Influence of guidance and counseling on students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Matungulu sub-county, Machakos County

Abstract

The current study was motivated by the need to investigate the extent to which guidance and counseling influences students‟ discipline in public secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county. The study was guided by four research objectives: i) to determine the extent to which peer counselling influences students‟ discipline in public secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county; ii) to establish the extent to which teachers‟ professional training in guidance and counseling influences students‟ discipline in public secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county; iii) to determine the extent to which guidance and counseling resources influence students‟ discipline in public secondary schools in Matungulu Subcounty; and iv) to assess the influence of students‟ attitude towards guidance and counselling on students‟ discipline in public secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county. The study employed descriptive survey research design. It targeted all (35) public secondary schools in Matungulu Sub-county, all (35) school heads, all (35) heads of counseling units and all (2,864) form three students. Simple random sampling technique was used to sample 11(10.0%) schools and 286 (10.0%) form three students. All the (11) school heads and all (11) heads of the participating schools were purposively sampled. In total, 308 participants were included. Data collection instruments included questionnaires for school heads, heads of counseling units and students. Additionally, observation checklists were used. Validity of the instruments was achieved through piloting and expert validation. Reliability was achieved through test re-test method where the instruments were piloted in schools at a time interval of two weeks and the two results were correlated using Pearson‟s Product Moment Correlation method. Data was entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 23) for analysis. Quantitative data was first anlysed through descriptive statistics which involved generating frequencies percentages, means and standard deviations. Data was further analysed inferentially where Spearman‟s Rank Correlation was run at 0.05 level of significance. Qualitative data on the other hand was analysed thematically through content analysis and presented in narratives. The study results established that: there was weak positive correlation (r = .081, p <.05) between peer counseling and students‟ discipline; there was weak positive correlation (r = .206, p <.05) between professional qualification of teacher counselors and students‟ discipline; there was weak positive correlation (r = .023, p < .05) between guidance and counseling resources and students‟ discipline; and there was weak positive correlation (r = .230, p <.05) between attitude of students‟ towards guidance and counseling and students‟ discipline. The study recommends: peer counseling interventions to be strengthened through selection, training and supervision of peer counselors; training of teacher counselors to be improved; critical guidance and counseling resources to be availed; and awareness of the value of guidance and counseling to be enhanced so as to ensure students continue developing positive attitude towards guidance and counseling.