Preventing Misbehavior - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Are you meeting your students’ needs?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. -Benjamin Franklin

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.  -Albert Einstein

The first way to PREVENT student behaviors in the classroom, rather than reacting to them, is with Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow was an American psychologist who developed a hierarchy of needs to explain human motivation. His theory suggested that people have a number of basic needs that must be met so they can move forward to pursue more social, emotional, and self-actualizing needs.

We typically think of Maslow's needs as they are related to our personal lives. But as teachers, we must also think of meeting the needs of the students in our classroom. These needs go beyond the academic. We have no control over what happens in a student's home, but we CAN control what happens once they walk through the door of our school and our classroom. 

When looking at student behaviors BEGIN with assessing if you and the school are meeting all of their needs.

Preventing Misbehavior: Essential Needs to Be Met

PHYSIOLOGICAL - Make sure the students in your classroom have access to breakfast, snack, and lunch. Adequate access to water. Outdoor recess breaks and a comfortable classroom environment with air conditioning and heat as needed.

SAFETY AND SECURITY - Students need to feel safe and secure at school. As teachers we can provide this feeling through our classroom routines and procedures. This predictability, knowing what will happen everyday, makes students feel safe. When things are unpredictable it can cause stress and anxiety.

Students need structure and boundaries. This is especially important for students with attention and focus issues like ADD/ADHD. They are unable to adequately control themselves and need boundaries to help with regulation. When students feel safe, they are more likely to take more academic risks and attempt things out of their comfort zone.

LOVE AND BELONGING - We all know the importance of building relationships with our students, but these relationships alone will not prevent behavior problems. It is a good start, but there’s a lot more to it. The culture of your classroom and the school as a whole also contributes to a student’s sense of belonging.

Students feel isolated and alone if they are not valued or appreciated by others or connected to them in some way. You can foster a sense of belonging in your classroom by having FUN! Find opportunities to encourage curiosity and adventure that captures your students' interests.  Mix things up with surprises, variety, humor, and fun!

SELF ESTEEM - When a student’s physiological needs are met, they feel safe, secure and connected to their class and school. This is when self esteem can begin to grow. For students to develop a positive self-esteem, they also need to feel empowered.

Humans in general do not function well without adequate control, choice, autonomy and freedom. Students need to be empowered to make their own choices, be responsible, and have some autonomy. When students are micromanaged they feel out of control and are more likely to misbehave.  

Preventing Misbehavior: In Conclusion

If a student’s needs are not met, they will feel and exhibit a range of emotions: depression, anxiety, frustration, anger, inability to focus, hyperactivity. 

If a teacher does not provide a means to meet these needs as part of the regular day to day routine, students will seek satisfaction in other ways. 

If you don’t give them empowerment, they will assert themselves. 

If you don’t give them fun, they will make their own.

Doing all you can to ensure that students’ needs are being met is just the first step toward preventing student misbehavior. 

Check out other How to Teach Elementary School blog posts for other preventative measures for student behaviors.