Main Article Content
Abstract
This study explored the types and causes of aggression and the ways teachers treat and react to aggressive children in Jordanian kindergartens in the Irbid district. The sample consisted of the first 20 teachers who responded to the letter of participation sent to them. Data on the causes and types of aggression and prevention strategies were collected by descriptive qualitative design, with semi-structured open-ended interviews, as well as observation of Jordanian kindergarten teachers. The results of the study revealed three themes: factors that shape aggression, sanctions rather than punishment and social learning and culture. Also, the results indicated that social learning through positive modelling was mostly needed to help aggressive and disruptive students and change their behaviour. In light of the results, further research utilizing quantitative and qualitative research methods to achieve broader understanding of aggression in pre-school settings is recommended.
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References
- Abu Al Rub, M.F., Rababaeh, E.Q. & Mustafa, I.G. (2017). Maternal socialization and kindergarten children’s behaviors from Jordanian mothers’ and teachers’ perspec-tives. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(2), 271-283.
- Al Saleh, T. (2012). The Degree of aspects and causes of the aggressive behavior among basic grade student at the elementary classes in northern governmental schools in the Northern Governorates West Bank and the methods of treatment from the teachers’ view point. Unpublished Master Thiess, An-Najah Na-tional University.
- Aldridge, J. & Goldman, R. (2007). Current issues and trends in education (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
- Al-Sarayreh, K. (2009).Reasons leading to stu-dent’s violence against teachers and administrators in Jordanian Public Sec-ondary Schools from the viewpoint of stu-dents, teachers and administrators. Jorda-nian Article of Educational Science, 5(2), 137-157.
- Arbeau, A. K., & Coplan, J.R. (2007). Kinder-garten teachers' beliefs and responses to hypothetical prosocial, asocial, and antiso-cial children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 53(2), 291-316.
- Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Eng-lewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
- behavioral disorders. Teaching Exceptional Children, 41(5), 60-65
- Ben Haleam, A. (2014). The relationship be-tween children’ aggressive behavior and children’ neglected by their mothers. Jour-nal of Social Studies and Researches, 7, 21-37.
- Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (1992). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Boston: Allyn and Ba-con.
- Brotman, L. M., Gouley, K. K., Huang, K. Y., Rosenfelt, A., Neal, C. O., Klein, R. G., & Shrout, P. (2008). Preventive intervention for preschoolers at high risk for antisocial behaviour: Long- term effects on child physical aggression and parenting practic-es. Journal of Clinical of Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37(2), 386-396.
- Center of Excellence Early childhood Devel-opment. (2008). Eyes on aggressive behaviors. From:
- childhood: A short term longitudinal study. School Psychology Review, 36(1), 22-43
- Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychologi-cal Measurement, 20, 37-48.
- Connor, S. (2007). Nature not nurture is to blame for aggressive children. From:
- Cote, S. M., Boivin, M., Nagin, D. S., Japel, C., Xu, Q., Zoccolillo, M., … Tremblay, R. E. (2007). The role of malternal education and nonmaternal care services in the pre-vention of children’s physical aggression problems. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 65(11), 1305-1312.
- Cullerton-Sen, C., Cassidy, A. R., Murry-Close., Cicchetti, D., Crick, N. R., & Rogosch, F. A. (2008). Childhood maltreatment and the development of relational and physical aggression: The importance of a gender-informed approach. Child Development, 79( 6), 1736- 1751.
- Daly, L. A., & Perez, L. M. (2009). Exposure to media violence and other correlates of ag-gression behavior in preschool children. Early Childhood Research & Practice (ECRP), 11(2). From:
- Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2005). The sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Doumen, S., Verschueren, K., Buyse, E., Ger-meijs, V., & Luyckx, K. ( 2008). Reciprocal relations between teacher-child conflict and aggressive behavior in kindergarten: A three-wave longitudinal study. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37(3), 588-599.
- Dykeman, B. F. (2003). The effect of family conflict resolution on children’s classroom behavior. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 30(1), 41-46.
- Fung, A. L. C., & Tsang, S. K. M. (2007). Anger coping method and skill training for Chi-nese children with physically aggressive behaviors. Early Child Development and Care, 177(3), 259-273.
- Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive anthropology. New York: Basic Books.
- Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York: Basic Books.
- Gentile, D. A., Coyne, S., & Walsh, D. A.(2011). Media violence, physical aggression, and relational aggression in school age chil-dren: A short-term longitudinal study. Aggressive Behavior, 37(2), 193-206.
- Hatch, J. (2002). Doing qualitative research in educational settings. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.
