Abstract

The current study investigated how new teachers deal with students who present disciplinary problems, analyzed the characteristics and reasons behind these problems, and examined the preferred strategies for handling them. This is qualitative research involving interviews with twenty elementary school teachers who are at the beginning of their professional careers, with each having up to five years of experience. Through semi-structured interviews, information was collected on their personal and professional experiences. The findings highlighted common perceptions regarding the definition of disciplinary problems, those that interfere with the planned learning process, and identified a variety of reasons for their appearance, ranging from challenges arising from the teachers themselves, such as a lack of skills in dealing with the students, to factors related to the students, such as hyperactivity or external influences that affect their behavior in the classroom. The study revealed that the ways of dealing with difficult behavior among students included cooperation with external factors such as administrators, educators, counselors, psychologists, or parents. It also emerged that most of the teachers use methods such as offering gifts and prizes to students or withdrawing attention from the disruptive student, which contributes to calming them down.