Research Article
BibTex RIS Cite

Achievement Motivation and Students’ Achievement in Secondary Biology: Is the Relationship Mediated by Cognitive Style?

Year 2022, Volume: 12 Issue: 1, 58 - 76, 15.04.2022
https://doi.org/10.19126/suje.980052

Abstract

Scientific and technological skills are needed for survival and economic prosperity in the 21st century. However, students persistently perform poorly in science subjects at the senior secondary school level. Thus, this study determined the mediating influence of cognitive style on the relationship between academic motivation and students’ academic achievement in senior School Biology in Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State. The descriptive survey research design was adopted to conduct the research. The sample consisted of 180 students randomly selected from ten public senior secondary schools out of the 13 public schools present in the local government area. Data were collected using three instruments: Cognitive Style Questionnaire (r=0.71); Academic Motivation Scale (r=0.72); and Students’ Achievement Test in Biology (r=0.82). The data collected were analysed using regression and t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that cognitive styles significantly mediated the relationship between academic motivation and students’ academic achievement in Biology. It was also found that there was no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of field-dependent and field-independent learners. The study concluded that cognitive style is a potent factor in the learning of Biology in senior secondary school. Although students can be motivated to learn, aligning instructional activities with their cognitive style by biology teachers is more important than motivation. Therefore, school counsellors should always help to classify students into their cognitive styles at the beginning of the session to enable teachers to tailor instructional activities to meet their learning needs.

Supporting Institution

None

References

  • Abu-Bader, S., & Jones, T. V. (2021). Statistical mediation analysis using the Sobel Test and Hayes SPSS Process Macro. International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods, 9(1), 42-61
  • Amrai, K., Motlagh, S. E., Zalani, H. A., & Parhon, H. (2011). The relationship between academic motivation and academic achievement students. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 399–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.111
  • Anderman, E. M., & Koenka, A. C. (2017). The relation between academic motivation and cheating. Theory Into Practice, 56(2), 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.1308172
  • Barron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1182.
  • de Lorenzo, V., Prather, K. L., Chen, G.-Q., O’Day, E., von Kameke, C., Oyarzún, D. A., Hosta-Rigau, L., Alsafar, H., Cao, C., Ji, W., Okano, H., Roberts, R. J., Ronaghi, M., Yeung, K., Zhang, F., & Lee, S. Y. (2018). The power of synthetic biology for bioproduction, remediation and pollution control. EMBO Reports, 19(4), e45658. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201745658
  • Federal Ministry of Education. (2018). National policy on science and technology education. Retrieved from https://education.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/National-Policy-On-Science-and-Technology-Education.pdf
  • Fyle, C. O. (2009). The effects of field-dependent/independent style awareness on learning strategies and outcomes in an instructional hypermedia module. A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning System in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The Florida State University. Retrieved from https://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu%3A182502/
  • Gbore, L. O., & Daramola, C. (2013). Relative contributions of selected teachers’ variables and students’ attitudes toward academic achievement in biology among senior secondary school students in Ondo State, Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 16(1), 1–7.
  • Gupta, P. K., & Mili, R. (2017). Impact of academic motivation on academic achievement: A study on high schools students. European Journal of Education Studies, 2(10), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.547
  • Hooda, M., & Devi, R. (2017). Significance of cognitive style for academic achievement in Mathematics. Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science and English Language, 4(22), 5521–5527.
  • Islam, M. N., & Chakrabarty, S. (2020). A study of the relationship between familial factors and academic motivation and achievement in high school students. Psychological Studies, 65(1), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-019-00500-7
