Abstract

JANUARIO, Nuno; ROSADO, António  and  MESQUITA, Isabel. Student’s Retention of Information and Justice Perceptions regarding Discipline Control. Rev. Port. Cien. Desp. [online]. 2006, vol.6, n.3, pp.294-304. ISSN 1645-0523.

The aim of the present study is to analyze students’ retention and acceptance (perception of justice) of teachers’ discipline control interventions, namely, teachers’ reactions to misbehaviors. We observed 30 physical education lessons and analyzed 147 student’s responses to misbehavior reactions. The independent variables were age, gender, school year, school reproofs and Physical Education marks. The dependant variables were the quantity of information on teacher instructions (extension, number of ideas and density of teacher’ information) and the nature of the information (objective, form and direction), the reproduction of that information by the students, both in a quantitative (extension, number of ideas, density) and qualitative (coherency) approach. The perception of justice depending on the teacher’s reaction was also studied. The student’s misbehaviors and teacher’s reactions were audio and video recorded and immediately afterwards students were asked (by interview) to reproduce the teacher’s information, being also asked about the fairness of the reaction. This procedure was audio-recorded. The information given by the teacher and the student’s answers were analyzed and compared through quantitative and qualitative procedures (content analysis). The results suggest that the retention of the information depends, generally, on its nature and not on the student’s personal characteristics. The coherency of the information was inversely related with the quantity of information (number of transmitted ideas and its extension). Globally, the students perceived teachers reaction as fair, a basic condition to obtain students acceptance of teachers behaviors.

Keywords : physical education; retention of information; coherency of information; misbehaviors; perception of fairness.

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