Behaviour Patterns of Nigerian Senior Secondary School Students and their Performance in High-Stake Tests
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ife Journal of Behavioural Research
Abstract
This study was designed to explore Nigerian students’ behaviour patterns of Type A and Type B. It determined the prevalence of the behaviour patterns among the students and any possible demographic difference. It also established the influence of the behaviour patterns on the academic performance of Nigerian students in high stake tests of the two gate keeping subjects. The population for the study comprised all senior secondar school students in Nigeria public secondary schools from which a sample of 1125 students was drawn using multistage sampling technique. Two instruments were used for data collection viz; questionnaire on behaviour patterns of secondary school students and an Academic Performance Scale (APS) targeted at the two core subjects. Data were analysed using t-test, two-way ANOVA, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis H test. The results showed that most of the students demonstrated Type A behaviour patterns (TABP) while only few of them demonstrated the possession of Type B behaviour pattern and was found to be significantly different between male and female students, as greater percentage of male students were TABP learners than the female students. However, no significant difference was found on the basis of their ages and their fail types. The results showed that students’ performance was generally poorer in mathematics than in the English Language test. The behaviour patterns has no significant influence on the students’ performance in English Language, however, demographic variables of age and family types were found to significantly interact with the students’ behaviour patterns in its influence on the performance of the learners in English Language. On the contrary, the students’ behaviour pattern was found to have significant influence on the students’ performance in mathematics and age was found to significantly interact with behaviour pattern in its influence on students’ performance in mathematics but gender and family types has no significant interaction with their behaviour patterns. It is recommended that curriculum experts, developers and reviewers need to take into cognizance the students behaviour pattern particularly with regards to their learning of the two gate-keeper subjects.
Description
Keywords
High-stake tests, Behaviour patterns, Type A behaviour pattern, Academic performance