A STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TRAINING PROGRAM IN CHANGING THE TEACHERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS STUDENTS’ CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

Abstract

This research study was aimed at developing and conducting a training program to study its effectiveness in changing the teachers’ attitude towards students’ corporal punishment. The study further aimed at exploring the impact of change in the attitude of teachers about corporal punishment on students’ attitude towards learning and their achievement in Mathematics. In the first phase, a survey was conducted to collect data about attitude of teachers towards students’ corporal punishment. The second phase consisted of an experiment having a pre-test post-test design for measuring change in the attitude of teachers towards corporal punishment by conducting a training workshop using the specially designed manual. A five point likert scale was used to measure teachers’ attitude towards corporal punishment. Another scale (SOMRA) was used to collect data of 9 th grade students’ attitude towards Mathematics. The behaviour of teachers towards inflicting corporal punishment was measured by administering a questionnaire on students. The achievements of students taught by teachers having positive attitude and those having negative attitude was compared on the basis of scores obtained in their annual Board examination. All the mathematics teachers of Boys Government secondary / higher secondary schools in District Nowshera and District Swabi, teaching 9th grade were included in the population-I and were taken as sample of the study. All 9 th grade students in those schools were included in population II. Ninety four teachers constituting ,65% of the sample returned the questionnaires, out of whom 61 showed positive attitude. From all the students in secondary grades taught by teachers having positive attitude towards corporal punishment, 20% were selected randomly. viFifty one teachers participated in the fourteen days training workshop. On the last day focus group discussion was conducted with the teachers to elicit their views on the training program. Pre-test (regarding attitude towards mathematics) was administered to the students of the selected teachers having positive attitude towards corporal punishment. After one month and twenty days of the treatment post-test was administered to the same students to find out the effect of changed attitude towards corporal punishment on their attitude towards mathematics. At the same time, post- test regarding attitude towards corporal punishment was also administered on the teachers who had attended the training workshop. Thirty two teachers comprising four focus groups participated in the focus group discussion. Before the training majority of the teachers’ favoured corporal punishment. However, their attitude changed negatively after the training.The achievement scores of the students of teachers who did not favour corporal punishment were higher as compared with those who favoured corporal punishment. There was a statistically significant change in the attitude and behaviour of teachers towards corporal punishment due to training as they avoided corporal punishment after training. Change in the attitude towards corporal punishment could not significantly impact students’ learning attitude towards Mathematics in the given short time of the study.