The research was designed to assess the classroom control techniques’ utilization by nurse lecturers in selected schools of nursing institutions in Imo State. Four research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted the cross-sectional descriptive survey design on a target population of 125 nurse lecturers. This population was used as the sample because it is of a manageable size and therefore no sampling technique was employed. Hence the sample size for the study was 125. The instrument for data collection was a researcher made questionnaire titled “classroom control techniques utilization questionnaire” (CCTUQ) which was validated by the researcher’s supervisor plus two experts in Measurement and Evaluation of Alvan Ikoku Federal University of education Owerri. The quantitative method of data collection was employed with the help of a research assistant who have to distribute the questionnaire and collect them back instantly after response. Data collected were encoded using the SPSS package and descriptive statistics of mean as standard deviations were employed to analyze the research questions while the ANOVA statistic was used to analyze the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study reveal that classroom control techniques were highly utilized in all school of nursing institutions in Imo State by nurse lecturers, years of experience on the relevance of classroom control techniques by nurse lecturers greatly influence the techniques’ utilization by these lecturers, among others. 

Education is an important tool for human and National development. The education given to citizens of a country especially at the university level must be of good quality to inculcate in them the necessary skills for self-development and survival. Quality education is a necessity in order to build responsible citizens who can drive the economy of the nation and compete favorably in the knowledge-based world of today. Quality in education bothers on effectiveness and efficiency of the school administration, teaching and learning.  To achieve this quality, teachers’ application of classroom control techniques are very fundamental [1]

The classroom is the environment where teaching and learning takes place. Classroom is the power-house in which the success or failure of the teaching-learning process is sustained. It is a learning environment where all the factors conducive for learning are put in place such as physical- sensory elements, that is lighting, colour, sound, space, furniture, among others. It does not necessarily mean an empty room; it includes laboratories, workshops, among others. The anticipation and objectives of formal education are normally accomplished in the classroom using a well-planned curriculum through effective classroom management [2].

Classroom management is well-informed actions taken by teachers to utilize any available resources in schools to facilitate teaching and learning. Classroom control techniques are the action teachers take to create an environment that supports and facilitates both academic and social emotional learning [3].

Classroom control techniques are the ways through which the nurse educator chooses to manage the daily activities of teaching and learning in the classroom which directly shapes the student’s perceptions. In Nigeria, the standard of education is not only determined by academic staff, administrative services, library services, curriculum structure and infrastructure but most importantly by academic performance of the students. Teaching students is really complicated and challenging as such teachers are required to use some useful strategies to help handle their students easily in the classroom [4].  These variables include among others, teachers classroom control techniques. Classroom control techniques are the key variables in creating a desirable teaching and learning environment [5] 

Classroom control techniques are those activities or measures the teacher can use to maintain discipline in the classroom in order to achieve academic excellence.  Classroom control techniques can be defined as set of procedures that the teacher can use to establish and maintain conditions to enable learners as well as teachers to achieve instructional objectives efficiently without disruption. Classroom control sets a tone that captures student’s attention as a necessity for effective teaching and learning. Any classroom that is chaotic and disorganized with disruptions as a result of poor classroom control is unlikely to enhance expansive learning and good academic performance. Classroom control techniques include teacher classroom discipline, teacher effective communication and teacher-student relationship. Others include effective time management, good behavior techniques, corporal punishment, preventive technique and classroom environment management techniques   Classroom discipline is the ability of the teacher to help student to submit willingly to disciplinary influences in the classroom, then application of those influences secure the right conducts of the students in the class without disturbances. Teacher’s success in classroom control is related to the quality of the teacher’s relationship with the students. Good teacher student relationship enables students to feel safe and secure in the class, it provides framework for learning important social and academic skills. This is classified as exhibiting closeness, warmth and interaction thereby providing a secure base from which students can explore the classroom and its setting [6]. Again, the more teachers know their students, the better the rapport between them and the more positive of the students obeying class rules as well as pay attention in the class to learn. A teacher can have a great lesson plan and materials but if he cannot control the classroom effectively then learning will not be achieved [7]. 

