Relationship Between Reward and Punishment on Secondary School Students' Academic Performance in Physics in Oju Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between reward and punishment in the academic performance of Integrated Science Students of secondary schools in Oju local government area of Benue state. Three research questions guided the study. The survey design was adopted for the study. The study population was 1,986 Integrated Science teachers and Students in the study area, the researcher used random sampling technique to determine the sample size of the study. The researcher made 300 questionnaires which was used to elicit data from the respondents. The research instrument had 21 items based on the study variables. Based on the finding, it was concluded that, the professional teachers here must be those who have mastery of psychology, classroom management, and measurement, and evaluation. This will guarantee the effective use of reward and punishment in classroom setting and the achievement of desirable change in students’ behaviour as well as educational goals. Based on the conclusion, the following recommendation were made, federal and state government through the ministry of Education should set up boards of supervision or monitory board who goes around the secondary schools and find out the extent of the use of reward and punishment to avoid having square pegs in round holes, Teachers should administer reward and punishment appropriately and note that the extent and adequacy of utilization of the both affect their classroom objective, The teachers should remove sentiment in rewarding the students, hence they should mostly make use of praise, and commendations.