ABSTRACT
This study examined the effect of punishment
and reward on academic performance of senior secondary school students in
Shomolu local government area of Lagos State. Five research questions were
formulated to guide the study. Through the process of simple random sampling, a
total of two hundred (200) students from five (5) senior secondary schools were
selected to participate in the study. The major instrument used for collecting
data was a questionnaire tagged EPRAP. The data collected were analyzed. Chi square
was used to test the hypotheses. Findings showed that punishment has
significant effect on the academic performance of students. It was also
discovered that intrinsic reward has no effect on the academic performance of
students. Research also showed that extrinsic reward has a significant effect
on the academic performance of students. From results findings, it was
recommended that students should focus more on self motivators rather than on
gifts and awards. Also, teachers, and parents should use all forms of
punishment and reward systems appropriately as over use frequent reliance on
any of them may reduce the effectiveness.
Motivation itself is a hodge-podge- a term of
very complex dimensions. It is known to include the rewards and punishments among
many other interacting drives, forces and incentives which affect or influence
student’s learning. ‘Extrinsic’ forms of motivation like rewards and
punishments have always been used by lectures/ teachers educators to correct or
stimulate certain forms of behaviors. Yet, what their effects and consequences
are, whether they facilitate or hinder learning and to what extent, how they
operate to increase, if at all, the efficiency of learning and many such allied
questions have remained largely unanswered. Or, their answers have generally
been improvised, for the most part, from intuition, conjecture or just intelligent
guess- work rather than on research findings. The purpose of this paper,
therefore, is to examine these questions in order to discover (uncover, to be
more specific) the effect of punishment and reward on the academic performance
of students. For purposes of analysis, rewards will include intrinsic and
extrinsic rewards. Also, punishment will
include corporal punishments, Expulsion and suspension.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
TITLE PAGE i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1
1.2 STATEMENT OF
THE PROBLEM 4
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 5
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 5
1.5
REASEARCH QUESTIONS 6
1.6
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES 7
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 7
1.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS 7
CHAPTER
TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 CONCEPT OF PUNISHMENT AND
REWARD 9
2.2 CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 16
2.3 REWARD AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 19
2.4 SUSPENSION AND ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE 26
2.5 EXPULSION AND ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE 30
2.6 SUMMARY OF REVIEW 39
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 RESEARCH
DESIGN 42
3.2
POPULATION OF THE STUDY 42
3.3
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE 42
3.4
RESEARCH INSTRUMENT 43
3.5 VALIDITY OF RESEARCH INSTRUMENT 43
3.6
PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION 44
3.7
METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS 44
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1
INTRODUCTION 45
4.3 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS 45
4.4. TEST OF HYPOTHESIS 49
4.5 SUMMARY OF
FINDINGS 52
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION,
RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES.
5.1 DISCUSSION OF
FINDINGS 54
5.2 CONCLUSION 57
5.3
RECOMMENDATIONS 57
5.4
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 58
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Students
are priceless assets and most essential elements in education. It is absolutely
necessary to direct students to exhibit acceptable attitude and behavior within
and outside the school. In an attempt to achieve an organized and peaceful
school environment and maintain law and order, school management specifies
rules and regulations to guide the activities of members of the educational
organization. Student’s discipline is a
prerequisite to almost everything a school has to offer students (Selfert and
Vornberg, 2002). Seifert and Vornberg further linked discipline with both the
culture and climate of the school thus. In schools where discipline is a
serious problem, for example, where students bully others, parents tend to
transfer their children to ‘better’ schools, and because the well behaved
usually perform well (Rigby, 2000), their transfer can affect the overall
performance of that school. Troublesome students can sometimes make teachers
react emotionally to the extent of using punishment. But punishment, instead of
curbing behavior, can aggravate it (Dreikurs, Grunwald and Pepper 1998). Currently, schools have different types of
reward and penalty policy in place, but almost all of them have one common goal
which is to motivate students to learn. Educators nowadays are aware that
giving penalties are counterproductive.
Punishment
is the use of physical or psychological force or action that causes pain in an
attempt to prevent undesirable behavior from recurring. Scolding,
threats,deprivations, and spankings are all forms of punishment. Back in the
nineteenth century, Froebel wrote that the use of punishment was a good way for
adults to make a child “bad”. If the goal for child is the development of
morality, of making good choices on his /her own, then punishment should not be
involved .conditions should be created that not only allow but strongly induce
children to be or become moral and disciplined individuals who can make good
choices on their own(Bettelheim,1985;Ramsburg,1997).Punishment tends to
generate anger, defiance, and a desire for revenge. Moreover, it also gives
encouragement to the use of authority rather than reason thus this would tend
to break the relationship between adult and child (Kohn, 1994).Punishment
teaches a child that those who have the power can force others to do what they
want them to do(Bettelheim,1985;Samalin and Whitney,1995)
Children
can be categorizedas intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. Every teacher in
the classroom uses strategies to acknowledge and encourage appropriate social
and academic behavior by their students. These strategies take many forms,some
overt and some dramatic (presentation of tokens or recognition at an assembly).
