COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS AS A PREDICTOR OF STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN BIOLOGY IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated cognitive distortions as a predictor of biology students’ academic 
achievement in College of Education in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the 
study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The predictive 
correlation design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 283 year 
three (300 level) Biology students in the two public Colleges of Education in Anambra State, 
Nigeria and which constituted the sample for the study. The instrument for data collection was 
the Inventory of Cognitive Distortion – Youth Version (ICD-YV), validated by three experts. 
The reliability the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha with coefficient of 
internal consistency of 0.82. The students’ CGPA in Biology were obtained from Course 
adviser folder whereas for ICD-YD was administered to the students with the help of the 
research assistants. The data obtained was analyzed using simple and multiple linear 
regressions. The findings of the study revealed among others that 31.5 percent of the variance 
in Biology achievement was predicted by students’ cognitive distortions. Furthermore, 
achievement in biology were significantly predicted by College of Education students’ 
cognitive distortions. The conclusion drawn from the findings of the study was that cognitive 
distortions is a significant predictors of academic achievement in Biology. It was recommended 
among others that, educators and school counselors should implement cognitive behavioural 
interventions to help students recognize and challenge irrational beliefs about their academic 
abilities.