ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate personal factors as correlates of academic performance in Enugu South LGA in Enugu State. The researcher is interested in this study because of the increase in low academic performance of students in Civic Education in secondary schools at both internal and external examinations, such as NECO, WAEC, JSCE, NABTEC respectively. Based on these problems, the researcher raised three research questions and three null hypotheses to guide the study. There was literature review to cover; conceptual frame work, concept of academic performance; school environment, family background, self-efficacy belief and locus of control as variables. There was empirical review of literature and also appraisal of literature review. The sample size was 292 students from 27 sampled public schools. Data for the study were collected using researcher’s structured and developed instrument titled: Personal Factors as correlates of Academics performance of secondary school students in Civic Education in Enugu State and also SSII promotion result for 2012/2013 session. It has face and content validity. Cronbach alpha reliability procedure was used to assess reliability of the instrument at 0.05 level of significance. Research questions were answered with regression analysis. The regression statistical analyses were also applied to test the five null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The data analyzed, showed the following findings: The school environment showed a positive significant relationship with academic performance of students. The family background showed positive significant relationship with academic performance of students. The self-efficacy belief did not show any significant relationship with academic performance of students. The locus of control showed positive significant relationship with academic performance of students in secondary schools. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made in this research work. The teacher–student relationship should be cordial within the school environment in order to promote good learning outcome. This study also unfolds its implication to education and counseling practice. There were contributions to knowledge at the end of the study.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education is the acquisition of knowledge for both national development and advancement of mankind. The essence of general education in Nigeria is to improve, enhance, attain worthwhile and suitable life and adapt to the changing society. However, this can only be achieved if secondary school students who are in the citadel of learning get actively involved in academic activities which will enhance academic performance.
The primary function of the school is to mould the character of the child and train him to posses Civic Education skills in order to attain academic success. This will enable the child to perform optimally both in real life situation and be used in his/her academic potentials. In the school, there are academic goals that have been set. The child ought to accomplish his own desired academic goal. If a child fails on the part of achieving success in his/her academic activities, he/her is being frustrated. This may arouse unpleasant emotional disturbances, which will definitely affect his/her academic performance especially in Civic Education.
Civic Education is a compulsory subject in Nigerian education. It is a necessary medium through which all other subjects are communicated. At all levels of education, (primary, post-primary and tertiary institutions) students are faced with problems of poor attitude, lack of interest and lack of zeal towards studying English as a basic Language of instruction, communication and information dissemination. This is as a result of negligence by stakeholders on the importance and usefulness of Civic Education to the achievement of all other subjects in the educational system. The concept of academic performance is being determined by the success achieved in different subjects.It varies in definitions. Rodriquez (2000) considers academic performance in Civic Education as a situation in which the student attains expected achievement according to his abilities. This result to his/her personality trait that affects all aspect of life. Feingold (2003) stated that, academic performance is affected by host of factors. They includes: learners house hold characteristics, such as student’s ability, motivation, childhood training and experiences, socio-economic status (SES), schools location, peer influence, teachers teaching style, biological inherited traits, behavioral attitudes and gender differences.
The academic performance of studentsin Civic Education affects all aspects of acquiring knowledge for the improvement of life. The poor Civic Education skill acquisition due to antecedent factors might have sprung up to affect linguistic- cultural backgrounds of learners. This deficiency leads to mental poverty, spiritual poverty, mind set poverty and a state of life failure. The challenges of attaining poor academic performance by secondary school students are very rampant to speakers of other languages, than speakers of English as first native language. Their performances in Civic Education equally affect the performances of other subjects, leading to school dropout, high failure in public examinations and high incidence of academic under achievement in higher institutions. Unoh (1982) ascertained that failure of most students in most subjects is as a result of poor reading skills which culminated from Civic Education deficiency.
Wilberg and Lynn (2002) explains that female have better language abilities including essay writing skills, vocabulary and word fluency which contribute to better course work. Stage and Kloosterman (2005) noted that gender differences in English achievement continue to exist on high cognitive level of tasks at Secondary School level. They noted that socio- economic status of parents from high educational levels and income will tend to prove better academic performance of students.
