Corporal punishment of students by teachers in elementary and middle schools in Taiwan: The relationship with school level, gender, school location, academic performance, and emotional reactions

In Taiwan, teachers' use of corporal punishment on students is a prevalent practice. Even though The Ministry of Education first announced banning the practice 1947 and reiterated the ban several times through the years, it was rarely enforced. In December 2006, it was written into law and became officially illegal. Surveys by the Humanistic Education Foundation (HEF), a non-profit education advocacy organization, showed that a large percentage of students were victims of corporal punishment before 2006; however, even in 2008, two years after the legal ban, 72% of middle schools still practiced corporal punishment, and this increased to 88% in 2009. The press often publicized the corporal punishment incidents, which always sparked public outcry and impassioned discussions. The topic is divisive and controversial among all stakeholders, but, to date, few quantitative research studies explored the subject, especially on factors such as school level, student gender, school location, students being punished on their lack of academic performance, and the students' emotional reactions to physical punishment.;Using HEF 2004 student survey results from 1,311 students at 62 middle schools and 159 elementary schools, this dissertation was the first large-sample-size quantitative study of corporal punishment of Taiwanese students using all the variables mentioned above.;Study results indicated that middle school students were punished more often than elementary school students, and males were punished more often than females. There was no statistical significance in the frequency of corporal punishment between city and county schools, but there were several locations with high punishment rates and punishment types. Students with lower self-reported academic performance were punished for their lack of academic performance, even though teachers denied punishing students for this reason in other surveys. Students with lower academic performance were also punished more often. Students punished for their poor academic performance had mixed emotional reactions. They felt that they deserved to be punished, yet they also felt ashamed, angry, and vindictive.;The study made the following recommendations: Further clarifying the law, along with more vigorous enforcement, especially for middle schools and middle school teachers. All teachers need to be better educated on classroom management and student discipline without resorting to corporal punishment. Teachers need to be more sensitive to students' negative emotional reactions from being physically punished.;Recommendations for future studies include (a) investigating the relationship between physical punishments and academic performance, (b) exploring the relationship between the emotional reaction of students who are punished and campus violence, and (c) comparing results from future studies of corporal punishment to the data from this study to better understand the effects of the law banning corporal punishment.