Abstract
This study assessed the administration of punishment, students’ test anxiety, and performance in mathematics in secondary schools of Cross River State. Three null hypotheses were formulated following a correlational research design. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was employed in selecting a sample of 2,554 respondents representing 5% of the population of 51,097 junior secondary school students distributed across 271 public secondary schools in Cross River State. Administration of Punishment Questionnaire (APQ) designed by the researchers, Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) developed by Dawood et al., (2016), and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) designed by Owan (2012), were used as instruments for data collection. The null hypotheses were tested using one-way MANOVA), Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and Multiple regression analyses with the aid of SPSS v23. Findings revealed amongst others that administration of punishment has a significant influence on students’ test anxiety and performance in mathematics F (6, 5098) = 24.149, p<.05; Wilk’s Λ = 0.945, partial η2 = .028 on a joint basis; administration of punishment has a significant influence respectively on students’ test anxiety F (3, 2550) = 22.697, p<.0005, partial η2 =.026 and performance in mathematics F (3, 2550) = 23.090, P<.0005, partial η2 =.026; there is an inverse significant relationship (r= -339, p<0.05) between students’ tests anxiety and performance in mathematics. It was recommended that the use of corporal punishment should be totally abolished on strict grounds that it hurts the psychological disposition of learners resulting in a dip in their performance consequently.
Highlights
One of the greatest achievement of every school is to attain the objectives for which they were established
This study discovered that administration of punishment has a significant influence on test anxiety F (3, 2550) = 22.697, p < .0005, partial η2 = .026 and students’ academic performance in mathematics F (3, 2550) = 23.090, P < .0005, partial η2 =
The second finding of this study exposed that there is a significant relationship between administration of punishment and students’ test anxiety (r = .131, p < .05) as well as students’ performance in mathematics (r = .102, p < .05). This finding is in line with the finding from the studies of Muhammad (2007) Rana and Mahmood (2010), Nanyiri (2014) Asonaba (2015), Okogu, et al (2016), Muhammad et al (2017), Effiom and Bassey (2018), and Offem, et al (2019) which all revealed that the use of punishment has a significant nexus with students’ performance. This positive correlation established in this study suggests that as teachers increase the administration of punishment in eliminating unwanted stimuli, students' performance in mathematics will witness an increase
Summary
One of the greatest achievement of every school is to attain the objectives for which they were established. Students’ academic performance refers to the rate at which students are achieving the purpose for which they were sent to school. It is the degree at which students are achieving their educational goals (Owan, 2012). Student performance can be defined as the degree to which students are achieving the reasons or objectives for which they were sent to school. Students’ performance refers to the learning outcomes of learners, it can be good or poor
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