CONNECTION AMONG EDUCATIONAL SELF-EFFICACY, COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT AND EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARNERS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationships among academic self-efficacy, cognitive engagement and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Seven objectives, research questions and null hypotheses guided the study. A correlational research design was adopted in this study. Multistage cluster and stratified random sampling techniques were used to select the sampled educational zones according to the existing four geographical boundaries of the State and data was collected from a total of three hundred and eighty (380) sampled participants from Senior Secondary students of Kaduna State. Four educational zones were selected from each stratum and Morgan Jinks Students Self-Efficiacy Scale (MJSES), Cognitive Engagement Scale (CES), and the students‟ academic achievement score were adopted to obtain the data for the study. The data collected was analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis of PASW version 24 and the decision to retain or reject the hypotheses was made at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study showed that there was significant positive relationship between academic selfefficacy and cognitive engagement of Senior Secondary School students in Kaduna State ( r =0 .518, p =0 .000). There was significant positive relationships between academic selfefficacy and academic achievement Senior Secondary School students in Kaduna State (r = 0.564, p =0 .000).There was significant positive relationship between cognitive engagement and academic achievement of Senior Secondary School students in Kaduna State (r =0 .377, p = 0.000). It was also found that significant positive relationship existed between deep processing and academic achievement of Senior Secondary School students in Kaduna State (r =0 .454, p =0 .000). Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that teachers should formulate programme and activities that would develop and maintain self- efficacy among students so as to boost student‟s cognitive engagement and interest in their studies. Students should be encouraged by their teachers and parents to be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interactions with others and worthwhile tasks to achieve meaningful learning. They should device activities that involve active cognitive processes such as creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision- making, and evaluation to enhance cognitive engagement, academic achievement and deep processing of information rather than shallow processing of information. Psychologist and counsellors should create awareness, educate, sensitize and encourage students to process information deeply which would help not only for the sake of writing and passing examinations but for long term memory retention.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background to the Study

Learning in the world today has remained a springboard and indispensable instrument for human progress and empowerment. Learning is a means to every form of development and ways through which citizens acquire necessary knowledge and skills to be useful in building the nation. This acquisition of skills and attitudes that leads to a change in behavior, which is the goal of education, is referred to as learning. In Nigeria for example, learning has remained a major means of acquiring knowledge and skills in school systems across all levels of learning.

The demand for standard secondary education in Nigeria does not mean increase in enrolment of students or expansion; certain psychological constructs relating to the teacher and student have to be given more priority in order to prepare their mind for the challenges of classroom teaching and learning.  Learner who comes to the learning environment possesses certain characteristics that are to be his prerequisite for learning. These characteristics include the cognitive, emotional and the psychomotor aspect that show the motivation for learning variables such as self-efficacy, cognitive engagement, self-esteem, self- actualization, and locus of control (Razmefar, 2014). For effective learning to take place therefore, learner‟s individual characteristics have to be taken into consideration. Individual characteristics make every learner to have his self-efficacy and lack of selfefficacy could make learner find it difficult to persist in the face of difficulties in academic tasks. Inadequate application of meaningful cognitive strategies use, not investing much effort, and not persistence in the face of difficultiesmight affects student‟s general performance to attain high academic achievement.

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Among the various determinant factors of academic achievement are student‟s academic self-efficacy and cognitive engagement (Arabzadeh, Shafy,Salami &Bayanati,

2012).The concept of self-efficacy is hypothesized to affect students‟ beliefs in their abilities, competence, task choices, effort, persistence and level of confidence in achievement. Literature has revealed that self-efficacy has influence over the amount of effort expended in the world of learning, perseverance in facing difficulties in making task choice and task accomplishments both in social and academic learning contexts. Selfefficacy therefore, is a cognitive assessment of one‟s capabilities to learn and perform actions in specific situations. It refers to the belief that one has control over one‟s own life (Marzano, 2012). Academic self-efficacy therefore, includes not only the cognitive assessment but also the evaluative and affective components. It involves the student‟s ability, knowledge, confidence, and persistence. It is characterized as being both a product of students‟ interactions in the world (enactive engagement) and an influence on the nature and quality of those interactions (Bandura, 1986; Bong & Clark, 1999).