Academic performance of students could either be negative or positive in performances. Negative performance means poor academic achievement in Civic Education. This can be quantified in scores or marks assigned in grades. Whereas, positive academic performance means success or achievement in test and examinations. This is also quantified in scores or marks or assigned grades in Civic Education. The poor performance affects all aspects of acquiring knowledge for the improvement of life. Based on the Secondary School background, a significant number of students are expected to have a fair amount of knowledge in the Civic Education. The results acquired from Secondary School Civic Education skills will equip the students for life. The students that are not doing well in English proficiency will perform poorly in their examinations.
Academic performance could be defined as the display of knowledge attained or skills developed in school subjects designated by test and examination scores or marks assigned by the subject teachers. It could also be said to be any expression used to represent student’s scholastic standing. Campuzuno (2001) found that students themselves attribute academic performance to ability and distinguishes those required to repeat a school year from those being promoted because they passed. Insufficient acquisition of language skills for communication may lead to poor academic performance. Although Civic Education is a Lingua Franca, accepted by most countries of the world, it is not a Nigerian indigenous language. It is being learned and spoken by Nigerian society. So the influence of heterogeneous tribal languages, spoken by different tribes in this country affects the proficiency of Nigerian English learners. Edwards (2002), in his studies, attributes that self-concepts was found to better predict performance than variables such as age or student gender. The other factors noticed were; lack of resource materials, unstable academic session, non compliance to examination instructions, and health status.
Adell (2002) considers family background as the most important and most weighty factor in determining academic performance by students in English. Nigerians are reluctant English readers. Unoh (1982) said that Nigerians are reluctant readers. The reluctant reading and learning of English syndrome is, in essence, a tendency to limit one’s reading to what is especially required for the achievement of one’s limited objectives. For example; success in specific examination or procurement of jobs. Other manifestations of this syndrome are; inadequacy and poorly developed reading interest, and skills in Civic Education texts and a tendency to look for short-cut to acquire knowledge as a means to an end.
The performance of students in Civic Education in Secondary Schools in Nigeria is not encouraging. There is significant growing rate of failure and subsequent drop-out in Nigerian Secondary Schools. This growing failure rate could essentially be noticed in the yearly decline in students’ performance in all subjects especially in Civic Education. Tapia (2002) ascertained that a student fails if he/she cannot perform credibly well, both in class work activities and examinations. It has become necessary to assess how family background of the students influence performance in English. This is to show that students in attentive and non- participation in class work can cause negative performance in academic pursuits.
Many researchers, psychologists and educationists like, Feingold (2003), Rodriguez. (1986), Ugoji (2008) had identified some of the variables that have effects on students’ academic performances. This work intends to ascertain the relationship of self efficacy belief to academic performance.
Academic performance is individual inherent potentials in terms of intelligence combined with other sociological factors. Adediwuru and Tayo (2007) in their study, identified personality factors such as anxiety, achievement, motivation and level of interest as factors that influence academic performance of students in Secondary Schools. The consistence of these claims was asserted by Ford (1985) who claimed that students with high self efficacy received higher grades than those with low self-efficacy. The students with negative self- efficacy belief had low academic performance. The relationships of these factors will be looked into by the researcher.
Locus of control, according to Rotters (2000), refers to it as the extent to which an individual believes he/she can control events that affect them. Individuals with a high internal locus of control believe that events result primarily from their own behaviors and actions.
Another important variable to be examined is the school environment as part of environmental factors. It will be viewed in the areas of classroom relationship between teachers and students, teacher’s teaching style, teachers’ attitude towards students, shortage of professional Civic Education teachers as it affects academic performance.
This work intends to view the relationship between the family background of students and their academic performance in Civic Education. There are several problems that may affect academic performance of students from the attitude of parents towards their children. The first major role of parents is to guide their children right. Parents should teach their children and help them to avoid life full of problems. Also parents can influence their children’s character either negatively or positively. Parents are to keep lines of communication open to their children and also supervise their work from the school. This was asserted by Marchesi & Martin (2002) that the values and family expectations, parents level of education, parents motivation, parents’ provision of academic materials etc have notable influence on academic results, even when controlling for initial knowledge and socio-economic contexts.
The prevailing correlate variables as; school environment, family background of students, self-efficacy belief, locus of control, may have relationships to the academic performance of students in Civic Educations in Secondary Schools. It is of the view of the researcher to take these variables together for better understanding of its relationship with academic performance. Therefore, the researcher intends to investigate the relationship of these variables and academic performance.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The researcher’s counseling, teaching and learning experiences showed that most secondary school students perform poorly in Civic Education, both internal and external examinations. The performance of students in the school environment are faced with several problems. These are: problems of relationship with teachers, problems of student-student relationship in the school, class-room behaviors, lack of attendance to class lessons, poor teacher’s teaching styles and lack of student motivation. What relationship will these variables play in predicting student’s academic performance in secondary school?
