Assessment of the effectiveness of a corporal punishment in-service education program presented to public school teachers and administrators of West Central Wisconsin

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test and assess the effectiveness of the corporal punishment in-service presentation delivered by Dr. Steven B. Permuth, by administering, randomly, to those persons attending the presentation, a questionnaire designed to test the level of knowledge and understanding of concepts and guidelines associated with corporal punishment in the public school. The research hypothesis for this study was that the in-service training presentation was effective in producing a significant increase in the level of knowledge and understanding of corporal punishment concepts and guidelines of those persons attending the presentation. In order to accept this hypothesis, it was necessary to reject the null hypothesis that the in-service presentation in question was not effective in producing a significant increase in the understanding and knowledge of corporal punishment concepts and guidelines of those attending the presentation. The subjects were forty-eight persons attending the corporal punishment in-service training presentation at La Crosse Central High School in La Crosse, Wisconsin on February 11, 1977. Thirty-three of these persons were randomly selected and administered the pre-test portion of the experiment before entering the auditorium in which the presentation was to be delivered. Fifteen persons who had not been administered the pre-test were randomly selected as they exited the auditorium after the in-service presentation, and were administered the post-test portion of the experiment. The data was analyzed using a t-test to determine if the two groups showed any significant differences in knowledge and understanding of corporal punishment concepts and guidelines. The raw data revealed an apparent gain in the test scores obtained by the post-test group over those obtained by the pre-test group. The t-test showed that the difference between the test scores of the two groups was significant beyond the .01 level. On the basis of these findings, the null hypothesis was rejected, and it was possible to accept the research hypothesis that the in-service presentation, developed and delivered by Dr. Permuth, was effective in producing a significant increase in the level of knowledge and understanding of corporal punishment concepts and guidelines of those persons attending. It was determined that this particular in-service presentation could be a useful tool for the promoting of educator's knowledge and understanding of what they mayor may not do when confronted by a corporal punishment situation in the public school.