Among the causes of failure in education, as advanced by Bandura as cited in

Redmond (2010), is the student‟s attitude to himself and his abilities and those understandings and point of view of individuals about one‟s ability. He believes that children who believe that they are capable to carry out given tasks tend to achieve success while students who are not satisfied with their abilities and themselves are most unlikely to go on the success channel. Individuals who have high perception of self-efficacy choose high-level goals for themselves. Cognitive interpretations of successes and failures influence subsequent self-efficacy belief. Based on this submission, therefore, students are said to have high self-efficacy for a task when they believe they possess the capabilities necessary to perform the task successfully. However, if they believe that they do not have the necessary capabilities, then they would be said to have low self-efficacy for that task. Therefore, in this study, the researcher is focusing on this definition of academic self- efficacy as individual‟s beliefs in their capabilities to take on learning tasks and perform it successfully in order to excel in their academics.

Based on cognitive interpretations, one most important outcome of motivation is cognitive engagement in learning tasks. Researchers have empirically demonstrated that the level of confidence a student has regarding his/her ability to succeed academically is related to the use of cognitive strategies that translate into higher academic performance.

Following the arguments on self-efficacy, psychologists like Mark, (2000); Schunk, (1991);DeBacker andCrowson (2015), have empirically demonstrated that the level of confidence a student has regarding his/her ability to succeed academically is further determined by the use of cognitive strategies that translate into higher academic performance. Cognitive engagement refers to the amount and type of strategies that learners employ to achieve academically. It is a psychological process involving the attention, interest, and efforts students expend in the work of learning Mark, (2000). DeBacker and Crowson (2015), defined cognitive engagement in academic work as, “the student‟s psychological investment in and effort directed toward learning, understanding, or mastering the knowledge, skills, or crafts that academic work is intended to promote”(p 76). This means that even the students with high self-efficacy will need to invest seriously in learning and put vigorous efforts towards learning, understanding, or mastering the knowledge, skills, or crafts that academic work is intended to promote. The process involved in cognitive engagement should be meaningful. Deep processing (meaningful) is associated with cognitive elaboration of the to-be-learned material. It involves relating the new information to one‟s existing knowledge, thus creating a more complex knowledge structure that translates into higher academic performance.

Shallow processing (surface processing), on the other hand, involves role memorization, basic rehearsal, and other types of superficial engagement with the new materials (like simply re-reading one‟s class notes). Shallow processing will not typically involve connecting new information with existing knowledge nor will it involve creating integrated knowledge (Walker, Greene, &Man-sell, 2006). Research results of (Schunk, 1991; Greene & Miller, 1996; Atherton, 2011), indicate that meaningful processing strategies (meaningful cognitive engagement) lead to greater performance on achievement measures over the material studied than shallow strategies. Thus, the concern of the present study is the use of deep (meaningful) processing strategies to guide students‟ learning because students‟ academic achievement seems to be positively influenced by the cognitive strategies they employ to guide their learning. It appears that students who possess and engage in deep cognitive engagement enhance their current perceptions of ability and are more likely to utilize the same deep cognitive engagement in the future.

Academic achievement is viewed as doing or achieving at school: in a class, in a laboratory, in library or in fieldwork (Fuligni, 1997 &Watabe, 2011).Academic achievement is also seen as student‟s examination grades at the end of a particular academic term or educational programmed. Aremu and Adika (2001), found that academic achievement consistently relates to positive identity structures, which encompass selfesteem, self- efficacy, and motivation. Abbing (2013), identified that academic achievement involves individual self-defining complete performance in domains of school, sport and work. Thus, students‟ academic activitiesandachievement are increased by their self- efficacy. In line with Mahmoud (2011), academic achievement has been influenced by a host factors which include the teachers‟ factors, students‟ personalities, and mastery of the subject matter, their techniques, the classroom setting, materials to be used and the students‟ ability, their motivation, their interest in the subject matter, their emotional wellbeing and readiness to learn and even their relationship with their peers. From the foregoing therefore, students‟ academic achievement is considered as an important means for measuring and evaluating educational outcomes in schools. As noted byRazmefar (2014), Choi (2005), academic achievement has special importance for the student, the people around him or her, the psychologists and the provider(s) of the educational services. Chemer, Hu, and Garcia, (2001), posited that academic self-efficacy beliefs have a mediating effect on the association between academic achievement and identity styles.

Thus, encompasses students‟ beliefs and judgments about their abilities to organize, execute and produce desire results in performance and activities. It includes students‟ beliefs in their abilities and competence, effort and persistence, and level of confidence and the use of meaningful processing strategies, investing (cognitive engagement) that will lead to greater performance on achievement measures over the material studied when facing academic difficulties.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Poor Performance as a result of learning is accounted for by many factors such as student‟s poor academic self- efficacy and cognitive engagement which are often neglected during classroom teaching and learning, assessment or evaluation of students‟ success or

failure in Examinations.

