INFLUENCE OF MOTIVATION ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT

The study attempts to investigate the influence of motivation on the academic performance of students in selected secondary schools in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State. In this study, extensive and relevant literature was reviewed under sub- headings.

The descriptive research survey was employed in assessing the opinions of the respondents using the questionnaires and the sampling techniques. One hundred and twenty respondents were selected as samples for the study.

Four null hypotheses were formulated and tested in this study using the t- test statistical tool at 0.05 level of significance. At the end of the analyses, the following results emerged:

1.    A significant influence of motivation on academic achievement exists.

2.    The academic achievements of students who are motivated differ from those who are not motivated.

3.    There is no significant gender difference in the performance of students who are motivated and those who are not.

In conclusion, it was found that a insignificant differences exists between the social adjustment of students who are motivated and those who are not.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0INTRODUCTION/ BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM

Miller and Janet (1989) defined motivation as the study of why people think and behave as they do. It is a branch of psychology which concerned  with the understanding  of the activation, organisation and direction of behaviour.

If actions that seem to lead to the same goal, such as food, are grouped together , it may be said that these actions are all energiesed and guided  by the same motive

(hunger). But , unless the motives existence can be shown apart from the actions, it is supposed  to explain the explanation in circular ( why does he / she eat?) because he/ she is hungry. How do you know ? Because he eats. Psychologists  have used general approaches  to show that motives exist and that they are useful theoretical concepts.

Adams (2002),claims that in an achievement setting, someone would be concerned with motivation if he were to ask , for example, why some students persist to task completion dispite erroneous difficulty, while  others  give up at the slightest  provocation, or why some students set such  unrealistically high goals for themselves that failure is bound to occur.

Motivation is the study of what pushes or pulls an individual to start, direct, sustain and finally end an activity. For example, an achievement activity such as studying for examination. Motivation researchers would want to examine what the person is doing, the choice of behaviour, how long it takes that person to get started etc or wish to see the latency of behaviour, how hand the individual actually works at the activity ( the intensity of behaviour);how long that individual is willing to  remain at the activity ( the persistence of behaviour ) and what the person is thinking or feeling while engaged in the activity or the cognition and emotional reactions that accompanying behavioural (Anet, 1999).

The focus  on the “why” of achievement  is quite different from the study of achievement itself. Educationist, sometimes continue the topics of researchers who study  motivation with the topic of researchers who study performance , achievement and learning.

1.1    THEORETICAL BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The scientific study  of motivation as a discipline separated from learning, began researchers were primarily interested in the factors that aroused behaviour, so that got it started in the first place. It was widely belived at the time that the optional state of balance and equilibrium where all    needs were satisfied .

The process of keeping the organisaiton at this optional level is known as homeostasis. Homeostatic balance  was also thought to be satisfying which was compatible with the belief that organism or the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pains.