Effective classroom control has been associated with students’ behavior and academic outcome but some questions have been raised regarding the extent to which the classroom control techniques is been affected in schools of nursing. There are some components of effective classroom control techniques which include understanding student’s personal and psychological needs, creating an affirmative classroom climate by establishing positive teacher-student relationship and maintaining constructive involvement, involving students in developing and committing to behavior standards that promote on-task behavior and help to support a calm, safe learning environment using instructional methods that facilitate optimal learning by responding to academic needs of individual students and classroom group . Another component is implementing responses to unproductive student behavior that treat students respectfully and help them develop skills for working effectively in the classroom and even in the school settings [8]

Again, a classroom being a work place whereby teaching and learning takes place, the teacher has to plan his lesson, decides the lesson objectives and conduct the lesson; in order to achieve the learning objectives, the teacher have to create a conducive classroom environment, and interact with the students. Establishment of order within the classroom is one of the major tasks of the teacher in the classroom so that teaching and learning can take place. A good classroom manager will be able to prevent undesirable classroom behavior and foster desirable behavior which encourages students’ engagement that supports learning. The implication of this is that classroom control results in the coupling of order and learning therefore classroom control technique is the progression of strategies that teachers utilize to promote order and student engagement in learning [9]. 

Some pro-active principles in maintaining order in the classroom, include innovative teaching, shot workshops on specific topics and flipped classroom. Others are developing coherent list of expected behaviors, the teacher has to list out some expected behaviors which should be adopted as the does and don’t of the classroom and these should be among the expected behaviors of universal appeal to teaching and learning. Such behaviors like treating the students with dignity and respect, supporting and promoting cooperative works during groups studies, demonstrating the ability to problem solving and make timely decisions, active feedbacks on certain behaviors and consistent share of knowledge and information.  Equipping students with the skills needed to execute appropriate behavior, sometimes students behave inappropriately because they were not properly equipped with the skills needed for proper behaviors as such cannot do what is expected of them. This means that new skills can help with difficult behavior, verbal instructions, modeling and step by step guidance to teach physical and social skills. Practice, repetition, praise and encouragement are keys to learning new skills. Equipping students with needed skills help in managing their behavior. When they are equipped with skills on how to do things they will be engaged always thereby not finding time to misbehave. When equipping students with skills, we use more than one method at a time for instance, if a student is finding it difficult to understand what is being taught, the information can be broken down into steps. Again, modeling can even work better for the student. By assessing the success of an implementation, the teacher should observe the student to know if they were able to learn and apply the outlined or expected behaviors and the skills which they were taught. For instance, if non-verbal cues were used to give them corrections, then observe if they did understand and comply appropriately [10].

Create and sustain a positive environment in which this can take place, in a positive classroom, student participation and collaboration are encouraged in safe environment that has been created by the teacher. The classroom environment should be void of harmful equipment to avoid injuries to the students. The seats should be properly arranged, classrooms should have enough ventilation and well illuminated. Classrooms are also expected to be noise free, the white board and other classroom accessories should be well arranged for proper usage by the students [11]. 

Teachers should apply the three fundamentals of teaching which includes Content, conduct and covenant management as they are comprehensive strategies to handling disruptive behavior in the classroom [12]

Unsatisfactory academic performance among student nurses evidenced by poor results and elimination of students in nursing and midwifery council of Nigeria final qualifying examinations has become worrisome and the researcher wish to carry out are search on classroom control techniques utilized by nurse lecturers as an attempt to see whether or not it has attributed to nursing students’ poor performance.  Again, some teachers do complain of student nurses’ incivility like coming to school late and entering classroom any time they like, some even sleep in the class, some distract others while lectures are in progress. All these and many more constitute to classroom control problems that need effective control techniques to handle in order to achieve the objectives of teaching and learning. Some students do complain of their teachers not giving them attention when they are in need, good communication is important in achieving good classroom atmosphere and relations [13] The researcher want to find and document the types of classroom control techniques used by the nurse educators. 

Research Design

A Cross-sectional descriptive research design was used for the study. This involved collection of data concerning the current status of the subject of the study.

Area of the Study

The study was conducted in Imo State among the nurse lecturers in the six nursing training institutions .

