ABSTRACT
This study investigated the effects of cognitive restructuring intervention programme on achievement orientation, academic self efficacy and test anxiety of low-achieving students. Six research questions and six hypotheses guided the study. The design of the study was a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control group, pretest posttest, involving one treatment group and control group. The sample for this study consisted of 135 low-achieving senior secondary class two students purposively drawn from four public senior secondary schools, two from each education zone of Yenagoa and Okolobiri in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. These schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Three instruments namely Achievement Orientation Questionnaire, Academic Self-Efficacy Scale and Test Anxiety Inventory and Cognitive Restructuring Intervention Package were developed, validated and used for the study. The treatment groups were exposed to cognitive restructuring intervention package while the control group received placebo programme on examination malpractice and prevention. The data obtained were analysed using mean and standard deviation for research objectives and ANCOVA for the hypotheses. All the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 probability levels. Results showed that cognitive restructuring significantly enhanced achievement orientation and academic self efficacy of low-achieving students. Cognitive restructuring also reduced test anxiety of low-achieving students. There were no significant interaction effects between cognitive restructuring and gender on achievement orientation, academic self-efficacy and test anxiety of low-achieving students. Based on the findings it was recommended that workshops and seminars should be organized in schools to train teachers on how to use cognitive restructuring techniques in the classroom to improve the performance of low-achieving students.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The poor achievement of students in external examinations in Nigeria has become a source of great concern to parents, teachers, educationists, educational institutions and all stake holders in education. This calls for concerted efforts for remediation. In everyday language achievement is something which someone has succeeded in doing. In education the term academic achievement refers to the performance or accomplishment of students in academic or learning task. It is used to indicate the degree of success attained in some general or specific area of academic task (Enyi, 2009). Achievement could also be defined as an end product of learning whose level and performance are affected by various conditions existing at the time of learning as well as the conditions intervening between learning and use (Herrock cited in Enyi 2009).
Academic achievement could be described as low, or high depending on the level of performance of the learner in an academic task. It is said to be low, where a student’s performance is below an expected level of accomplishment or high where, a student’s performance is above an expected level of performance. Those students whose performance in a learning task is below an expected level of accomplishment are referred to as low-achieving students.
Low achieving students are shown to lack positive achievement orientation for academic work (Omeje, 2007). They also tend to hold false assumption that one cannot succeed in school examination without some form of help from outside. Generally speaking they do not take school work serious. The percentage of low-achieving students in Nigeria is quite alarming in recent times. According to West African Examination Council (WAEC) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011) and National Examination Council (NECO) (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011) reports for the past five years in Nigeria, only about 20-25% of students who entered into the May/June SSCE and June/July NECO examinations have credit passes in five subjects including mathematics and English. This means that about 75-80% of students who entered into these public examinations did not get up to five credit passes including mathematics and English. In this study, ‘low-achieving students’ refers to those students who consistently score below average or pass mark in school examinations. Certain factors are responsible for the low achievement of students in schools. These may include achievement orientation, academic self-efficacy and test anxiety experienced by the students.
Achievement orientation may be a factor that determines the poor performance of students in schools in Nigeria. Achievement orientation could be either positive or negative. A positive achievement orientation brings about high academic performance while a negative achievement orientation results in low achievement in school. It could be that negative achievement orientation may be responsible for the low achievement of students in public examinations in Nigeria. Research study has reported that low-achieving students show negative achievement orientation (Tella, 2007). Research studies have also shown that achievement orientation influences academic performance greatly and is a major determinant of academic success or failure (Covington, 1984; Ames, 1992). According to McGrew (2008) achievement orientation describes a person’s set of beliefs that reflect the reasons why they approach and engage in academic and learning task. The orientation to achieve, however may evidence itself only in behaviours that children value. For example, a child may have positive orientation to achieve, and this may be exhibited in athletics but not in schoolwork. Thus, different situations have different achievement orientation for children (Eccles ,Wigfield & Schiefele 1998). Students with positive achievement orientation for success on a task usually persist at it longer and perform better than students with negative achievement orientation (Eccles, 1983; Eccles, Wigfield & Schiefele 1998). According to Carr cited in Tella (2007) students with high Intelligence Quotients (IQs) and positive achievement orientation for success in school do get highest grades. Students with high IQs and students with low IQs and negative achievement orientation receive lower grades than students with low IQs and positive achievement orientation.
Achievement orientation manifests as a pattern of behaviour that could be charted on a continuum of persistent striving for excellence and strong ego involvement in assigned or self elected tasks at one end and apparent lack of effort and low value for excellence at the opposite end of the continuum. To change the negative mindset of students that impede on academic performance there is need to restructure their cognition and achievement orientation. In this study achievement orientation describes one’s willingness and effort to succeed at academic tasks and meet high standards of educational accomplishment.
Academic self-efficacy may be another important factor that could determine the low achievement of students in school. A student’s academic self-efficacy may be low or high. Low academic self-efficacy is shown to be a factor responsible for poor performance of students in schools. It has been reported that low-achieving students show low academic self efficacy (Eshiwani 1986). Generally speaking most students in secondary schools in Nigeria lack the self belief that they can as well study hard to write and successfully pass examinations without involving themselves in cheating. The belief they have about their ability in school or learning task seem to be very low, Self-efficacy could be defined as confidence in one’s ability to succeed in accomplishing a task (Bandura, 1977). On the other hand, academic self-efficacy refers to students’ belief that they can successfully engage in and complete course – specific academic tasks; such as accomplishing course outcomes, demonstrating competency skills used in the course, satisfactorily completing assignments, passing the course, and meeting the requirements to continue in their majors (Jimenez – Soffa, 2006).
Academic self-efficiency beliefs are students’ beliefs in their ability to perform the necessary behaviour to produce a certain outcome (for example, one has enough motivation to study hard for a test), (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002). Academic self-efficacy concerns ones judgment of one’s capability based on mastery criteria. It is a sense of one’s own competence within a specific frame. It focuses on one’s own assessment of one’s abilities in relation to goals and standard rather than comparison with others’ capabilities.
