Attitudes of Primary School Teachers Toward Physical Punishment in West Bank Northern District Schools

This study aimed at identifying primary school teachers' attitudes towards physical punishment in West Bank northern district schools and the effect of gender, marital status, academic qualification, position, experience, and academic subject variables on these attitudes. This descriptive study includes some analytical aspects and also aims at obtaining some data on the use of physical punishment in terms of its types, in Palestinian schools in the northern districts of the West Bank. The study subjects included all teachers in primary schools in Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalqilya, Jenin and Salfit. The total number was 3,624. Of these, 1923 were males and 1701 were females. The subjects were distributed among villages and cities. In cities, the number of teachers, males and females, was 612 and 717 respectively. In villages the number of teachers, males and females, was 1311 and 984 respectively. A stratified randomly chosen sample consisted of 500 teachers of both sexes distributed among the aforementioned study variables. The instrument of the study which is composed of many parts have been used to measure the Attitudes Towards Physical Punishment, Means used in Physical punishment, Alternatives for Physical Punishment and Benefits and Harms of Physical Punishment. The score means were obtained on Scale of Attitudes toward Physical Punishment depending on the study variables The Independent T-Test and The One-Way Analysis of Variance, were used to show the extent of the presence of statistically significant differences that may be attributed to experience in teaching. Pertaining to the identification of forms of physical punishment, alternatives used, and order of advantages and disadvantages, the researcher used the scale of order and the order of each one of these. The study findings showed that overall attitudes toward physical punishment amounted to 73%. That is to say, primary school teachers' overall attitude toward physical punishment was positive. Moreover, the results showed that there were statistically significant differences at α= 0.05, depending on sex and marital status variables in favor of males and married teachers, who participated in the study sample, on attitude toward physical punishment. However, findings showed no statistically significant differences on other variables of the study. Pertaining to types of punishment used, the findings showed that paddling was the most common followed by spanking, ear pulling and slapping. The findings showed that the most common alternatives for physical punishment were sending the student to school principal, assigning additional tasks for the student to carry out, checking with the student individually and making him understand his wrong behavior, and sending him to a psychological counselor and giving him minus grades. The study findings also revealed some of the salient advantages and disadvantages of physical punishment and extent of the danger of detrimental effects of physical punishment. The advantages of physical punishment have a limited influence and only pertinent to matters related to classroom management arid discipline. Recommendations 1- Teachers should refrain from using physical punishment in cases of tension, because its consequences are detrimental. Teachers should also be careful not to cause physical weakness or social withdrawal to the student. 2- Teachers should realize that physical punishment represents a reason for students' drop-out from schools. It also reinforces negative behaviors among punished students. 3- School teachers must search for alternatives to physical punishment to minimize problems of discipline, taking in consideration the danger of physical punishment and its role in impeding growth of internal discipline among students. 4- Holding training courses and seminars to allow teachers to acquire management skills and develop their potentials to face problems of discipline in classrooms. These functions will also develop their knowledge and ability to come up with alternatives for physical punishment.