Impacts of corporal punishment on student motivation and discipline

Teacher Intervention in School

How to motivate and when to intervene with students is among the many challenges that teachers face when handling young students. It should be noted that the teachers serve as the "second parents" of the students, especially when inside the school premises. They are the ones who look after the students. They are the ones who ensure that the students are safe. They are the ones who ensure that students are not only learning, but are also enjoying their stay in the school.

As the "second parents" the teachers are also responsible in teaching the students with the right manners and/or proper conduct. They should ensure that the students behave properly in and out of the school compound. They are to ensure that the students practice being a good citizen, a good student and a good child of their respective parents. This is the very reason why teachers are doing every possible and proper means in imparting with the students the right values and attitudes. This is also the reason why they see to it that when the students commit mistakes, they try to teach the students how to correct the mistakes and ensure that such mistake will not be committed again.

This is the real essence of motivation and intervention. Teachers motivate the students to learn while they also try to intervene with the students from doing anything bad. Corporal punishment is one of the many forms of intervention and motivation. However, there are lots of debates existing nowadays concerning corporal punishment. Others argued that corporal punishment is a very harsh way of intervening with the young students thus it should never be allowed. On the other hand, some people suggest that corporal punishment is a very good way of disciplining the students. This pro-corporal punishment further argues that with such kind of intervention, students will be able to maintain right values and proper conduct even when they are outside the classroom.

Purpose of the Study

Because of this arguments in and out the school arena, it will be good to know various aspects related corporal punishment. This paper is aimed at analyzing the impacts of corporal punishment - both positive and negative. Specifically, this paper is intended for:

analyzing the various means of motivating and intervening with the students determining the various forms of corporal punishment categorizing the short- and long-term impact of corporal punishment analyzing the impact of corporal punishment to the psychological, physical and emotional aspects of a child

Significance of the Study

This study will prove to be beneficial for the education policy makers, the teachers, the parents and to the students themselves.

The result of this study will provide ample information for the education policy makers. If it will be found out that corporal punishment is or is not beneficial for both the teachers and the students, they can do the necessary educational guidelines and/or policies.

Both the teachers and the parents will also benefit from this study. If they will be informed of the results of this research paper, they will then have enough idea on how to manage the students/kids properly. They will be informed of the different ways of motivating their children/students in the same way that they will be informed on how to properly correct their children/students' negative or ill behaviors.

The students will also benefit from this research undertaking. This is because the students are the end receivers of whatever forms of motivation or intervention that will come from he teachers. With the conclusion of this paper, students will be receiving the guided form of motivation and intervention from the teachers.

Lastly, this paper is also beneficial to other future researchers. The very methods and results of this study will serve as a guide to other and future researchers that will be interested in motivation and/or teaching related topics.

Key questions explored

This research answered the following questions:

General problem statement: What are the impacts of corporal punishment - both positive and negative to the students?

Specific problem statement:

What are the different means of motivating and intervening with the students?

What are the different forms of corporal punishment?

Are there any short- and long-term impacts of corporal punishment?

What are the impacts of corporal punishment to the psychological, physical and emotional aspects of a child/student?

Review of Related Literature

Making learning interesting by emphasizing activity, investigation, adventure, social interaction, and usefulness

With these suggestions for motivation, there is a higher percentage guaranteeing that the students would participate eagerly in every classroom discussions; that the bright students will be encouraged to learn more and share more; that even the "less" intelligent ones can have optimistic views in studying making them more participative and less scared to voice out their questions and uncertainties regarding the lectures.

Indeed the success of any learning endeavor, or classroom-based teaching for that matter, is not solely dependent on the students' intellect but on the way an educator or the teacher facilitate the learning.

The Corporal Punishment

Corporal punishment, as the word implies, is imposing a punishment once a child or a person committed a serious mistakes. In the classroom setting, corporal punishments are usually in the form of spanking the child on his/her buttocks and some are spanking the hands. Normally bare hands of the teachers or sometimes a small stick is being used to facilitate the corporal punishment.

Such forms of punishments are aimed at not merely punishing the student because he/she has committed a mistake but also to instill to the student's mind that what he/she has done is wrong and that it should not be done again.

