Effectiveness of principals' corrective approach on management of students' discipline in public secondary schools in Migori County, Kenya

This study investigated the effectiveness of corrective approach on student’s discipline; establish effectiveness of corrective approach on students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Migori County, Kenya. This study was informed by Operant and Erickson’s theories. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design with a population consisting of 271 principals, 271 deputy principals, 271 student leaders, 1759 teachers and 10 Sub- County Directors of Education (SCD). 30% was used to select 74 principals, 74 deputy principals, 74 student leaders, 8 SCDs and 317 teachers from Krejci and Morgan table; a total of 547 respondents. Data was collected using 2 questionnaires; one for Administrators, and the other for teachers while an Interview guide to gather information from SCDs and FGD guide from student leaders. Piloting, involving 10% from each category of the respondents, was done to determine reliability and validity of the research tools. Test-retest method was used to establish reliability by employing Pearson’s r with a reliability threshold of 0.70 and above. Face and content validity was determined by experts in Educational Management and Policy and determination of CVI at 0.85. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviation and T-test while qualitative data was coded, transcribed and organized thematically. Research ethics were observed during both data collection and reporting of findings. The study established that the corrective approach was effective (Mean = 2.90) and had a statistically significant relationship with management of student discipline. Findings are important to educational administrators, policy makers and planners in understanding how preventive, corrective and positive behavior reinforcement approaches are effective on management of students’ discipline. The study recommends that there should be guidelines for training peer counselors, integrating withdrawal of privileges to be part of rules and regulations, there should be a vote head for the BOM to reward and give certificates to students with outstanding positive behavior also to develop a working collaboration between parents and teachers for effective management of students’ discipline.