CONNECTION BETWEEN SELF-CONCEPT, CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION AND EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ZARIA CITY, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship among self concept, causal attribution and academic performance of secondary school students in Zaria metropolis, Kaduna state Nigeria. A correlational research design was used in carrying out this study. The population of the study was 4652 students, and the sample size for the study consists of 357 students drawn from four randomly selected schools through cluster sampling techniques. Two instruments which were related to the variables of the study (self -concept and causal attribution questionnaire) comprising of 20 items and 40 items respectively were used to collect data for the study. Academic performance of students’ was measured using 50 test items in English and 50 items in mathematics. Seven null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (r) and t-test in finding the difference in the study. The findings show that there is significant relationship between self-concept in English Language and academic performance of students with r=.773 and p=.000. There is significant relationship between Math and academic performance with r=.634 and p=.000. The finding also shows that significant relationship exist between academic self-concept and academic causal attribution among secondary school students in Zaria metropolis (r=.811 and p= .002), there is significant relationship between causal attribution (internal success) and academic performance of students with r = .641 (p= .002) and there is significant inverse relationship between causal attribution (internal failure) and academic performance of students with r = .631 (p = .000). The finding also shows that there is significant difference between male and female students in their self-concept in English Language with t= 4.26 and p=.000 while no significant difference was found in students self-concept in Mathematics with t=1.66 and p=.083. The result also shows that there is no significant difference between male and female in their causal attribution (internal success) with t=1.96 and p=.051.respectively. It is recommended that psychologist and counselors should train students to put more effort in their learning activities in order to develop positive self concept and protect their self image in academic activities. It is also recommended that educational psychologists and counselors should train students to attribute their academic success and failure to internal factors rather than external ones so as to enhance their academic performance.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1          Background to the Study

The academic lives of children are challenging and complex. In line with the mission of schooling, children are expected to engage in academic activities, learn from instruction and meet the standards of intellectual competence establish by others. Each day at school children also are expected to adhere to classroom rules, maintain and establish new relationship classmate and adults and participate in activities as part of their school community.  Central to understanding children’s success at these activities is motivation that is, the energy they bring to these tasks, the beliefs, values and goals that determine which task they pursue and their persistence in  achieving them, and the standards they set to determine when a task has been accomplished.

Self-concept refers to as person’s general composite or collective view of themselves across multidimensional sets of domain specific perceptions, based on self-knowledge and evaluation of value, or worth of one’s own capabilities formed through experiences with and interpretations of the environment (Byrnes, 2003). Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were the first to establish the notion of self-concept. According to Rogers as cited in Burns (1978), every one strives to reach an “ideal self”. He also suggested that psychologically, healthy people actively move away from roles created by the expectation and interest of others and look within themselves for validation.

Academic self-concept refers to a person’s self-evaluation regarding specific academic domain or ability. High value placed of education and the value of hard work with effort emphasized over ability. According to Wilgfield, and Karfthan (2004), Academic Selfconcept measures student’s conceptions towards their academic ability and effort which are

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used to assess student’s commitment and interest in school work. Since children spends a significant portion of their lives being evaluated in school classrooms, self-worth theory postulates that a key to developing and maintaining self-worth is to develop and maintain a positive academic self-concept. Psychologists have recognized the important role of selfconcept in an individual’s personal adjustment while educators are becoming increasingly aware that, a student’s perception of him/her may have a significant influence on his/her academic performance in school. Positive students are also realistic in their self- evaluation of their academic performance. They appear to have more accurate self-perception because frequent explicit evaluation occurs both at the level of the classroom and the level of environment (Chen Lee & Stevenson 2003). Academic Self-concept leads to gain in academic achievement. Specifically, students with positive views of their academic abilities are likely to engage in more achievement-related behaviors, which might include completing homework, studying for tests, and participating in class activities. (Valentine, 2004)

Academic causal attribution has been studied in various countries among students of different levels for measuring their beliefs about successes and failures .People with positive causal attribution  feel good about themselves and their capacity for success and negative attribution denotes the opposite tendency, individuals who demonstrates this attribution tendency frequently attribute undesirable events to internal and frequent stable factor such as lack of intelligence, while attributing desirable outcome to external and frequent unstable factor, such as bad luck. One’s attribution style may predict tendency towards depression and learned helplessness. If one has a negative attribution style has a likely hood of being depressed with the believe that one will fail repeatedly due to one’s ability or lack of ability, this individual will expect negative events to take place and believe that they have no control over it.

