Teacher Trainees ’ Strategies for Managing the Behaviours of Students with Special Needs

This study aimed to determine how a group of teacher trainees handled challenging behaviour by students during teaching practice. A total of 35 teacher trainees from the special education programme of a local university were chosen as respondents. A questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert-type scale was administered in this study. The data were analysed descriptively involving frequencies and percentages, mean scores and standard deviations. The results showed that the most frequent types of challenging behaviours shown by the students were joking and chatting with friends, as well as making noise, while the teacher was teaching. The most frequent action taken by the respondents to prevent the negative behaviours was to immediately reprimand the students and advise them. The respondents reported that the challenges they faced in managing behaviours in the classroom included limited time to manage behaviours, lack of skills and knowledge regarding behaviour management and heavy teaching workloads. The findings of this study imply that future teachers and teacher trainees should be exposed to knowledge and skills regarding behaviour management of students with special needs in real settings before they begin their teaching practice