Are They Ready? Final Year Pre-service Teachers\u27 Learning about Managing Student Behaviour

This paper presents findings from a study addressing final year pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their confidence and competence in managing student behaviour. Data were collected by means of a written survey administered shortly after the end of their last professional experience. Themes derived from analysing survey responses are examined in relation to seven principles identified by the MCEETYA funded Student Behaviour Management Project as best practice in Australia (De Jong, 2005). The findings reveal that although the majority of participating pre-service teachers felt confident and competent to manage student behaviour, their reporting of strategies indicated a narrow ‘behaviourist’ conception of management that may limit their chances of successfully responding to more complex challenges as beginning teachers – challenges such as responding to the diversity of student backgrounds and behaviours, engaging all learners and working with a range of stake-holders