The high rate of poor performance among secondary school students in Kaduna State is a thing of concerned to government, school administrators, parents, students, and others. It has been observed by the researcher that, secondary schools in the state are faced with students who come to the class with different ways of how they learn. Some students are active, well acquainted with the way they learn in various learning situations, others may be average learners and aware of their learning strength and weaknesses and others may be passive learners who have little awareness of their learning strength and weaknesses. So many students have no ability of knowing the limits of their own memory and learning capabilities, the ability of knowing which learning strategies are effective to process and learn new materials, what learning tasks they can accomplish within a given time, worst still, their ability to belief in their capability and confidence to organize, execute and master their course of study and also their willingness to take on learning tasks, put in effort, to persist and invest in their learning tasks. They do not want to engage themselves in doing academic work which has certain level of difficulty, and majority of students seems to avoid challenging tasks and do not strive under unfavorable conditions, some do not master their subject matter and do not focus sufficiently on learning, as a results, many students in Kaduna state have dropped out of secondary school due to poor academic performance, while others graduate without a single credit and pass in subjects they registered. This deficiency could be linked to ineffective self-efficacy and cognitive engagement awareness. Therefore, for the students to take on learning with determination, they have to be linked to adaptive variables of academic self-efficacy and cognitive engagement.

Evident has shown that, in the State, records of student‟s overall performance in West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) over the years according to Kaduna State Ministry of Education, Educational Resources

Centre Analysis of S.S.C.E. performance of public secondary schools shows a declining trend, while the number of students re-enrolling for the examination keeps increasing yearly, as summarized below.

Table 1.1: The summary of WAEC and NECO students’ performance records in2011-2014 for public secondary schools in Kaduna State is presented below:

Year of             Number of Students that sat for           Number of               Percentage

     Examination                             Exams                           Students with five                %

CreditsandAbove

2011 WAEC NECO	35,214 41,338	2,877 1,220	10.76% 3.07%
2012 WAEC NECO	33,105 32,081	4,957 1,243	14.97% 3.78%
2013 WAEC NECO	36,291 42,976	3,274 3,680	9.02% 8.56%
2014 WAEC NECO	25,653 32,081	3,156 4,487	12.30% 13.99%

Source: Educational Resource Centre, Kaduna (2015)

The data above shows a dismal performance of students in both WAEC and NECO examinations. From all indications, this poor performance is quite disheartening and very worrisome and needs urgentattention. Much as the situation here causes concern, it is not known why some students fail to attain the standard expected of them given the discouraging records of academic performance among the students within the period under review, their ability, knowledge, confidence, and persistence to achieve in academic tasks is questionable. Also questionable is the students‟ use of cognitive strategy, psychological investments in and effort directed toward learning, understanding, or mastering the knowledge and skills they require to effectively achieving high in academic tasks.Therefore the importance of this problem lies in the fact that if students are left unchecked and the same poor result continues to surface,they are likely to continue to perform below standard and concequently, these will affect the students overall academic acheivement in both internal and external examination in secondary schools.

It is out of this concern that the present researcher feels there is the need to ascertain whether students are not being motivated to benefit from education outcomes. This calls for an urgent empirical research evidence to salvage the situation, so that the same poor result may not continue to surface among secondary school students, they will not continue to perform below standard and consequently, affecting the students‟ overall academic achievement and educational objectives of the country and man power

development ofthe nation, Nigeria particularly in the area of education. It is in the light of the above situational problems that this study was carried out to find out the relationships among academic self-efficacy, cognitive engagement and academic achievement so that secondary school students in the state might be helped to develop their self-efficacy and cognitive strategies, in order to take control of their learning process and consequently record high academic achievement especially in their internal and external examinations.

1.3        Objectives of the Study

The specific objectives are to find out:

1. the relationship between academic self-efficacy and cognitive engagement ofsenior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria;
2. the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic achievement ofsenior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria;
3. the relationship between cognitive engagements and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria;
4. the relationship between deep processing and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria;
5. the relationship between persistence and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria;
6. the relationship between shallow processing and academic self-efficacy of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria;
7. relationship among deepprocessing, shallow processing and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria;

1.4        Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study.

1. What is the relationship between academic self-efficacy and cognitive engagement ofsenior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria?
2. What is the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria?
3. What is the relationship between cognitive engagements and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria?
4. What is the relationship between deepprocessing and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria?
5. What is the relationship between persistence and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria?
6. What is the relationship between shallow processing and academic self-efficacy of secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria?
7. What is the relationship among deep processing, shallow processing and academic achievementof senior secondary school students in Kaduna State?

