The new trend of discipline practices in Thailand: the 101s positive discipline intervention program for promoting positive-teaching practices and child's executive function development

Abstract

Currently, Thailand is concerned about the high rates of corporal punishment in schools causing children’s delayed executive function (EF) development, the set of cognitive skills related to goal-directed behaviors and school success. In response to public requests to reduce the problems and protect the children’s rights, the 101s positive discipline (The 101s), a successful intervention program targeting the promotion of children’s EF development, was implemented in Thai preschools. This research aimed to investigate the impact of the 101s intervention on the teachers’ discipline practices and preschoolers’ EF skills, using quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, control group research design. The sample consisted of 11 teachers and 45 preschoolers, ages 3 to 5 enrolled in two schools. One school was the intervention group, in which the teachers received The 101s training, consisted of 6 teachers and 20 preschoolers. The other school was the control group, in which the teachers received no training, consisted of 5 teachers and 25 preschoolers. A paired samples t-test was conducted to examine the changes in pretest-posttest scores on discipline practices within groups as measured by The 101s Teacher Interaction Checklist. An independent samples t-test was calculated to examine the differences in discipline practices between the teachers in both groups. Then, a series of MANCOVA was performed to investigate the differences in EF skills between the preschoolers in both groups as measured by BRIEF-P. The results showed that the teachers in the intervention group had significantly higher scores on positive discipline practices and significantly lower scores on negative discipline practices, comparing to their pretest scores and the teachers in the control group. Likewise, the preschoolers in the intervention group had significantly lower scores on EF disorders, comparing to the students in the control group. The findings suggested that The 101s training had a positive impact on teachers’ discipline practices and children’s EF skills. The implications, limitation and suggestions are discussed.