The term discipline', especially classroom discipline is an essential component in the teaching and learning process in schools. There is no single definition of this term, on which, the teachers and teacher educators have built a consensus. Much of the current literature discusses teaching opportunities that enable children to learn how to develop self-discipline, and to handle problems that arise within the school system. This contrasts with the authoritarian approach to discipline, that appears to be prevalent in most of the schools. The above two perspectives indicate that no consensus has been reached as far as definition and maintenance of discipline is concerned. This study was conducted to find out the existing approach to discipline in one of the private secondary schools in Karachi. For this purpose the qualitative case study approach was adopted where the data was collected through interviews, observations and documentary analysis. A number of key stakeholders (discussed in chapter three) were interviewed about their views of school discipline and their approach to maintain the discipline. The whole study revolves around Faris' (1996), view of discipline, as he argues, Today educators have moved away from trying to control students behaviour and instead focus on the teaching process to create, implement and maintain a classroom environment that supports learning The findings of the study indicate that there is a consistency in stakeholders expectations about what discipline is, and what discipline is for. The school has set certain rules and subsequent reward systems, which have been made known to stakeholders. The study further indicates that the school maintains discipline through: Empowering teachers and students by giving them leading responsibilities in various academic and co-curricular councils within the school and also supports students' learning by creating an appropriate learning environment. In addition, the school organizes professional development programmes for its staff and informs and involves parents in solving discipline- related problems in school. There is a monitoring and follow-up of the students' social skills. At classroom levels, the teachers have a pro-active approach to discipline. Lastly, the turnover of teachers, high ratio of students, especially in primary classes and some strict rules at pre-primary level, were found to be the challenging factors.
Background: Sleep is an essential function of our body. Many surveys have reported the prevalence of poor sleep in university students, especially in medical students. Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of physical activity and stress on sleep quality among medical students in Pakistan. Materials & Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted on medical students of private medical colleges in Lahore. A convenient sampling technique was used and 210 students were selected. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Godin Shephard Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (GSLTPAQ), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS 10) were used for data collection. We used SPSS version 20 to analyze data and applied statistical tests: Chi-square test and Logistic Regression. p-value < 0.05 was taken to establish significance. Results: Among the study participants 91(43.3%) were males and 119 (57.7%) were females. There was a significant effect of stress level on sleep quality (P=0.000*). The frequency of good sleepers was seen to increase by almost three times with increasing physical activity, however, this difference remained non-significant (p=0.07). The logistic regression test showed a significant relationship between poor sleep and stress (p=0. 008**) while no significant relationship was seen between sleep quality and physical activity. Conclusion: There was a significant association between poor sleep and high-stress levels and an increase in physical activity showed an increase in the frequency of good sleep, however, this difference was non-significant. It can be inferred that this positive effect of increasing physical activity on the quality of sleep could be indirectly due to its relieving effect on stress.
Warner (1965) introduced Randomized Response Technique (RRT) for qualitative variable, which helps interviewers extract reliable data corresponding to sensitive questions while maintaining respondent anonymity. RRT allow respondents to mark their actual response by giving a scrambled response which the researcher is later able to unscramble at an aggregate level but not at an individual level. In the thesis, we focus on generalized quantitative optional randomized response models and some generalized ratio-type estimators have been proposed for a finite population mean of a sensitive variable based on RRT by using non-sensitive auxiliary variable. These estimators have been proposed under different sampling designs, such as single-phase sampling, two-phase sampling, stratified sampling and stratified two-phase sampling. In Chapter 1, the discussion has been made about randomized response technique. Different methods, related to randomized response models and RRT have been discussed. Furthermore, uses of two-phase sampling, auxiliary information, stratified sampling, ratio and regression estimators based on randomized response technique have been illustrated. In Chapter 2, literature on the randomized response models and mean estimators based on randomized response techniques is discussed. Chapter 3 contains the quantitative randomized response models, already developed in full and optional randomized response devices. The procedure of ratio and regression estimators for sensitive variables by using non-sensitive auxiliary variable based on RRT have also been given in Chapter 3. The major contribution of this dissertation starts from Chapter 4. In this chapter, three new quantitative randomized response models to estimate the mean of a sensitive variable have been proposed. We also improved mean estimation utilizing information from a non-sensitive auxiliary variable by way of ratio and regression estimators in three models. These three models have been constructed under single sample approach, split sample approach and generalized linear combination scrambling approach. Some special cases and privacy protection for generalized quantitative models have also been discussed. Estimators for the mean, ratio and regression of the variable of interest are developed for each model and simulation studies are also done to analyze them. These proposed models are generalization of additive, subtractive and multiplicative models under different parameter assumptions. In Chapter 5, a class of generalized estimators of population mean have been suggested for randomized response technique under simple random sampling. The estimators have been proposed for the two different situations illustrated as: Situation-I: Single Phase Sampling. Situation-II: Two-Phase Sampling. The mean square error and bias expressions have been derived for generalized estimators under the single and two-phase sampling. An extensive simulation study and an application to a real dataset are done for all the study estimators to evaluate their performance. In Chapter 6, a class of generalized estimators of population mean have been suggested for randomized response technique under stratified sampling. The estimators have been proposed for the two different situations illustrated as: Situation-I: Single Phase Sampling. Situation-II: Two-Phase Sampling. The procedure of stratified sampling in randomized response technique in two situations for single and two-phase sampling have been discussed. The mean square error and bias expressions have been derived for generalized estimators under the single and two-phase stratified sampling. We use the simulation studies for efficiency comparison by empirically and theoretically.