The present educational scenario makes one seriously reflect about the reasons and find the solutions to improve the standard of all the higher secondary school students. Hence the present investigation is undertaken to find whether there is any significant influence of school discipline among Higher Secondary students. The school’s programmed of moral and spiritual values should not be taught as a course of division of instruction. It is an integral part of the entire curriculum, emphasized in all courses and activities. It is assumed that the unruly elements in human nature are stronger in boys than in girls and therefore, the problems of discipline are less insistent in the teaching of girls than in the teaching of boys.
INTRODUCTION
Discipline is not a luxury, but a crying necessity in school education. At the school level, violent demonstrations are not very common but indiscipline such as truancy, inattentiveness in class, defacement of the school properties by writing nonsensical things on the walls, desks, chairs, doors and windows, non-adherence to the school rules and regulations and the code of conduct, undue and unwarranted cutting of classes without prior permission, sneaking out of class and willful disobedience to the teachers and the school authority in general. School discipline refers to regulation of children and the maintenance of order (“rules”) in schools. The aim of school discipline is to create a safe and happy learning environment in the classroom.
In a classroom where a teaching is unable to maintain order and discipline, students may become unmotivated and distressed, and the climate for learning is diminished, leading to under achievement. It is the classroom where the seed of discipline is planted by the teacher who makes discipline a condition precedent to instruction, envisaging the discipline of the school as being more strict than that at home. The teacher makes coincident with instruction and goes even beyond, utilizing interest to transfer the focus of authority for maintaining discipline of the class as a whole. Schools have extremely rigid codes of behavior, in practice many teachers find the students unmanageable and do not enforce discipline at all. Where school class sizes are typically 40 to 50 students, maintaining order in the classroom can take divert the teacher from instructions, leaving little opportunity for concentration and focus on what is being taught. Teachers may concentrate their attention on motivated students, ignoring attention – seeking and disruptive students. The result of this is perhaps expected to fail. Many students leave secondary education with very unrealistic expectations and little in the way of useful skills, leaving it up to employers or vocational colleges to teach the basic social expectations needed for employment or higher education.
“Discipline is not an entity in itself it is a product of good teaching”. Kochhar S.K. (1975).Though all the discipline problems cannot be prevented, yet most of them will not arise in the classroom of intelligent, efficient and hard working teachers who plan their work effectively, motivate their students skillfully and provide a friendly climate. There is a general view held by the teachers that students are inattentive in class, they are irregular in submitting assignments, some students are habitual late comers to classes, some students come to class unprepared etc.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
- To find out the level of school discipline of higher secondary students.
- To find out whether there is any significant difference between the male and female higher secondary students in their school discipline.
- To find out whether there is any significant difference between the first born, middle born and last born higher secondary students in their school discipline.
- To find out whether there is any significant difference among the higher secondary students whose parental educational status are Illiterate, School Level and College level.
- To find out whether there is any significant difference between the nuclear and joint families of higher secondary students in their school discipline.
HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY
- The level of school discipline of higher secondary students is average in nature.
- There is no significant difference between the male and female higher secondary students in their school discipline.
- There is no significant difference between the first born, middle born and last born higher secondary students in their school discipline.
- There is no significant difference among the higher secondary students whose parental educational status is Illiterate, School Level and College level.
- There is no significant difference between the nuclear and joint families of higher secondary students in their school discipline.
NEED FOR THE STUDY
Discipline is applied to a very wide range of life situations. Discipline in a school is the requirement of the society. “No amount of improvement and reconstruction will bear much fruit if the schools themselves are undermined by indiscipline” observes the secondary education commission. The need for this study cannot be overemphasized so far as no previous research has been carried out to correlate exclusively discipline and academic achievement of students at the secondary level. Self-discipline refers to the training that one gives one’s self to accomplish a certain task or to adopt a particular pattern of behavior, even though one would really rather be doing something else.
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES USED
School discipline questionnaire constructed and validated by the investigator. A descriptive survey method was used for the study. The sample taken for the present study is Higher Secondary Students in Chennai District.
Table 1: Showing the criteria of into classifying the sample three groups of school discipline
| Groups | School discipline school range | Number of students | Percentage (%) |
| Low | 0 to 8 | 76 | 25.9 |
| Moderate | 9 to 12 | 164 | 55.8 |
| High | 13 to 17 | 54 | 18.4 |
| Total | 294 | 100 |
From the table1, it is seen that the level of school discipline of XIth standard students is moderate in nature.
