SELF-EFFICACY AS CORRELATES OF SECONDARY STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS IN OGIDI EDUCATION ZONE.

Abstract

The study examined self-efficacy as correlates of students’ academic achievement in Mathematics 
in Ogidi Education Zone of Anambra state. Two research questions guided the study while two 
hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. A correlational survey design was adopted. The 
population of the study comprised 2,840 senior secondary school senior secondary two (SS2) 
Mathematics students from Ogidi Education Zone of Anambra state. The sample size of this study 
consists of 1,420 SS2 students offering Mathematics and drawn from secondary schools in Ogidi 
education zone, using multi stage sampling procedure. The instruments are Mathematics self
efficacy Questionnaire (MSEQ) and average termly score of from teacher’s grade book. The 
instrument used was validated by three experts, all from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The 
reliability of the instruments was established using Cronbach alpha method. The reliability 
coefficients of MSEQ was found to be 0.85. The data were collected with the help of the research 
assistants who were Mathematics teachers. Pearson product moment correlation (r) and R2 were 
used to answer the research questions and to test the hypotheses. While Hayas process was use to 
answer research question and test hypotheses that has gender as moderating variable. The finding 
revealed that the relationship between self-efficacy and students’ academic achievement in 
Mathematics is moderately positive and not significant. Also the study found that the relationship 
between self-efficacy and students’ academic achievement in Mathematics as moderated by gender 
is moderately positive and significant. It was recommended that teachers should help students 
build self-confidence in Mathematics through regular practice, clear examples, and step-by-step 
feedback. Finally, Guidance counselors and class teachers should monitor students who show low 
confidence and offer support early, since self-efficacy showed at least moderately positive result