Discipline Crisis: Classroom Disruption Costs Australian Teachers Nearly a Third of Lesson Time

Australian teachers are losing almost a third of their classroom time dealing with student misbehaviour, according to a new national survey that has renewed warnings of a school discipline crisis.

The survey of 377 teachers, modelled on England’s National Behaviour Survey, found that school teachers lost an average of nine minutes out of every 30 minutes of lesson time to student misbehaviour—the equivalent of roughly 12 weeks of lost learning each year.

Sixteen percent said they lost the majority of the lesson to misbehaviour, while just 3 percent reported losing no time at all.

Four in 10 teachers said misbehaviour had interrupted teaching or learning in most or all of the lessons they taught in the previous week, and a further 39 percent said it happened in at least some classes.

Talking out of turn was the most common issue, with 57 percent of teachers reporting it occurred in most or all lessons, followed by students calling out (45 percent).

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A quarter of teachers said students answered back or challenged instructions in most or all lessons, while 26 percent reported that students routinely arrived late.

However, despite the amount of teaching time lost, Australian teachers’ overall assessment of student behaviour was relatively positive.

Around 56 percent rated behaviour at their school as good or very good, 62 percent said their school was calm and orderly every day or most days, and 82 percent said they felt confident managing misbehaviour when it occurred.

Disruption Becoming Normalised in Australian Classrooms

Blaise Joseph, director of education research at the CIS and author of the report, suggested the apparent contradiction may be explained by disruption becoming normalised in Australian classrooms.

Teachers, he argued, may have become highly skilled at managing constant low-level interruptions while still losing substantial chunks of lesson time responding to them.

The report also found the burden was not evenly spread. Teachers aged 18 to 54 and female teachers reported losing more time to misbehaviour—about 9 minutes—than teachers aged 55 and over or male teachers, who reported losing about seven minutes.

Additionally, three-quarters of teachers said misbehaviour had negatively affected their health and wellbeing in the previous week, with 10 percent saying the impact had been significant.

The findings come against a backdrop of longstanding concern about classroom discipline in Australia, including a 2023 federal Senate inquiry into disruption in schools and falling OECD disciplinary rankings.

The report argued that, with almost a third of lesson time estimated to be lost nationally, classroom disruption can no longer be treated as an unavoidable feature of Australian schooling.

Its central recommendation is to introduce a regular national survey of teacher and student behaviour, alongside an explicit, government-backed “behaviour curriculum” to teach expected conduct in every classroom.

The report stated that these measures would address low-level disruption before it escalates, rather than waiting for the next incident to go viral.