RELATIONSHIP AMONG ATTITUDE TO
SCHOOL, CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION FOR FAILURE AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR
SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education
unleashes the optimal potential in people, improving individual livelihoods and
those of future generations. In addition, a good education is more than an
entry point into the job market. Learning is the focus of the educational
programmes. It occupies a very important place in human lives. Most what people
do or do not do is influenced by what they learn and how they learn it.
Kuppuswamy (2007:108) defined learning as, “ the process by which an organism,
as a result of its interaction in a situation, acquires a new mode of behaviour,
which tends to persist and affect the general behavioural pattern of the
organism, to a certain degree” . Learning takes place when an organism reacts
in a situation. However, in a school situation, various elements (the learner,
environment, teacher, instructional materials, methodology) are involved in the
process of learning. The learner is involved; unless the learner is prepared or
enabled to learn, learning cannot be achieved. Attitudes are psychological
orientations developed as a result of one’ s experience which influences a
person’s view of situations, objects, people and how to respond to them either
positively or negatively, favourably or unfavourably (Mensah, Francis,
Chisikwa, Indushi, & Lukas, 2013). Being one of the constructs of the affective
domain, attitudes have been researched deeply for more than 40 years (Aiken
& Aiken; Koballa & Crawley, as cited in Can, 2012). An attribution is a
causal explanation for an event or behaviour in situations of success or
failure, and also denotes the extent of control that people feel they have over
the event (Basturk & Yavuz, 2010). These causal attributions are highly
relevant for people’ s behaviour, emotions, and motivation and can be
classified along four dimensions: locus, stability, controllability, and
globality (Rania, Siri, Bagnasco, Aleo & Sasso, 2014). In the academic
arena, the most important event is the success or failure of the learner to
learn. Experience of failure in a task designed to test the level of learning
is often followed by a ‘ naive’ reaction of blaming either lack of ability,
lack of effort, difficulty of the task, or lack of luck. Success, on the other
hand, is often followed by an attribution to possession of ability, exertion of
effort, easiness of task, or possession of luck. While ability and effort are
seen as personal factors internal to the learner, task difficulty and luck are
seen as environmental factors external to the learner. On the other hand,
ability and task difficulty are considered stable, while effort and luck are
considered as unstable factors (Heider, 1958). These studies emphasize the
importance of causal attributions and perceptions which further affects the
motivation to learn. Academic achievement of student is the ability of the
student to study and remember facts and being able to communicate his knowledge
orally or in written form even in an examination condition (Banks & Woolfson,
2008). The academic achievements of the students are believed to be greatly
influenced by their academic attitude and causes of their success and failure
(Basturk, 2010). Banks and Woolfson (2008) further explain that, attributions
can have significant effects on academic achievement of students especially
with those experiencing learning difficulties, thus, these students will more
likely to display negative attributions than their peers. Mahboudi (2009)
suggests that, “ Causal Attribution” is being one of the motivation theories
manipulating the realization of decisions. In this process, the individuals try
to decide on the causal factors of an event or consequence. This individual’ s
response to a certain event is dependent on their interpretation of that event.
He added also that, facilitating events prediction and control, the
attributions explain the sensations, attitudes and behaviours and not only
affect emotions but also manipulate individual’ s function. Secondary education
plays a crucial role in laying the foundation for the further education of
students. If a good foundation is laid at the secondary school level, students
can better cope with the challenges of life and profession with great ease.
However, different people have explained different factors responsible for the
academic achievement of students. Factors that influence students' academic
achievement at the senior secondary school are not conclusively known and could
be multivariate in nature. They might include students’ attitude towards school
and learning, attribution. All senior secondary students desire success
academically, but are driven by different motives and different stimuli for
attainment of the success. Students do different things to attain desired
academic performance. Some students lack self-confidence and may resort to
examination malpractice for their test scores. Some are studious but still do
not do very well in their educational pursuit, some have examination phobia
maybe due to some unpleasant situations experienced at younger age in school
that has resulted in apathy in schooling. While some students attribute their
successes and failures to outside factors like their luck, teachers and other
influential persons; some accept total responsibility for their successes and
failures. Some students’ level of achievement is dependent upon the level of
motivation they get from people directly or indirectly (Basturk, 2010). Though
there may be other factors like social and environmental factors that militate
against students’ achievement, the variables investigated in this study are
centered on the students’ response to psychological stimuli of academic
performance.
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