There are six nursing training institutions four mission and two government schools all located within the three senatorial zones of the state. In alphabetical order, they includes: schools of nursing Amaigbo, school of nursing Emekuku, school of nursing Mbano, school of nursing Umulogho, Imo College of Nursing Orlu and Imo State University Orlu Campus.

Population of the Study

There are nine nursing institution in Imo State and only 6 among them were used for the study. They are chosen on the criteria that they have reached five years of establishment and therefore are accredited nursing institutions. The target population for the study comprised 125 lecturers in the six accredited school of nursing institutions in Imo State.

Table 3.1: Distribution table showing the number of lecturers in the six accredited nursing institution of higher learning in Imo state

Inclusion Criteria

The participants were registered nurse lecturers in the area of study who were interested to participate in the study.         

Sample Size Determination

The target population for the study comprised of 125 lecturers in the six school of nursing institutions and as such was used for the study. The entire 125 lecturers were used for the study because the number is a manageable size and hence no sample size determination method was employed. 

Sample and Sampling Technique

The sample for the study was 125 and because of the small manageable population, no sampling technique was employed and the population size was used as the sample size.

Instrument for Data Collections

The researcher developed questionnaire on effective utilization of classroom control techniques used by lecturers in selected school of nursing institutions in Imo state and the title of the questionnaire “classroom control techniques utilization questionnaire” (CCTUQ)

Validity of the Instrument

The validity of the instrument was obtained by giving the questionnaire to the researcher’s supervisor and two research experts in Measurement and Evaluation of Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri, for their criticism on use of language, face and content validity and necessary corrections were made by them.

Reliability of the Instrument

The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability method and the reliability indices of 0.75, 0.44, 0.65, and 0.47 were respectively obtained. The questionnaire were administered to 10 subjects who were not part of the study area for trial testing and the respondents were randomly selected. The same questionnaire was administered again, the second time being three weeks from the first test.

Ethical Considerations

A letter of introduction was obtained from the department of Nursing Sciences, Imo State University, Orlu. Then ethical approval from Imo State research ethical committee.

Procedure for Data Collection

An initial visit was made to the schools by the researcher prior to data collection. An introductory letter from the Head of the Department Nursing Sciences  Imo State University Orlu and ethical approval letter to introduce self and the purpose of the visit.

These visits provided a forum for   introduction and establishment of rapport between the researcher, the head of the departments and the lecturers.

With the help of the research assistants, copies of the questionnaires were administered to the respondents on the spot in their classrooms after obtaining their informed consent.

Data Analysis

Item by item simple descriptive analysis was used to illustrate the response frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation of various categories of data.

Data collected from the questionnaires was collated tallied and presented in tables.

Table 4.1: Mean and standard deviation responses on the extent classroom control techniques are utilized by the nurse lecturers in colleges of nursing.

Table 4.1 shows mean responses on the extent classroom control techniques are utilized by nurse lecturers in selected schools of nursing institutions in Imo State. Items 1-10 has mean scores of 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.5 with their corresponding standard deviations of .562, .662, .681, .665, .681, .662, .614, .662, .693 and .576 respectively all depicting acceptance. In a like manner, items 11-24 had mean scores 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.3, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4,, 3.5, 3.5, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.5, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.5, 3.4,, 3.5, 3.4,and 3.4, with their corresponding standard deviations as shown in the table all showing acceptance to the listed items. Furthermore, items 41-61 had their mean scores: 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.5, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, 3.4, and 3.4, respectively all showing acceptance. Meanwhile, the grand mean score of 3.4, and its standard deviation of 0.128 which is greater than the criterion mean of 2.5 is a clear indication of acceptance. This result that reveals that the respondents from across the school of nursing institutions in Imo state accepted that classroom control techniques are effectively and highly utilized by nurse lecturers in selected schools of nursing institutions in Imo state with reference to the use of the items listed in the table above.

Table 4.2: mean and standard deviation responses on the extent years of experience influence the utilization of classroom control techniques by nurse lectures

Table 4.2 shows the mean and standard deviation responses on the extent the years of experience influence the utilization of classroom control techniques by nurse lecturers in selected schools of nursing institution in Imo State. From the analysis, items 62–67 had mean scores of 3.38, 3.56, 3.24, 3.30, 3.34 and 3.48 with their corresponding standard deviations of .680, .614, .545, .650, .583 and .630, all showing acceptance. The grand mean score of 3.38 depicts that  respondents accepted clearly all the item statements made in the table with respect to the influence of years of experience on utilization of classroom control techniques. The result of the analysis therefore shows that years of experience on the relevance of classroom control techniques to a high extent influences the nurse lecturers’ utilization of the techniques in selected schools of nursing institutions in Imo state.

