SOCIAL INTERACTION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG ADULT LEARNERS

ABSTRACT

This work focused on the influence of Social interaction and students attitude on academic achievement in Financial Accounting. The main objective is to explore the Social interaction and students’ attitude affecting student academic achievement in Financial Accounting. Four research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Questionnaire and achievement test were administered on 213 respondents. Mean, t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Techniques were used to analyze data collected at 0.5% level of significance using statistical package for social scientists. The study revealed that Social interaction and students’ attitude have a great influence on students’ academic achievement in financial accounting. It was recommended that financial accounting teachers should make financial accounting classes fascinating to the students and promote cordial relationship among them. The parents, the school and the teachers should train and motivate the students to develop and cultivate good study habit and maintain the right attitude in their study.

 

Chapter One

Introduction

Background to the Study

Effective teaching and learning demands more of student interaction rather than just listening to the instruction. Hence effective Social interaction is very essential in today’s act of teaching and learning. Social interaction is the relations that exist between the teacher and students in the classroom in the course of teaching and learning (Igbokwe, 2005). It is a practice that enhances the development of the two very important language skills which are speaking and listening among the learners. Social interaction helps the learners to be competent enough to think critically and share their views among their peers (Ghosh, 2010). Through Social interaction the learners will be able to get themselves involved with concepts, ideas and various other devices and products for language and culture learning. Good interactions in the classroom also help the students to identify their own learning methods, guide them to communicate with their peers easily, give them an exposure to learning and enhance their academic achievement in their subject.

The dynamics of teaching is a crucial factor in how much students learn, though students’ performance may not be a simple direct consequence of the teachers teaching act, the latter has a lot to do with classroom learning. Teacher establishes the pattern of

general conduct during a lesson, while students on their part establish certain behaviour to coincide with this pattern. Consequently, the students participate in varying degrees in different classes and react differently to different teachers. This combined instructional pattern and students’ participation lead to a specific classroom environment characterized by specific interaction patterns (Robin, 2012). Mixing up the type of Social interaction use in teaching can help students stay attentive and interested throughout the Financial Accounting lesson.

There are a lot of classroom interactions that exist between the teacher and the students in the classroom such as discussion and debates, interactive sessions, loud reading, storytelling and conversation with learners, which depends on the personality of the teacher. A teacher who is naturally friendly will definitely develop a good report in his/her class, unlike moody teachers. Consequently the students’ participation to varying degree with different teachers determine rate of student’s achievement. This combined instructional pattern and student’s participation leads to specific classroom environmental characteristics by specific interaction pattern.

Classroom characteristics such as class composition, student and teacher characteristics, students’ interaction with peers and teacher’s classroom values and beliefs influence student’s academic development and success (Pianta, La Paro, Payne, Cox, & Bradley, 2002 and Donohie & Weinstein 2007). Therefore, teachers have a lot to do with classroom learning. They are to establish the pattern of general conduct during a lesson while students establish certain types of behaviour and attitude to coincide with this pattern.

A substantial amount of research has examined the role of students’ Social interaction and their attitudes to study on academic performance. Edoh & Alutu (2012) examined the usefulness of inculcating in the students a good Social interaction as a means of enhancing their academic performance, and found a high correlation between Social interaction and student academic performance. Nuthana & Yenagi (2009) found significant correlation between Social interaction and academic achievement. It was further revealed that Social interaction and students’ attitude had significant correlation with academic achievement. The authors pointed out that students who interact very well in the class may have better academic achievement. Fazal, Hussain, Majoka, & Masood (2012) in a study on various study method used by teachers found that study method is more related to academic achievement. The results of the study further indicated significant relationship of time-management skills, and interactive skills with academic achievement.

Nonis & Hudson (2010) also in a study conducted on the impact of Social interaction on the performance of college students discovered that it had a positive direct relationship on student performance. When classroom variables are considered together, many of them act in additive way, thereby increasing their impact. However certain variables are seen to operate in a more complex and interactive manner. McLellan & Steward (2014) suggested that when these additional variables are considered, the direction of a previous relationship may be changed. It is also necessary to consider the complex inter-relationship between the factors and other classroom about the effect of the particular classroom factors.

Allen, Pianta, Gregory, Mikami & Lun (2012) articulate that classes where students have opportunities to communicate with each other, help them to effectively collaborate, cooperate and construct their academic work. They share responsibility for learning with each other and discuss divergent understandings. Lessons where students have multiple opportunities to communicate with the teacher are essential for effective construction of students’ knowledge. When a teacher creates climate of respect in the classroom and encourages students’ ideas involving academic way of thinking, students are more likely to think deeply and persist in the face of challenges (Weinstein & Stone, 2006). By welcoming curiosity and encouraging students to raise their own question about the content discussed. Student can be guided to develop the habits of mind for framing and answering questions. Question and answer as a form of interactions allows students to have a large influence on the agenda of the classroom because it allows them to freely express their thoughts and feelings (Ogunkola, 1991). The teacher in order to build positive good relationship between him/her and the students is advised to do everything within his professional competence to ensure the motivation of students to learning.

