Evolution of Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions about Classroom Management and Student Misbehavior in an Inquiry-based Classroom Management Course

ABSTRACT This study investigated how pre-service teachers’ perceptions about classroom management and student misbehavior evolved in an inquiry-based classroom management course. Twenty-four pre-service teachers in Northern Cyprus participated in the study. Data were collected through writing prompts. The results showed that most of the pre-service teachers regarded the major goal of classroom management as establishing discipline in the classroom through deploying reactive disciplinary strategies prior to taking the course. Their conceptualization of classroom management changed, and they mostly started to include proactive strategies to create a learning environment fostering meaningful learning and enhancing students’ social and emotional development. Their approach to student misbehavior became more nuanced and informed with more elaboration in terms of a) the context in which it would appear, (b) its frequency of happening, (c) its severity, and (d) its possible effects on students, wider audience, and teaching-learning processes.