Student Perceptions of Permissiveness and Teacher‐instigated Disciplinary Strategies

S ummary . Using a self‐report questionnaire, we examined the perceptions of 616 primary and secondary school students of permissiveness and disciplinary strategies. Acceptability ratings formed the dependent variable. The most acceptable strategy was individual student‐teacher discussion, followed by exclusionary time out, then physical punishment, and least acceptable was permissiveness. Also examined was the influence of the misbehaviour situation and evaluator characteristics (age and gender). Several methodological limitations are discussed including the range of disciplinary strategies that were assessed, and focus on an individual rather than group of students.