The Effect of Positive Reinforcement on Academic Performance of Senior Secondary School Students in Gombe Metropolis
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
This study aims to assess the effect of positive reinforcement on academic performance in Senior Secondary Schools in Gombe Metropolis the specific objectives are:
- To find out factors that hinder the application of positive reinforcement in the teaching of senior secondary school students in the Gombe metropolis;
- To ascertain the effect of positive reinforcement on students’ academic performance in senior secondary school in the Gombe metropolis.
- To proffer solutions to the identified factor(s) that hinder senior secondary school teachers’ application of positive reinforcement.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is a skill applied to modify or change pupils’ behaviour positively not negatively which can be applied by the teacher or presenter to increase positive behaviour of the learners and also discourage learners’ negative behaviour (Otsupius, 2014). Generally, positive reinforcement involves those techniques that results in positive alterations of learning behaviour.
Positive reinforcement is the process in which the teacher encourages positive behaviours of learners to enable them achieve the specific objective(s) of the lesson (Collins and Fontenelle, 1982; Cameron and Pierce, 1994; Maag, 2001). The teacher can smile, praise the learner, or make complementary comments such as well done, good, splendid, etc. This process encourages pupils’ attention, maintains motivation and modifies disruptive behaviour thereby helping to improve learning.
Positive reinforcement has several components as stated by Henderlong and Lepper (2002) in which seven components of positive reinforcement were identified and described, and comprise of:
- Verbal positive reinforcement which involve the ability of teachers to make verbal comments, both positive and negative, depending on the situation while teaching the learners. This type of positive reinforcement involves the use of such words as good, correct, yes, that’s right, neat work, as positive; while no, bad, too ugly, poor etc., are negative reinforcements;
- Gestural positive reinforcement involves the use of facial expression like smile, delightful laugh, bodily expression, clapping, nodding, thumbs up or arms raised by teachers. On the other hand, a teacher can equally apply twitching of face, moody face, a finger crossing the mouth as negative reinforcement;
- Proximity positive reinforcement involves the teachers’ display of interest in the students’ performance by moving nearer, standing next to or sitting close to the students;
- Contact positive reinforcement can be used by the teacher by patting the student’s head, shoulder, back, hand shake or by raising the student’s hand in the class.
- Activity positive reinforcement involves the teacher giving to the students any task which they prefer as positive reinforcement for work;
- Token positive reinforcement entails the teacher giving awards, marks and sweets comment on books, test papers etc.
- Rewards like privileges given to the learner or recognition by the teacher falls into this category.
Some of the factors that may hinder the proper application of positive reinforcement by Physics teachers have been identified by (Neitzel, 2009) as:
- No students show interest in the application of the skill always
- Insincerity on the part of the teacher in terms of praise.
- Over use of one type of positive reinforcement and its relativity to others.
Measures to mitigate these factors include frequent application of positive reinforcement in the classroom and the fact that the positive reinforcement should be task-centred and not ego-centred. Positive reinforcement from teachers should be sincere to the students, warm and full of enthusiasm. Furthermore, the use of reinforcements of various types should also be encouraged. It is believed that positive reinforcement skill has influence on students’ academic performance because it captures the students’ attention and gets them motivated as a result of some internal feeling of identification and reward. In the process, students’ participation in classroom discussion is enhanced and the study pattern of behaviour of students is improved. Consequently, student’s confidence is increased and disruptive behaviours are modified. It also strengthens teacher/student relationship in the classroom.
This is in agreement with (Dewar, 2008) and (Henderlong and Lepper, 2002) who had separately shown that positive reinforcement skill exist as both a motivating factor or a demotivating factor based on the students’ interpretation of the daily verbal interaction occurring between class teachers and student. Therefore, it can be agreed that verbal interaction between teachers and students influences student performance level in a positive or negative way. This position is in agreement with (Dewar, 2008) and (Decie and Ryan, 2004) who had separately stated that positive interaction between teacher and students spurs academic performance or growth.
Similar work has been undertaken on other teaching skills. In 2010, a study was carried out by Mandah and Douglas on the application of the Planned Repetition skill to remedy lack of understanding as a result of forgetting in learning French among first year students of Rivers State University of Education, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The study by (Mandah and Douglas, 2010) also considered the proper application of the Planned Repetition skill by teachers in French Department to enable students to understand oral, vocabulary and dictation exercises in French. The study had one research question and one hypothesis. Two groups were involved-Groups A and B. Group A was taught with the application of the Planned Repetition skill and Group B taught without the application of Repetition skill on a conventional teaching process. It was found that most students who were treated with the Planned Repetition skill performed better than some who were not treated with the Planned Repetition skill. It was also found that gender does not make any significant difference in application of planned repetition skill.
Understanding the Students: Relationship with Students
In order for positive reinforcement to become an effective technique in the classroom, teachers must know their students’ needs. Dr. Jennifer Freeman who studies drop-out rates in schools urges teachers to know their students and build a positive relationship with each student (Freeman, 308). Now, it is impossible for every student to like their teacher fully, but Freeman says that if teachers can create one positive connection the teacher has already reduced the likelihood that students will drop out of school (Freeman, 309). A positive relationship with the teacher is directly correlated to time students spend in the classroom; the more time the students spend in the class the more time they have available to learn (Freeman, 310). Relationships with students in the special education classroom are critical and can be a model for all classrooms (Kennedy, 211). Kennedy found the effect of positive reinforcement with students who have emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) stated that teachers need to take into consider the child’s home life (Kennedy, 212).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to the effect of positive reinforcement on academic performance of senior secondary school students
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
- Primary source and
- Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in gathering information the effect of positive reinforcement on academic performance of senior secondary school students. Two hundred (200) students of staffs of selected secondary schools in Akko LGA, Gombe state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF DATA
One hundred and sixty (160) questionnaires were distributed and one hundred and forty (133) were returned. This figure was the sample size. Out of the one hundred and thirty-three, only one hundred and twenty (120) were properly responded to. As a result, the researcher used one hundred and twenty for this study when more than 50% of the respondents agree to the questions, the answer is taken as valid for the purpose of this study. In analyzing the data, the approach that will be adopted is to find out the percentage and positive and negative answers to the question posed.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain THE EFFECT OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of positive reinforcement on academic performance of senior secondary school student
Summary
This study was on THE EFFECT OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS the effect of positive reinforcement on academic performance of senior secondary school students in Gombe state. Three objectives were raised which included: i. To find out factors that hinder the application of positive reinforcement in the teaching of senior secondary school students in Gombe metropolis, to ascertain the effect of positive reinforcement on students’ academic performance in senior secondary school in Gombe metropolis, to proffer solutions to the identified factor(s) that hinder senior secondary school teachers’ application of the positive reinforcement. In line with these objectives, two research question were formed and answered. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected secondary schools in Akko LGA of Gombe state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made principal, vice principal adm, senior staffs and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
Finally, the study discovered that the use of no-reinforcers produced slight improvement in the pretest and post test results of students in the no-reinforcer group. This slight improvement in performance may as a result of mastery of the content by the students due to the explanations offered by the teacher during the classroom activities or as a result of the learning environment
Recommendation
Teachers in teaching health science or other science subjects should use material reinforcers in teaching their student.
That the combination of material and non-material reinforcers in the classroom would encourage female students to study hard their science subjects.
That female students who produce outstanding results in their results should be rewarded materially so that this can make other students to work harder.
Teachers’ who employ material reinfocers or effectively combine them with non-material reinfocers should also be encouraged by the government through promotion.
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