Classroom to Reduce Student Disruptive Behavior: An Action Research

Disruptive behavior, considered to hinder teacher’s instruction, student’s learning, and the classroom environment, is a significant problem faced by teachers daily. With this significance in mind, this study adopted an action research (AR) method to explore the common disruptive behavior that secondary English as a foreign language (EFL) students exhibit in the language classroom, whether or not seating arrangements can help solve this issue and students’ perceptions regarding this type of behavior. A total of 32 students (males = 20, females = 12) with the age range between 12 to 14 from Dechentsemo Central (public) School in Bhutan participated in this study. Data were collected using observation and semi-structured interviews. The overall findings revealed six common types of disruptive behaviors in the language classroom, most of which could be reduced to a certain extent by using seating arrangements as an intervention strategy. Further, the semi-structured interviews data revealed that the present participants acknowledged that disruptive behaviors in the classroom have negative effects on learning and learning outcomes. On the whole, this study built on the previous literature on the importance of frequent change of seating arrangements in the classroom and its positive influence on students' disruptive behaviors in the language classroom.