Table 4.3: Mean and Standard deviation responses on the types of classroom control techniques used by nurse lecturers

Table 4.3 shows mean and standard deviation responses on the types of classroom control techniques used by nurse lecturers across school of nursing institutions in Imo state. Analysis result shows that items 68-78 had mean scores of 3.40, 3.35, 3.37, 3.42, 3.45, 3.38, 3.40, 3.37, 3.39 and 3.46 with their corresponding standard deviations of .627, .549, .72, .654, .662, .588, .681, .622, .702, .656 and 616 respectively, all being greater than the criterion and were hence accepted. In a similar manner, items 79-93 had the following mean scores: 3.44, 3.40, 3.39, 3.36, 3.41, 3.48, 3.49, 3.42, 3.43, 3.37, 3.38, 3.45, 3.40, 3.42 and 3.41 and their corresponding standard deviations of .627, .648, .671, .677, .661, .604, .663, .662, .687, .702, .656, .588, .660, .625 and .661 respectively, all showing acceptance to the item statements.

However, a grand mean of 3.41 cumulatively indicates a high acceptance to the item statements made in respect of research question three. The result of the analysis therefore reveals that all the items stated in table 4.3 with respect to research question three are truly types of classroom control techniques employed by nurse lecturers selected from school of nursing in Imo State

Table 4.4: Mean and Standard deviation responses on the factors that affect classroom control techniques in colleges of nursing

Table 4.4 shows mean and standard deviation responses on the factors that affect classroom control techniques in selected school of nursing institution in Imo State. Item No. 94 as contained in the table has a mean score of 3.37 and a standard deviation of .769 which depicts acceptance. Similarly, the other items 95-99 had mean scores 3.59, 3.27, 3.50, 3.42 and 3.33 with their corresponding standard deviations of .540, .627, .502, .663 and .681 respectively all expressing acceptance. The grand mean of 3.42 is a clear indication of acceptance of all the item statements in the table in respect of research question four. The result of the analysis therefore reveals that all the item stated in respect of research question four are factors that affect classroom control techniques among nurse lecturers in selected schools of nursing institution in Imo State.

On the extent of utilization of classroom control techniques by nurse lecturers in the selected schools of nursing institution under study, the findings revealed that nurse lecturers highly make use of majority of the classroom control techniques penciled down in the table 4.1 of the study. The extent of acceptance averagely differs and vary from the institutions under study but the cumulative average score depicts that the extent of utilization of the control techniques was high in the selected schools of nursing institution in Imo State. This may be from the fact that the institutions run a common curriculum and the nurse lecturers meticulously adhere to the curriculum design and it may not be far from the fact that management of these institutions regularly monitor the lecturers and their teaching/ learning processes. The finding of the study has gone to answer the question or clear the doubt raised by [14, 15] when he posited that effective classroom control has been associated with students’ behavior and academic outcome but some questions have been raised regarding the extent to which the classroom control techniques are being affected in schools of nursing. The high utilization of the techniques by nurse lecturers across the colleges was further supported by the null hypothesis tested with Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistic whose result confirmed that there was no significant difference in the mean responses of nurse lecturers across the selected schools of nursing institution in Imo State on the extent of utilization of classroom control techniques in their institutions.