  • Karabulut, N., Gurcayir, D., & Yildiz, B. Z. (2021). Effect of stress on academic motivation and achievement of students in nursing education. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 14(1), 15.
  • Khodadady, E., Bagheri, N., & Charbgoo, Z. (2016). Primary school students’ cognitive styles and their achievement in English as a foreign language. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 7(5), 851–858. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0705.04
  • Kitney, R. I., Bell, J., & Philp, J. (2021). Build a sustainable vaccines industry with synthetic Biology. Trends in Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.12.006
  • Njiru, J. N. (2003). Measuring academic motivation to achieve for high school students using a Rasch measurement model [Edith Cowan University]. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1320
  • Nwanze, A. C., Konyefa, B. I., & Ezeanya, M. C. (2021). Cognitive style as a determinant of academic achievement of secondary school science students in Onitsha Education Zone. International Journal of Education and Evaluation, 7(2), 13.
  • Oginga, J. M. (2020). Cognitive styles in secondary schools in Kenya: Comparing gender and discipline areas [Thesis, University of Nairobi]. http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/152927
  • Okoye, P. O. (2016). Influence of gender and cognitive styles on students’ achievement in Biology. AFRREV STECH: An International Journal of Science and Technology, 5(1), 59–65. https://doi.org/10.4314/stech.v5i1.6
  • Olagbaju, O. O. (2020). Cognitive styles and gender as predictors of students’ achievement in summary writing in selected secondary schools in Ibadan, Nigeria. Education Research International, 2020, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8462368
  • Rodriguez, S., Pineiro, I., Gomez-Taibo, M. L., Regueiro, B., Estevez, I., & Valle, A. (2017). An explanatory model of maths achievement: Perceived parental involvement and academic motivation. Psicothema, 29(2), 184-190.
  • Samavi, S. A., Ebrahimi, K., & Javdan, M. (2017). Relationship between academic engagements, self-efficacy and academic motivation with academic achievement among high school students in Bandar abbas. Biquarterly Journal of Cognitive Strategies in Learning, 4(7), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.22084/j.psychogy.2017.1654
  • Seti̇awan, A. (2020). The effect of cognitive styles on reasoning and problem solving ability. Journal for the Mathematics Education and Teaching Practices, 1(2), 87–93. Sharma, H., & Ranjan, P. (2018). A correlation study among cognitive styles, achievement motivation and academic achievement using multimedia and traditional instructional strategies. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, UGC Approved Journal No-48887, 8, 52–60.
  • Tus, J. (2020). Academic stress, academic motivation, and its relationship on the academic performance of the senior high school students. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 8(11), 29-37
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2014). General Comment, Weak-ness/Remedies and Candidate's Strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio223mc.html
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2015). General comment, weakness/remedies and candidate's strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio224mc.html
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2016). General comment, weakness/remedies and candidate's strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio225mc.html
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2017). General comment, weakness/remedies and strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio226mc.html
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2018). General Comment, weakness/remedies and strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio227mc.html
  • Witkin, H. A., Moore, C. A., Goodenough, D. R., & Cox, P. W. (1977). Field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles and their educational implications. Review of Educational Research, 47(1), 1–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/1169967
  • Yaki, A. A., Sanda, K. M., & Bello, R. M. (2020). Improvement of the concept of mitosis instruction to improve biological achievement among secondary school students.
  • Jurnal Pendidikan Teknologi Kejuruan, 3(3), 164–169. https://doi.org/10.24036/jptk.v3i3.12723 Zhang, L. & Sternberg, R. (2006). The nature of intellectual styles. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Year 2022, Volume: 12 Issue: 1, 58 - 76, 15.04.2022
https://doi.org/10.19126/suje.980052

