The practices of pupil behaviour management according to primary pupils’ parents and teachers in Vietnam

ABSTRACT This study presented the practices of pupil behaviour management of Vietnamese primary teachers with a focus on primary pupils’ misbehaviours, and the activities the primary teachers implemented to manage this misbehaviour. 1,545 primary pupils’ parents and teachers from all three main areas in Vietnam took part in the questionnaire surveys. Mathematical statistical methods were used to analyse data along with collating the perceptions between primary teachers and parents. The results showed that pupil behaviour management had been implemented to a positive extent by the primary teachers in classroom practices. The primary teachers frequently implemented the activities of pupil behaviour management to deal with pupils’ misbehaviours, and this could help prevent misbehaviour in classroom practices. Nevertheless, the study also revealed that one of the emergent problems that needs to be solved in order to achieve better pupil behaviour management is pupils’ inattentive attitudes in learning. A possible reason was attributed to the teachers’ less cares and the lower frequency with which interactive instruction was implemented by the primary teachers in their teaching practices. The study suggested that an appropriate strategy of pupil behaviour management for Vietnamese primary teachers needed to be designed in order to help better engage pupils in learning and to meet the requirements of the ongoing implementation of competence-based curricula. A social constructivist approach with its interactive and meaningful features was recommended for further studies to work on designing an appropriate behaviour management strategy for pupils in a Confucian heritage culture such as Vietnam.