To have effective student-teacher interaction, Weinstein and Stone (2006) suggests that: (1) it will be necessary to provide opportunities to hear students’ voices and act on ideas originating from them. (2) more students centered learning environment should be created where teachers can serve as resource persons. (3) Sufficient time should be provided for students to process class information and transfer it to new problem. (4) such efforts ensure that learning is happening during class. (5) students should be allowed to have longer activities which will allow for greater student creativity and encourage synthesis of more concepts.

The design of the model, the  feedback  provided  by  the  individual  learning  and teaching records and the system of supervision provides immediate reinforcement of the teacher and also support sensitizing to an effective teachers student interaction. There is essential need for the existence of interaction between the learner and the teacher. The teacher can best fulfill her function in the classroom group as a skilled practitioner of evocative leadership by helping the learners to identify common goals, common values and roles of members and also to develop instructional methods of problem solving and evaluating goal achievement (Nwachukwu, 2002).

Students’ academic achievement occupies a very important place in education as well as in the learning process. It is considered as a key criterion to judge ones total potentialities and capacities which are frequently measured by the examination result (Nuthans & Yenagi 2009). Even though, studies that have been carried out have focused on cognitive factors as predictors of academic success, recently, there has been a growing interest on the non-cognitive factors. A number of researchers have examined the role of no-cognitive variable such as study skills. In a more recent meta-analysis, Crede & Kuncel (2008) found that non-cognitive factors like study habit and study skill and study motivation, among other attitudinal constructs, accounted for incremental variance in academic performance beyond standardized tests and previous grades. Nagaraju (2004) pointed out that for good academic success, good Social interaction and student attitude are important. Effective study on classroom interactions is associated with a favourable student attitude toward learning in general. An important aspect of a student’s attitude toward education is the value he sees in what he has to learn. Sarwar, Bashir, & Alam (2010) find out that a significant relationship between student attitude and academic performance exists.

Interdependent learning will be effective only when the students’ emotional needs are met in the classroom, and also when learners are made to understand their roles in the teaching learning process (Jenkers, 2005). The basic assumption is that a teacher is an important aspect of a student emotional world; it is likely that the teacher have an important role in the influence of Social interaction and student attitude toward academic achievement.

Incidentally, these few studies on interaction pattern in Nigerian classroom were on other subjects, not much has been done on Financial Accounting. Though there are generic teaching skills (Martin, 2010), the patterns of effective and ineffective teaching performance differ by subjects (McDonald, 2005). Again, academic achievement is likely to be depended on the structure of the task required. The achievement of students in academic task which require them to understand and reproduce information encountered during instruction (low academic tasks) and those that require them to apply the information and draw inference (high academic tasks) may likely differ. This is suggestive of the fact that what obtain in other subjects classroom may not be exactly so in Financial Accounting classroom.

Statement of Problem

Financial Accounting is one of commercial subjects offered at senior stage of the secondary schools education and at the post-secondary level in Nigeria. Many students record low achievement in the subject not because they do not have the intellect but because of prevailing factors such as class composition, student and teacher characteristics, their interaction with peers and teacher’s classroom values and classroom beliefs that negatively affect their attitude towards the subject.

From the foregoing, it could be inferred that classroom characteristics such as class composition, student and teacher characteristics, students interaction with peers and teacher’s classroom values and classroom beliefs plays important roles in students’ Academic development and success of financial accounting students. The researchers therefore attempted to investigate the influence of classroom interactions and students attitude on their academic achievement in Financial Accounting in some selected secondary schools in Akure South. It is therefore hopeful that the study will be useful to Accounting teachers, students, parents, government and educational policy makers.

Research Objectives

• To determine the social interaction variables influencing adult learner academic achievement in Financial Accounting?
• To examine the students’ attitude influencing their academic achievement in financial accounting?
• To find out the extent to which social interaction influence students academic achievement in Accounting
• To assess how student attitude influence in achievement in financial accounting

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

• What are the Social interaction variables influencing students’ academic achievement in financial accounting?
• What are students’ attitude influencing their academic achievement in financial accounting?
• To what extent do  classroom   interactions          influence students’ academic achievement in financial accounting?
• How do students’ attitudes influence their academic achievement in financial accounting?

Hypotheses

The following research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study:

1. There is no significant relationship between classroom interactions and students’ academic achievement in Financial
2. There is no significant relationship between students’ attitude in the classroom and their academic
3. There is no gender difference in the academic achievement of the Financial Accounting

SOCIAL INTERACTION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG ADULT LEARNERS

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