Based on varied peer reviewed journals, corporal punishments are proven methods of disciplining the students. In countries where corporal punishment is banned in schools, many teachers have been complaining about the hardships and ordeals they have to deal with everyday with the students.

Like for example in New Zealand where teachers are instructed not to practice any form of corporal punishment with the students.

Now, teachers are complaining that they feel abused and harassed with the young students.

The students tend to become abusive. They do not respect the teachers. They swear and shout at the teachers. They throw things at the teachers and in some instances, the students physically assault the teachers.

This is the reason why most teachers feel threatened and would want to resign from their works.

Thus, without the corporal punishment, the students do not learn the real value of discipline and they do not maintain proper conduct. The students who did not receive any corporal punishment when they were still on their younger years tend to have deviant behaviors as they grow older.

Meanwhile, there are also studies which have proven that corporal punishment offers nothing but negative effects to both the psychological and emotional aspects of a child. Some of the proven negative impacts of corporal punishment are:

The corporal punishment in the form of physical punishment enhances various deviant behavior of the student like lying, stealing, cheating, bullying, assaulting a sibling or peers, and lack of remorse for wrongdoing. This is particularly evident when corporal punishment is done regularly (Lombardo and Polonko, 2000).

It should be noted that children-students would of course fear being "punished." If the consistently receive corporal punishment, their tendency is to prevent the teacher from having any reason of punishing them. Part of their prevention technique is to hide and/or lie about the misconducts that they have done, or stop anybody who will act as the "witness" of such misconduct, thus the bullying behavior.

Corporal punishment increases the risk of child abuse (Lombardo and Polonko, 2000).

Teachers who will not be prevented to do any form of corporal punishment will have the feeling the tendency to "enjoy" punishing the students even if it is not necessary. This is the very reason why there are reports of child abuse committed inside the school premises.

Teachers who impose corporal punishment are not serving a good example for the students, instead they are serving as the models for "aggressive behavior and for inappropriate ways of dealing with conflict" (Lombardo and Polonko, 2000).

The idea of "an eye for an eye" will be instilled in the young minds of the students. There will be heightened tendency for the students to think that asking for forgiveness or sorry will never be enough to amend things.

Corporal punishments are ways of eroding trust between a child and a teacher (Lombardo and Polonko, 2000).

The students will have the tendency of not entrusting their lives with the teachers. They will be hiding information that they think will only result from punishing them. At the same time, students who have been given corporal punishments for more than once will be tagged as the 'trouble initiator' and will result from the teacher not trusting the student anymore. The teacher will always think that whenever there will be chaos in the school, that particular student caused it or has great participation for it.

A it is believed that corporal punishment affects the cognitive development of the students (Lombardo and Polonko, 2000).

Spanking the student's buttocks and/or hands and doing other forms of punishments can of course hurt the student's body. If this is done more that once or twice a week, the student's growth physically, emotionally and intellectually may be slowed down.

It is believed that children who have regularly received corporal punishment will grow as an adult who suffer "from depression and other negative social and mental health outcomes" (Lombardo and Polonko, 2000).

This is the long-term effect of corporal punishment. The impact can be felt even until the adult years of the child. he/she will be continuously suffering from lowered self-esteem, anxiety, depression and other forms of mental problems.

Conclusion

As it is discussed, the teachers are responsible for motivating the students not only from maintaining good educational achievements, but also from maintaining good values and right conduct. It has become one of the strategies of the teacher to use various forms of corporal punishment to ensure that the students will learn how to behave well by not doing and redoing deviant acts.

Corporal punishments may be serving as one of the most effective way of disciplining the students, but there are also negative impacts that such kind of punishment brings to children. Now the question is, is it not advisable to impose corporal punishment to children students? Is corporal punishment the only way to motivate and intervene with the students?

Motivating and intervening with the students can be done in many different ways and means without negatively affecting the psychological and emotional state of the student. It should be noted that the teachers' real responsibility is to provide positive learning to the children. With the proven negative impacts of corporal punishment, it is now clear that this is not the proper and positive way of motivating and intervening with the students.

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