Investigating educational misbehavior in students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences: A case study

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The incidence and prevalence of educational misbehavior is a major problem in the university classrooms, and its extent has increased dramatically over the past two decades. The current study aims at investigating the prevalence of educational misbehavior among students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in 2018. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical research, overall 300 students who were randomly selected using stratified sampling method. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire with validity and reliability. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by faculty members and the reliability of the tool was 0.91. Data were entered into SPSS software version 16 and analyzed using ANOVA test and Mann-Whitney U-test for the relationships between the variables. The significance level was considered to be 0.5. Findings: Findings showed that the mean score of educational misbehavior was 71.21 among the students. The findings also indicated that the incidence of educational misbehavior was increased by increasing the grade of students (P < 0.05). In addition, among components of educational misbehavior components, the component of drawing attraction was observed more in male students. Conclusion: Considering the frequency of educational misbehavior among students, identification of types and prevalence of educational misbehavior should be considered by the educational authorities and managers of universities and faculties. In addition, identification of these behaviors significantly influences learning-teaching process and provides an important image of the way of treating and thinking for such behaviors with the professors. Appropriate disciplinary preventive measures, important measures for classroom management, and management of behaviors of students in the classroom are recommended for reducing these behaviors. © 2017 Society for Innovative Research. All rights reserved.