- Helterbran, V. R. (2009). Linking character ed-ucation and global understanding through children's picture books. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 45(2), 69-73.
- http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v11n2/daly.html
- http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcon-tent.cgi?article=1191&context=dissertation
- Kurasaki, K. S. (2000). Intercoder reliability for validating conclusions drawn from open-ended interview data. Field Methods, 12(13), 179-194.
- Leffert, J. S., Brady, M. E., & Siperstein, G. N. (2009). A "Tools for Teachers" approach for infusing social skills instruction into daily teaching activities. Teaching Exceptional Children Plus, 6(2). 1-23.
- Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
- Manning, M. A., & Bear, G. G. (2002). Are children’s concerns about punishment re-lated to their aggression? Journal of School Psychology,40(6), 523-539.
- Maxwell, J.A. (1992). Understanding and va-lidity in qualitative research. Harvard Edu-cational Review, 62(3), 279-301.
- McComas, J. J., Johnson, L., & Symons, F. J. (2005). Teacher and peer responsivity to pro-social behaviour of high aggressors in preschool. Educational Psychology, 25(2-3), 223-231.
- McEvoy, M. A., Estrem, T. L., Rodriguez, M. C., & Olson, M. L. (2003). Assessing Relational and physical aggression among preschool children : Intermethod agreement. Topic in Early Childhood Special Educatin, 23(2), 53-63.
- Merriam, S. B. (2002). Assessing and evaluating qualitative research. In S. B. Merriam (Ed.), Qualitative research in practice (pp. 18-39). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
- Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Ostrov, J. M., & Crick, N. R. (2007). Forms and functions of aggression during early
- Ostrov, J. M., Massetti, G. M., Stauffacher, K., Godleski, S. A., Hart, K. C., Karch, K. M.,. . . Ries, E. E. (2009). An intervention for re-lational and physical aggression in early childhood: A preliminary study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24, 15-28.
- Ostrov, J. M., Ries, E. E., Stauffacher, K., God-leski, S. A., & Mullins, A. D. (2008). Rela-tional Aggression, physical aggression and deception during early childhood: A mul-timethod, multi-informant short-term lon-gitudinal study. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37(3), 664-675..
- Posada, G., Pratt, D. M. (2008). Physical ag-gression in the family and reschoolers’ use of the mother as a secure base. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 34(1), 14-27.
- Powers, C. J., Bierman, K. L. (2012). The multi-faceted impact of peer relations on ag-gressive–disruptive behavior in early ele-mentary school. Developmental Psychology. 49(6):1174-1186
- Raaijmentz ,M. A. J., Smidts, D. P., Sergant, J.A., Maassen, G. H., Posthumus. J. A., England, H. V., & Matthys, W. (2008). Executive function in preschool children with aggressive behavior: Impairment in Inhibitory control. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 1097-1107.
- Regan, K. S. (2009). Improving the way we think about students with emotional and/or
- Sakimura, J. N., Dang, M. T., Ballard, K. B., & Hansen, R. L. (2008). Cognitive and tem-perament clusters in 3-to 5-year-old chil-dren with aggressive behavior. Journal of School Health, 78, 38-45.
- Sandelowski, M. (2000), Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Sampling, Data Col-lection, and Analysis Techniques in Mixed-Method Studies. Nurs. Health, 23246–255.
- Shaffer, D. R. (2009). Social and personality de-velopment (6th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
- Shechtman, Z., & Ifargan, M. (2009). School-based integrated and segregated interven-tions to reduce aggression. Aggressive Be-havior, 35, 342-356.
- Thomas, D. E., Bierman, K. L., & Powers, C. J.(2011). The influence of classroom ag-gression and classroom climate on aggres-sive–disruptive behavior. Child Develop-ment, 82(3), 751–757.
- Thomas, R. M. (2005). Comparing theories of child development (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. Co.
- Thornberg, R. (2006). The situated nature of preschool children’s conflict strategies. Educational Psychology, 26(1), 109-126.
- Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D. S., Seguin, J. N., Zocolillo, M., Zelazo, P. D., Boivin, M., . . . Japel, C. ( 2004). Physical aggression dur-ing early childhood: Trajectories and pre-dictors. American Academy of Pediatrics, 114(1), 42-50.
- Waliski, A. D., & Carlson, L. A. ( 2008). Group work with preschool children : Effect on emotional Awareness and behavior. The Journal for Specialists in Work, 33(1), 3-21.
- Whiston, S. C., Tai, W. L., Rahardja, D. and Eder, K. (2011), School counseling outcome: A Meta-Analytic examination of in-terventions. Journal of Counseling & Devel-opment, 89, 37–55.
