Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Sandra Mahoney

Abstract

Schoolteachers report a lack of resources and training to manage disruptive student behavior that presents as antisocial, problematic, and/or symptomatic of mental illness. Disruptive student behaviors have a negative impact on students socially and academically. The social cognitive theory and social learning theory guided the research questions to examine differences in perceptions of 195 urban general and special educators in middle and high school regarding their skills to manage disruptive student behavior and teachers’ need for professional training to manage disruptive student behavior. A 2X2 between-groups nonparametric survey research design was used, and the two dependent variables were measured using the Skills and Needs Inventories in Functional Behavior Assessments and Interventions (SNI-FBAI). Data were examined for distributional properties and reliability analyses were conducted to verify internal consistency before combining items to form the two scales. Inferential statistics produced no significant differences between middle and high school teachers’ capacity to manage disruptive student behavior. However, there was a significant difference between means of special and general educators’ perceptions of their ability to manage disruptive behaviors. Additionally, there was no significant difference between middle and high school teachers’ reports in terms of their need for training to manage disruptive student behavior, but there were significant differences between special and general educators’ reports in terms of training need. Administrators may use the findings from this study to improve education reform efforts focused on teacher development by learning which topics involving professional training teachers identified as needed to improve their capacity to manage disruptive student behavior.

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