Effect Of Cognitive Restructuring And Shaping Techniques In Handling Lateness To School Among Secondary School Students

Area of the Study       
The study was conducted in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. Enugu State is one of the 36 States of Nigeria and it is in the Southeast geopolitical zone of the country. There are twenty-eight (28) secondary schools in Udi Local Government Area. The Local Government Area is a rural locality and many of the students for various reasons go late to school.
Population of the Study
Population of the study was made up of all the latecomers in the three junior secondary schools of Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State that were used in the study. From the records kept on late comers to school by the school guidance counsellors and teachers on duty in the three schools, as at first term of 2007/2008 academic session, the late comers numbered 265. Accordingly, these 265 late comers made up the population of the study.
Sample and Sampling Technique
The sample of this study was 90 latecomers. This number was made up of 30 most frequent latecomers from three junior secondary schools. The three schools were drawn by simple random sampling with replacements and the 30 most frequent latecomers from each of the three schools that made up the sample of 90 was picked purposively as they were the most frequent latecomers in the list of latecomers in these schools.
Instrument for Data Collection
The instruments for the collection of data for the study were documentary evidence and observation guide developed by the researcher. The documentary evidence on lateness enabled the researcher to identify latecomers, while the observation guide was for identifying magnitude and number of days of lateness.
The observation guide contained five days of the week and thirty numbers, representing the thirty latecomers.   It also had the magnitude or degree of lateness using time intervals which were: -
Very Mild Lateness (V.M.L.)     -      7.35am – 8.05am. Mild Lateness (M.L.)    - 8.06am – 8.35am. Severe Lateness (S.L.)    - 8.36am – 9.05am. Very Severe Lateness (V.S.L.) - 9.06am – 9.35am.
Validation of the Instrument
A sample of the instrument together with copies of the purpose of the study, research questions and hypotheses were given to three experts in Counselling Psychology and Measurement and Evaluation in the Faculty of Education Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. They were requested to assess whether the instrument is capable of meeting the purpose of the study. Corrections and suggestions of the validators guided the researcher in producing the final instrument that was used in data collection for this study.
Method of Data Collection
Before the commencement of the study, the researcher went to the three schools she used in the study and advised that the school guidance counsellors and the teachers on duty in each of the schools kept record of latecomers for one term. From the record, most frequent latecomers were selected for the study, thirty from each school. When the study commenced, the researcher made use of the school guidance counsellors and two teachers to check the late comers. These people were the research assistants.
During the pretest, the research assistants had to fill the prepared observation guide for the researcher, day by day for twenty (20) days.   The same thing was done during the posttest.   Also the researcher decided to use the number of times each latecomer was late in a week as well as the magnitude of lateness to determine the reward to be given to the subjects who received shaping treatment.
At the end of the twenty days pretest and that of the posttest, the researcher collected all the records kept by the research assistants and did the tallying.
Experimental Procedure
The subjects for this study were assigned to three groups – experimental group I, experimental group II and control group. The experimental group I, designated as school I, received cognitive restructuring treatment; the experimental group II, designated as school II, received shaping treatment; while the control group designated as school III, received no treatment. Each school served as a centre as no principal would allow his students to be taken to another school or place.
The Experimental Group I, which was given cognitive restructuring received treatment two times per week. Therefore, for the few weeks of treatment, the group received a total of eight sessions of treatment. The researcher used the counselling period in the school time table (since she was allowed to do so) to have sessions with the subjects used in the study. Each session lasted one hour (9.00am-10.00am).