estimate the prevalence of different types of disruptive behavior and behavior management practices in each classroom. In order to answer the third research question, frequencies of teachers’ behavior management practices (and their management modifiers) were calculated separately for each type of disruptive behavior, to discern patterns between types of disruptive behavior and behavior management practices. To answer the fourth research question, overall findings were compared across the two classrooms.
Results and Discussion
Frequency of Children’s Disruptive Behaviors
With regards to the first research question, of the 319 codes for disruptive behavior, children most commonly exhibited defiance (33%) and hyperactivity (29%), followed by inattention (9%), crying (8%), and relational aggression (6%). Subsequently, children’s peer and object aggression, seeking parent, and disruptive behaviors outside of child control accounted for less than 5% of child codes each. This is consistent with past literature suggesting that young, White children tend to exhibit less severe forms of disruptive behavior (e.g., defiance and hyperactivity, as opposed to aggression; Degnan et al., 2008; Wakschlag et al., 2012). As such, although previous findings have suggested that low-income, ethnic minority children exhibit higher overall frequencies of disruptive behavior (Bradshaw et al., 2010; Harris & Herrington, 2006), the present study extends existing research in that the severity of the behaviors may nonetheless be similar across children from dominant and nondominant ethnic backgrounds.
Frequency of Teachers’ Behavior Management
Findings related to the second and third research questions suggested that teachers frequently used directives (27%), general statements (17%) and questions (14%), as well as moderate amounts of rule-related talk (8%), ignoring child behavior (8%), and statements related to emotions (7%) in response to children’s disruptive behaviors. All other teacher management codes were used infrequently (i.e., less than 6% each), a finding consistent with existing research that posits a high variability in teachers’ behavior management styles (Pianta, La Paro, Payne, Cox, & Bradley, 2002).
Unique differences did emerge, however, regarding which behavior management practices were most often used to control specific forms of disruptive behavior. Teachers were more likely to respond to children’s peer aggression (i.e., a severe form of disruptive behavior) with questions; these questions, in turn, were often paired with statements involving emotions (e.g., children were asked “if they wanted to be first graders or to stay in kindergarten”). This novel finding extends existing research involving the use of redirective questions (i.e., asking content-related questions to guide children back to learning tasks). While research has shown such redirective questions to be effective in mitigating more minor forms of disruptive behavior (e.g., inattention; Sutherland, Alder, & Gunter, 2003), problem-focused reflective questions – and particularly questions that emphasize children’s emotions – may be more effective in controlling severe forms of disruptive behavior (e.g., peer aggression) for ethnic minority children.
Furthermore, given its severity, peer aggression was the only child behavior that was never ignored in either classroom; by contrast, and in accordance with existing research and recommended practice (Hester, Hendrickson, & Gable, 2009), teachers often ignored instances of less severe forms of disruptive behavior (e.g., child crying or seeking parent) that are likely maintained by the provision of teacher attention (Bowman, Hardesty, & Mendres-Smith, 2013; Thompson, Cotnoir-Bichelman, McKerchar, Tate, & Dancho, 2007). Teachers’ directives were also the most frequent response to a variety of non-severe disruptive behaviors (e.g., defiance, hyperactivity, inattention, and aggression towards objects), which aligns with existing research that suggests low-income children are more often exposed to directives in the home setting (Hart & Risley, 1995). As such, there may exist some degree of home-school continuity in the use of behavior management practices, in that teachers are responding to certain forms of disruptive behaviors in ways that are aligned with children’s home cultures. This is a particularly important finding given recent research that suggests the vast benefits of home-school continuity for supporting children’s later school readiness (Barbarin, Downer, Odom, & Head, 2010; Heath, 1983; Ladd & Dinella, 2009).
Interestingly, teachers in the present study frequently used multiple types of behavior management practices in response to the same instance of disruptive behavior. For example, teachers’ statements involving peers were often paired with directives and statements involving emotions (e.g., “You’re bothering people. Go sit in your chair and play”), whereas statements involving rules were used concurrently with statements involving the logical progression of classroom tasks (e.g., the teacher “told both children that the current time was not for an argument but to clean up as they were told and to move onto circle time”). This is unsurprising given that adults from culturally diverse backgrounds tend to use a combination of recommended and culture-specific management practices to control child behavior (Weinstein et al., 2004). African American and Latino cultures, for instance, emphasize the role of the family or larger community (Roche, Ensminger, & Cherlin, 2007); the reprimands of African American and Latino adults, therefore, may be more likely to manifest as directives that highlight the role of one’s peers and others’ emotions. Similarly, when teachers explicitly replace maladaptive behaviors with adaptive ones (e.g., verbalizing “walk inside the classroom,” as opposed to “no running in the classroom”), associate the role of adaptive behaviors as it relates to what is expected of a child within a given activity setting (Kounin, 1970), and proactively teach logical (e.g., “first finish your juice, then get in line”) and social-emotional (e.g., “inside voices make me really happy”) consequences to child behavior, children are more likely to retain adaptive (Williford & Shelton, 2014) and minimize disruptive (Degol & Bachman, 2015) behaviors in the future.
Management Modifiers
With regards to teachers’ management modifiers, descriptive analyses suggested that the majority of teachers’ management practices were reactive (71%), neutral (61%) or negative (29%), with an equal emphasis on child and behavior. This finding contrasts existing literature on best practices of classroom management, which highlights the importance of positive (Fuhs et al., 2013) and proactive (Kame’enui & Darch, 1995) management practices, and an emphasis on behavior rather than an emphasis on the child (Clunies-Ross et al., 2008). Nonetheless, field notes from both classrooms emphasized how teachers successfully controlled their children’s behaviors, thereby suggesting that the management modifiers considered effective with ethnic majority children may differ from those in low-income, ethnically diverse classrooms.
