Effect Of Punishment And Reward On Academic Performance Of Senior Secondary School Students
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Effect Of Punishment And Reward On Academic Performance Of Senior Secondary School Students
ABSTRACT
This study looked at how punishment and reward affected academic performance among senior secondary school pupils in Lagos State’s Shomolu local government area.
Five research questions were developed to help guide the investigation. A total of 200 students from five (5) senior secondary schools were chosen to participate in the study using a simple random sampling method.
The primary data collection instrument was an EPRAP questionnaire. The data gathered were analysed. The hypotheses were tested using the chi square statistic. The findings revealed that punishment has a considerable effect on kids’ academic performance.
It was also shown that intrinsic rewards had no effect on pupils’ academic achievement. Extrinsic rewards have also been shown in studies to have a major impact on students’ academic achievement.
According to the findings, students should prioritise self-motivation over gifts and accolades. Furthermore, instructors and parents should utilise all types of punishment and reward systems judiciously, as overuse or reliance on any of them may limit their effectiveness.
Motivation is a hodgepodge of intricate dimensions. It is recognised to include rewards and punishments, among many other interconnected drives, pressures, and incentives that affect or influence student learning. Lecturers/teachers/educators have always utilised ‘extrinsic’ kinds of incentive, such as rewards and punishments, to correct or motivate specific types of behaviour.
However, numerous issues about their effects and implications, whether they support or hinder learning, and to what extent, as well as how they act to boost, if at all, learning efficiency, remain unsolved.
Alternatively, rather than relying on study findings, their responses have mostly been improvised based on intuition, supposition, or informed guesswork.
The objective of this study is to investigate these questions in order to discover (or, more specifically, reveal) the effect of punishment and reward on student academic achievement. For the sake of this analysis, rewards will include both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Punishment will also include corporal punishment, expulsion, and suspension.
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Students are priceless assets and the most important components of education. It is extremely necessary to direct kids to demonstrate suitable attitudes and behaviours both inside and outside of school.
In order to provide an organised and tranquil school atmosphere while also maintaining law and order, school administration establishes rules and regulations to guide the activities of members of the educational organisation.
Student discipline is required for practically everything a school has to offer kids (Selfert and Vornberg, 2002). Seifert and Vornberg further related discipline to the school’s culture and climate.
In schools where discipline is a major issue, such as when kids bully others, parents tend to move their children to ‘better’ schools, and because the well-behaved typically perform well (Rigby, 2000), their transfer can have an impact on the school’s overall performance.
Troublesome pupils can occasionally cause professors to respond emotionally to the point of imposing punishment. However, punishment, rather than modifying behaviour, can exacerbate it (Dreikurs, Grunwald, and Pepper 1998).
Currently, schools have various sorts of reward and penalty policies in place, but practically all of them share one basic goal: to push children to learn. Educators currently understand that imposing sanctions is ineffective.
Punishment is the application of physical or psychological force or action that causes pain in order to prevent bad behaviour from repeating. Scolding, threats, deprivation, and spanking are all types of punishment. Froebel claimed in the nineteenth century that using punishment was a good technique for parents to make a youngster “bad”.
If the goal for a child is to acquire morality and make good decisions on his or her own, punishment should not be used.Conditions should be developed that not only allow but strongly encourage youngsters to be or become moral and disciplined individuals capable of making good decisions for themselves (Bettelheim, 1985; Ramsburg, 1997).
Punishment often results in resentment, resistance, and a desire for vengeance. Furthermore, it encourages the use of power over reason, which has the potential to disrupt the relationship between adult and kid (Kohn, 1994).Punishment teaches a youngster that persons with power may force others to do what they desire (Bettelheim, 1985; Samalin and Whitney, 1995).
Children can be classified as intrinsic or extrinsically driven. Every teacher in the classroom employs tactics to recognise and promote appropriate social and academic behaviour among their students. These methods come in a variety of ways, both overt and theatrical.
Since Thorndike (1874-1949) described the Law of Effect, educators and psychologists have recognised that successful behaviours are more likely to occur again in comparable conditions. Many teachers believe that providing physical rewards such as stickers, candies, or prizes might help to “jumpstart” motivation.
They argue that encouraging good behaviours can have a positive impact since youngsters tend to continue or repeat actions that are rewarded. Others say that rewards undermine learning and prevent the development of self-discipline and intrinsic motivation. These opponents argue that tangible prizes provide short-term results and can only work as motivators if pupils want them.
They argue that the employment of prizes promotes competition and the “what’s in it for me?” mindset; the more they are employed, the more incentives students anticipate. The simple point is that the repercussions of a behaviour influence its future performance.
If the contingent delivery of a consequence makes a behaviour more likely in the future, then that consequence was reinforcing or rewarding.An effective incentives and penalties system encourages positive behaviour and consistent attendance.
It is the cornerstone for a dynamic learning and teaching environment.The ultimate purpose of rewarding children is to help them internalise positive behaviours so that they do not require rewards.
Eventually, self-motivation will be sufficient to compel individuals to conduct the desired activity, and outside reinforcement will be unnecessary.
This study concludes that teachers utilise a variety of tactics (punishment and reward) to convey knowledge and facilitate student learning. This study examines corporal punishment, suspension, and expulsion, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Academic performance continues to be an important tool for measuring and evaluating students’ learning in Nigeria and around the world. The rising level of poor performance in public examinations has long been a source of concern for educators.
Government officials, educational administrators and managers, industry leaders, and professionals from all walks of life have expressed concern about the declining 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, students’ declining performance in public examinations can be attributed to a variety of factors, including poor study habits, lack of concentration in class, indiscipline, ineffective use of punishment and reward, family issues, peer influence, absenteeism, failure to reward appropriate behaviour, and so on.
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