Success and failure in academic tasks is associated with three set of characteristics Weiner,(cited in Taylor & Francis 2009). Firstly, people may succeed or fail because of internal or external factors; these are causes of factors that originate from within themselves or because of factors that originate in their environment. Secondly, the causes of success or failure may be either stable or unstable. If people believe that the factors are stable, then they may believe that the outcome of their performance is likely to be the same next time they attempt the same or similar task. If the factors are unstable, it means that they can be changed and therefore the outcome of performance may be different next time a behavior is performed. Thirdly, the cause of success or failure may be either controllable or uncontrollable. If the causes are controllable, then it means that people believe that they can alter these causes. But, on the other hand, if people believe that the causes are uncontrollable, it means that they cannot be altered easily.

High performing students are more likely to attribute their academic performance to internal, unstable and controllable factor and low performing students attribute their performance to external, stable and uncontrollable factors. It is important to note that attribution relate well to the need of academic achievement. Positive students will approach rather than avoid tasks related to succeeding, because they believe success is due to high ability and effort which they are confident of. They believe in their natural ability and they are motivated to approach challenging tasks. When tasks are difficult, they are likely to persist because they believe that an exertion of effort will lead to success. On the other hand, low achievers avoid success-related chores because they tend to doubt their ability and assume success is related to luck or to "who you know" or to other factors beyond their control. Thus, even when successful, it isn't as rewarding to the low achiever because he/she doesn't feel responsible, it doesn't increase his/her pride and confidence (Bries & Sweton, 2010).

Academic performance fulfills a number of purposes which include area of achievement in students’ academic career. It is also evaluated in order to foster improvement and makes full use of the learning process. It is the outcome of education- the extent to which a student, teacher or institution achieved their educational goals. It is commonly measured by exams or continuous assessment. The study of academic performance and other variables has formed significant contribution to educational system in many countries.  Some researchers reported that academic performance is associated with both cognitive and non-cognitive variables including environment, climate, culture and socio-economic status. Schools that creates socially and emotionally sound learning ant working environment helps students develop social and emotional competence and ensure positive outcome for students (Siva, 2009).According to (Bell, 2014) academic performance is a measure of success or how well a student meets standard by the institution itself. Academic performance is how student deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different task given to them by their teachers. It is also the ability to study and remember facts and being able to communicate your knowledge verbally or down on paper (Siva, 2009).

Accordingly, academic self-concept and academic causal attribution are part and parcel of both male and female students in junior secondary schools. This study look at the relationship among these variables (self-concept, causal attribution and academic performance) of secondary school students of Zaria metropolis, Kaduna state of Nigeria.

1.2          Statement of the Problem

Most secondary school students seem to lack positive view about themselves, not being sure about their academic self-concept and may have difficulty with their school performance. This causes a decline in the quality of education, especially at the junior level where most of the students in junior secondary schools have no value towards their education. Some students do not go to school on time or even attend to their lessons. When it comes to examinations period some students’ think that they could read over night to pass their exams, while some will resort to examination malpractice.

This is a serious problem that could hinder the value of education, because students are expected to give feedback or respond positively to their teachers and participate in class with their classmates, lacking this ability makes students feel inferior and uncomfortable ,as the result of that the students will start to think that they are not confident enough to perform positively and at the end they  contributes  their failure by assuming that they fail  because they lack ability and success is by luck, which makes them appear to lack accurate selfconcept and as the result the students found themselves attributing their academic failure to external factors like exams difficulty, bad luck or , which in turn results to serious downfall in students’ academic performances. The importance of this lies in the fact that if these problems among the students are not given immediate attention, the concerned students will likely continue to have the problems and it may lead to their failure in school while their educational objectives might not be realized.

To be able to provide useful and helpful suggestions to this problem, the researcher examined   how the two variables (academic self-concept and academic casual attribution) related to performance in English and math among secondary school Students of Zaria metropolis.

 

1.3          Objectives of the Study

This research was carried out to find out the following objectives

1. To find out the relationship between academic self-concept and academic causal

attribution among secondary school students of Zaria Metropolis.

2. To find out the relationship between academic self-concept (English and math) and

academic performance among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.

3. To find out the relationship between academic causal attribution (internal success and failure) and academic performance among secondary school students of Zaria Metropolis.
4. To find out the relationship between academic causal attribution (external success and failure) and academic performance among secondary school students of Zaria Metropolis.
5. To find out gender difference in academic self-concept (English and math) among

secondary school students of Zaria Metropolis.

6. To find out gender differences in academic causal attribution (internal success and

failure) among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis

7. To find out gender differences in academic causal attribution (external success and

failure) among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.