- Works, D.M (2015). Teachers' experiences con-cerning the rise in student aggression. Doctoral Thesis presented to Walden Uni-versity. From:
- www.excellence-earlychildhood.com
- www.independent.co.uk
- Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods. (4th ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
- Zhang, K. C. (2011). Let’s have fun! Teaching social skills through stories, Telecommu-nications and activities. International Journal of Special Education, 26 (2 ). 70-78.
References
Abu Al Rub, M.F., Rababaeh, E.Q. & Mustafa, I.G. (2017). Maternal socialization and kindergarten children’s behaviors from Jordanian mothers’ and teachers’ perspec-tives. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(2), 271-283.
Al Saleh, T. (2012). The Degree of aspects and causes of the aggressive behavior among basic grade student at the elementary classes in northern governmental schools in the Northern Governorates West Bank and the methods of treatment from the teachers’ view point. Unpublished Master Thiess, An-Najah Na-tional University.
Aldridge, J. & Goldman, R. (2007). Current issues and trends in education (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Al-Sarayreh, K. (2009).Reasons leading to stu-dent’s violence against teachers and administrators in Jordanian Public Sec-ondary Schools from the viewpoint of stu-dents, teachers and administrators. Jorda-nian Article of Educational Science, 5(2), 137-157.
Arbeau, A. K., & Coplan, J.R. (2007). Kinder-garten teachers' beliefs and responses to hypothetical prosocial, asocial, and antiso-cial children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 53(2), 291-316.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Eng-lewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
behavioral disorders. Teaching Exceptional Children, 41(5), 60-65
Ben Haleam, A. (2014). The relationship be-tween children’ aggressive behavior and children’ neglected by their mothers. Jour-nal of Social Studies and Researches, 7, 21-37.
Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (1992). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Boston: Allyn and Ba-con.
Brotman, L. M., Gouley, K. K., Huang, K. Y., Rosenfelt, A., Neal, C. O., Klein, R. G., & Shrout, P. (2008). Preventive intervention for preschoolers at high risk for antisocial behaviour: Long- term effects on child physical aggression and parenting practic-es. Journal of Clinical of Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37(2), 386-396.
Center of Excellence Early childhood Devel-opment. (2008). Eyes on aggressive behaviors. From:
childhood: A short term longitudinal study. School Psychology Review, 36(1), 22-43
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychologi-cal Measurement, 20, 37-48.
Connor, S. (2007). Nature not nurture is to blame for aggressive children. From:
Cote, S. M., Boivin, M., Nagin, D. S., Japel, C., Xu, Q., Zoccolillo, M., … Tremblay, R. E. (2007). The role of malternal education and nonmaternal care services in the pre-vention of children’s physical aggression problems. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 65(11), 1305-1312.
Cullerton-Sen, C., Cassidy, A. R., Murry-Close., Cicchetti, D., Crick, N. R., & Rogosch, F. A. (2008). Childhood maltreatment and the development of relational and physical aggression: The importance of a gender-informed approach. Child Development, 79( 6), 1736- 1751.
Daly, L. A., & Perez, L. M. (2009). Exposure to media violence and other correlates of ag-gression behavior in preschool children. Early Childhood Research & Practice (ECRP), 11(2). From:
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2005). The sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Doumen, S., Verschueren, K., Buyse, E., Ger-meijs, V., & Luyckx, K. ( 2008). Reciprocal relations between teacher-child conflict and aggressive behavior in kindergarten: A three-wave longitudinal study. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37(3), 588-599.
Dykeman, B. F. (2003). The effect of family conflict resolution on children’s classroom behavior. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 30(1), 41-46.
Fung, A. L. C., & Tsang, S. K. M. (2007). Anger coping method and skill training for Chi-nese children with physically aggressive behaviors. Early Child Development and Care, 177(3), 259-273.
Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive anthropology. New York: Basic Books.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York: Basic Books.
Gentile, D. A., Coyne, S., & Walsh, D. A.(2011). Media violence, physical aggression, and relational aggression in school age chil-dren: A short-term longitudinal study. Aggressive Behavior, 37(2), 193-206.
Hatch, J. (2002). Doing qualitative research in educational settings. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.
Helterbran, V. R. (2009). Linking character ed-ucation and global understanding through children's picture books. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 45(2), 69-73.
http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v11n2/daly.html
http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcon-tent.cgi?article=1191&context=dissertation
Kurasaki, K. S. (2000). Intercoder reliability for validating conclusions drawn from open-ended interview data. Field Methods, 12(13), 179-194.
