ACADEMIC SELF-CONCEPT AND ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS AS CORRELATE OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA
DOI – http://doi.org/10.37502/IJSMR.2021.4405
Author: Anyanwu Adeline Nne & Emesi Kingsley Ekene
Abstract:
Although the issue concerning academic self-concept and self-efficacy beliefs as personality constructs has been vague and their association to determine academic achievement has been nebulous as well. The study aimed to explore the relationship between student’s academic self-concept and self-efficacy beliefs in determining secondary school student’s academic achievement in the English language in Anambra State. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational approach to provide answers to the research questions and testing of the hypotheses. The population of the study comprised 21204 from which a sample of 600 was drawn. A multi-stage procedure was used to select the sample. Two standardized research instruments namely; Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ) and Self-Efficacy Scale (SES), as well as scores from students’ promotional examinations were used for data collection. Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine the reliability of the items in the instruments. A reliability index of 0.78, and 0.69, for academic self-concept and self-efficacy beliefs respectively. The overall reliability coefficient was 0.7 which shows that the instruments were reliable and good for the study. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to answer research questions 1-3 and test hypotheses 1-3 while research question four and hypothesis four were answered and tested with multiple regression. Findings showed that students’ academic self-concept recorded a low positive relationship with their self-efficacy beliefs. Findings also reveal that these variables statistically predicted students’ academic achievement in the English language. Based on these findings, it was recommended that as students’ academic self-concept and self-efficacy beliefs jointly predicted their academic achievement positively, focusing attention on the constant re-orientation of students towards these personality constructs should be encouraged as a panacea to students’ disengagement in academic context irrespective of the subject domain.