On the extent to which years of experience on the relevance of classroom control techniques influence the utilization of the techniques by nurse lecturers in selected schools of nursing institution in Imo State, findings revealed that years of experience on the knowledge of the relevance of classroom control techniques greatly influence the nurse lecturers’ utilization of the techniques in their respective institutions. This means that lecturers who have served in the institutions for higher number of years like 10 years and above must have had more experiences on the relevance of the use of certain classroom control techniques than those who are younger in years of lecturing in the institutions. These lecturers with many years of lecturing experience act on the premise that some techniques must have been tested and ascertained as more effective and yielding than others. The finding was even supported by the result of the hypothesis 2 which states that there was no significant difference in the mean responses of nurse lecturers years of experience influence on the relevance of classroom control techniques utilization in nursing institutions in Imo State. Meanwhile the finding was contrary to the finding of Oluwatosin [16] who conducted a study on classroom management techniques utilized by teachers in secondary schools in Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara State and found out that teachers rank has no significant influence on their utilization of classroom control techniques. Though this study employed mean and standard deviation statistic to answer the research questions and ANOVA to analyze hypothesis, this deferred greatly on the use of secondary school students as subjects, area of study as well as sample size. He also talked of rank of lecturers while the present study talked of years of experience. However, the finding of this study is significant and revealing. 

On the types of classroom control techniques used by nurse lecturers in all school of nursing institutions in Imo State, the findings revealed that all the items stated in the table therein are types of classroom techniques used by nurse lecturers in selected schools of nursing institutions in the State. The said types of classroom control techniques include setting classrooms with students, entry routine, tight transition, do now, seat signals, props, non-verbal communication/intervention, group participation, noise management and control, managing intervention, command classroom environment and sitting arrangements. Others include friendship strategies/relationship building, lecturing/high fidelity simulation, concept mapping, gaming, making and implementing rules, consistent behavior, flip classroom, listening skills, effective instruction, freedom, case study, positive group correction, use of innovative (Power Point), feedback on appropriate behavior, motivation and engaging and challenges students, among others. This study was similar with the work of Mumtaz [17] who conducted a study to determine the classroom control techniques being employed in public and private schools, and assess the effective techniques that can be used in the classroom to improve students’ performance. Though this study used the descriptive survey design and a near sample size and similar stratified random sampling technique, it' had a very significant deficiency of not stating the finding of his study which was the expected final outcome of his research, making his research an incomplete study.

Lastly on the factors that affect classroom control techniques in selected schools of nursing institutions in Imo State, the result of the analysis revealed that all the items stated in the table in respect of research question four were factors that affect classroom control techniques among nurse lecturers in selected schools of nursing institutions in Imo State. The items stated in the table include: that a well arranged classroom is conducive and encouraging to the nurse lecturers to actively use other classroom control techniques in the class; that's nurse lecturers' position or rank in the school cannot affect the utilization of some classroom control techniques in the classroom; that students disability can make the student not to cooperate as expected in the classroom no matter the type of techniques the nurse lecturer might use; that poorly arranged classroom environment with inadequate oxygen concentration does not encourage utilization of classroom control techniques; that individual, students' culture really affects classroom control techniques and that because of deviations and variations in individual characters and traits, teachers do not find it easy using most of the classroom control techniques in their classroom teaching and learning. Really all these item statements seen above in one way or the other effect classroom control techniques in the study area. This finding however corroborates with the finding of [18] who conducted a study on the factors that affect classroom control techniques in Yogyakarta region of Indonesia in the Faculty of Education Osmangazi University using a sample size of 306 teachers, and concluded that both the lecturers and the students contribute to the factors that affect classroom control techniques. Another study by [20] studied the factors that affect classroom management in English language class in Gore High School, South West Ethiopia using a population of 213 students and 4 teachers; open-ended questionnaire was used and data was analyzed with simple percentage statistic. This study seems to sound similar with the present study but differed strongly for the author not providing the final outcome expected of his study.

The study has been credited for strong revelations. In line with the findings and discussions so far made, the research work has made some inevitable insight into some of the factors that hinder effective utilization of many classroom control techniques by nurse lecturers teaching in the selected schools of nursing institutions in Imo State. The researcher is therefore hopeful that the findings will be of great benefit to students, nurse lecturers, management of nursing science in colleges of nursing, the government and the society at large; for with the revelations nurse lectures would be encouraged to in advance guard against such factors that hinder their effective utilization of certain classroom control techniques and improve their utilization rates of those techniques in order to make their impact felt by the nurses they teach and make fast learning possible within the ambits of available resources; while the student nurses would be exposed to knowing some of those student-factors and take personal orientation and decision on how to avoid them. The government would be made from the findings to know how and when to do their bits for the effective classroom control techniques utilization by lecturers in these schools of nursing institutions under their domain.