EFFECTIVENESS OF GROUP COUNSELING WITH POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE STUDENT DISCIPLINE

Student discipline is one of the main challenges in the world of education. Students who lack discipline tend to show behaviors such as arriving late, not wearing school uniforms and equipment properly, not doing assignments, and being less active in learning activities. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of group counseling services using positive reinforcement techniques in an effort to improve the discipline of junior high school students.
The research method used is quantitative with a pretest-posttest control group design. The subjects in this study were 8th grade students of Taman Dewasa Mojoagung Junior High School who had a low level of discipline, with a total of 14 students divided into two groups, namely experimental and control. Each consisted of 7 students. The experimental group was given an intervention in the form of group counseling with positive reinforcement techniques, which were applied through giving praise, award stars, and symbolic certificates. The research instrument is a discipline scale that has been tested for validity and reliability.
Based on the results of the t-test, a significance value (Sig. 2-tailed) of 0.000 is obtained which is smaller than 0.05, so it can be concluded that there is a significant difference in increasing student discipline between the experimental group and the control group. This finding proves that the application of positive reinforcement techniques in group counseling is effective in fostering student discipline at school.