The promotion of self-regulation of children's behaviour, an unresolved issue in initial teacher education in Catalonia (Spain)

Abstract

The growing concern in classrooms over the increase in disruptive behaviour and its management poses the need to investigate the teaching competences that can help teachers to promote selfregulation of behaviour (SRB) among children. This requires an inclusive approach that understands behaviour in a holistic way, taking into account the whole context. Therefore, different competences need to be activated that together enable teachers to promote children’s SRB. This article identifies which specific competences of 923 teaching plans of the five public Catalan universities would contribute to preparing student teachers to foster children’s SRB. The perceptions of 929 final-year student teachers on the training they had received were collected using a questionnaire. The most present competences in the teaching plans are pedagogical, inclusive, teacher reflection and collaboration. Among the least present are communication and classroom management, although they are the most essential for promoting children’s SRB. Participants reported that the contribution of university subjects to promoting children’s SRB is scarce and is largely limited to external regulation strategies instead of supporting children’s SRB. In terms of behaviour management as a fundamental and incipient aspect of fostering children’s SRB, student teachers do not feel that they even have the key competences for managing behaviour in the classroom, although there are differences between universities and degrees. The active role of student teachers in children’s SRB should be enhanced during initial teacher education, even in the attention to diversity specialisation and in the dual system programme. There is an urgent need for universities to equip student teachers with competences to promote children’s SRB. The competence profile should be clarified and unified, so that this set of competences can be worked on in a complementary, cross-curricular and practical way in different subjects, regardless of teaching specialisation.