Abstract

Teachers meet with unwanted behavior when they are acting as facilitators of the learning process and they resort to certain tactics to deal with them. One of these tactics is punishment. This study aimed to identify the views held by Turkish primary school pupils on punishment. According to the results of the study, pupils were punished for different reasons by their teachers, who used different types of punishment in response to this unwanted behavior. Not being able to accept the situation, pupils experienced negative emotions toward the teacher and the lesson. Some of the punitive methods applied changed pupil behavior, some did not. Pupils expected different reactions in place of ineffective teacher punishments.

Key words: Punishment, unwanted behaviors, primary school pupils.