Student teachers' views of pupil misbehaviour in classrooms: A Norwegian and an English setting compared

This paper examines how student teachers in Norway and England perceive pupil misbehaviour. The data are based on an opportunistic questionnaire survey of 86 student teachers in Kristiansand and 100 student teachers in York. Student teachers' perceptions of the seriousness of infractions were significantly different with regard to 7 of the items, with the students in Norway being relatively more tolerant. There were a few differences linked to sex and age. A principal components analysis identified 6 factors that were labelled: aggression towards other pupils, delinquent behaviour, oppositional behaviour, passive deviance, anti-social behaviour, and off-task behaviour. With few exceptions, student teachers in Norway and England regarded serious aggressive, delinquent and anti-social behaviour as totally unacceptable. This suggests that it is appropriate to encourage student teachers (and their school mentors) to consistently censure these kinds of pupil misbehaviour.