Specifically, the lack of alignment between observed use of management modifiers and the extant literature on best practices may be attributed to differences between the observed classrooms, and the predominantly White, ethnically homogeneous classrooms used in previous research (Gay, 2002). Both teachers, for instance, were situated in relatively large classrooms (i.e., on the upper boundary of the maximum adult-child ratio); an increased class size, in turn, may suggest that teachers in low-income, ethnically diverse classrooms are challenged by more frequent disruptive behaviors than teachers in smaller classrooms with non-minority students (Sheets & Gay, 1996). As a result, teachers in these classrooms may be preoccupied with controlling in-the-moment disruptions as opposed to providing proactive behavioral lessons, thereby explaining why only 7% of management codes were proactive. Interestingly, and in line with existing research (Clunies-Ross et al., 2008), the use of reactive management practices was also associated with teachers’ use of negative management practices.
Finally, the equal emphasis on child and behavior found in this study suggests that teachers in ethnically diverse classrooms may be using a combination of management practices shown to be effective with European American (i.e., emphasizing children’s behaviors; Fuhs et al., 2013) and ethnic minority (i.e., emphasizing child as individual; Ballegner, 1999) children. And while it is unlikely that teachers would implement management practices that are continuous with the cultural background of every child in the classroom, these initial findings posit that teachers may in fact be harnessing some degree of continuity between the home and school cultures for children in these ethnically diverse classrooms.
Disruptive Behaviors and Teachers’ Responses: The Role of Child Age
Analyses related to the fourth research question found that disruptive behaviors were more frequent in the preschool classroom. This finding aligns with past research describing that behavioral problems tend to decline with age in accordance with growth in self-regulation skills (Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2008; Degnan et al., 2008). However, children also undergo rapid socioemotional development during the preschool years, gaining skills in theory of mind (i.e., understanding that individuals have interior mental states), perspective taking, and emotion recognition (e.g., Camras & Allison, 1985; Selman, 1971; Wellman, 2002; Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001; Wellman & Liu, 2004). Consequently, age-related differences in socioemotional skills appear to have influenced the specific quality of certain behaviors. For example, instances of relational aggression in the preschool classroom tended to be more self-focused, such as children refusing to share (e.g., “R was playing with some plastic people, but whenever anyone tried to play with them, she would make a small screaming noise and pull the box away from them”), whereas relational aggression in kindergarten was often explicitly directed at others through active teasing (e.g., “T began making fun of Z’s drawing, saying that Z’s picture of Mr. Victor was ‘fat’”). Hence, while the literature has predominantly focused on how the development of socioemotional skills is associated with improved prosocial behavior (e.g., Imuta, Henry, Slaughter, Selcuk, & Ruffman, 2016; Wu & Su, 2014), future research and teacher training should examine how growing socioemotional understanding may similarly contribute to the onset of antisocial and disruptive behaviors (Gomez-Garibello & Talwar, 2015).
Finally, the types of behavior management implemented by teachers also appear to be influenced by developmental changes that occur between the ages of three and six. While the use of management modifiers was consistent across classrooms, statements involving peers, emotions, or logical consequences were more likely to be implemented by kindergarten teachers. These types of behavior management rely on greater cognitive and socioemotional understanding than directives or rule-related statements. As such, the use of statements involving peers, emotions or logical consequences may not be as effective for preschoolers given that they are beyond the developmental capacities of children at this age.
Conclusion
In sum, the present study is unique in its naturalistic exploration of the behavior management practices implemented by teachers of low-income, ethnically diverse children, and how these management practices differ in response to specific forms of disruptive behavior. Specifically, this study reveals that teachers in ethnically diverse, low-income classrooms may rely on a combination of behavior management practices to effectively control child behavior (i.e., both culturally-specific and recommended practices); the use of a combination of culture-specific management practices, in turn, ensures that some degree of home-school continuity is present for children in ethnically diverse classrooms. The extant literature, however, has yet to explore how certain forms of disruptive behavior are associated with the presence and extent of home-school continuity or discontinuity in behavior management practices.
In addition, longitudinal research that tracks the behaviors of individual children throughout the early years would also extend findings of the present study by outlining how age-related improvements in children’s classroom behaviors are associated with subsequent changes in teachers’ management practices. The assessment of children’s long-term classroom behaviors vis-à-vis their teachers’ management practices, in turn, could address how teachers’ classroom management practices are also influenced by children’s behaviors (i.e., the bidirectional influence of teachers’ management practices and children’s behaviors; Curby et al., 2014; Wang, Brinkworth, & Eccles, 2013; Williford et al., 2013).
Future studies should therefore investigate the extent to which teachers’ behavior management practices bidirectionally influence the behavioral development of children from low-income, ethnically diverse backgrounds, in order to better equip researchers, policymakers, and teacher trainers to encourage effective behavior management practices for this at-risk population. In line with research that suggests children learn best when teachers’ classroom management practices take context and cultural differences into account (Weinstein et al., 2004), a more holistic investigation into children’s disruptive classroom behaviors and the existing strategies implemented by teachers of low-income, ethnically diverse children may be a crucial next step in scaffolding the long-term successes of this at-risk population.
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