Abstract:
Students' discipline is an important factor in the
attainment of progressive outcomes in institutions of learning.
Learning institutions have adversely been affected by cases of
student’s indiscipline. Management of students’ discipline
through creating a healthy teacher student inter relationship
remains a significant panacea to this worrying trend which forms
the focus of this study. This study sought to investigate the role of
teacher- student interpersonal relationships in students'
discipline in Machakos County, Kenya. The study used
descriptive survey design. The sample size was 100 principals,
350 teachers and 380 students. The sample size was obtained by
stratified sampling and simple random sampling procedures.
The study used questionnaires and interview guide as the
research instruments. Pilot study was done on the research
instruments. Test-retest technique of reliability was used to test
the reliability of the instruments. Data was analyzed using
descriptive and inferential statistics and presented in frequency
tables. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and
Pearson Chi Test was used to test the hypothesis of the study.
The study revealed that teacher student interpersonal
relationships had a significant positive relationship with levels of
students' discipline in public secondary schools in Machakos
County at (r) value of 0.831 significant at (p) value of 0.003.
From the findings, the study concluded that the role of teacher
student interpersonal relationships was critical to students’
discipline in public secondary schools in Machakos County. The
study the recommends that educators and education
administrators should strive to encourage cordial teacher student
interpersonal relationship in their interaction in the school.