Abstract

References

  • Abu-Bader, S., & Jones, T. V. (2021). Statistical mediation analysis using the Sobel Test and Hayes SPSS Process Macro. International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods, 9(1), 42-61
  • Amrai, K., Motlagh, S. E., Zalani, H. A., & Parhon, H. (2011). The relationship between academic motivation and academic achievement students. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 399–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.111
  • Anderman, E. M., & Koenka, A. C. (2017). The relation between academic motivation and cheating. Theory Into Practice, 56(2), 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.1308172
  • Barron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1182.
  • de Lorenzo, V., Prather, K. L., Chen, G.-Q., O’Day, E., von Kameke, C., Oyarzún, D. A., Hosta-Rigau, L., Alsafar, H., Cao, C., Ji, W., Okano, H., Roberts, R. J., Ronaghi, M., Yeung, K., Zhang, F., & Lee, S. Y. (2018). The power of synthetic biology for bioproduction, remediation and pollution control. EMBO Reports, 19(4), e45658. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201745658
  • Federal Ministry of Education. (2018). National policy on science and technology education. Retrieved from https://education.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/National-Policy-On-Science-and-Technology-Education.pdf
  • Fyle, C. O. (2009). The effects of field-dependent/independent style awareness on learning strategies and outcomes in an instructional hypermedia module. A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning System in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The Florida State University. Retrieved from https://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu%3A182502/
  • Gbore, L. O., & Daramola, C. (2013). Relative contributions of selected teachers’ variables and students’ attitudes toward academic achievement in biology among senior secondary school students in Ondo State, Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 16(1), 1–7.
  • Gupta, P. K., & Mili, R. (2017). Impact of academic motivation on academic achievement: A study on high schools students. European Journal of Education Studies, 2(10), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.547
  • Hooda, M., & Devi, R. (2017). Significance of cognitive style for academic achievement in Mathematics. Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science and English Language, 4(22), 5521–5527.
  • Islam, M. N., & Chakrabarty, S. (2020). A study of the relationship between familial factors and academic motivation and achievement in high school students. Psychological Studies, 65(1), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-019-00500-7
  • Karabulut, N., Gurcayir, D., & Yildiz, B. Z. (2021). Effect of stress on academic motivation and achievement of students in nursing education. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 14(1), 15.
  • Khodadady, E., Bagheri, N., & Charbgoo, Z. (2016). Primary school students’ cognitive styles and their achievement in English as a foreign language. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 7(5), 851–858. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0705.04
  • Kitney, R. I., Bell, J., & Philp, J. (2021). Build a sustainable vaccines industry with synthetic Biology. Trends in Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.12.006
  • Njiru, J. N. (2003). Measuring academic motivation to achieve for high school students using a Rasch measurement model [Edith Cowan University]. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1320
  • Nwanze, A. C., Konyefa, B. I., & Ezeanya, M. C. (2021). Cognitive style as a determinant of academic achievement of secondary school science students in Onitsha Education Zone. International Journal of Education and Evaluation, 7(2), 13.
  • Oginga, J. M. (2020). Cognitive styles in secondary schools in Kenya: Comparing gender and discipline areas [Thesis, University of Nairobi]. http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/152927
  • Okoye, P. O. (2016). Influence of gender and cognitive styles on students’ achievement in Biology. AFRREV STECH: An International Journal of Science and Technology, 5(1), 59–65. https://doi.org/10.4314/stech.v5i1.6
  • Olagbaju, O. O. (2020). Cognitive styles and gender as predictors of students’ achievement in summary writing in selected secondary schools in Ibadan, Nigeria. Education Research International, 2020, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8462368
  • Rodriguez, S., Pineiro, I., Gomez-Taibo, M. L., Regueiro, B., Estevez, I., & Valle, A. (2017). An explanatory model of maths achievement: Perceived parental involvement and academic motivation. Psicothema, 29(2), 184-190.
  • Samavi, S. A., Ebrahimi, K., & Javdan, M. (2017). Relationship between academic engagements, self-efficacy and academic motivation with academic achievement among high school students in Bandar abbas. Biquarterly Journal of Cognitive Strategies in Learning, 4(7), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.22084/j.psychogy.2017.1654
  • Seti̇awan, A. (2020). The effect of cognitive styles on reasoning and problem solving ability. Journal for the Mathematics Education and Teaching Practices, 1(2), 87–93. Sharma, H., & Ranjan, P. (2018). A correlation study among cognitive styles, achievement motivation and academic achievement using multimedia and traditional instructional strategies. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, UGC Approved Journal No-48887, 8, 52–60.
  • Tus, J. (2020). Academic stress, academic motivation, and its relationship on the academic performance of the senior high school students. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 8(11), 29-37
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2014). General Comment, Weak-ness/Remedies and Candidate's Strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio223mc.html
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2015). General comment, weakness/remedies and candidate's strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio224mc.html
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2016). General comment, weakness/remedies and candidate's strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio225mc.html
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2017). General comment, weakness/remedies and strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio226mc.html
  • West Africa Examination Council Chief Examiners' Report (2018). General Comment, weakness/remedies and strength. Retrieved from https://waeconline.org.ng/e-learning/Biology/Bio227mc.html
  • Witkin, H. A., Moore, C. A., Goodenough, D. R., & Cox, P. W. (1977). Field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles and their educational implications. Review of Educational Research, 47(1), 1–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/1169967
  • Yaki, A. A., Sanda, K. M., & Bello, R. M. (2020). Improvement of the concept of mitosis instruction to improve biological achievement among secondary school students.
  • Jurnal Pendidikan Teknologi Kejuruan, 3(3), 164–169. https://doi.org/10.24036/jptk.v3i3.12723 Zhang, L. & Sternberg, R. (2006). The nature of intellectual styles. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
There are 31 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Other Fields of Education
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Adewale Owodunni Saka 0000-0003-2417-4956

Peter Abayomi Onanuga 0000-0002-1467-8205

Publication Date April 15, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022 Volume: 12 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Saka, A. O., & Onanuga, P. A. (2022). Achievement Motivation and Students’ Achievement in Secondary Biology: Is the Relationship Mediated by Cognitive Style?. Sakarya University Journal of Education, 12(1), 58-76. https://doi.org/10.19126/suje.980052