 

 

 

1.4          Research Questions

For the purpose of this research, the following questions were raised.

1. What is the relationship between academic self-concept and academic causal

attribution among secondary school Students’ of Zaria Metropolis.

2. What is the relationship between academic self-concept (English and math) and academic performance among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis
3. What is the relationship between academic causal attribution (internal success and failure) and academic performance among secondary school Students’ of Zaria Metropolis.
4. What is the relationship between academic causal attribution (external success and failure) and academic performance among secondary school Students’ of Zaria Metropolis.
5. What is the gender difference in academic self-concept (English and math) among

secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.

6. What is the gender difference in academic causal attribution (internal success and

failure) among junior secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis

7. What is the gender difference in academic causal attribution (external success and

failure) among junior secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.

 

1.5          Hypotheses

The following hypothetical statements were formulated for the purpose of this study.

1. There is no significant relationship between academic self-concept and among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.
2. There is no significant relationship between academic self-concept (English and math) and academic performance among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.
3. There is no significant relationship between academic causal attribution (internal success and failure) and academic performance among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.
4. There is no significant relationship between academic causal attribution (external success and failure) and academic performance among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.
5. There is no significant difference in academic self-concept (English and math) with

regard to students’ gender

6. There is no significant difference in academic causal attribution (internal success and

failure) with regard to students’ gender

7. There is no significant difference in academic causal attribution (external success and

failure) with regard to students’ gender.

 

 

 

1.6          Basic Assumptions of the study

The study is based on the following assumptions

1. It is assumed that there is significant relationship between academic self-concept

(English and math) and academic performance among secondary school students of Zaria Metropolis.

2. It is assumed that there is a significant relationship between academic causal attribution (internal success and failure) and academic performance among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.
3. It is assumed that there is a significant relationship between academic causal attribution

(external success and failure) and academic performance among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis

4. It is also assumed that there is gender difference in academic self-concept (English and math) among secondary school students of Zaria Metropolis.
5. It is assumed that there is gender difference in academic causal Attribution (internal success and failure) among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.
6. It is assumed that there is gender difference in academic causal Attribution (external success and failure) among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.
7. It is assumed that there is a significant relationship between academic causal attribution and academic self-concept among secondary school Students of Zaria Metropolis.

 

1.7          Significance of the Study

The information about the extent of low self-concept and academic performance among secondary school students that will be obtained from this study can give the picture about the size of this problem among the students. The finding about the relationship among academic self-concept, academic causal attribution and academic performance among students can be used for providing adequate and useful advice to parents, teachers, counselors and school management. For example the findings of the study can assist the students to identify level of their low self-concept and negative causal attribution in order to take necessary measures to reduce these unproductive behaviors. Similarly, parents and counselors can as well take necessary action and give the right counseling to the students that exhibit these behaviors.

The knowledge of these variables (academic self-concept and (academic causal attribution) can be very useful to both teachers and school management in taking corrective measures to remedy possible poor performance among the students. School administrators will also find this study of great important in planning school activities, implementing curriculum contents, monitoring and assisting general academic performance of students in junior secondary schools. The findings from this study will also have significant implication for the Government in general, Ministry of Education, School managements, NGO’s and other educational stakeholders in designing seminars, workshops and other school intervening programs for the benefit of teachers and students within the educational set up. The study will also help students in the tertiary institutions to look at the gap this research might have leave which will create a room for further studies.

For these stake holders to benefit from this study, the findings or result of this work could be published in journals and other print media, television, radio programmers’ could also be mounted  to feed the members  of the public on the benefit of the study. Also, seminars, workshops could be organized for the stakeholders to have direct benefit from the findings of this study.  Furthermore, parents can understand the benefit of this study through the parents’ teachers association and school based management committee meetings. This can be done by the researcher or the head teachers or the school counselors who might have benefited from the study. Students who wants to fill the gap the researcher might have live in this study can also have access to this study through the faculty libraries.

1.8          Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The study focused on Academic Self- Concept, Academic Causal Attribution and Academic Performance of Secondary School Students as the major variables. It deals with twenty one (21) secondary school involving both male and female students in Zaria metropolis. The study is delimited to JS 3 students because they have reached certain level to be able to determine their self concept and causal attribution and this will enable the researcher to test the students’ academic performance in two core subjects English and math). Four (4) secondary schools were selected for the study because of its proximity to researcher and also time to cover all the schools

CONNECTION BETWEEN SELF-CONCEPT, CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION AND EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ZARIA CITY, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA  

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