Difference between disruptive behavior and indiscipline

Indiscipline: A Violation of Established Norms

It is very important for teachers to be able to clearly differentiate between disruptive behavior and simple indiscipline.

Indiscipline can be defined as behavior that goes against the established norms for a classroom setting.

An example of this is when a student constantly interrupts the teacher's explanations during a lesson.

Other indiscipline behaviors might include forgetting to do homework or playing games in the classroom.

The Nature and Impact of Indiscipline

Although these indiscipline behaviors are problematic, they are not considered disruptive in the strictest sense of the term.

Interrupting an explanation, for example, can distort the information and cause other children to not understand the lesson.

Games in the classroom can produce a great mess in the materials and can even hurt the students.

Despite their negative consequences, these actions do not completely break with the nature of the class nor do they make learning impossible.

Disruptive Behavior: An Attack on the Educational Process

In contrast, disruptive behavior is a behavior through which the student actively seeks to disrupt the teaching process.

It is not a simple violation of a rule, but an interruption in the evolutionary development of the child and the group.

These actions make it impossible for the child to create and maintain healthy social relationships.

They are behaviors that affect the entire student body, since the individual action of a single student interferes with the healthy development of the re