Browsing by Author "Muthui, Priscah M."

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    Academic Adaptability as Predictor of Academic Achievement among Form Three Students in Kitui County, Kenya
    (IJIRAS, 2023-10) Muthui, Priscah M.; Mwaura, Peter; Mutua, Josphine Ngina
    Studies that have been done on academic adaptability have demonstrated there is a significant relationship between academic adaptability and academic achievement. The poor performance that has been witnessed among most of the students in sub-county secondary schools in Kitui county could be associated to the students’ academic adaptability among other factors. Specifically, in Kenya little has been done on the academic adaptability as a predictor of academic achievement. This study specifically explored academic adaptability as the predictor of academic achievement. The study was guided Individual Adaptability Theory. The study used Explanatory Sequential Mixed Method research design. The participants were 427, that is 218 boys and 209 girls from ten public sub-county secondary schools in the year 2023. Purposive, stratified, simple random sampling and proportionate sampling was used to select the schools and the participants. Academic adaptability scale was used to collect quantitative data while interview schedule was used to collect qualitative data. Finally, pro forma summary was used to collect academic achievement data. A pilot study involving 30 students was conducted to establish the reliability and validity of the research instruments. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Quantitative data was analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and multiple regression while the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that there was a significant and positive relationship between academic adaptability and academic achievement (r=.00,p<.05). Since the students’ academic adaptability was found to have a positive and a significant relationship with their academic achievement, the researcher recommended that it may be of use to conduct the same study on primary school pupils and even students at the tertiary level.
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    Academic Adaptability, Psychological Capital and Academic Engagement as Predictors of Academic Achievement among Form Three Students in Kitui County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2024-04) Muthui, Priscah M.
    Academic achievement is the main pathway to formal employment all over the world. However, in Kenya poor academic achievement by students nationally has been of great concern to the teachers, parents and all educational stakeholders. More specifically, most secondary school students in Kitui County have been performing below average in national examinations. This poor performance has been attributed to the school environmental factors, teacher factors and little has been done on individual psychological factors, which may contribute to the students’ below average performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate how academic adaptability, academic psychological capital and academic engagement predicts academic achievement among form three students in Kitui County. The objectives of the study were; to find out the extent to which academic adaptability predicts academic achievement, to examine the extent to which academic psychological capital predicts academic achievement, to find out the extent to which academic engagement predicts academic achievement, to establish the extent to which gender moderates the relationship between the students’ academic adaptability, academic psychological capital and academic engagement and to determine the predictive model of academic adaptability, academic psychological capital and academic engagement on academic achievement. The study was anchored on Individual Adaptability theory by Ployhart and Bliese (2006), Broaden -and -build theory by Fredrickson (2004) and Engagement theory of learning by Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999). Explanatory sequential mixed method design was used. The participants were 427(218 boys and 209 girls) students from ten public sub-county secondary schools in Kitui County in the year 2023.Purposive, stratified, simple random sampling and proportionate sampling was used to select the schools and the participants. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data while interview schedule was used to collect qualitative data. Finally, data on the students’ academic achievement was collected from the respective class teachers. A pilot study involving 30 students was conducted to establish the reliability and validity of the research instruments. The school was not involved in the actual study. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Quantitative data was analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, multiple regression and t-test for independent samples while the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between academic adaptability and academic achievement (r=.00, p<.05), academic psychological capital and academic achievement (r=.65,p< 0.01) and academic engagement and academic achievement (r=.57,p< 0.01). From the multiple regression analysis, it was revealed that academic psychological capital was the best predictor of academic achievement with a predictive index of (β=.42) followed by academic adaptability with a predictive index of (β=.17) while the least predictor was academic engagement with a predictive index of (β=.13).The equation for predicting academic achievement from academic adaptability, academic psychological capital and academic engagement was significant (F (3, 411)=.000,p<.005). As a result, all the sub-scales of the three constructs had a significant predictive weight on academic achievement. The qualitative data was analyzed thematically and the findings concurred with the quantitative results. In conclusion, the significant predictive weight of academic adaptability, academic psychological capital and academic engagement on academic achievement implied their importance in the learning process. As a result, the study recommends that the teachers, parents and all education stakeholders should enlighten and guide the students on the importance of academic adaptability, academic psychological capital and academic engagement in boosting their academic achievement.