Effects of Students' Attitude and Self-Concept on Achievement in Senior Secondary School Mathematics in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Over the years, researchers have been investigating the factors which determine performance in academic situations. In their search, they have been able to identified two areas: the cognitive domain which includes aptitude, intelligence, memory perception and reasoning. These variables are said to constitute a great part of the predictors of academic achievement. The other area is the non-cognitive domain, which includes variables such as socio-economic status, students’ attitude, personality determinants, peer group influence, self-concept, anxiety, etc. As a result of this, this study investigated the effects of attitude and self-concept on achievement in senior secondary school mathematics in Ogun State, Nigeria. Two thousand four hundred students from 60 selected schools in nine local government areas within Ogun State, Nigeria were involved and three research instruments namely; Attitude to Mathematics Questionnaire; (r = 0.73); Self-Concept Scale; (r = 0.71) and Mathematics Achievement Test; (r = 0.84) were used. Data were analysed using multiple regression at .05 level of significance. The findings show that students’ attitude to mathematics and self-concept have significant joint effect on mathematics achievements.

Keywords: Students’ Attitude; Self-Concept; Academic Achievement.