 

 

1.5	Research Hypotheses Inline with the research questions, the following null hypotheses were generated.
Ho1	There is no significant relationship between academic self-efficacy and cognitive engagement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State.
Ho2	There is no significant relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State.
Ho3	There is no significant relationship between cognitive engagement and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State.
Ho4	There is no significant relationship between deep processing and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State.
Ho5	There is no significant relationship between persistence and academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State.
Ho6	There is no significantrelationship between shallow processing and academic selfefficacy of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria
Ho7	There is no significantrelationship among deepprocessing, shallow processing and academic achievement senior secondary school students in Kaduna State.
1.6	Basic Assumptions of Study

This study is based on the following assumptions:

1. Academic self-efficacy may predict senior secondary school student‟s cognitive engagement level in Kaduna State, Nigeria.
2. Academic self-efficacy may boost academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria.
3. Cognitive engagement may correlate with academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria.
4. Deep processing may correlate with academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria.
5. Persistence may correlate with academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria.
6. Shallow processing may correlate with academic self-efficacy of senior secondary school students in Kaduna State, Nigeria
7. Deep processing and shallow processing may correlate with academic achievement of secondary school students in Kaduna State.

1.7       Significance of the Study

The outcome of this findings will be of benefit to the following; Teachers, students, parents, psychologists, counsellors, educationist, curriculum experts, government and finally the existing body of knowledge.

With respect to teachers, the findings of this study will provide those effective guidelines and programmes that will help in the area of planning of lessons which will involve the use of appropriate methods of teaching, setting of goals that will motivate and engaged students cognitively to learn and achieve desirable results in their studies.

The findings of this study willhelp in the provision of baseline information to students. Students who are at the center of this study will benefit from the findings through effective formative and diagnostic evaluation of their educational achievement. They will identify areas of problems that is knowing the causes of their learning problems, understanding their thinking errors. The result of this study will restructure their cognition about their learning as they will be able to learn new ways of thinking that will have positive effect on their learning activities as they will be able to for good academic competition, invest and put more efforts, persist, and apply deep processing in their learning for good academic competition and they will understand the values been placed on education by their teachers.

As for parents, this study will be relevant to them and other care givers to understand the importance of the need to re-structure the home environment and neighborhood with rich and conducive learning facilities, provisions of supportive services and sustainable motivation and monitoring the activities for improving their academic selfefficacy, engaged them cognitively in learning and achievement. The findings will serve as an array of functions that include enhancement of school-parents‟ communications on achievement of students‟ educational goals which would enhance their efficacious beliefs, competences to perform and the use of different types of strategies that are meaningful and will result to deep learning.

The findings of this study will help psychologists, counsellors, educationists and curriculum experts especially in the area of education to benefit from the study as a reference materials in the area of learning, and with the understanding of these psychological variables that might be responsible for student‟s success and failures in examinations they might be able to counsel students in their area of difficulty in secondary schools in Kaduna State.

In addition, the study will help to ascertain vividly the role of Ministry of Education in Kaduna State especially the Quality Evaluation Board to ensure the provision of appropriate instructional materials and training the uses of these materials by teachers in the classroom and ensure and proper adequate monitory and evaluating such polices and implementing such packages in such a manner that challenges will be effectively put under control.

The government, particularly policy makers in education, will find the result of this study very significant as it will provide them with evidence based empirical data that will help them to formulate effective educational blue prints and strategies that will help students right from elementary school to develop goal setting skills, appropriate learning and study styles, and perception of self which are crucial in effective learning.

Finally, the scholarly importance of this study cannot be overemphasized as the findings will contribute to existing body of knowledge, provide information, open up research areas and assist in the design of such studies for student researchers in educational psychology and it will also serve as a reference material for researchers whose research problems may be related to this study.

1.8       Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The study covered385 public senior secondary schools in Kaduna State public schools that are independent from junior secondary schools. The senior secondary schools that are independent here means those that are separated differently from the junior secondary schools. The study involves 16 senior secondary schools selected from 4 Educational Zones across Kaduna State. The study focused mainly on male and female students in senior secondary schools. Only SS II students of the selected schools were used for the study. The study was restricted to variables such as academic self-efficacy, which centers on student‟s beliefs in their abilities and competence, efforts, persistence and level of confidence in undertaking academic tasks and achievements. Cognitive engagement as cited by Greene and Miller (1996), are reviewed and also the instruments. The construct of academic achievement used in this study referred to the average performance of terminal examinations of SS IIstudents in three subject areas namely Mathematics, English, and

Governmen/ chemistry/commerce.

CONNECTION AMONG EDUCATIONAL SELF-EFFICACY, COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT AND EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARNERS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

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