Another problem emanates from student’s family background. In the family where parents are illiterate, there is non-acquisition of Civic Education skills, Civic Education were not spoken, there is non- acquisition of Civic Education skills as good reading habits, writing, speaking, drama and debating. There is lack of academic materials such as; textbooks, uniform, computers, reading chairs and tables, there is no assistance to writing home work. What relationship would these constraints play in the academic performance of students in secondary schools?
The problems confronting students personal factors are: not been committed to academic studies, lack of self motivation, lack of self discipline, and involvement in evil social vices like cultism. What relationship would these problems play in determining the academic performance of students in secondary schools?
When students perform poorly in their academics, it may lead to drop out of schools. For this reason, it becomes imperative for the researcher to investigate and ascertain; what relationship does correlate variables of family background, self-efficacy belief and locus of control have with academic performance of secondary school students in Civic Education?
1.3 Research Questions:
The following questions guided the study:
• What relationship does family background have on student’s academic performance in Civic Education in Secondary School?
• What relationship does self efficacy belief have on student’s academic performance in Civic Education among Secondary School?
• What relationship does locus of control have on student’s academic performance in Civic Education in Secondary Schools?
1.4 Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated to direct the study:
• There is no significant relationship between family background and academic performance of students in Civic Education in Secondary Schools.
• There is no significant relationship between self-efficacy belief and academic performance of students in Civic Education in Secondary Schools.
• There is no significant relationship between locus of control and academic performance of students in Civic Education in Secondary Schools.
1.5 Purpose of the study
The general purpose of this research is to find out how the correlates of; school environment, student’s family background, students’ self- efficacy belief, and locus of control variables, relate with the academic performance of students in English Language in Secondary School. Specifically, the study was designed to;
• Investigate the significant relationship between school environment and academic performance of students in Secondary Schools.
• Examine the significant relationship between family background and academic performance of students in secondary schools.
• Determine the significant relationship between self-efficacy beliefs and academic performance of Students in Secondary Schools.
• Investigate the significant relationship between locus of control and academic performance of Students in Secondary Schools.
1.6 Significance of the study
This study will be of great significance to: Civic Education teachers, other subject teachers, students, education planners, ministry of education and parents.
This research work will benefit the Civic Education teachers in secondary schools. This will enable them use better teaching styles in teaching Civic Education skills. It will equally help other subject teachers to understand the importance of Civic Education to the study of other subject in the secondary school. The study will also help other subject’s teachers to have a sound understanding of the learners’ family background and provide adequate learning experience and good teaching styles that will make student perform better in academics.
The school-based counselors will also benefit from this study. This will expose school counselors to counseling strategies in order to improve student’s study habit. It is expected to provide guidelines for counseling student’s disorder problems affecting their learning and acquisition of Civic Education skills.
It will also be relevant to Ministry of Education who is involved in supervision of schools, and those government officials formulating educational policies in secondary schools. It is hoped that this study will be significant to Education and curriculum developers in making adjustment to the present syllabus in selecting topics to be included in Civic Education studies. In other words, all parents who may have opportunity to read through this study are likely to improve their commitment to the education of their children. The study will open avenues for further research on related themes by other student researchers.
1.7 Scope and Delimitation of the Study
This study is limited to Personal factors as correlates of academic performance in public secondary schools in Enugu South LGA of Enugu State.
This include such areas as:
• Family Background: the role of parents in guiding the students, parent’s motivation, parents providing academic materials for their student and parental educational expectation for their students.
• Self-Efficacy Belief: this is student internal motivation in order to accomplish set goals.
• Locus of Control: this is students’ believe in order to control events which leads to better academic performance.
1.8 Limitations of the study
The study had some limitations that would hinder generalizations of findings. The study was limited to;
• Using structured questionnaire and SSII promotion results in extracting information from target source. This is not enough to discover details of
personal factors as correlates of academic performance in secondary schools.
• The public secondary schools in Enugu South LGA of Enugu State alone cannot be used to generalize the entire state.
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