Since Thorndike (1874-1949) described the Law of effect,educators and psychologists
have noted that when a behavior is successful it is more likely to occur again
in similar circumstances. Many teachers believe that motivation can be “jump
started”by providing tangible rewards such as stickers, candy or prizes.They
assert that reinforcing appropriate behaviors can have positive results since
children tend to continue or repeat an action that is rewarded. Others argue
that rewards devalue learning and counteract the development of self
–discipline and intrinsic motivation. These opponents assert that tangible
rewards produce short-term changes and only serve as motivators if students
wants them.They contend the use of rewards fosters competition and the “what’s
in it for me?” attitude;the more they are used, the more incentives students expect. The simple
message is that the consequences of a behavior affect future performance of
that behavior. If, following the contingent delivery of a consequence, a
behavior becomes more likely in the future, then that consequence was reinforcing
or rewarding.An effective rewards and penalty system promotes positive behavior
and regular attendance. It is the essential foundation for a creative learning
and teaching environment.The ultimate goal of rewarding
children is to help them internalize positive behaviours so that they will not
need a reward. Eventually, self-motivation will be sufficient to induce them to
perform the desired behaviour, and outside reinforcement will no longer be
necessary.
This
research therefore, points out that in order to impart knowledge and facilitate
students learning, teachers make use of different strategies (punishment and
reward). The forms of punishment under study in this research are corporal
punishment, suspension, and expulsion and the types of reward under study in
this research are intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In Nigeria and the world all over, academic performance remains a
vital means through which students learning is measured and evaluated. The
increasing poor performance in public examination has over the years been a
great concern to stakeholders in education. Government, educational
administrators and managers, captain of industries and professionals from all
walks of life have continued to show their concern for the dwindling academic
performance of senior secondary school students in public examinations such as
WAEC(West Africa Examination Council), NECO(National Examination Council),
JAMB(Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board), and NABTEB(National Business
and Technical Examinations Board.
However, the dwindling performance of students in public
examination can be attributed to several factors such as poor study habits,
lack of concentration in class, indiscipline, ineffective use of punishment and
reward, family issue, peer influence, absenteeism, failure to reward
appropriate and punish inappropriate behavior and the likes.
The falling standard of education is a pressing problem of the
society and it has become a cankerworm which must be tackled. Efforts made to
identify the cause of these problems and to suggest possible solution has led
educational researchers and scholars to investigate some teacher, school
environment and students variable as correlates of students’ academic
performance. Although these have led to improvement in students’ academic
performance, it appears that such improvement is adjudged to be
insignificant.This however is an indication that more investigation needs to be
conducted for students’ academic performance to be improved upon significantly.
This study therefore filled this gap by investigating the effect of punishment
and reward on senior secondary school students’ Academic Performance in Shomolu
Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purposes of this study are to:
1.
Determine
the effect of Corporal Punishment on the Academic Performance of Senior
Secondary School students in Shomolu Local government Area of Lagos State.
2.
Determine
the effect of Suspension on the Academic Performance of Senior Secondary School
Students in Shomolu Local government Area of Lagos State.
3.
Determine
the effect of Expulsion on the Academic Performance of Senior Secondary School
Students in Shomolu Local government Area of Lagos State.
4.
Determine
the effect of Intrinsic Reward on the Academic Performance of Senior Secondary
School Students in Shomolu Local government Area of Lagos State.
5.
Determine
the effect of Extrinsic Reward on the Academic Performance of Senior Secondary
School Students in Shomolu Local government Area of Lagos State.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study
will be of much importance to teachers in Shomolu Local Government area of
Lagos State on how to effectively make use of punishment and rewards in their
relationship with the students.
The study
will also help students to understand the appropriate behaviors to exhibit in
and outside the school. For the parents, the study will help them to know which
behavior exhibited by the child requires reward and which requires punishment.
Through
this study, the stakeholders in education sector may come to appreciate the
implications of punishment and reward in the Senior Secondary Schools. It is
hoped that this study will help the Senior Secondary Schools administrators in
Shomolu Local Government Area of Lagos State to b improve on the academic
performance of students in various schools.
This study
will also help to discover the effects of punishment and reward on learning in
some selected Secondary Schools in Shomolu Local Government area of Lagos
State.
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.
What effect does corporal punishment have on the
academic performance of Senior Secondary School students in Shomolu Local
government Area of Lagos State?
2.
What is the effect of suspension on the academic
performance of Senior Secondary School Students in Shomolu Local Government
Area of Lagos State?
3.
What is the effect of expulsion on the academic
performance of Senior Secondary School students?
4. What
is the effect of extrinsic reward on the academic performance of Senior
Secondary School students?
5. What is the effect of intrinsic Reward on the
academic performance of Senior Secondary School
students?
1.7 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
1.
There is no significant effect of corporal punishment
on the academic performance of Senior Secondary School students.
2.
There is no significant effect of suspension on the
academic performance of Senior Secondary School students.
3. There is no
significant effect of expulsion on the academic performance of Senior Secondary
School students.
4. There is no
significant effect of intrinsic reward on the academic performance of Senior
Secondary School students
5. There is no
significant effect of extrinsic reward on the academic performance of Senior
Secondary School students
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The research will be carried out in
selected Secondary Schools in Shomolu Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
The following terms were used in the work,
·
PUNISHMENT:
An act of correcting a wrong ‘act’ or character exhibited.
·
REWARD:
An act of appreciating a job well done.
·
MOTIVATION:
An act of rewarding or providing with an incentive.
·
REINFORCEMENT:
An act of giving more force or effectiveness to; strengthen.
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