The Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scales
Footnotes for fhis article can b e found immediately following references. We assume that classroom behavior, insofar as it reflects attitudes and motivations regarding school learning and achievement, is significant and important to educators and professional persons who are involved in the intellectual growth and academic development of the child. Teachers and guidance counsellors are frequently called upon to make reports about or evaluations of how a child is behaving in class. Report card systems often request that the teacher supplement grades with ratings or comments about classroom behavior that purportedly help to explain the grade given. Similar reports of behavior are often requested by professionals outside of the school system who may come into contact with the student. The management of the classroom, with its frequent connotation of maintaining control over the students, is a frequent topic of discussion among teachers. Many students have certain behavior “reputations,” particularly those students who pose problems. Other student behaviors raise rather baffling questions for the teacher, who wishes to understand what the behavior may mean so as to respond appropriately. With the surge of interest in recent years in “special” education, there has been a heightened focus on disturbed or problem behavior in the classroom. This increased interest can be seen in the rapid development of the profession of school psychology, in publications i n . the area of academic techniques with atypical children, and in studies dealing with prediction of emotional problems that might interfere with academic success (e.g., Bower, 1959). The rapid increase in the development of psychological services in schools has focused attention upon early recognition and remediation.