INFLUENCE OF MOTIVATION ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS
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INFLUENCE OF MOTIVATION ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS
ABSTRACT
The study is to evaluate the impact of motivation on academic achievement in selected secondary schools in the Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State. In this study, comprehensive and relevant literature was reviewed under subheadings.
The descriptive research survey was used to assess the opinions of respondents via questionnaires and sampling techniques. The study’s sample size was one hundred twenty respondents.
Four null hypotheses were developed and tested in this study utilising the t-test statistical technique at the 0.05 level of significance. The analyses yielded the following results:
1. Motivation has a substantial influence on academic accomplishment.
2. Motivated kids perform better academically than unmotivated students.
3. There is no substantial gender difference in the performance of motivated students versus those who are not.
Finally, it was discovered that there is no substantial difference in social adjustment between driven and unmotivated pupils.
Chapter one
1.0 Introduction/Background to the Problem
Miller and Janet (1989) defined motivation as the study of why people think and act the way they do. It is a subfield of psychology focused with understanding the activation, structure, and direction of conduct.
If acts that appear to go to the same goal, such as food, are gathered together, it may be said that these actions are all energetically charged and guided by the same motive.
(hunger). However, unless the motives can be demonstrated independently of the actions, the explanation is expected to be circular (why does he/she eat?) since he/she is hungry.
How do you know? Because he eats. Psychologists have utilised broad ways to demonstrate that motives exist and are valuable theoretical ideas.
Adams (2002) claims that in an achievement setting, someone would be concerned with motivation if he were to ask, for example, why some students persevere to task completion despite incorrect difficulty, while others give up at the slightest provocation, or why some students set such unrealistically high goals for themselves that failure is unavoidable.
Motivation is the study of what drives or pulls a person to begin, direct, sustain, and eventually complete an action. Consider an achievement activity, such as studying for a test.
Motivation researchers would want to examine what the person is doing, the choice of behaviour, how long it takes that person to get started, etc., or wish to see the latency of behaviour
how hard the individual actually works at the activity (the intensity of behaviour), how long that individual is willing to remain at the activity (the persistence of behaviour), and what the person is thinking or feeling while engaged in the activity, or the cognition and emotional response.
The focus on the “why” of performance differs significantly from the study of achievement itself. Educationists may combine the themes of researchers studying motivation with those of researchers studying performance, attainment, and learning.
1.1 Theoretical Background to the Study.
The scientific study of motivation as a discipline separate from learning developed because researchers were primarily interested in the factors that elicited behaviour, which sparked its inception. At the time, it was widely believed that there was an optional state of balance and equilibrium in which all requirements were met.
Homeostasis refers to the process of maintaining the organism at this optional level. Homeostatic balance was also regarded to be pleasing, which was consistent with the concept that organisms had a drive to maximise pleasure while minimising discomfort.
The notions of homeostasis and idolism served as the foundation for motivation theories that emerged in the 1930s.
Clark Hull’s drive hypothesis is the most well-known of these early concepts. According to Hull (1950), behaviour is determined by drive and habit. Drives in the Hullian framework are unfulfilled demands, such as hunger or thirst.
desire to meet one’s own wants is what motivates or energises behaviour. Habits provide a direction for behaviour. Habits are stimulus reactions, ties that form over time as a result of prior learning.
For example, if someone’s desire to succeed has previously been met by studying hard for examinations, then a deficiency in that need (arousal) should be met by resumed study activity.
Thus, behaviour can be explained by both a motivation component (the drive that fuels behaviour) and a learning component (the habit that offers guidance or indicates which specific behaviour will be launched).
Simple yet elegant, drive theory produced a great amount of motivation research from the 1930s to the 1950s, with the biggest relevance to education being studies on anxiety undertaken by Kenneth (1957), a student of Hull.
According to Kenneth, anxiety is a motivator that motivates behaviour. In this situation, the rate at which one learns simple versus complex tasks. On simple tasks where there is already a strong habit, strength anxiety will accelerate learning.
On complex tasks, where there are weak stimulus-response bonds, high anxiety should interfere with learning because high anxiety activates incorrect stimulus-response bonds (habits) that compete with correct responses.
Many research confirm this conclusion, demonstrating that elevated anxiety is neither adoptive nor maladaptive across all learning environments.(puppet 1988).
accomplishment objectives describe why a person engages in accomplishment behaviour, and two major categories have been found. Students who pursue mastery objectives are motivated to learn new skills or improve their current levels of proficiency.
In contrast, students who set performance goals are motivated by the need to demonstrate that they have acceptable ability while avoiding displaying evidence of inadequate ability.
According to this research, individuals can choose to participate in achievement activities for two very difficult reasons: they want to gain competence by learning as much as they can, or they want to publicly demonstrate their competence by outperforming others.(Amos, 1991)
A large number of studies indicate that mastery goals promote motivation more than performance goals. The prevalent belief is that mastery-oriented people welcome challenges and ramp up their efforts when tasks become difficult, whereas performance ability is endangered in trying situations, which they avoid.
More recently, researchers such as Edmund et al. (2003) argue that setting performance goals in some settings may boost motivation. At times, the two goal orientations may coexist (people may strive for mastery and outperform others); yet, the pursuit of performance objectives (i.e., comparing oneself to others) might provide evidence that the person is competent, which can increase motivation.
It also shows that when performance goals are distinguished by approach (demonstrating ability) and avoidance (concealing ability) tendencies, it is primarily the avoidance components that jeopardise long-term achievement strivings.Adams, 2000.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Motivation is the reason people think and behave the way they do. It is what motivates or pushes a person to begin, direct, sustain, and finally complete an action.
For example, an achievement activity such as studying for an examination, motivation researchers would want to examine what the person is doing, the choice of behaviour, how long it takes that person to get started, etc.,
or they want to see the latency of behaviour, how long the individual actually works at the activity (the intensity of behaviour), how long that individual is willing to remain at the activity (the persistence of behaviour), and what the person is thinking.
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