STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF ACADEMIC PEACE OF MIND, CRITICAL THINKING, ATTITUDE, ACADEMIC SELF-CONFIDENCE, AND THEIR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS AT THE SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL

Abstract

The issue concerning academic peace of mind, critical thinking, attitudes, and self
confidence in determining academic achievement has been an interesting area of research 
in educational literature. The study aimed to explore the students’ academic peace of 
mind, critical thinking, attitudes, and self-confidence as predictors of academic 
achievement in Mathematics in Anambra State. Four research questions and three null 
hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational predictive research design 
to provide answers to the research questions and testing of the hypotheses. The population 
of the study comprised of 21204 from which a sample of 840 was drawn. Multi-stage 
procedure was used to select the sample. Standardized research instruments namely; 
Peace of Mind Scale (PMS), Academic Self-Confidence Scale (ASCS}, Critical Thinking 
Ability Scale (CTAS),  Attitude Scale (AS) were used for data collection. Students’ 
Mathematics Achievement Scores (SMAS) from the state wide promotion examination 
were used to represent mathematics achievement. Cronbach’s alpha was used to 
determine the reliability of the items in the instruments. A reliability index of .64, .68, 
.73, and .82, for academic peace of mind, critical thinking, academic self-confidence, and 
attitude respectively. The standard multiple regression was used to analyze the collected 
data. The t-test for r, F-test and test of significance for β, were used to test hypotheses at 
.05 level of significance.  Findings showed that students’ academic peace of mind, critical 
thinking, and self-confidence jointly predicted their academic achievement in 
mathematics The analysis of variance in the table shows that the regression equation was 
significant. This implies that at least one of the independent variables significantly 
predicted the academic achievement in mathematics. Based on the positive contributions 
of students’ academic peace of mind, critical thinking, attitude, and self-confidence, it was recommended that students should adapt these behaviors as robust indicators and facilitators of learning in the academic context.