Reflection Final Essay examples

Submitted By imani2016
Words: 818
Pages: 4

Maissa Signate
Period: 6
February 10, 2015
Mr.Bradbury

Reflection

In my research paper, I focused on corporal punishment in Nigerian schools and the effects of it on academic success in adolescents. In the beginning, I was actually interested on the topic of

interracial relationships, but I thought that people might think of it as a boring topic. After hearing of the topic on corporal punishment, I thought it would be interesting to learn about its potentially positive or negative effects.
When the group was finally made, we began to brainstorm ideas on different views the topic would be considering. Initially, we had wanted to do lenses, but after communicating with the instructor we saw that it was hard to incorporate many lenses into our argument. Another idea we came up with was different ethnic groups, but another factor to consider was that
Africans and African American were seemed to be the same, and eliminating Americans would be such a big factor from the many ethnic groups available. Lastly, we decided to study corporal punishment in schools in different continents. This, however, was too broad. Finally, we decided to focus on Nigeria. After many attempts and edits, we decided to research “Is the Use of
Corporal Punishment Effective in Improving Academic Achievement in Adolescents?”
Born and raised in an African household, I believed corporal punishment was normal and effective. In my culture, we view physical punishment as virtuous teaching. I was corporally punished growing up with my parents, and I believe it improved my behavior. This mindset led me to believe corporal punishment would be effective in schools, as well. While I believed

corporal punishment should be administered in schools, I thought it should be of a lesser degree than that in the home.
When beginning to research the topic, I thought it would be fairly easy to find many sources and perspectives related to my topic. Sadly, most resources seemed to be against the use of corporal punishment. I became very frustrated, as it took me a long time to find many positives on this topic. Even though I was unable to find many different perspectives, I was still able to find many sources related to Nigeria and the use of corporal punishment.
After gathering all the information for my research, I realized that there are very few positive effects of corporal punishment. I learned that, while the intent of using corporal punishment is to correct the students’ behavior, the outcomes are generally negative. Corporal punishment has been shown to cause students to achieve less in academics and lose focus on their work. It has also been linked to child abuse. One thing that was shocking to me while doing my research was that some teachers that administered corporal punishment caused life lasting injuries and even death. The majority of the teachers and staff believe that corporal punishment is just not useful in today’s education system. This led me to shift from believing corporal punishment is useful and beneficial to seeing it as a harmful practice.
Overall,