WAYS TO MANAGE THE PROBLEMATIC BEHAVIOUR IN PRIMARY SCHOOL USING PSYCHOLOGY THEORIES
Theory that has been learned that could be applicable to overcome truancy and fighting is a model of moral development, developed by Lawrence Kohlberg (1984) .The theory firstly developed by Piaget (1932). The model explained that moral development is determined by cognitive development. Piaget assumed that the way individuals consider moral issues depend on their level of cognitive development. Using this assumption, Kohlberg eventually derived a stage theory based on investigation of the nature and progression of subjective reasoning (Mok Soon Sang, 2006).
According to Kohlberg’s Stage Theory, individuals' progress according to three main levels of moral development, with two sublevels in each, yielding altogether six stages of moral development. These three main levels are pre-conventional morality, conventional morality and post-conventional morality. Kohlberg’s Level of Moral Development has propagated that children at the pre-conventional level or around early childhood level, think and act in terms of external authority. These children obey the rules to avoid punishment or to get certain reward (Mok Soon Sang, 2006).
Older children or children at middle childhood age are within the conventional level of moral reasoning. The children obey the rules not for avoiding punishment but to behave good so as to win approval from others, especially the adults. Their moral thinking is relatively rigid and authority oriented. They consider rules as absolute guidelines that should be followed accordingly (Mok Soon Sang, 2006).
Adolescents, who have reached the post-conventional level, involve working out their own personal code of ethics. They understand that these rules are necessary for social order, but they may not abide by them if these rules were to violate the code of ethics and principles of their own.
Therefore, when these theories applied to the problematic behaviour among primary school pupils who are between 6 and 12 years old (early childhood age and middle childhood age) the remedies that could be put forward are :-
a) Giving out awards for good behaviour such as mock certificates, candies and stationeries.
b) Giving praises and other expressive approvals.
c) Getting out clear rules and regulations.
d) Publicly and reasonably punish those who are breaking the rules and regulations.
In seeking to answer the question, "Why do people engage in deviant and/or criminal acts?", many researchers, as well as the general public, have begun to focus on the element of personal choice. An understanding of personal choice is commonly based in a conception of rationality or rational choice. These conceptions are rooted in the analysis of human behavior developed by the early classical theorists, Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham.
The central points of this theory are: (1) The human being is a rational actor, (2) Rationality involves an end/means calculation, (3) People (freely) choose all behavior, both conforming and deviant, based on their rational calculations, (4) The central element of calculation involves a cost benefit analysis: Pleasure versus Pain, (5) Choice, with all other conditions equal, will be directed towards the maximization of individual pleasure, (6) Choice can be controlled through the perception and understanding of the potential pain or punishment that will follow an act judged to be in violation of the social good, the social contract, (7) The state is responsible for maintaining order and preserving the common good through a system of laws (this system is the embodiment of the social contract), (8) The Swiftness, Severity, and Certainty of punishment are the key elements in understanding a law's ability to control human behavior.
Classical theory, however, dominated thinking about deviance for only a short time. Positivist research on the external (social, psychological, and biological) "causes" of crime focused attention on the factors that impose upon and constrain the rational choice of individual actors.
According to this view, law-violating behavior should be viewed as an event that occurs when an offender decides to risk violating the law after considering his or her own personal situation (need for money, personal values, learning experiences) and situational factors (how well a target is protected, how affluent the neighborhood is, how efficient the local police happen to be). Before choosing to commit a crime, the reasoning criminal evaluates the risk of apprehension, the seriousness of the expected punishment, the value of the criminal enterprise, and his or her immediate need for criminal gain." (Siegel, p.131, 1992)
This perspective shifts attention to the act of engaging in criminal or deviant activity. The issue becomes, what can be done to make the act of crime or deviance less attractive to the individual? How can crime or deviant behavior be prevented? "...crime prevention or at least crime reduction, may be achieved through policies that convince criminals to desist from criminal activities, delay their actions, or avoid a particular target." (Siegel, p.133, 1992).
Based on the theory above, the truant pupils before committing the undesirable acts, they must have take into considerations the risk of getting caught by the teachers, the seriousness of the expected punishment, and what the truant pupils would have gained from their acts of truancy.
Therefore, if the considerations stated above are addressed judiciously and carefully, the acts of truancy can be deterred or reduced. For example, if truant pupils consider that they can go to arcade playing video games if they go truant, then maybe, the teachers should talk to the video arcade operators the pupils always frequented, to stop admitting them to enter the video arcade. With this implementation, it is hoped that the truant pupils will stop their acts of truancy as they have nowhere to go.
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