Motivation, Social Support, Alienation from the School and their Impact on Students’ Achievement in Mathematics: The Case of Tenth Grade Students.

Abstract

The study examined tenth grade students’ motivation, social support, alienation from school and their impact on mathematics achievement of Addis Ababa secondary schools. The participants were 864 students. The instruments were questionnaires and test. From the Independent t-test, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, ANOVA, regression and path analysis, the results obtained were: the extrinsic motivation of students was greater than the intrinsic motivation; the intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, motivation in general and social support of the females were significantly less than that of the males, but for alienation from school, females were greater than males. For all the variables except alienation from school, the higher achievers had significantly the highest value and lower achievers had the least value, but for alienation from the school, the higher achievers had significantly the least value and lower achievers had the highest value. The contribution of all the independent variables collectively and individually significantly affected mathematics achievement. All the path coefficients from the independent variables to mathematics achievement were significant and achiever levels had the highest direct effect. In conclusion, all independent variables were around the average value and affected significantly mathematics achievement. There were also significant positive direct effects of sex, achiever levels, and social support and negative direct effect of alienation from the school on mathematics achievement. The recommendations were improvement should be made on method of teaching, applying different motivational techniques, educational support, peer support, involvement of parents, interventions by the school officials on conducting award programs, study skills and time management training, etc.

Key words: Sex, achiever levels, motivation, social support, alienation from the school, mathematics achievement