The Status of Corporal Punishment in Jordanian Primary Schools from the Perspectives of Teachers, Students, and Parents

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the status of corporal punishment in Jordanian Primary schools from the perspectives of: Teachers, students, and parents. The corpus of the study comprises (95) Male and female teachers, (135) male and female students form Jordanian primary schools. Two questionnaire forms were used in this study: one for teachers and the another for students. A random sample consisting of (52) mothers and (82) fathers was chosen from the mentioned areas. A questionnaire of (20) items was given to them. Results of the study showed that the trends of both teachers and students toward corporal punishment were negative, while their trends toward substitute punishment was positive. The results also showed that the students teacher- relation, based on corporal punishment, was not a good one from both perspectives. The result also revealed that punishment factors might be outlined in the following:  the teacher resorts to corporal punishment whenever he is weak in the material he teaches, or whenever he is unable to keep his students busy in class, or whenever he is unable to create an interactive teaching atmosphere between him and his students, or he might use it to improve the students' achievement to dictate control over class. The result also showed that there are no differences of statistical function at (0.05 ≥ a) level with parents related to (gender, qualification, age) variables. The results also revealed that (0.61) of parents reject violence in education. The study recommended the necessity for holding courses to train male and female teachers and parents on the ways through which they can change students' behavior in addition to being aware of punishment substitute methods of teachers.

Key words: corporal punishment / female teachers / students / parents