The impact of disciplinary problems on academic achievements

Abstract

This article describes aspects affecting pupils' behavior in class and the impact of pupil's behavior upon his academic achievement. The writer displays factors affecting pupil's in-class behavior and the ramification of his behavior upon his relations with peers and faculty, and the impact of these relations or the lack of them upon his academic achievements, and vice versa. The article also depicts the cycle of interrelated impacts upon school climate and learning atmosphere.

In the last decade, there is an obvious deterioration in discipline breaches in school. Educators and other school employees complain about the worsening daily atmosphere they have to cope with respect to the pupils' inappropriate behavior and about the frequency of disciplinary problems. Several teachers reported that during the period, instead of teaching, they are constantly required to deal with disciplinary problems.

Many teachers attribute the growing number of discipline breaches and violent behavior in school to the changes occurring in modern society_ the sense of blurring boundaries between generations, the lack of behavioral norms, the increase usage of psychological justifications to various offensive unacceptable behaviors, the growing sense of permissiveness, and the wild uncontrolled competitiveness. In this regard, disciplinary breaches erode the teacher's status and authority and make it difficult for him to define behavioral rules, maintain order and keep discipline in the class. “Discipline deterioration in educational system in general and in junior high level in particular, is a major cause for teachers' burnout" [Lavi & Hen, 1983; Almog, 1996; Sela, 2005].

 The writer is in favor of the opinion that if relations between teacher and pupils are negative, the class is doomed to failure, regardless of its location, while good teacher-pupils relations positively affect all the characteristics of the school climate. Indeed,  good relations lead to behavioral and academic improvement, raise scientific curiosity, contribute to improve relations among pupils, improve emotional experience, and contribute to learning motivation.