Deviant Behaviours And The Learning Outcomes In Business Studies Among Junior Secondary School Students

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

The increasing rate of anti-social behaviours in the society, particularly among Nigerian youths is alarming. It has become a common phenomenon to read, hear or witness deviant behaviours among secondary school students such as lying, stealing, fighting, promiscuity, bullying, truancy, alcoholism, lack of respect for elders among others. Today, deviant behaviours among teenagers have become a thing of concern to parents, teachers and other people in the society as the problem gets more serious year by year. In every society, there are sets of norms which members are expected to observe but not every member of the society abides by those norms. Members who live contrary to the set norms are referred to as deviants. In spite of the good objectives for the inclusion of social studies, civic education, religious studies etc in the school curriculum to ensure moral development of learners, the society still faces various challenges among which are deviant behaviours among the students.

Deviant behaviour according to Kendall (2009) is a behaviour that deviates from the norms of a particular people in the society or community. Crossman (2018) describes deviant behaviour as any behaviour that is contrary to the dominant norms of society. Deviance also means violation or drift from the accepted societal norms, especially when it comes to the social or sexual behaviours (Wikipedia, 2018). From these definitions, deviance means behaviour that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. It implies violation of rules and norms. From observation, deviant behaviours can negatively influence students’ learning outcomes due to display of some that are directly related to learning in the classroom such as cheating during examinations, lateness, truancy, fighting, causing trouble or violence, stealing, wearing dirty uniform and disobedience.

Torrente and Vazsonyi (2012) were of the view that deviant behaviours negatively influence the learning and teaching process as they undermine the purpose of education. Apart from this, most of the observed deviant behaviours attract punishment can range from kneeling down, taking some strokes of the cane, suspension, manual labour among others. Such punishments waste students time and stop them from participating in learning or other classroom activities. In view of this, it was deemed necessary to find out if deviant behaviour would have any significant influence on the students’’ learning outcomes among business studies students in junior secondary schools in Etinan Local Government Area.

1.2     Statement of the Problem                                                                     

Recently, the incidence of deviant behaviours among Nigerian youths has been on the increase. This has resulted into many social problems in Nigerian society. The resultant problems have been of great concern, not only to parents but also to governments at all levels. Deviant behaviours among secondary school students deserve careful study as they affect their learning outcomes.

Deviant behaviours have constituted a problem that has led to student’s attrition, late arrival at school, and low learning outcomes. Other related behaviours among students that are also of concern include, aggression, theft burglary, destruction of school property, truancy, rudeness and sexual harassment. These negative behaviours are observed amongst male and female students of different age categories and locations. Deviant behaviours are also linked to quality of teaching and learning in the classrooms.

Quite often, school boys break into school offices and staff common rooms, with the intention of stealing textbooks, examination scripts and exercise books. Most of the times, these boys or children get caught, when luck elude them. These behaviors of children significantly affect their learning outcomes. Therefore this research seeks to find out; the circumstances that normally get them involved in deviant behaviors for lessons to be deduced, whether they affect their learning outcomes in business studies among junior secondary school students in Etinan Local Government Area

 

Originally posted on February 18, 2021 @ 2:02 pm

About Peter Lawson 2732 Articles
Peter Hezekiah Lawson (Sir Pee). The CEO of onlineproject.com.ng. A reputable researcher, Web Developer, ICT Instructor and a publisher of many research works in Education.

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