STUDENTS CHARACTERISTICS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN LAGOS STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Education is of strategic importance for the development of knowledge society. The analysis of academic success is very important for the economy of a country, its presence in the competing and challenging market, but also for education system which is a drive for modern economies. Analysis of academic success is also important for higher education institutions, since „strategic planning of study programme implies extension or reduction of the scope or depth of studying material as well as modification of the structure of pedagogical and educational process, depending on the students’ success“ . Improving the quality of education and investment on educational and human resources are regarded as eective factors paving the way for a country’s pervasive development. Hence, improvement of students’ academic performance is also among the basic goals of educational planning. It’s through academic performance students can fully actualize their talents and capabilities in line with educational goals. In fact, academic performance is considered as one important criteria of educational quality. On other hand, students are different across a vast range of variables. In other words, not only are they different in terms of personality characteristics, family backgrounds, age and gender, etc., they also exhibit different attitudes and emotional responses to the environment. Students have distinctive personality characteristics which makes them prepared for having different worldviews, and thus for behaving differently in various social and educational settings.

Taking these differences into account can help educators recognize their students’ individual differences. Predictors of academic performance oen lay on a continuum with cognitive measures, intelligence and mental abilities at one extreme and non-cognitive variable (such as personality characteristics, socioeconomic status, etc.) at the other one. Although results of studies trying to predict academic performance have yielded different results, they have consistently pointed out the role of cognitive abilities and personality characteristics in academic performance (Paunonen & Ashton, 2011). Educators have always asked whether people’s personality characteristics can help them attain higher academic performance. Students‘individual differences in terms of their beliefs, attitudes, and skills are focused on as having an impact of academic performance (Åkerlind & Trevitt, 1999; Kennedy et al, 2008) and students‘attitudes to learning (Bouhnik & Marcus, 2006; Liaw, 2008). Research has found that based on certain characteristics such as age, background, ability, attitude and motivation all have an impact on the likeness of students studying biology. Therefore this study will look at some of these variables and characteristics to determine if they too play a part in how students see biology whether these characteristics would possibly impact on their academic performance.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem of underperformance has assumed a worrisome dimension in the Nigerian educational system. Desperate to make it anyhow, students have devised various illegal means to succeed in examinations, even when they are not academically competent. And unfortunately, the system has buckled under the pressure. Examination malpractice has risen steadily to become a seemingly untameable monster. It is increasingly becoming difficult to equate competence of people with supposed academic performance as represented in their certificates. Many candidates are unable to defend the result they supposedly acquired honourably. And of course this has consistently led to inability to compete effectively in the job market which has become a serious issue. Several factors have been researched into in the past as to the cause of this social malaise, but there seem to be indications that some hidden factors may be responsible that needs unravelling. This desire to see this problem curbed gave rise to this study and the researchers’ aim is to see if there is a way in which the big five personality traits can help, especially from the perspective of the analytical and scientific approach of measurement and evaluation