Influence of teachers’ communication strategies on students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Mukurwe-ini district, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of teachers’ communication strategies on students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Mukurweini district. Four objectives were formulated that sought to; establish the use of teachers’ oral communication on student discipline in public secondary secondary schools in Mukurweini district; to establish the use of written communication by teachers on students’ discipline in Mukurweini district; establish the use of non verbal communication by teachers on student discipline in the same discipline, to determine the prevailing conditions that hinder effective communication towards student discipline.The study employed descriptive research design which is suitable in collecting both qualitative and quantative data. The sample included 45 teachers and 360 students. Data were collected by the use of questionnaires administered personally through hand delivery. A pilot study was conducted in five schools which were not included in the final study. Reliability of the instruments was also done through the most common internal consistency measure known as Cronbach’s alpha (α), which indicates the extent to which a set of test items can be treated as measuring a single latent variable. The recommended value of 0.7 was used as a cutoff of reliabilities in the study. Findings indicated that holding of classroom meetings, use of school prefects, communication during assembly, use of guidance and couselling , use of rewards and incentives, encouraging members to pass information among themselves, holding of open forums, encouraging members to pass information among themselves are some of the communication strategies commonly used by teachers’ in Mukurweini District on student’s discipline. Majority of the teachers also indicated that they often used notice boards on student discipline. However, facial expression was rarely used on student discipline. Majority of the teachers 89% indicated that school category affects the way they communicate on the student discipline. The study results revealed that the category of the school, boys only, girls only and mixed for both boys and girls affect the way teachers’ communicates on student discipline. The study also found that communication strategies with the least preferences for teachers on student discipline included the use of reward system,the use of eye contact and facial expression. According to the study, conditions which reduce effective communication ranged from distortion of information, language barrier to lack of proper mechanisms that ensures conducive environment for students to express themselves to their teachers.From the findings, it was concluded that requisite communication strategies are usually used by teachers in public secondary schools in Mukurweini district on student discipline and are able to influence the discipline of the students positively.Finally the study has suggested a similar study to be carried out in other districts in Kenya with other stakeholders like parents and B.O.G members being centre of focus as they also play an important role towards student discipline.