Leffert, J. S., Brady, M. E., & Siperstein, G. N. (2009). A "Tools for Teachers" approach for infusing social skills instruction into daily teaching activities. Teaching Exceptional Children Plus, 6(2). 1-23.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Manning, M. A., & Bear, G. G. (2002). Are children’s concerns about punishment re-lated to their aggression? Journal of School Psychology,40(6), 523-539.
Maxwell, J.A. (1992). Understanding and va-lidity in qualitative research. Harvard Edu-cational Review, 62(3), 279-301.
McComas, J. J., Johnson, L., & Symons, F. J. (2005). Teacher and peer responsivity to pro-social behaviour of high aggressors in preschool. Educational Psychology, 25(2-3), 223-231.
McEvoy, M. A., Estrem, T. L., Rodriguez, M. C., & Olson, M. L. (2003). Assessing Relational and physical aggression among preschool children : Intermethod agreement. Topic in Early Childhood Special Educatin, 23(2), 53-63.
Merriam, S. B. (2002). Assessing and evaluating qualitative research. In S. B. Merriam (Ed.), Qualitative research in practice (pp. 18-39). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Ostrov, J. M., & Crick, N. R. (2007). Forms and functions of aggression during early
Ostrov, J. M., Massetti, G. M., Stauffacher, K., Godleski, S. A., Hart, K. C., Karch, K. M.,. . . Ries, E. E. (2009). An intervention for re-lational and physical aggression in early childhood: A preliminary study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24, 15-28.
Ostrov, J. M., Ries, E. E., Stauffacher, K., God-leski, S. A., & Mullins, A. D. (2008). Rela-tional Aggression, physical aggression and deception during early childhood: A mul-timethod, multi-informant short-term lon-gitudinal study. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 37(3), 664-675..
Posada, G., Pratt, D. M. (2008). Physical ag-gression in the family and reschoolers’ use of the mother as a secure base. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 34(1), 14-27.
Powers, C. J., Bierman, K. L. (2012). The multi-faceted impact of peer relations on ag-gressive–disruptive behavior in early ele-mentary school. Developmental Psychology. 49(6):1174-1186
Raaijmentz ,M. A. J., Smidts, D. P., Sergant, J.A., Maassen, G. H., Posthumus. J. A., England, H. V., & Matthys, W. (2008). Executive function in preschool children with aggressive behavior: Impairment in Inhibitory control. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 1097-1107.
Regan, K. S. (2009). Improving the way we think about students with emotional and/or
Sakimura, J. N., Dang, M. T., Ballard, K. B., & Hansen, R. L. (2008). Cognitive and tem-perament clusters in 3-to 5-year-old chil-dren with aggressive behavior. Journal of School Health, 78, 38-45.
Sandelowski, M. (2000), Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Sampling, Data Col-lection, and Analysis Techniques in Mixed-Method Studies. Nurs. Health, 23246–255.
Shaffer, D. R. (2009). Social and personality de-velopment (6th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Shechtman, Z., & Ifargan, M. (2009). School-based integrated and segregated interven-tions to reduce aggression. Aggressive Be-havior, 35, 342-356.
Thomas, D. E., Bierman, K. L., & Powers, C. J.(2011). The influence of classroom ag-gression and classroom climate on aggres-sive–disruptive behavior. Child Develop-ment, 82(3), 751–757.
Thomas, R. M. (2005). Comparing theories of child development (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. Co.
Thornberg, R. (2006). The situated nature of preschool children’s conflict strategies. Educational Psychology, 26(1), 109-126.
Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D. S., Seguin, J. N., Zocolillo, M., Zelazo, P. D., Boivin, M., . . . Japel, C. ( 2004). Physical aggression dur-ing early childhood: Trajectories and pre-dictors. American Academy of Pediatrics, 114(1), 42-50.
Waliski, A. D., & Carlson, L. A. ( 2008). Group work with preschool children : Effect on emotional Awareness and behavior. The Journal for Specialists in Work, 33(1), 3-21.
Whiston, S. C., Tai, W. L., Rahardja, D. and Eder, K. (2011), School counseling outcome: A Meta-Analytic examination of in-terventions. Journal of Counseling & Devel-opment, 89, 37–55.
Works, D.M (2015). Teachers' experiences con-cerning the rise in student aggression. Doctoral Thesis presented to Walden Uni-versity. From:
www.excellence-earlychildhood.com
www.independent.co.uk
Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods. (4th ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
Zhang, K. C. (2011). Let’s have fun! Teaching social skills through stories, Telecommu-nications and activities. International Journal of Special Education, 26 (2 ). 70-78.