Table 2: Showing the significant difference between the mean scores of school discipline of higher secondary students of boys and girls
| Group comparison | N | Mean | S.D. | S.E. | `t’ value | Level of significance |
| Boys | 135 | 10.7259 | 2.463 | 0.212 | 3.77 | 0.01 |
| Girls | 159 | 9.6289 | 2.512 | 0.199 |
From the table 2, it is inferred that boys are significantly higher than their counter part with regard to school discipline.
Table 3: ANOVA showing the significant difference between the mean scores of school discipline of first born, middle born and last born students
| Source | Sum of squares | Mean squares | D.F. | `F’ Ratio | Level of significance |
| Between groups | 26.1556 | 13.0778 | 2 | 2.0333 | N.S. |
| Within groups | 1871.6710 | 6.4319 | 291 | ||
| Total | 1897.8265 | 293 |
Table 3 clearly indicates that birth order does not influence school discipline of students.
Table 4: ANOVA showing the significance of the difference between the mean scores of school discipline of higher secondary students based on their parental educational status
| Source | Sum of squares | Mean squares | D.F. | `F’ Ratio | Level of significance |
| Between groups | 64.1113 | 32.0556 | 2 | 5.0870 | 0.01 |
| Within groups | 1833.7153 | 6.3014 | 291 | ||
| Total | 1897.8265 | 293 |
As the obtained F-value is higher than the table value at 0.01 level, there is significant influence of the parental educational status on the school discipline of higher secondary students. The data has been subjected to further analysis, the details of which are given below.
Table 5: Showing the multiple comparisons of the mean scores of school discipline of higher secondary students based on their parental educational status
| Group comparison | N | Mean | S.D. | S.E. | `t’ value | Level of significance |
| Illiterate | 39 | 10.1538 | 2.183 | 0.350 | 0.93 | N.S. |
| School level | 174 | 9.7874 | 2.384 | 0.181 | ||
| Illiterate | 39 | 10.1538 | 2.183 | 0.350 | 1.50 | N.S. |
| College level | 81 | 10.8642 | 2.893 | 0.321 | ||
| School level | 174 | 9.7874 | 2.384 | 0.181 | 2.92 | 0.01 |
| College level | 81 | 10.8642 | 2.893 | 0.321 |
From the first case, t-value (0.93) is found to be less than the table value (1.96) at 0.05 level indicating that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of school discipline of students with illiterate parents and parents with school level education. In the case of illiterate and college level students, `t’ value (1.50) is found to be less than the table `t’ value indicating that there is no significant difference between students whose parents are illiterate and college level education with respect to school discipline. In the third case, `t’ value is found to be significant 0.01 level indicating that there is significant difference between students whose parents have school level education and college level education with respect to school discipline. From the above table, we can infer that the students whose parents have college level education are significantly higher than students whose parents with school level education.
The ANOVA result reveals that the college level educated parents are significantly higher than that of students whose parents having school level education with respect to school discipline. Here education particularly higher education of the parents plays an important role in discipline. The Children always imitate the actions of their parents. Therefore effective discipline of the students requires the parental guidance along with the teachers.
Table 6: Showing the significant difference between the mean scores of school discipline of students hailing from nuclear and joint families
| Group comparison | N | Mean | S.D. | S.E. | `t’ value | Level of significance |
| Nuclear | 78 | 9.8462 | 2.883 | 0.326 | 1.07 | N.S. |
| Joint | 216 | 10.2361 | 2.410 | 0.164 |
It is also clear that students hailing from nuclear and joint families do not differ much in school discipline.
FINDINGS
- The level of school discipline of higher secondary students is moderate in nature.
- Boys are significantly higher than their counterparts with regard to school discipline.
- The birth order does not influence school discipline of students.
- The students whose parents have college level education are significantly higher than that of students whose parents are illiterate and with school level education.
- The students hailing from nuclear and joint families do not differ much in school discipline
CONCLUSION
Positive Approach is grounded in teachers’ respect for students. Instills in students a sense of responsibility by using youth/adult partnership to develop and share clear rules, provide daily opportunities for success, and administer in-school suspension for noncompliant students.
REFERENCES
Baruch Dorothy, New ways in Discipline, New York, MCGRAW HILL 1949.
Marlon Ediger. (1982). Discipline and the school curriculum, EXPERIMENTS IN EDUCATION, Vol.X. No.5,
Ramoji Rao, D.G., (1963). A study of some factors related to scholastic achievement, Indian Journal of Psychology.
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[1] Assistant Professor, Meston College of Education, Chennai-14
