Study Habit and Students Academic Performance in Biology in selected Secondary Schools

Study Habit and Students Academic Performance in Biology in selected Secondary Schools
Study Habit and Students Academic Performance in Biology in selected Secondary Schools

ABSTRACT: The research investigated Study Habit and Students Academic Performance in Biology in selected Secondary Schools. The study was conducted in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Two null hypotheses were formulated and tested. A survey research design was used to conduct the study. The sample sizes of 144 SSII Biology students drawn from four secondary schools in the study area were used for the study. Students Study Habit Questionnaire (SSHQ) and Biology Achievement Test (BAT) were used to collect data for the study.

Study Habit and Students Academic Performance in Biology in selected Secondary Schools

The data were analyzed using independent t-test. Findings of the study revealed that study habit significantly influenced students’ academic performance. It was recommended that school heads and teachers should organize orientation for students on the needs to develop good study habit.

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study

It has realized that students who posses adequate mental abilities sometimes do not perform well in their academic work either because they do not know how to study effectively or they do not use the most effective method of study (Alutu, 2012). However, studies of school achievement indicate that most student are under achievers (Adams, 2011), a major reason for students under developed potentialities may be lack of learning.

Equally too, though rather regrettably, it is also commonly observed that majority of students in secondary schools now a days are faced with several problems in their effort to attain certain acceptable levels of proficiency in their studying, learning and academic performance. These problems include among others poor personal study time-table, and poor use of library study habit, unpreparedness towards tests and examinations just to mention but a few. 

Onyejiaku (1987) opined that one of the major causes of academic failures or poor grade in post primary and tertiary institution is poor study habits. According to him, when-ever a student’s adopts effective study technique, his learning skills, his understanding of the learning materials as well as his memory processing strategies improve appreciably. Therefore, study habit will invariably influence students’ performance in test and examination.

Asagwara (1994) cited in peters (1997), described study habits as strategies which a learner applies for acquiring knowledge, skills, ideas and competence. He further observed that some students who have good study habits do not spend a lot of time studying before they can achieve success. He observed further that student’s who study very hard without utilizing good habits make little or no progress in their academics.

Equally skills, Ceilar, Robinson and Baier (2011) also observed that majority of students who find it difficult to concentrate and ignore distraction while studying lack self-discipline, intrinsic motivation/goal orientation study habit. It is pertinent to note that time management is to be recognized as the control idea of the concepts of study habits. It is therefore against the background that this present study has deemed it necessary to investigate the effect of study habit and academic performance of students in Biology in Uyo Local Government Area. Although studies abound on the causative and predictive nature of factors of study habit on students academic achievements all factors of the variable tend to focus on poor study habit while the effects to be fully assessed on the present study.

Study Habit and Students Academic Performance in Biology in selected Secondary Schools

1.2     Statement of the problem

Due to the increasing nature of poor academic performance of secondary school students in Biology especially in external examination like WAEC and NECO. Many educationists tend to lay the blame on the teaching methodology adopted by the Biology teachers and lack of fund from the government to provide quality textbook.

However, these might not be the only reason why students perform poorly in Biology examination. It is true that many factors contributed to poor academic performance by students, but this study sought to find out to what extent do study habit like personal study time-table, and use of library study habit affect the academic performance of Biology students in secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area.

About Peter Lawson 2732 Articles
Peter Hezekiah Lawson (Sir Pee). The CEO of onlineproject.com.ng. A reputable researcher, Web Developer, ICT Instructor and a publisher of many research works in Education.