Verbal and nonverbal approaches to classroom behavioral control in the United States Virgin Islands public secondary schools.

Abstract

Each of the hypotheses was rejected. The analysis and interpretation of data revealed significant differences between junior and senior high school teachers and between male and female secondary school teachers. The findings also revealed significant differences among secondary school teachers of various subject areas.

The data collected for this study were analyzed using the chi-square test of independence for statistical purposes. Each of the six hypotheses of this study was tested at the .05 level of significance. These hypotheses stated that there were no statistically significant differences between junior and senior high school teachers, male and female secondary school teachers, and among secondary school teachers of various subject areas with respect to patterns of categorized verbal and nonverbal behavioral control technique usage in the United States Virgin Islands secondary schools.

A total of seventy-seven secondary school teachers participated in this study. These teachers listed, and established the priority of in terms of use, four behavioral control techniques which they would use to terminate or cause the undesirable disruptive or inappropriate classroom behavior of typical secondary classroom behavioral problem situations to cease. These teachers were randomly selected using a table of random numbers.

This study was designed to investigate the use and frequency of use of verbal and nonverbal approaches to classroom behavioral control problem situations, with respect to sex, subject area taught, and type of secondary school, which were indicated as being used by secondary teachers in the secondary classroom settings of the public secondary schools of the United States Virgin Islands. The problem of the study was to investigate the varying dynamics of the verbal and nonverbal classroom behavioral control techniques used by these secondary teachers in the secondary classroom settings.