SCIENCE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDE AS PREDICTORS OF THEIR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN MALUMFASHI LOCAL GOVERNMENT, KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated whether or not students’ motivation and attitude towards science can serve as predictors of their academic achievement. Two research question and two hypotheses were raised and tested at 0.05 levels of significance. The study adopted correlational survey design. The population of the study consisted of one thousand and ninety nine (1,099) SSII science students from which a total of two hundred and eighty five (285) students were sampled using simple random sampling technique. A fifty (50) items multiple-choice “Science Achievement Test” (SAT), a 20 items “Science Students Attitude Scale Questionnaire” (SSASQ) and a 30 items “Science Students Motivation Questionnaire” (SSMQ) were used for data collection. The SAT, SSASQ and SSMQ were validated by specialist in science education and psychology. The reliability of SAT was established using Spearman Brown formula and yielded reliability index of 0.858 and the reliability of SSASQ and SSMQ were established using Cronbach’ Alpha and yielded reliability index of 0.83 and 0.88 respectively. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS Version 26 using Scattered Plot and Linear Regression Analysis. The findings of the study revealed that motivation and attitude of the students had significant positive relationship with their academic achievement in science. The researchers therefore concluded that motivation and attitude are major predictors of students’ academic achievement in science and therefore recommended that science teachers should use instructional strategies that will motivate and bring positive attitude of learners during science subject’s instruction to enhance students’ achievement.