Coercive and Reward authorities can help reinforce good behaviours and thereby reduce students’ indiscipline. This study investigated the effect of teachers’ coercive and reward authority on Senior high school students’ indiscipline. Based on the purpose of the study, the cross-sectional survey of the quantitative research approach was employed. The proportionate simple random sampling method was used to select 367 final-year students from 10 Senior high schools in Cape Coast. A structured questionnaire with 41 items was used for data collection. The reliability of instrument was tested with Cronbach Alpha coefficient, which was determined as 0.868. Both descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations) and inferential statistical (simple linear and multiple regression) tools were used to analyse the data. Results from the study indicated that teachers exercise a high level of coercive authority and a moderate level of reward authority. In addition, students’ indiscipline was seen to be at a moderate level. Results of the multiple regression revealed that the teachers’ coercive and reward authority explain 11% of the variance in students’ indiscipline (F (2, 363) = 21.604, p=.000, R =.326, R2=106). However, the simple linear regression show that teacher coercive authority (R2 =0.12, p0.05) did not. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education and school authorities should allow teachers to exercise some authority in the classroom when students misbehave.

Authors:
Eric Mensah, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Regina Otto, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Isaac Ampem, University of Cape Coast, Ghana

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Eric Mensah is a Senior Lecturer in Religious and Moral Education, and Curriculum and Teaching at the Department of Arts Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Education, College of Education Studies, University of Cape Coast.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-mensah-ph-d-53b410110/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eric_Mensah7

Additional website of interest
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qw0YUIYAAAAJ&hl=en

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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